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Lets Play Music
Lesson Plans These lesson plans are intended to demonstrate how to put together a structured 30 minute lesson using the songs and activities from the Let’s Play Music website. Each week we will take a different theme and aim to develop a broad base of musical skills in singing, listening, percussion, pitch, rhythm and understanding.
Ideally the songs should be sung together during the class with some form of accompaniment, piano or guitar would be great but kids are still perfectly happy just singing along together with the percussion instruments instead.
If you work through the material for each lesson plan as listed, it should last around 30 mins, but it is always important to be flexible. Sometimes one activity might be particularly successful and you’ll want to do it for longer, or sometimes things don’t go quite as planned, so it’s always important to have a few old favourites ‘up your sleeve’. Circle games and Circle time songs are always popular, and you can just slot them in if you have a few spare minutes to fill. Choose a quieter activity if they need to settle or something lively if they need to work off the wiggles!
The Hello Song which is at the beginning of every lesson can also be used as a Goodbye Song, this works particularly well in a music class where the children just come together for a weekly session. It’s a great way to get started and bring the class to a close and helps little ones to understand the routine. If the music lesson is just a part of the normal school day, you may prefer to leave it out.
In the interest of clarity and ease of use, I have tried to avoid making these plans too wordy, and so only give in-depth directions for the more unusual or original activities. However, all the material can be found for reference on the Let’s Play Music website. Search for the titles in bold using the search box on the right hand side of the homepage, to check for more details.
http://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com
Summer Lesson Plan
Focus - A lesson plan to explore and celebrate the simple pleasures of the
summer season.
• Learning the solfege scale, playing chime bars and encouraging singing.
• Practicing the steady beat with rhythmic actions, developing listening skills,
tapping rhythms and introducing notation.
• Encouraging the use of imagination through story telling and imaginative
movement.
• Building vocabulary, confidence, social skills and playing a variety of different
percussion instruments.
This lesson is suitable for children from 3 - 7 years and would be perfect to be
done outside in the garden. It should take around 35 mins, but many of the
activities can be used again separately whenever you need a short musical activity
at any other time for a bit of lively movement or at circle time. You may prefer to
leave out the Mr Wolf activity for younger children and play Ring A Ring of
Roses or In & Out The Dusty Bluebells instead.
Older children will love making their own summer fairies from the template
below and decorating them with tissue paper flower petals, but otherwise you
could just make one to use as a prop.
Props needed:
• Resonator bells or chime bars
• A variety of percussion instruments
• The printable sheet music and resources below - don’t forget to make your
flower fairies first!
• A doll or puppet to be Mary Mary Quite Contrary, a small basket, some silver
bells (I took mine from a broken bell shaker) and a collection of pretty shells
(not too small) Some flower heads or blossom collected from outside
(imitation flowers would of course be fine)
• For the treasure game - If you are playing outside, the children can find their
own ‘treasures’ like leaves, petals, stones etc. But if you are inside, you can hide
your own similar things, including the bells, flowers and shells from the Mary
Mary activity.
1. Say Hello Song (see blog for tune and actions)
2. Chime bar/resonator bell hunt - If you have separate resonator bells for
teaching the Do-Re-Mi scale, and if you’re playing outside, kids love playing hide
and seek with them. Hide the 8 bells and depending on how many children
there are in the group, they can search for one or two each. When they’ve
found them all, they bring them together and try to sort them into the correct
order. Start by asking which note goes first and then build the scale together
one by one, helping them with clues to prompt where needed.
3. Once the scale is assembled, sing and play this song which starts on the bottom
note of the scale and climbs up to the next note on each new line - each line of
the song below is coloured to indicate which resonator bell to play - once they
are familiar with it, sing together with the actions in brackets. This is my garden, (extend palm of hand facing up) I’ll rake it with care, (rake palm with 3 fingers of the other hand) And then some flower seeds, (plant pretend seeds on palm) I’ll plant there. The sun will shine, (circular action with other hand) And the rain will fall, (fingers flutter down) And my garden will blossom, (cup fingers and ‘grow’ upwards like flowers) And grow nice and tall.
4. Sing A Song of Sunshine Sing this song to the traditional tune of Sing a Song Of Sixpence (see sheet
music) and play along together with percussion instruments, repeat four
contrasting times - each time recognising the difference i.e fast, slow, soft, loud.
Sing a song of sunshine Summer’s here at last! Flowers in the garden, Tell us spring is past, Picnics in the country, Swimming in the sea, Holidays are happy days, So sing this song with me!
5. Magic Feet Follow The Beat! By now the children will be ready for some
movement. Use the sheet below to play this game, it’s a brilliant way to have
some fun with some lively movement, while learning and practising the concept
of note values. Use a tambourine to tap the beat, and once they have ‘rubbed the magic on
their feet’, they are really in the mood to stamp around with giant steps like
Daddy whole note (semibreves) or march like Big Brother 1/4 note (crotchets)
or run along with little fast steps likeThe Little 1/8 Note Twins (quavers). When
they’ve got the hang of each different note and the sound and action it makes,
you can experiment with making them guess which one you are playing and try
to catch them out, or each child can have a go at tapping the correct beat when
you call out the note.
6. What’s The Note Mr Wolf? Kids love playing this game which combines note
recognition and time values with role play and a game of chase at the end! The principle is much the same, except instead of counting and stepping
according to the hours around the clock, the number of beats to each note
value determine the number of steps you should take.
What’s the note Mr Wolf? Mr Wolf? Mr Wolf? so - so mi so- so mi so-so mi so-so mi What’s the note Mr Wolf? Tell us, tell us please! (sing this little chant using the So Mi interval)
• Use the flash cards provided to play the game.
• Each time they chant the song the children ask the wolf what note he is holding.
• The wolf stands with his back to the rest of the group, at one end of the room
and takes a note card from a bag.
• After identifying the note himself, he calls out in a big ‘wolfy’ voice whether it is
a crotchet – 1/4 note or minim – 1/2 note.
• The other children then take the appropriate number of steps, in this case 1 or
2, counting as they go.
• When they have counted the steps, the wolf spins around and looks to see if he
can spot anyone moving. If he does then that person has to go back to the
starting line.
• The child who is the wolf will soon realise that they can control the other
players’ progress – but that is all part of playing the game!
• When the children are almost up behind the wolf, and the wolf thinks he is close
enough to perhaps catch someone, he shouts “it’s dinner time!” and he spins
round and tries his best to catch someone.
• The children try to escape the wolf by dashing back to the ‘home’ side of the
room.If the wolf does catch someone then he or she will be the next wolf.
• The children get so involved with the catching and chasing element of the game
that they don’t realise that they are learning to recognise and name the music
notes and how many beats each one is worth. The game can be easily adapted to
keep it very simple for younger children by only including simple crotchets and
minims, or it can be made more challenging for slightly older kids by calling out
more than one note at a time like “2 crotchets and 2 minims”.
7. For children younger than 3 years, substitute this activity with a simple circle
game like Ring A Ring Of Roses or In & Out the Dusty Bluebells.
8. Mary, Mary Quite Contrary - Sing this song with the sheet music provided
and invite the children to play along together with metal instruments only i.e
bells & triangles and repeat four contrasting times - each time recognising the
difference i.e fast, slow, soft, loud. Mary , Mary, quite contrary! How does your garden grow? With cockle shells, And silver bells, And pretty maids all in a row! Mary Mary Quite Contrary Musical Pretend Play Game
• What you need to play: A puppet or/rag doll or something similar to play
Mary. A small watering can or little teapot, some pretty shells, some silver bells (take
apart a bell shaker) and some real or imitation flower petals
• Alternatively you can of course imagine all of these things!
9. How to play: Mary (in this case a puppet) explains that she is very busy trying
to plant her magic garden and that she needs some help from the children. She
then goes off to finish all her jobs. When she is gone you suggest that while she
is away, the children make a pretty garden for her as a surprise, and you will tell
her it was done by magic fairies. The children are delighted by this plan and can’t
wait for her to return and show her surprise and joy! While she is watering her
lovely garden you all sing the song together! You can sing this several times, so
that everyone has a go at both holding the puppet and making the garden. It is
a very simple, sweet activity that the children thoroughly engage with.
10. While you’re all in a whimsical mood, sing The Summer Fairy Song using the
fairy template below to make your own flower fairies (this should be done
before the class) Make the flower fairies twirl in time to the song which is also
sung to the same tune as Mary Mary Quite Contrary. Fairy, fairy, in the garden, Will you come tonight? Dancing in the cool moonlight, All silver sparkling white! Fairy, fairy, in the garden, Will you come tonight? Dancing in a little ring, What magic will you bring? Fairy, fairy, in the garden, Did you come last night? I can tell that you were here, My little fairy dear!
11. Nature Treasure Hunt & Secret Whispers - to music pretending to be bees
collecting pollen but really they should hunt for petals, leaves, stones,twigs,
feathers etc. Play this youtube track - Flight Of The Bumble Bee https://youtu.be/aYAJopwEYv8 ) Everyone should sit in the circle and hide their treasure carefully in their hands.
The teacher starts by whispering the secret name of their treasure to the
person on the right. Each person in turn whispers what they think they’ve heard to the next person,
until it has gone around the circle and the last person reveals what they think
the secret treasure is….. It will probably sound like nonsense - which everyone
finds very funny! Continue this round the circle until everyone has had a go.
12. Finish off with the Goodbye Song which is the same tune as the Hello Song,
but you can just swap around the actions - we always like to finish off very fast!!
• Say Hello • Chime bar hunt • This is my garden - with chime bars and actions • Sing a Song of Sunshine - with percussion • Magic Feet Follow The Beat (printable sheet) • For 4 years + - What’s the Note Mr Wolf? (printable
flashcards) • For 2 - 4 years - Ring A Ring of Roses or In & Out The
Dusty Bluebells • Mary Mary Quite Contrary - with percussion (silver bells
and triangles?) • Tell the story and sing with puppet and props • Summer fairy song (printable fairies) • Nature treasure hunt - to music pretending to be bees
collecting pollen (Flight Of The Bumble Bee) • Play Secret Whispers with the nature finds - then
treasure song. • Say Goodbye
Magic FeetFollow The Beat!
Magic FeetFollow The Beat!