The beat chants are a great way to welcome your students to music class or music time. Some music teachers teach more than a thousand students each week and it can be very difficult to remember the names. Starting your class with a name chant establishes a routine, introduces the term “beat” and will help the teacher remember all of the names.

Say the preschool chant, patting a steady beat as you speak. Say hello to four students, then say the chant again. Say hello to them using high and low voices, quiet and loud voices, fast and slow. Also use speaking, whispering, shouting or calling and singing voices. When singing hello use a variety of solfa patterns: so-mi so-so-mi, so-la-so-mi-do or mi-re-do-do-do. In the chants where children say their own names, encourage them to use different voices.

Listen to the recording and have the students copy your movements as they listen. (This is teaching the song by immersion.)

Echo what Bobo sings

Listen to the song.
Play the video again and sing along!

Extensions:
1. Say "Welcome" to each student in your class and have the rest of class echo the same way you said it.
2. Use a high voice for one student, and a low voice for the next. The students who echo will experience high/low. Try loud/quiet, fast/slow, and singing using a variety of tone sets.
3. Keep a beat while you say the welcome. The first time, clap or pat the beat. In future weeks, play the beat on an instrument.
4. Discuss with the students the instrument that you used. For example if you use rhythm sticks, as the students questions such as:
• What are these called?
• What are they made of?
• How can I make sound on them? Try out different ways - tapping, clicking, drumming, scraping
• Classify the instrument as a wood, metal, shake/scrape or drum
In this way the students will learn about many of the classroom instruments!

Pause the video and sing the welcome song each time you hear the words, "All are welcome here."

This is a lovely, diverse storybook. If you are able to, order your own copy of it.
All Are Welcomeby Alexandra Penfold (Author), Suzanne Kaufman (Illustrator)

If you started in August Week 1 and have already read this story, read the So-Me Goes Missing Storybook instead. (below)

So-me Goes Missing Storybook
Listen to the story.
Every time there is a part that's sung, pause the video and echo the singing.

This book includes many sounds in the environment - sounds around us.
Have students close eyes for 20-30 seconds and listen.
Make a list of all the sounds the students can hear in the classroom.

Review quickly if you did this in August lesson 1.

Read and Discuss the Music Room Rules.
Have the students give examples of good choices, being responsible, good manners, etc.

The first time you do this, the teacher can be the leader. Ways to keep the beat might include patting legs, clapping, tapping nose, pulling ears, twisting, leaning left/right, reach up with arms - think of as many ways as you can!

Then, invite students to create ways to keep the beat. If your students sit in a circle go around the circle and encourage all students to take a turn to be leaders.

Teach the song. With Kindergarten teach the song either by immersion or by rote. Explain the game and demonstrate what will happen if you are holding the “farmer” at the end of the song.

To play the game, put your farm animal picture cards, or toy animals in the middle of the circle. Pass a picture of a farmer or a farmer toy around the circle as the class sings the song. At the end of the song, the child holding the farmer picture chooses an animal that he sees in the center and sings, “I see a ___ ___.” The class echoes. The child that sang should come to the front with his chosen animal. Pass the farmer again, and the next child to have the “farmer” at the end of the song chooses a second animal. Sing the second animal and then the first. Each child that chooses comes to the front of the class and sits in order to help remember all the animals that have been chosen. Sing all the animals each round, starting with the newest first.

Alternate way to play: Give each child a picture card. Sing the song, then several children can sing what they have, and all sing back, “You have a _____.” (We tried moving like animals and singing what animals the children were, but this was a spectacular failure. It was much too chaotic.)

Ask the children to tell you what a cat might do if it thinks that there is a mouse in the house. Tell them they are going to act out what the cat and the mouse might be doing as they listen to a song. Play them the song, and lead them in dramatizing the cat and mouse. Invite them to sing with you.

After dramatizing, ask the children which part of the song was the fastest. (verse 5) Ask them to tell you why this part might be faster than the other parts of the song.

Watch the video.

Watch the video again and sing along!

Can you create movements to go with the music?

Sing along with the video. Most students will know this song.

Extension:
• walk to the eighth notes and stretch to the quarter notes. Experiencing short and long notes through movement will help them understand the concept of short and long sounds when you label it.
• Play the words of the songs on instruments. Play the eighth notes on sticks and the quarter notes on a triangle or finger cymbal.
Teacher note - with very young students, I sometimes have them play a finger cymbal with a mallet instead of ringing one cymbal against the other. This activity will have students experience short and long sounds.

Print and fill out the "All About Me" Worksheet.
-or-
Save paper and ink and use your own paper and drawings to make your own "All About Me" sheet.

Omit if you have already done this activity in week 1.

"Skinnamarink" is the song we sing at the end of music class.

Watch the video and sing along!