Hello Song for Little Ones

Once in a while I do a blog post more aimed at a music teacher audience, and this is one of those posts.  This is the hello song that I sing to start every music for kindergarten and first grade.  I use the piano, but you could use a guitar too of course!  We sing the first eight measures first to start out, and then we start singing to individual students.  I don’t sing the same student’s name twice, for the sake of time, for example, I sing “Hello there Ian yes indeed, yes indeed, yes indeed, hello there Madi yes indeed, yes indeed my neighbor!”  In the beginning of the year, I give everyone an assigned seat on the rug in three or four rows, and I start out with the name of the first kid in the first row, and go in order down the row, and then down the next row, and then down the next row.  After the kids get to know each other’s names (and I get to know their names!) I start with different kids each time.  We sing the first eight measures, and then I do a boom-chick accompaniment while I say “Today I am going to begin…. by singing hello…. tooooooo….” and then I choose someone!  From there, we go down the row, then to the next row, and the last person is whoever is sitting before the person we started with.  Hopefully that makes sense!  At the very end, if it’s an odd number of students, we’ll sing “Hello everybody yes indeed, yes indeed my neighbor!”  Then I will say “Can we sing hello to Mrs. Runnals?”  And I let them all sing to me, singing my name twice.  Then at the very end, I choose a student who I “noticed singing very nicely and sitting on their bottom” to come play the piano with me.  The kids all love singing the song!  Little ones love routines like this.  Feel free to post comments if you have questions!

The Syncopated Clock

Students in second grade learned the terms legato (smooth and connected), staccato (short and choppy), and learned a new music vocabulary word: slur.  A slur is a symbol that looks like an arch, and tells you to connect your notes and sing (or play) legato.  We sang a song called Legato Staccato, and then we used scarves to show staccato movements and legato movements while listening to The Syncopated Clock composed by Leroy Anderson.  The C part is the most fun- whenever the “alarm” goes off, throw your scarf in the air!

We began with this chart:

And finished with this one!

We also discussed the structure of the piece: ABACA with a coda at the end, and the instruments used in the song.

After doing the scarf activity (and of course, folding our scarves during the magical scarf folding music) we made it into a parachute listening activity!

Music and Movement!

Did you know… studies have shown that music has huge, positive effects on early childhood development?!  Exposure to music- listening, singing, dancing, or playing- fosters many essential early learning capabilities, including

• Speech development
• Listening skills
• Patterning and sequencing (early math skills)
• Rhythm, beat, and timing
• Social skills
• Emotional development
• Memory
• Physical coordination

The Elements of Music

Each aspect of music contributes in many ways to a child’s fundamental development. For instance . . .

Beat serves as the master timekeeper for all music, while engaging listen- ers in a common experience. When you rock or dance to the beat together, the music gives your child a sense of being in sync with you and the world around him.

Rhythm maps the timing of each note in a song. We each have a unique sense of rhythm that influences our style of moving, communicating—and even thinking.

Tempo is the pace and timing of the music (fast or slow). Tempo gives little ones important clues about big ideas such as order, sequence, and the pas- sage of time.

Pitch tells the story of the song as the notes go up and down, much like words selected and arranged in a sentence to convey an idea. For children, music serves as a gentle guide to understanding the intricacies of language and communication.

Dynamics are variations in volume (loud and soft) and intensity. They express emotion (strength, playfulness, sadness) and offer clues about the overarching message of the music. Dynamics offer children the opportunity to explore feelings.

Melody brings pitch, beat, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics together to create the tune we hear. Melody aids in memory by compressing multiple bits of information so it’s easier to remember. That’s why songs like the ABC song work so well (and stay with us for a lifetime).

Harmony introduces complexity to the music and mirrors important social skills young children grapple with—skills like conversation, speaking, and listening.

Intervals mark the changes in music. An inter- val is the difference in pitch between two notes. Intervals build anticipation for what’s next while giving the listener the time she needs to follow along.

Lyrics (words) multiply the language development value of music for young children.

As you can see, music all on its own is a powerful force for learning and growing. But when you add movement to music, from toe tapping to hand clapping to hitting the dance floor, the benefits multiply manyfold. When children use their bodies to explore, they are engaging the entire brain in the experience. So the next time you’ve got a few minutes, turn on some music and start moving. It’s great learning, and it’s a lot of fun, too!

Danse Macabre by Camille Saint Saens

Students in first and second grade listening to and learning about Danse Macabre by French composer Camille Saint Saens.   Danse Macabre is French for “Dance of the Dead.”  Perfect for the Halloween season!!  We have learned (or reviewed) that a composer is someone who makes up a song and writes it down using music notes.  We also discuss that music can tell a story, and that many songs have “themes” in them.  Danse Macabre, for us, has a “skeleton theme” and a “ghost theme.”   The ghost theme is smooth and soaring, like a ghost moaning and flying.  The skeleton theme is choppy and bumpy, like a skeleton’s rattling bones!  Sometimes the skeleton theme is even accompanied by a xylophone, to imitate the sound of bones.

As a listening activity, students listen to the song and place magnet-backed pieces onto a map of the piece as we listen.   After doing this activity once or twice, students can identify every part in the song simply by listening for the tunes associated with each piece without any help from me- it’s quite amazing!

Music Stories

This week kindergartners and first graders were introduced to “music story time.”  This is a time (at the end of music usually) where we relax, after all of our dancing around, and read a book together.  Not just any book though- in music, we read “story songs”- songs that have been made into picture books!  This week we listened to a song called Sweet Dreams  by Jewel, as we looked at pictures from the book.

You can listen to the song here.

The book and CD are available at the Manomet library, and you can also find it on amazon.com here.

This song is gorgeous and the kindergartners who had music twice this week loved singing along with it the second time we heard it!

There are many “story songs” that are favorites here in the music room, with kids of all ages.  Here is a list of just a few of the stories I present throughout the year.  Most of these come with a CD, are all available on amazon.com, and many can be found in one of the Plymouth Public Libraries.

There’s a Spider on the Floor

Over the Rainbow

Over in the Meadow

Grandma’s Feather Bed

Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo

This Land is Your Land

Puff the Magic Dragon

This Little Light of Mine

We Shall Overcome

 

 

 

 

Danse Macabre by Mr. Saint Saens

Students in first, second, and third grade have been listening to and learning about Danse Macabre by French composer Camille Saint Saens.   Danse Macabre is French for “Dance of the Dead.”  Perfect for the Halloween season!!  We have learned (or reviewed) that a composer is someone who makes up a song and writes it down using music notes.  We also discuss that music can tell a story, and that many songs have “themes” in them.  Danse Macabre, for us, has a “skeleton theme” and a “ghost theme.”   The ghost theme is smooth and soaring, like a ghost moaning and flying.  The skeleton theme is choppy and bumpy, like a skeleton’s rattling bones!  Sometimes the skeleton theme is even accompanied by a xylophone, to imitate the sound of bones.

In first and second grade, students listen to the song and place magnet-backed pieces onto a map of the piece as we listen.   In second and third grade, we watch a real orchestra playing the piece.  Third graders learned about the instruments of the orchestra last year, so it was lots of fun to identify the instruments by sound and sight!

 

 

Danse Macabre by Camille Saint Saens

Students in first, second, and third grade have been listening to and learning about Danse Macabre by French composer Camille Saint Saens.   Danse Macabre is French for “Dance of the Dead.”  Perfect for the Halloween season!!  We have learned (or reviewed) that a composer is someone who makes up a song and writes it down using music notes.  We also discuss that music can tell a story, and that many songs have “themes” in them.  Danse Macabre, for us, has a “skeleton theme” and a “ghost theme.”   The ghost theme is smooth and soaring, like a ghost moaning and flying.  The skeleton theme is chopping and bumpy, like a skeleton’s rattling bones!  Sometimes the skeleton theme is even accompanied by a xylophone, to imitate the sound of bones.

In first and second grade, students listen to the song and place velcro-backed pieces onto a map of the piece as we listen.  In third grade, students each have their own individual “board game” of the song, and they use a bingo chip to keep track of where we are in the piece as we listen.  In second and third grade, we have watched a real orchestra playing the piece!

 

Students in Mrs. Hayne’s second grade class watch a real orchestra play Danse Macabre and do their movements along with the music.

Draw Me a Bucket of Water

Students in third and fourth grade played the singing game “Draw Me a Bucket of Water.”  The tune and lyrics go like this:

Four students start out by two holding hands standing across from each other, and the other two holding hands over the first two students hands.  While singing the song, students walk in a circle to the steady beat.  Each time you sing the song, you increase the number IN the bunch and decrease the number OUT the bunch. Every time you increase the number IN the bunch, one student goes “under” into the inner part of the students arms, until everyone is in the bunch!  At the end we all shout “FROG IN THE BUCKET!  HOP HOP HOP!” four times, and everyone has to hop on the “hops”!  The rule is we have to sing it in our nicest singing voices (and of course you can’t sing while laughing) but luckily you CAN sing while smiling, and everyone definitely smiles during this activity!

More Rondo Form with “Viennese Musical Clock” by Zoltán Kodály

First and second graders have been reinforcing the term “Rondo Form” with another scarf activity and the song Viennese Musical Clock by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.

First, we reviewed the term “rondo form” by singing the song “There is a form that we all know and Rondo is it’s name-o!” (to the tune of Bingo of course) and discussing what it means for a song to be “in rondo form.”  Then we listened to Viennese Musical Clock and charted it out:

Next, I demonstrated the movements for each section: Wave your Flag for the A section, Ring of Fire for the B section, Bug in a Rug for the C section, Crystal Ball for the D section, and Throw in the Air for the coda.  We love this activity!

Wave your Flag

 

Ring of Fire (make a big circle in front of yourself)

 

Bug in a Rug

 

Crystal Ball

Coda!

And afterwards, the “scarf folding music.”  As soon as the students hear the special scarf folding music, they know what to do

Read-a-thon Song Practice

Our West Read-a-thon will be kicking off soon!  The theme will be The World Cup, and our official West World Cup Read-a-thon Song will be…..

This song is sung to the tune of “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, from the movie Despicable Me 2.   We will be singing this song as a school at our Read-a-thon assembly in June.  Don’t forget to practice!  You can listen to it by clicking here: