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.

Watch the video and do the body percussion that is shown. If the video is too quick for your students, use the gear tool in the bottom right to slow it down.

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.

Go over the rules one at a time.
Ask the students for examples - What would be good choice?
How can they be nice and kind?

Listen to the story, "All Are Welcome."
Pause the video and sing the welcome song each time you hear the words, "All are welcome here."

If this is your week 2 of school, you could listen to So-Me and the Spider instead.

If this is your week 2 of school, you could listen to the So-Me and the Spider storybook instead of All Are Welcome.
• Every time you hear so-me (so-mi) sung, pause the story and echo.
• Use this as an introduction to sounds around us. Have the children listen to the sounds they can hear in the classroom and make a list of the sounds on the board.

Say and move to the poem. Try saying the poem in a quiet voice. Then say in a loud voice. Try it slow. Then try it fast. This helps students to learn the poem, AND reinforces the preK concepts!

Following directions is really important to learn in PreK.
Another fun activity is to play "Simon Says"
Teacher says "Simon says, touch your nose." - all touch their nose.
Teacher says "Simon says, touch your toes." - all touch their toes.
If the teacher doesn't say "Simon says" kids are NOT supposed to do it. This little game is great for times when you want the students watching you.

This is a simple singing game to encourage solo singing.

Watch and listen to the video.

Then watch and sing along with the video.

Have you sung this song before?

Canadians pronounce Z as Zed. Use this version if in Canada or UK.

• 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 did this in lesson 1.

Watch the video and learn the actions.

Can you do all the actions?