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Pip chapter opener illustration

Pip

a high note

Pip Sings Up High

Pip was a tiny songbird, and Pip loved the HIGH notes — up, up, bright and light, like sunshine peeking over the leaves. When Pip sang high, it sounded like a little bell, or a giggle, or a star waking up.


“Sing UP with me,” chirped Pip. A little one started down low with Bram’s cozy note, and then floated up, up, up — light and bright, like a balloon let go gently. There it was: Pip’s twinkly note, high and happy.


High notes float up at the top of the slide. They feel bright and light — but they should always feel comfy, never squeezy. If a note feels too pinchy, that just means it flew a little too high for today; float back down a bit, find the comfy-bright spot, and Pip sings right there with you.


Pip and the little one traded notes all morning — a high bright one, then a cozy low one, then high again — like a bird and a bear singing a game of up-and-down. Your voice can float high like Pip and settle low like Bram. What a lot of notes live inside you!

Reading together with a grown-up? A card for the grown-up

For the grown-up: ask one question, then wait. When they answer, add one word to what they said. Tap the button when they have said something — that is one turn each, a circle. Nothing is recorded or kept.

Let them finish it

Say “Pip sings HIGH — up, up, bright and …” and stop. Let them finish it.

Then say the whole line together: “Pip sings HIGH — up, up, bright and light like a little bird!”.

Now wait. Count slowly to five in your head. Their answer is worth the quiet.

Circles together: 0

The HumTots ensemble

Pip is one of the friends in HumTots. Each friend shows you one idea by how they act; meet them all and you have the whole subject.