Holiday sing-along PowerPoint file

If your school does a holiday sing-along, I've uploaded a file that has 14 common Christmas songs (all secular except Silent Night) and 1 Hanukkah song.  The slides have nice pictures and even some animations on them that the kids love! Feel free to download and edit for your own purposes!

These are the songs in the PowerPoint:  

1. Jingle Bells –2 verses

2. Deck the Halls - 3 verses 

3. Frosty the Snowman  

4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer –once without echoes, once with echoes ("like a lightbulb!" etc.) 

5. All I Want for Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth – twice through

6. Jolly Old St. Nicholas - 3 verses

7.  Up on the Housetop –all 3 verses 

8. Winter Wonderland 

9. Feliz Navidad 

10. Silent Night – 2 verses 

11. Bidi Bom – Hanukkah song (melody notated)

12. 12 Days of Christmas 

13. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (the traditional version) 

14. Jingle Bell Rock

15. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

The holiday sing-along PowerPoint can be downloaded HERE.

Christmas circle game: tonal creativity focus

I do this with the song "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," as a way to take a song from my school's holiday sing-along and make an MLT classroom activity out of it. You could also substitute any Christmas song for it.  Here's the game:

• All students sit in the circle and keep the beat to the song.  Choose 1 kid to be the first Santa.  Santa creates a major tonal pattern (at Aural/Oral or Verbal Association, whichever level your students are at), and all students repeat that pattern after Santa.

• Then everyone except Santa closes their eyes, and Santa chooses one of two very small toys to hold in their hand.  This could be any 2 items small enough to fit in a child's hand; I use two tiny polar bears, one with red on the bottom and one with green.  One of the toys represents "Naughty" and the other represents "Nice."  (With the 2 toys I use, the red polar bear is naughty and the green one is nice.)

• Santa hides the toy they picked in their hand, and the teacher hides the toy Santa DIDN'T pick in the teacher's own hand.

• Then Santa walks around the inside of the circle to the beat of the song as all students sing.  Santa can even move as if they're carrying a heavy bag of toys, adding heavy movement exploration to the activity.  At the end of the song, whoever Santa lands in front of guesses whether Santa has the Naughty toy or the Nice toy in their hand.  If they are right, they get to be the next Santa. If they are wrong, the same kid gets to be Santa again. After they guess, whether they're right or wrong, they share their own tonal pattern for the class to repeat!

• If the guesser was wrong, all kids close their eyes again and the same Santa gets to either change which toy they have or keep the same one.  If the guesser was correct, the guesser is the new Santa and picks the toy as all kids close their eyes!  

Holiday hello song #2: based on Sing We Now of Christmas

A 5/8, secular, hello song based on the Dorian tune "Sing We Now of Christmas."  The Noteflight notation is here if you'd like to adapt it for yourself.


Some possibilities for classroom activities with the song:

• You could do the song in duple or triple meter instead of 5/8 and use it to have students echo specific LSA patterns in between repetitions of the song.  

• You could do the song without words for early childhood or lower elementary classes.

• Olaf activity: 

• Take a snowman prop and pretend he’s Olaf from Frozen. Tell the students we have to tell Olaf with our “BAH” rhythm words that he’s going to melt in summer! Olaf will say something to you, you repeat it back to him to tell him about how snow can’t be warm. Students echo rhythms after Olaf on "BAH.

• Decorating a Christmas tree activity: 

• Have students sit and move with flow like they are putting a string of lights around a tree.  
• Explore different levels of space based on how students are decorating the tree: 
• flow high to put the star on, 
• flow low to put presents under tree, 
• flow medium-high to put ornaments on,
• do ABA to combine star and presents with motion going high when song is high and low when song is low

•  Lift hands and put them down to sing 5-1.
•  Singing 5-1, individual students sing after the teacher: 
• “touch the top of the tree, bottom of the tree” 
• “ceiling, floor” 
• “head, toes” 
• “high, low”
• Students pretend to put something on the tree and "touch the tree" as they echo a tonal or rhythm pattern after the teacher.
• Repeat the song again, pretending to put more decorations on the tree with flow or beat movement.

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Viennese Musical Clock movement to Rondo Form

Got this lesson from the amazing teacher I student taught with.  This video is too cute not to share!  

Students created all the movements in the video except the clock movement for the A section. The B, C, and D sections show the toy soldiers that come out on the hour. A student "conductor" points to where they are in the form. 

Lessons leading up to this:

• Reviewed AB and ABA form.

• Learned the term rondo form by making different forms out of the songs/chants "Hop Old Squirrel," "Whisky Frisky Hippity Hop" (both Jump Right In 1st grade), and "Gather acorns in the fall, little squirrel must do it all."

• Moved to this piece, Kodaly's Viennese Musical Clock, section by section then putting it all together, asking what form is it if we stop here? What form is it if we add this? 
• The original movements to Viennese Musical Clock:
• A section: move hands like the minute and hour hand of a clock
• B section: the toy soldiers come out and play trumpets
• A: clock again
• C: the toy soldiers salute on the beat
• A: clock
• D: the toy soldiers march (move locomotor for the B, C, and D sections once the kids know the piece)
• A: clock
• coda: arms up on the big chords! :)
• Finally, students came up with their own "toy soldier" movements. (This class chose swaying their arms, jumping, and marching locomotor.)

Ghostbusters move and freeze!

Got this Halloween idea from my mentor... Play the Ghostbusters theme song. They start the song by moving/dancing in self space.

When the kids hear the word "ghost" or "ghostbusters," they freeze. 

When they hear it again, they move. 

When they hear it again, they freeze. 

Etc.! 

They have to really be listening to the song to figure it out when to move and when to freeze!  You can add rules like they're out if they move when they should be frozen or vice versa.

Good body awareness activity. And the kids beg for it!

Niño Querido: A Round from Spain

A beautiful lullaby and round that you can use in English or Spanish (or without words, especially if you were using this with early childhood). A song with only I and V7 chords, so you can have the kids add Orff instrument parts on top of it (D, D, A, D) or sing the chord roots/chord tones in harmony (DO-DO-SOL-DO, MI-MI-FA-MI, SOL-SOL-SOL-SOL).

Noteflight notation is here.

Autumn rhythms to read!

Rhythms in 4/4, 6/8, and 3/4 to read! The rhythms are straight from the Learning Sequence Activities! Download them here!

Autumn leaf rhythms to read!

Here are 5 different autumn leaf printables with duple meter rhythms to read. All rhythms are 4 beats long, and have just quarter notes and eighth notes.

3 of the rhythms come straight from the first duple meter Verbal Association LSA, representing the  Easy, Medium, and Difficult patterns that the kids learn to chant.

Download the leaf rhythms here.
Print these on autumn-leaf-colored paper (I used red, orange, yellow, brown, and green, and printed 6 of each pattern), cut, and laminate, for a cute rhythm reading activity where the kids can hold different rhythms they'll get to read!


As an extension to the activity, print out BLANK leaves, and have small groups write their own 4-beat rhythms!  Then have the kids perform the rhythms for each other in a Rondo form using a fall song as the A section of the rondo, and each small group as the B/C/D/E sections! (I use a song called "Fall Canon," which I got from an Orff class.)

Spring Rhythms to Read

Updated version:  It's important to show the kids that the same rhythm can be written in different time signatures, so HERE is an updated version of these rhythms. In this version, the 6/8 rhythms below are also notated in 3/4.  I also added the duple meter rhythms from the first duple meter LSA, notating the same rhythms two different ways (just quarters and eighths, then just half notes and quarter notes).

Looking for triple and duple meter rhythms with a cute background for springtime? You can download the ones below here. The patterns come straight from the LSAs! :)

Download the original slides here.

Give Me 5 chant

The famous Give Me 5 to help young kids know what it means to be a good listener.

If you'd like to edit the chant to make it your own, the Noteflight notation is here.

Welcome song!

A hello song in Mixolydian for the beginning of the year!

Possible alternate lyrics based on what you need:

~If it's a class's first day of music, you could sing "Welcome, come follow me" instead of "Welcome, come move with me," to help them get to their spots on the circle.

~If your school is a Leader in Me school like mine, you could sing "Using 7 Habits every day" instead of "Making better music every day."

If you want to edit any of the lyrics, the Noteflight notation is here.

Self-space chant!

A chant in 7/8 to help kids transition into self-space!

7 habits: PowerPoint with all songs

Updated version is HERE on Google Drive!

PowerPoint with older versions of the songs is here. 

7 Habits songs: Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Habit 7 version 1: song

This is a 4-chord song written to sound like a pop song to fit the theme of having fun and renewing yourself, which defines Sharpen the Saw. :)

A cute rhythm creativity, chant composition activity. Great for Orff teachers too because the kids compose 4-measure chants listing their favorite things to do when they Sharpen the Saw. 

Student creativity for the song:  Students create their own chants listing 4 things they do to sharpen the saw.  Perform as a rondo: in the A section everyone sings the song, in the B/C/D/etc. sections each small group performs their 4-macrobeat chant twice.

Noteflight notation for version 1 of the song can be found here.

Habit 7 version 2: duple chant

Habit 7's chant notation is on Noteflight here.

Habit 7 version 3: longer song

In this version as well, students create 4-macrobeat chants listing what they do to sharpen the saw.
Noteflight notation for version 3 of the song is found here.

7 Habits songs: Habit 6: Synergize

SHORT CHANT VERSION:

Habit 6 chant Noteflight notation can be found here.

The coolest part about this song is that the class literally gets to practice synergizing with the "Together is better" chant: one small group starts, and then another group joins in, and another until the whole class is chanting -- creates an effect much better than any kid could make by themselves!!

I had my students repeat the chant, and the second time they added on groups of chanters in the opposite direction (so the first time through the chant rows 1 and 2 started chanting at the beginning, then rows 3 and 4 joined in at the second "Together is better," then rows 5 and 6 so we had everyone chanting by the third "Together is better; synergize!"  Then the next time they added on the parts starting with rows 5 and 6, then 3 and 4, then 1 and 2.

I also had my students synergize in small groups to create a 4-beat body percussion pattern using any combination of stamp, pat, clap, and snap.  They created their body percussion pattern, and performed it 4 times before and after the chant.


LONGER VERSION OF THE SONG:

This one has a minor blues-y feel, and the blues scale used in it can count as Locrian (the song's melody uses primarily E, G, A, and Bb).

See above for how kids synergize for the body percussion patterns and the "Together is better" chant part of the song.

If you wanted, you could even just use the beginning as a short rhythm activity!

I know it's kind of small to read here, so here is the PDF version of the melody only, and here is the PDF version of the melody + chords.

Habit 6 melody is on Noteflight here.

Habit 6 melody + chords notation is available on Noteflight here.

7 Habits songs: Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

Habit 5 melody notation is here.

Habit 5 arrangement with Orff ostinato and chords is here.

This one is a 2-part round...to help kids practice seeking first to understand, then to be understood. ;)  (Because they have to listen to the other part before coming in, and both parts have to listen to each other for it to sound beautiful.)

You can put the ostinato with the song vocally or with instruments, or even change the ostinato to include different chord tones.

7 Habits Songs: Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Habit 4 song notation is on Noteflight here.

Again, if your school doesn't teach the 7 habits, feel free to use any of these without words! 

7/8 harmonic minor.

7 Habits songs: Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habit 3 Noteflight notation is here.

With the chords:

Lydian tonality, triple meter.  Because I couldn't stand the idea of not including lots of modes and meters even in songs meant primarily for management/character education. :)

7 Habits songs: Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 2 song notation is here.  Just in case you want to edit it and make it your own, or print it as a PDF using Noteflight (the free online music notation website).

This one's Dorian mode and duple meter, so you can do resting tone, beat, or flow activities with it. If your school is NOT a Leader in Me school, feel free to use any of these songs without words! 

7 habits songs: Habit 1: Be Proactive

This year my school is starting to be a Leader in Me school, teaching the students the 7 Habits of Happy Kids (/Highly Effective People) as our character ed program.

So I decided that one way I am going to teach these habits in the music classroom is through a short song for EACH individual habit. Here's Habit 1!
The other 7 Habits songs are all here.

Habit 1 melody notation is on Noteflight here.

Habit 1 melody + ostinato notation is on Noteflight here.

This song has entirely I and V chords, so you can layer it with tonic/dominant ostinati (one example is below), put the with Orff instruments, have kids improvise over the chord roots....you name it!

The song also leaves 3 beats to audiate after "Stop and think," so you can work on audiating rhythm or dominant as well. :)





The YouTube recording here is my favorite ALL-7-habits song. So cute!

Simon Sings!

Think Simon Says, but to help the kids think about the difference between singing voice and speaking voice.

You don't use the words Simon Says at all.  You simply give an instruction either using your singing voice or your speaking voice. The students are only to follow the instructions you SING, not the ones you speak in the game. If a student follows a direction you SPEAK, they're out and they sit down!

I like to improvise in Dorian or Phrygian mode to give the directions in the game. You also can sing tonic and dominant patterns in major or minor tonality, later adding in subdominant patterns. The purpose is for the kids to practice and for you to assess how they're doing with hearing the difference between singing and speaking voice!



Extension:

If my students are REALLY good at hearing singing vs. speaking (which my K and 1st graders are!), I make it even trickier for them!  If I sing the directions on the RESTING TONE, they should follow them, but if I sing the directions on ANY OTHER NOTE, they shouldn't follow them!  This helps me assess whether students are truly audiating which pitch is the resting tone!

Holiday hello song!

based on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Excellent for kids to move with flow to! Access the Noteflight notation of the song here.

Frozen outtakes: Mixolydian round!

"Spring Pageant" from Frozen's outtakes is a GREAT Mixolydian round for kids!  See the first minute of the video above.  In my 2nd grade classes this year, we used just the first stanza (ending at the first "Spring's good and winter's bad"). We also sang it in E major to fit the students' voices better than the original C major.


Here's what my students did with this song:

• listened to the original recording, imagining the characters from Frozen singing it
• created macrobeat movements as if we were different Frozen characters (your students will have zillions of ideas for this!)
• used rhythm sticks on the beat pretending they were Frozen characters: make your rhythm stick Olaf plodding through the snow, Cristoff reining in the reindeer on the beat, Elsa creating snow....
• sang "Brr" on the resting tone as an ostinato; the kids on the ostinato and me on the melody
• sang "Ding-dong" on scale degrees 5-1 as an ostinato, as well as other tonic ostinati using the words "ding-dong" or "ding-ding-dong"
• split the class in half, with half the class singing an ostinato and half the class singing the melody
• sang the song in a round with them going first and me going second, then reverse
• sang the song in a round, just the students without me (in 2 parts; for 2nd grade I was very impressed!!)
• played ostinati on Orff instruments with the song
• the students composed their own 4-beat ostinati on Orff instruments using tonic pitches

Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Listening Lesson + Rhythm Reading

Got this lesson from my AWESOME mentor teacher. I made the slides though. ;)

Lesson plan:

Have students read the rhythms on the first 4 slides. 

(Download the slide show for free here.)

Then turn to the 5th one and have students read through the line of music after giving them a little background info on who Beethoven was. 

Then students listen to the beginning of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Movement 2. Can they hear the rhythm they just read in the music?  

Pause the music and have the students tap the rhythm on their laps as they follow along with you pointing to the rhythm.  

Pause the music again, and have the students come up with a different place on their body to tap the rhythm. They tap the rhythm again as you point to the notes on the projector or SMART board.

Then ask for student volunteers; who thinks they've followed along with the notes so well they can point to them for the class?  The student leader points to the notes, and everyone else follows along with the notation, moving to the rhythm in another new way. 

Continue until the song changes to a new section (at 2:45 in the youtube recording linked to above). Tell the students to stop the movement when they hear the music change to a different rhythm and tonality.

All Around the Daffodils game

Materials:  2 fake daffodils

Students stand in a circle, holding hands up. Two students get fake daffodils that they will give to other students. The 2 students weave in and out of the circle, finally landing in front of someone at the end of the song. The person they each land in front of sings the resting tone of the song and gets the daffodil. Then they weave in and out of the circle, landing in front of someone else!




Alternative movement from http://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/easter-spring-song-daffodils/ :

The children stand in a circle and hold hands up high to form arches or windows. One child  is chosen to hold the small bunch of (fake) daffodils, and starts to weave in and out of the windows. As the words ‘just choose me!’ are sung, the first child takes the hand of whoever is the closest, and then the two children carry on going in and out of the windows. The song is repeated until all the children are holding hands in a long snake, an adult can make a bridge against the wall, and then they all go round and under the bridge for a last time.  

Hiding Eggs: Easter song and game!

Easter Game:

Teacher passes out plastic Easter eggs, one per child.  Students can hide them in one of 4 places:  in their lap, behind their back, in their hands, or in the bottom of their pant leg.  Teacher turns away from the class and sings the song as students hide their eggs (in my classes, we only used verse 1).  The teacher turns back toward the class when the song is over, and guesses where one student's egg is.  Then that student sings the resting tone of the song.

If the teacher gets it right, the teacher gets 1 point.

If the teacher gets it wrong, the class gets 1 point.

If the student uses their best singing voice for the resting tone, the class gets 1 point.

If anyone in the class is talking during the music, the teacher gets 1 point. ;)

Then the students hide their eggs again as the teacher turns away and sings the song.  The teacher guesses another student's egg's hiding place, and that student sings the resting tone. The game continues until either the teacher or the class get to 10 points! Whoever gets there first wins! 

Side note: Kindergarteners love this because they love tricking the teacher and beating the teacher in a game!  And as long as my students aren't talking, giving me points, the class pretty much always wins. :)

Pirates of the Caribbean listening activity!

Download the listening worksheet here (free and editable!!!).

Pirates of the Caribbean Theme Song, Hans Zimmer

link to track used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUnrWo6z9WY. Stop the music at the awkward edit at 2:19.

Activities leading up to this:

• Learning Sequence Activities in triple meter
• Songs in triple meter
• The “poison rhythm” game where students have to remember the main rhythmic motive of the song and not repeat it or they’re out J

1.  Have students chant the main rhythmic motive on solfege after me, showing the weighted articulation using a fist gesture on macrobeats in the air as they chant.  (The motion is as if they’re using a hammer in the air.) Showing them the rhythm on the board, have students echo it looking at the notation. Have them identify if the rhythm is in duple or triple meter (or other) (triple).  We’ll call this the pirates theme.

2. Listen to the first A section with the students, pausing after every time the rhythmic motive happens to point it out or to ask students if it happened in what they just heard. If they need help hearing it, have them whisper-chant the motive as they listen to those measures again.

3.  Hand out the call chart, clipboards, and pencils.   Ask them to keep tally in the blanks next to “A” of how many times they hear the pirates theme, and follow along with the beat with their finger in the other sections. Listen and call out the following sections at these times:

A: at 4 seconds

Waves: at 38 seconds

B: at 45 seconds

Waves: at 59 seconds

A: at 1:11

Waves: at 1:47

B: at 1:52

Waves: 2:06-2:19.

4.  Ask them to listen again to check their tallies (at least once more here). Tell them this time before they start that in B the articulation changes—see if they can listen for that change and describe it afterward.

5.  Ask for the answers to your questions:  number of times for pirate motive in each A section, what happened to articulation at B (we’ll call it the smooth sailing section after they answer).

6.  Listen again and count together each time the pirate motive comes.

Extension: students come up with moves they could do on beat for the different sections J