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.

Read and Discuss the Music Room Rules.

Have the students give examples of good choices, being responsible, good manners, etc.

Extension: Give your students a piece of paper, and have them draw a picture of how they could follow one rule.

The first time you do this, copy the video

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.

Put 5-6 instruments in a box so the children can’t see what you're playing. Play it, and they identify the instrument. It’s a great way to introduce them to the timbre of unpitched instruments, and to help build their vocabulary as they learn the names of all the instruments!

Watch the video, say the fruit rhythms, and echo the teacher.

You will say the rhythms with the students on the recording.

Copy and cut out the Apple-Plum cards found in supporting resources.
If time permits, have your students create their own fruit rhythms.

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.)

Consider reading the story, "The Listening Walk" to your students. Then do a "listen" in your classroom and create a list of all the things you can hear.

Print and fill out the "All About Me" Worksheet.
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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.