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!