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Reader's Waltz

Lyrics ©2016 by Bill, Gretchen, and Katie Roper
Music ©2016 by Bill Roper


We wrote this song for Katie's third grade teacher, Mrs. Hanstad, whose favorite thing to teach was reading.

   G                                C           G
It starts with the letters – lines, angles, and loops.
   C          G          D
We see and we say and we put them in groups.
    C          G           C              G
And as we sort out all the patterns we’ve found,
      C           G              A           D
We’re reading the words as we’re hearing the sound.


(Chorus)
          G                              D
There are words that we speak, there are words that we hear.
          Em                             Bm
There are words that are strange as they come to our ear.
          C                                G
And we’re writing them down, ‘cause that’s just what we need
   C                G                D        G
To learn all of the words that we’re going to read.


Words are the blocks from which stories are made.
The words create pictures – the pictures won’t fade.
It’s easy with words that we all understand,
The way that the very best teachers have planned.

(Chorus)

C          G        C               G
Oddball or regular, vowels short or long.
    C            G             A            D
The words we are learning will help make us strong.


And with all our words, reading’s never a chore.
We put one book down and we’ll want to find more.
The stories we read are the prize that we’ve won
When all of us kids are off reading for fun.

(Chorus twice)