Going Bananas at Da-Yung Elementary School

Day-O Banana Song

     The morning of November 15, 2019 at the elementary school couldn't have been better. The children were amazing, the staff and principal were cordial, Leona helped me set up, and Simone, Samantha, and Ted had a great time. Samantha was so cute sitting down on the auditorium floor in front of the classes brought in for the assembly program I conducted about "Bananas".  Ted took some fabulous photos of his daughter schmoozing with the students. Samantha was happy and the children loved seeing the

 

yang-wa-wa with me. The program went over without a hitch. The children sang their three-part "Day-O" pretty well and had a ball. The first group of perhaps five hundred first to third graders randomly had seventeen go onto the stage with white boards to answer questions about bananas; a correct single word answer earned them a candy. The second group of three hundred forth to sixth graders sang "Day-O", too and participated in a panel of experts’ two seventeen-student groups but had to write complete sentence answers to my questions. The second group also heard my "Jack and the Banana Stalk" story ad libbed with a twist in the plot that surprised me, too; the giant banana that grew from the plant Jack traded for with his cow harvested slices of banana that were gold coins. At the close of the assembly, the principal awarded me with a certificate and a gift bag. We took group photos and everyone was happy. Simone and Ted got an excellent example of what I do for the publisher on outreach assignments. 

Lyrics: 

Day o! Day o!

Daylight come and me wanna go home

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day o

Daylight come and me wanna go home

Work all night on a drink a rum

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Stack banana till the morning come

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Come mister tally man tally me banana

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Come mister tally man tally me banana

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Day, me say day o

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

A beautiful bunch of ripe banana

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Hide the deadly black tarantula

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Day, me say day o

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Come mister tally man tally me banana

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Come mister tally man tally me banana

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Day! Day o!

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day o

(Daylight come and me wanna go home)

Sing Along

Group 1
Day-O, Day-O

Group 2
Daylight comes and we want to go home

Group 3
six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch


1. Bananas are harvested by hand. When the fruit is ripe the stems are cut down and wet sponges are placed in between the bananas to protect them.
2. The bananas are then covered in blue bags to keep insects away. 
3. Then they are carried by cable across the fields to be washed and packed.
4. The banana is a perennial plant that replaces itself. Bananas do not grow from a seed but from a bulb or rhizome.
5. It takes 9 to 12 months from sowing a banana bulb to harvesting the fruit. ... The plants need rich, dark and fertile soils with steady moisture in the air and ground and good drainage.
6. Home growers will harvest the fruit 7-14 days prior to ripening on the plant. Once they know that it is time for banana tree harvesting, they use a sharp knife and cut the “hands” off.
7. Exposure to light after harvest makes banana skin brown. Therefore, the fruit should be protected from light.
8. Harvesting bananas at night would be the best way to limit their exposure to light.

Jack and the Banana Stalk

There was a boy named Jack. Jack's mother had no money. She gave Jack a cow and told him to sell it at the market. He sold the cow for a banana stalk. He brought it home and put it in the ground. The next day, the banana stalk grew up to the sky. Jack climbed the stalk and found an eight-foot bunch of bananas at the top. He took one home and cut it into slices. Each slice was a gold coin. 

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Copyright © 2019 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.