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.

Practice distinguishing between speaking and singing voices by introducing a toy elephant named Melody. Melody the elephant will do what the children tell her, if they tell her in a “singing voice.” If they speak, she does nothing. Tell Melody to “jump up and down” using a speaking voice. Melody won’t move. Then sing to Melody to “jump up and down” and make your elephant jump. Invite the children to
sing to Melody what to do. This activity helps the students to learn the difference between singing and speaking voices. It’s also great to encourage solo singing. You can soon tell who is matching pitch and who you need to work with when they sing to Melody.

Melody became a requested part of every music class. If I forgot to bring Melody out, they asked for her. They all wanted to give Melody hugs after class, so we developed a routine where if they were sitting nicely in their places, Melody would come and give them a hug.

If You're Happy and You Know it - by JJ is in the Jump into Music section.

Sing and move as shown in the video

John makes up new verses in this song. Can you make up new verses and sing/move to them?

Teach the song. With PreK 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.)

Copy John and the Jumparoo's movements to the song.

Teacher led activity: Tell the students that they are going to move to show when there is a beat and when there is no beat.

Play a beat on the drum and have students move to the beat.
When you stop, there isn't a beat anymore, so students freeze.

Extensions:
• Play the drum loud/quiet, fast/slow
• Play the drum in a variety of meters - 2/4, 3/4, 4/4

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!

Give the students sticks, shakers or other instruments.

Play the beat with the music on an instrument.

Say the poem "Roly Poly" and do the movements with the teacher.

What is your favourite part of the poem?
Up, down, fast,slow, loud or quiet?

Can you think of other ways that Roly Poly could go? ... silly, short/long, smooth/bumpy

• Trace the words on the page.
• Color the things you'd like to do in music class.
• If you want to save paper, draw a picture of what you'd like to do in music class.

Omit if you have already done this.

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

Watch the video and sing along!

The actions are given in the demo video that follows.