"Make a Circle" - Jennifer Paskow

Artist: Jennifer Paskow

Song: "Make a Circle"

Album: Make a Circle

Description: Sunny, smiling kids and adults to go with a sunny, smile-y song.  Lots of movements to be made along with the music, too.  The video is directed by 17-year-old Claire Jantzen, whose skill in putting together this video at such a young age bodes well for her future success in not only film and directing but probably anything else she puts her mind to.

SourceYouTube

"We Are the Dinosaurs (Dance Remix)" - Laurie Berkner

Artist: Laurie Berkner

Song: "We Are the Dinosaurs (Dance Remix)"

Album: N/A

Description: You know, everything you really need to know about the song is right there in the title.  It's Berkner's modern classic of a song... remixed for the dance floor.  I kinda like it, though I was underwhelmed by the drop.  The preschoolers will probably rave, though.

Source: YouTube

"Dolphin Disco" - The Whizpops

Artist: The Whizpops

Song: "Dolphin Disco"

Album: Sea Blue Sea

Description: Another nifty collaboration between the Montana-based band and their Montana-based friends at SciShow Kids.  This song's a little more information-dense than some of their other (already information-dense) songs about the natural world, so the kinetic typography lyric video format works well.  Did you know there were so many types of dolphin?  I did not.

Source: YouTube

"Somos Amigos" - The Okee Dokee Brothers

Artist: The Okee Dokee Brothers

Song: "Somos Amigos"

Album: Saddle Up

Description: For the final album in their "Adventure Album" trilogy, the Okee Dokee Brothers headed west.  As with their predecessors, this album also features some guest stars, including Carlos Medina y El Trio los Gallos.  "Somos Amigos" is a simple bilingual folk song with a healthy helping of Tejano accordion, all of which is A-OK by me.  There's not much to the video -- the duo and the quartet playing on a bridge that straddles (appropriately, given the subject matter and approach) the Rio Grande (albeit in Colorado) -- but since the Adventure Albums have always been as much about the Brothers meeting others as their own individual adventures, that seems appropriate.

Source: YouTube

"Cast My Vote" - Danny Weinkauf

Artist: Danny Weinkauf

Song: "Cast My Vote"

Album: No School Today

Description: It's election season! A long, long election season! Here's Danny Weinkauf's celebration of the right to vote, along with the tiniest bit of history lesson of how we got to the broad electorate we have today.

Source: batteryPOP

"We All Shine" - Play Date

Artist: Play Date

Song: "We All Shine"

AlbumWe All Shine

Description: The title track from Play Date's second album sits firmly in the poppier end of the pop-punk spectrum the New Jersey-based duo, so it's not surprising that this song celebrating nature and our part in it features dancing cacti, pine trees, and sunflowers.  But, man, are those anthropomorphic animals and geographic features -- my favorite are the chorus of mountains -- from director Ellliot Lobell cute cute cute.

Source: YouTube

"I Chew" - Hullabaloo

Artist: Hullabaloo

Song: "I Chew"

Album: I Chew

Description: Steve Denyes has a new album out later this month. The album grew out of Denyes’ challenge to himself last February to write and record a song a day for 3 weeks.  He took the best songs, recorded them in the studio with band partner Brendan Kremer and a third artist, and a year later now he’s releasing a video a day.  OK, not really.  The title track is simple, but there’s enough humor in seeing the stuffed panda bear in different situations to amuse the preschoolers that are the heart of Hullabaloo’s audience.

SourceYouTube

"Sam Who Only Ate Jam (A Cautionary Tale)" - Andy Mason

Artist: Andy Mason

Song: "Sam Who Only Ate Jam (A Cautionary Tale)"

Album: N/A

Description: The New Mexico-based Mason teams up with the unofficial poet laureate of kindie, Kenn Nesbitt (there's no poet -- including probably Dr. Seuss -- who's had more of his poetry turned into music) for this ode to a particularly narrow-minded kid.  The song and video are pretty simple, but the song's got a nice ending.  Worth a couple minutes of your time, particularly if you have someone with an affinity for Shel Silverstein-like lyrics.

Source: YouTube