A delightfully fun collection of songs for toddlers, waddlers, dancers and paddlers to sing along, dance along and paddle along with, sung in Francyl's characteristic clear and lovely voice with arrangements that will get you hoppin'.

About Pondpaddler's Fandango

These songs are gathered from my work of teaching music and singing with the

A delightfully fun collection of songs for toddlers, waddlers, dancers and paddlers to sing along, dance along and paddle along with, sung in Francyl's characteristic clear and lovely voice with arrangements that will get you hoppin'.

About Pondpaddler's Fandango

These songs are gathered from my work of teaching music and singing with the children at Northwest Child Development Center over the last few years. Some are my own creations. Many of these songs are favorites of the children at the center, and at home. It is my hope in making this collection, that parents and children will be encouraged to develop habits of singing, enjoying and making music together. Such habits can contribute to the strength of a rich and wholesome family life as well as encouraging the development of music skills. In addition to singing along, I encourage you and your child to act out the songs, dance with scarves, or play along with any instruments that you may have. At the Center we have used bells, maracas, drums, rhythm sticks, and xylophones. We also explore different ways we can move to the beat as well as passive listening while working at other tasks. I hope you will explore with your children the many wonderful ways that music can enrich your lives together. God bless!

Francyl Gawryn Mercer Island, March 2006

Songs and stories to sing, play, and splash by! This collection of songs will delight your preschooler, and give you hours of fun together!

Here's what others are saying about Pond Paddler's Fandango.

"Pond Paddler's Fandango is a wonderful CD for children. The first time I played it for my class of one year olds, they reacted with enthusiasm, moving to the music and dancing! They have enjoyed the CD over and over again. It is great for a class of children, or in the car, or at home. It is joyful music!"

Joylyn C., Toddler Teacher

"It's causing trouble because I can't get out of my car until the songs are over!"

Jackie C., mother of two preschoolers

Miss Francyl - your CD is WONDERFUL!! Well done! (our kids) LOVE it and get really animated when they listen - little performers! (BTW - you make the most amazing chicken noises I've ever heard) Leann B., Mother of two preschoolers

SONGS

1) Five Green and Speckled Frogs 1:43
2) Five Fat Turkeys 1:33 3) Chi Chi Pa 1:07 4) Down By the Station 1:06 5) Hop Old Squirrel 4:42 6) Firefly 1:13 7) I Went to the Farm 7:40 8) Keeneenee :57 9) Obwisana :36 10) One Little Finger 1:14 11) Pond Paddlers 5:31 12) Baby Room Fandango 2:24 13) Grandma Duck in Combat Boots 3:03

Total time 32:03

Produced and recorded by Francyl Gawryn Mixed and mastered by Terry Mattson C P 2006 Francyl Gawryn

Francyl began working as a professional performer at the age of 15. Since then, she has performed in various venues from the Tacoma Dome to San Diego's Balboa Park, from Fanueil Hall in Boston to Kerr McGee Plaza in Oklahoma City. Her performances have included music for audiences of all ages.

After studying music at Sonoma State College in California, and later receiving a Paraprofessional Certificate of Training for the Kodaly Method of Music Education in 1979, she taught elementary school music in the Berkeley, Albany and Alameda School Districts for five years. Then, after taking a break to have twin daughters, moved with her family to settle in the Seattle area in 1989. She then resumed performing professionally around the Puget Sound area as well as continuing studying music at Bellevue Community College.

Between the years of 1979 and 1996 she produced six album-length recordings of her own songs as well as works by others. Two of these recordings are for children, and all are available through her independent label, Highreach Music, which also has a published book of poetry taken from 37 of her song texts.

Over the next 15 years, in the Puget Sound area, she has served as Music Director for Youth Theater Northwest, Children's Choir Director at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Bellevue, Saturday Service Music Director and Hand bell Choir Director at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church, Interim Music Director for Redeemer Lutheran Church, and Music Director for the Church of Mary Magdalene, a church for homeless women, in Seattle. During her work with the Church of Mary Magdalene, she and nine of her choir members traveled to Washington D.C. to sing her song, Carry The Witness, Honor The Dream at the "March Against The Silence" in October of 1996. This march, from the Washington Monument, down the Mall to the Capitol Building, was organized to raise awareness about domestic violence in the US. Carry the Witness, Honor the Dream has been adopted by the Washington State Silent Witness Project as their State Anthem.

Over the last two decades Francyl has composed a large body of music for liturgical use for solo vocal/guitar, as well as adult choral works, children's choral works and congregational singing. Her A Contemporary Requiem was commissioned and performed at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church in November of 2000.

As a Board Member of Seattle Composer's Alliance, she worked with other members to educate area composers regarding opportunities to further their craft, and through the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program, she has collaborated with other composers to produce three film scores. In 2000 the film score for "Curro" was composed with Allison Crook. Francyl and Allison were awarded the Nell Shipman Award for Technical Excellence in that score by Women In Film, Seattle Chapter.

In 2002, she collaborated with 5 other composers to produce the film score for the documentary Behind Barbed Wire a deeply moving film about the experience of the Bainbridge Island Japanese community before, during and since WWII.

In 2006, she is collaborating with Penny Lovestedt, Steven Brush, and Tim Huling to compose the film score for "Henry Ward Elliott, Defender of the Fur Seals" a documentary dealing with the threatened extinction of the Northern Fur Seal population on the Pribilof Islands. This film is produced by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

For 5 years, as Music Specialist for Northwest Child Development Center, Francyl developed and taught her music curriculum for children, ages infant to 5 years old. She is currently in the process of producing three CD's of her own compositions and other works. Pondpaddler's Fandango, a CD for children is slated for release in the Spring of 2006. Songs of Heaven and Earth (formerly entitled, Shadow and Light) and her newest collection (as yet untitled) are slated for release in the Summer of 2006.