“What’s the Weather?”

Informant information:

Lauren Grant is a 20 year old woman from Andover Massachusetts. She attends school at Quinnipiac University in an occupational therapy program. She has worked at the Recreational Education Center in Peabody, Massachusetts, an after school and summer care program for children with special needs, for the past four years. She has sent some examples of songs that the teachers use to engage with the students during “circle time”, a special period of peer-oriented activity in the course of their day.

Type of lore: Verbal

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social / Cultural Context:

At the Recreational Education Center in Massachusetts, an after-school and summer care program for children with special needs, the following songs are sung by teachers of children with special needs in order to engage with the students. The students sing these songs along with the teachers. They are sung during “circle time”, which is an activity in which the the entire day center joins together, and all of the kids and teachers do an activity together instead of working one-on-one. It is a period for learning and socializing.

Transcript:

What’s the weather,
What’s the weather,
What’s the weather like today?
Is it sunny, is it cloudy?
What’s the weather like today?

Informant’s comments:

This song is sung to the tune of “Oh my Darling Clementine”.

After the song is performed, “one of the children is picked to describe the weather. They are given choices of hot, cold, sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy or snowing. They point to or pick up signs and leave them on the board for the rest of the day.”

Collector’s comments:

This folklore is important to children with special needs because of the way it teaches them about the weather and helps them to communicate. It has a clear purpose, which is to help the children learn another complex topic that is difficult for them to comprehend. This song is authorless, taught to the children by their teachers, and uses a lot of repetition, participation and images to keep the children engaged.

Tags/Keywords: Song, Children, Special needs