Music and Play

Up to this point I've just shared my lessons for listening, but I thought it might be nice for parents to have an idea of the other music we are enjoying together in class.  Music and Play focuses on learning pitch, basic music vocabulary (like piano and forte, adagio and allegro), dynamics, rhythm, and solo and choral singing. 

Just before this big blizzard closed down our city for the weekend I had a chance to play with the kindergarteners again.  Because it is Winter and we were getting excited for the snowstorm, I chose a snow-themed song play.

I'm not trained in Kodaly Method, but I have a wonderful book, Kodaly in Kindergarten, in which I've found some great games.  The first 2 songs in this lesson were from this book.

5 Little Snowmen
5 Little Snowmen standing in a row,
Each with a hat and a big red bow.
5 Little Snowmen dressed for the snow,
Now they are ready, where will they go?
Wait till the sun shines, then they will go
Down to the fields with the melting snow!

We also reviewed some other games that we have played:

Doggie Doggie
Doggie Doggie, where's your bone?
Somebody took it from my home.
Mary do you have my bone?
No I do not have your bone!

Here's clip from youtube of a class playing the game.  I couldn't find a video of exactly how we play, but it's close!

Bluebird
Bluebird, bluebird through my window (x3)
Oh, Johnny I am tired!

For this game, we usually play by starting with 1 child and making a larger and larger chain that goes in and out of the "windows" the other children make by standing in a circle, holding hands and raising them up.  On Friday we played differently because it was "dress-down" day.  I chose colors and if I sang a color, everyone who was wearing it had to walk in and out of the "windows".  So we sang "Yellowbird", "Purplebird", and so on.

Elizabeth Mitchell has a wonderful version of this song on her album You are My Little Bird.  The lyrics are a bit different, but the tune is almost the same.

I learned this next one from a colleague, I'm not sure where it is from.

Tidy-o
Wash one window tidy-o,
Wash two windows, tidy-o,
Wash three windows, tidy-o,
Jingle on the rooftops, tidy-o!
Tidy-o, tidy-o,
Jingle on the rooftops, tidy-o,
Tidy-o, tidy-o,
Jingle on the rooftops, tidy-o!

For Tidy-o, you can make a kind of line dance out of it, but we are still working towards that!  For now we sing, make window-washing movements with our hands and slap our knees in time. 

One class became tired and wanted to take a nap (they were having pajama day, after all!), so I sang and taught them "This Pretty Planet", a song by Tom Chapin, while they lay on the rug.

In one class we had time for another song, so I taught them the second verse to Ring Around the Rosie:

Ring around the rosie
Pocketful of Posies
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down!

The cows are in the meadows,
Eating buttercups.
Thunder! lightning!
We all jump up!

I still get requests every week for "Witch, witch", a song game I taught them at Halloween.  I keep saying no, because, well, it's not Halloween, but I'll have to make time to review it again before the year is out, because it does seem to be a favorite.  I'll share it when I do.

Enjoy!

Lesson 4: Flutes

Dizi flutes

My daughter came home from school and told me that some older students had visited her class to perform flute music, which, of course inspired me to look up flutes around the world.  Two that particularly interested me were the Native American flute and the Dizi, a traditional Chinese flute. The Native American flute appears in many Native American cultures.  I found a very useful website with information on different Native American cultures that is geared towards kids here.  One of the composers, Mary Youngblood, is half-Aleut and half-Seminole, and you could use that site to expand the lesson.  

Mary Youngblood

Tears for Kientepoos- composed and performed by Mary Youngblood.
A Joyful Reunion- composed and performed by Yu Xunfa

Here is the lesson plan.
Here is the coloring page. Print one for each student (double sided).
Here are the visual aides.  If you have the capacity to project these, that would be great.  I have mine in a binder and walk around the tables giving everyone a closer look.

I also point out the geographical origins of the pieces on a large world map.  






Here is what my daughter, Willa, came up with:

The second seems to be a flute that has turned into a fairy!

I love to see what the students are inspired to draw.  I saw rain, rainbows, dancers, dinosaurs, ninjas, Chinese characters, many flutes, and one child cheerfully reported she was drawing "happiness".


Enjoy!

Happy Hanukkah!

As promised, here is the Hanukkah song-play I wrote last month:

This can be a finger-play or a game, depending on the age of the kids and how many are in the group.


Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah, it's the first* night,
How many candles do we light?  
(hold hands out)
We light one!  
(hold up 1 finger)

Happy Hanukkah, candles burning bright!  
(let candle finger "flicker"/ wiggle)
Burning down and out of sight!  
(lower candle finger and hide hand behind your back)

Change the words for the 8 nights, until you have 4 fingers up in each hand.

Here is a video of the finger-play version.

You can also use this song as a group game.

Variation 1:
 -Place 8  paper plates in a line.  Put 1 plate in front or to the side.  These are the "candle holders"/ menorah.
-Choose 1 child to be the "Shamash"- the candle that lights the other candles.  Have them stand on the plate set apart.

All: Happy Hanukkah it's the first night, how many candles do you light?
Shamash: I light one!
[The shamash taps a friend on the head ("lights the candle") and they go to stand on the first plate on the right.]
All: Happy Hanukkah, candles burning bright! Burning down and out of sight!
[The shamash and candles sing and wiggle/ "flicker", then slowly bend down and fall to the ground on "sight!"]

-Next, the Shamash taps another friend on the head to be the second candle, and so on, until there are 9 children up, making the menorah.


We have 28 kids in our classes, and I tried this, changing the Shamash and candles each "night".  I'll be honest.  It took way to long.  I think it would be great with older elementary children.  And perfect for a group half the size.  Even if you have more than 9 kids, you could make a group of Shamash candles- why not?!

Enjoy!

*My husband takes issue with singing "we light one!" when we are actually lighting 2 candles: the shamash and the first candle.  I always imagined it was the shamash singing, and, therefor, the shamash (which is the lighting-candle, after all) lights one.