Hello, Hi Hello: A Hello Song based on Hey, Ho, Nobody Home

This is a great hello song for classes musically ready to sing in rounds!  It's based off of the well-known, "Hey, ho, nobody home."

This song can be used for:

     ~4-part rounds

     ~Minor ostinati such as LA, MI, LA, MI (the song has a i V chord progression)

     ~Games where the teacher throws a ball to a student after the song or between lines of the song and the student sings the resting tone on LA or on BUM

     ~Moving macrobeat and microbeat simultaneously

     ~Students could create one movement for every 2 measures, then perform the movements as a class while singing. Then they perform the movements as a class while audiating.  Finally, they audiate a round while doing the movements, and then sing a round with the movements.

Tracks for kids' improvsisations!

Improvisation is so important for developing kids' musical creativity and independent musicianship!  Here are some super fun YouTube backing tracks for kids to improvise melodies to.  

My students use recorders to improvise to these tracks, but they would also work with xylophones, voices, or ukuleles playing melodies.

Process:

• Start the track and demonstrate some of the improvisation for the students.
• Show them which notes they are allowed to use for the improv.
• "Trade 4's" with the students, where you improvise musical questions, and as a class they improvise musical answers
• Give students time to explore possibilities with their own instrument, improvising to the track.
• Allow volunteers to demonstrate their improvisations, having students clap after the solos as if it was a jazz performance, and flowing from one soloist into another.
• Add more pitches to what they are able to use in their improvisations, repeating the process. 

1. Guitar backing track in A-Aeolian, with Am and G as the main chords:

      Have students improvise rhythms first on A, then melodies with A and E since they're LA and MI

     Next A and G only

     Then A, G, and E

     Then A, G, B, and E. 

     Remind students that A is the resting tone so they could make some of their phrases end on A.

     If you're having your students improvise with ukuleles, they could play Am and G chords improvising strumming rhythms, or they could play melodically in the process described above.

2.  Slow rock E minor backing track

      

3. Fast rock E minor backing track:

     Kids improvise with E, G, A, and B first.

     Then let them add D and F# if they know how to play them on recorder.

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.

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.

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.  

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

Hello Song in 10/8 meter

Another good hello song for kids to move with flow to. Access the Noteflight notation of the song here.

Valentine game and minor song!

Song used: Valentine, Valentine, I'm searching for a Valentine (Jump Right In! book, Grade 1)

Materials:  small foam or paper hearts (2-6 of them)

Students sit in a circle with their eyes closed. First the teacher walks around the circle behind the kids, and hands out one heart each to 2-6 kids (depending on how many kids you want singing the pattern in between times through the song).

When the song is over, the teacher is back in his/her seat, and students open their eyes to look behind themselves and see if they got a heart. If they got a heart, they echo a minor tonic pattern in D minor after you (MI-DO-LA works great with this song since it's in the melody).

The students who just echoed patterns pass their hearts to new students as the rest of the class closes their eyes, getting back to their seats by the time the song is over. And the game continues!




Alternatives:

• Students could listen to the music for how many times they hear MI-DO-LA in the melody.
• Students could look at the notation of the music for where they see MI-DO-LA in the notation.
• Students could create a minor tonic pattern or minor melody instead of echoing after the teacher.

***Easter alternative of this song***:

I've also heard this song used with the words "Hiding eggs" at the beginning; however, I can't remember the rest of the words. But it could be used as an Easter activity too with revised words!