Fall Songs With Preschoolers

I love teaching preschool music.  The musical activities 3-5 year old kids can accomplish never cease to amaze me.  We have been working on some basic, but very important concepts this Fall.

Audiation

Audiation is the ability to hear music, melody and rhythm, in your head.  We have been singing Bingo to work on audiation.  Each time you sing a verse in Bingo you take away one letter, clap on that one while thinking it in your head, and then sing the remaining letters.  The kids are doing great with this!  We have used this schoolastic book along with the song.

Dynamics and Tempo

In the Hall of the Mountain King is a fun song to work on dynamics and tempo with.  It starts quiet and slow then speeds up and gets louder through out the song.  We start each music class by listening to a song then talking about it.  That might sound boring, but we act out the song with small movements while we listen and work on steady beat and it's a great experience.  Little kids can come up with some great answers about what they hear.  If you haven't ever asked your kids about what all they hear when they listen to music you should.  It's a fun conversation.  We used the song as a play along at the end of class.  The students have to play the instruments quietly when the song is quiet and get to get louder and faster with it!  Here is a video to enjoy with the song, and a cartoon about the music.

  

We read the book Gobble Gobble Crash to talk about dynamics.  The silly turkeys are loud and soft in the book.

Watching for Cues and Songs With Parts

We worked on a Fall chant that has four different parts.  I divided the class into four groups and each group had a part.  After they learned to do their part they had to watch me to cue them, and only perform their part when they were cued!  They got so good at it that each group got to pick out a non-pitch percussion instrument (shakers, maracas, cymbals, drums) to accompany their part this week.

Steady Beat

We work on keeping a steady beat in our bodies and with instruments all the time.  We are also working on keeping a steady beat as a group with an egg shaker passing game.  The game will be part of the song I've Been Workin' on the Railroad.  

Ukulele

I've been bringing my ukulele to class each week and accompanying at least one song on it.  It is a fun, simple instrument to learn.  I created a free online class so you can learn to play some preschool songs at home!  You can get to the class here.