Learning a Song
1. Lyrics.
2. Rhythm: learn to separate beat from rhythm. Avoid using pitches at this stage.
3. Melody without lyrics
4. Melody with lyrics
5. Memorizing: “Add a Word” and “Hot and Cold”
6. Additional suggestions
1. Lyrics
Connect the song to the children’s literacy level
a. Even for a class of pre-readers, display the lyrics so that the children become aware that words are a form of communication.
b. Follow with a pointer when reading the text so the children see that we read left to right. Be sure to practice
pronouncing different words together.
c. If the children are learning about a special letter that day or week ask: “How many times can we find the letter?” and circle the letter wherever it appears.
d. Are there any “sight words”?
e. Can the children explain words in other terms?
Example: honest = truth, not a lie
f. Can they find (hear or see) words that rhyme?
g. Assess comprehension: “Can you draw a picture about the song?”
a. The teacher establishes a steady beat clapping. The children join in when they feel they can keep with the teacher’s beat.
b. The children sway from side to side with each beat or clap.
c. Recite the lyrics of the song one phrase at a time:
i. in rhythm over a steady clapped beat as an echo
ii. in rhythm swaying with a steady beat from side to side, (so the children don’t have to fight against the clapping
d. Work separately on any rhythms that aren’t accurate: recite the text while clapping the rhythm of the section not the beat. Then return to clapping the beat while reciting the same section.
a. Establish the key with a I-V-I or a I-IV-V-I cadence.
b. The teacher sings the whole cadential pattern as a melody on a neutral syllable (“BA”):
1353 1464 5427“1”
At the end of the sequence, gesture (open hands) and sing “1” together. When you hear most children sing the correct “1” repeat the pattern and let them sing it on their own.
c. Sing the three short patterns on a neutral syllable (“BA”) and have the class replicate/ echo each pattern:
1353
1464
54271
d. Split the song into phrases and sing each phrase on a neutral syllable (“BA”), to which the class sings an echo.
The teacher sings to the penultimate word of a line/phrase, signaling the class to fill in the missing word(s). Repeat this for the last two, three, four... words until the sentence is complete.
Example:
Teacher Class
“Communication is the” “key”
“Communication is” “the key”
“Communication” “is the key”
____ “Communication is the key
5b. Memorizing: “Hot and Cold”
This is a good time to introduce the concepts of loud and soft.
Material: a prop (e.g., a sequined microphone).
• Child A hides the microphone while
Child B waits outside the door.
• We invite Child B back into the classroom.
• The class sings the song, getting louder the nearer Child B comes to the hidden microphone, and softer the further he or she moves away from it.
• When Child B finds the microphone everyone claps.
• Child B becomes Child A, who now has a chance to hide the microphone..
To keep things fair, make a list of the kids who had a turn (at something) and be sure everyone has a chance at something before second chances are given.
The beat is an underlying regular constant pulse, while the rhythm is a flexible and changing pattern of notes of various lengths.
Caution:
a. Don’t turn every song into an action song:
things can get too busy and rhythm and melody tend to go “out the window.”
b. When learning action songs: add the moves after the song is learned.
My First Personal Goal Songs (Kids 4–6)
© MLP 2021
Soundtracks at:
iTunes
Apple Music
Spotify
Amazon Music
You Tube Music
Pandora
Deezer
Napster
Tidal
