Sing hellos in different ways. Pat the beat or play on gourd or other kind of shaker.

This month we used jingle bells, tambourine, hand drum, triangle, shaker, tone block, finger cymbals, and castanets.

Download

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. (The demo that follows will show how to do this)

Substitute whatever stuffed animal you have - Melody Monkey would work just as well!

Review the song. Create movements to go with the song.

Tell the children you’re going to fry some sausages. Say the poem and demonstrate the actions for them. Invite the children to say the poem and do the actions with you. Talk about which parts of the poem are quieter and which parts are louder.

Say the poem using loud and quiet voices, fast and slow, and magic lips.

Create sound effects for the poem with unpitched instruments.

For example:
Two little sausages frying in the pan - play egg shakers (sizzling sound)
One went pop - on "pop" play a loud instrument
And the other went bam - on "bam" play on a drum

Use the "Loud Quiet" interactive to create and play patterns.

Two poems from preK are in the activity: Mix a Pancake and Two Little Sausages. Choose which lines of the poem to say in a loud voice and which to say in a quiet voice.

The manipulative cards for loud and quiet are included in supporting resources. You could use these as a center for PreK to experiment making their own loud and quiet patterns.

Tell the children you’re going to chop up a head of lettuce. Say the poem, demonstrating the motions. Invite the children to say the poem and do the actions with you.

In the demo, the teacher is using high, medium and low voices to represent the sizes of the vegetables that are getting thrown in the pot.
Radish - use a high voice because it's a small vegetable.
Pumpkin - use a low voice because it's a big vegetable.

Invite the children to think of different kinds of food to throw in the pot. Then say the poem together using high, medium and low voices.

There are food picture cards in the supporting resources.

Print them, and then create a word rhythm pattern with them.

Say your word rhythm. Try accompanying the word rhythm with body percussion.
Then try playing the rhythms on instruments. Invite feedback from the children.
If they think of different ways to play or perform the rhythm, try them out.

You could use one of the food poems as an A section: Two Little Sausages, Mix a Pancake, or Chop Chop Chippety Chop

Use your word rhythm as a B section.

With input from the class decide on the form and perform your piece.

Discuss how your performance turned out. Did you like it?
If you were to perform it again, what could you do differently?
If time permits, try it again.
This is the creative process for preK. With guidance, you create a performance, discuss it and refine it.

Say and demonstrate the first verse for the students. Then invite them join you in doing all the other verses. There are many variants of this camp song.

As you listen to the song, create movements to go with it.

Play the video again, and sing along.

The stretchy band is a movement prop that PreK-K-1 children LOVE!

You can substitute a parachute, or you could even use an elastic skipping rope.

If you don't have a prop, form a circle and do the movements with your arms.