Twenty Bees by Johnette Downing
During the pandemic, I created nearly a dozen animated music videos of my songs for virtual programs. I used some of them in my virtual programs, but some have never been released. Therefore, I have decided to release them once per month. The first one I released in May was “On the Farm” from my Parents’ Choice Recommended Award winning Wild and Woolly Wiggle Songs album.
This month, I am releasing “Twenty Bees” from my Silver Parents’ Choice Award winning album Boogie Woogie Bugs. I hope you enjoy this counting backwards by 1s, 2s, 4s, 5s, and 10s song. I learned from my friend Patsy Kanter, who developed the Everyday Counts curriculum, that children have difficulty counting backwards. Therefore, I decided to continue my trajectory of counting songs, but this song counts back from twenty, a higher number, not normally used in children’s music.
I illustrated the video with cut-paper collage to create depth, and my husband Scott Billington animated the video. It took dozens of frames to create the bee flying across the page at the end. Also at the end of the video, I include bee fun facts from the Bee Conservancy for educational purposes to help children help bees! I hope you have fun buzzing along!
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