LAGUNA BEACH : School Sings Praises of Their Birdie

Since Birdie Cloak composed a song about a hatching egg in her son’s kindergarten class 10 years ago, parents and teachers at Top of the World Elementary School have had to raise money to keep her talents in the classroom.

Cloak, who holds a master’s degree in music education, works on a donation basis at the school while holding down a couple of part-time jobs: In addition to private music lessons, she teaches a music education course at Saddleback College each spring.

But now, with tougher economic times, parents are hoping that the Laguna Beach Unified School District can step in and cover the costs for Cloak’s program, which--in the words of one parent--has the children “chirping away like little angels.”

The parents and teachers have written letters to district officials, asking that Cloak be paid a fixed amount. They hope to hear some word on their proposal later this month, once next year’s budget is set.

“It would be nice to know we could count on having Birdie up here,” said parent Jane Dineen, whose two children are among about 300 youngsters who sing along with Cloak each week. “They love this class. We don’t want to lose her.”

Cloak, a Laguna Beach resident who used to do studio work for the pop/rock group the Association back in the 1960s, said she has composed the music and words for about 100 songs for the elementary school students over the past decade. Subjects range from counting and the first day of school to science, the Statue of Liberty and President Bush.

Generally, Cloak will play the piano while teachers use props and lyric boards to help reinforce the words and ideas the children are singing about.

Almost always, the songs correspond to the subjects being taught to the children in the classroom that week.

“The whole idea is it’s a language-arts program,” Cloak said. “These children can sing and study. We’re amazed at how it became such an amazing reading program.”

On one recent day, whales were the subject of the week for a group of second-graders during their 30-minute music session.

“Whales are grouped together by the ways they eat. Straining with baleen, or seizing with teeth,” the children sang, waving their hands in the air. “Whales swim by twice a year. Making clicks and sighs, by sonar they steer. Mysteries moving in liquid space. In their own private world. In their own whale race.”

“They don’t even realize they’re learning so much,” Dineen said. “And my kids sing these songs all the time.”

Kindergarten teacher Kathy McNeil-Cotton, who first suggested that Cloak use her musical talents in the classroom, said she also finds the songs getting stuck in her head.

“But it sure beats Madonna,” she said, laughing. “They’re not just cute little songs. It’s a method that helps (the children) in their education. It helps them with their lives.”

Cloak said she considers it a “miracle” that a different group of parents each year have kept the weekly program going for the children in kindergarten, first and second grades.

Although the amount that parents can pay varies each year, Cloak figures she receives about $20 per class session with each grade level. She often volunteers in individual classrooms.

Before she started her work at the school, Cloak said songwriting came with difficulty.

“It was this volunteer work that just geared it up,” she said. “I saw a need, there was a purpose to the effort.”