lesson plan

Lesson Plan Overview: Little Fingers - Lesson 3

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Students will develop musical and physical coordination skills through engaging in rhythmic activities, body percussion exercises, rhythm play-along, hand signal demonstrations, and a fun freeze dance activity.


Lesson Objectives

By the end of the lessons, students will be able to:
  1. Engage in rhythmic activities, body percussion, rhythm play-along, and core exercises to enhance musical and physical coordination skills.
  2. Maintain a consistent beat.
  3. Combine movement and speech to create rhythmic patterns.
  4. Demonstrate understanding of hand signals representing different colors using the Tameda Method.
Materials Needed
  • Music playlist for rhythm play-along and freeze dance
  • Percussion instruments or objects for body percussion (e.g., clapping hands, stomping feet)
  • Classroom space with enough room for movement
  • Dinosaur Song - https://play.prodigies.com/programs/448604
  • Xylophones for Students
  • Xylophones for Instructor - https://playxylo.com/
Resources

Prodigies Login Information
To log in to the Prodigies website and access lesson videos, use the following steps:
Login Credentials:
Choose one out of the three emails to log in with.
  • Emails: littlefingers1@kpiano.org, littlefingers3@kpiano.org, littlefingers4@kpiano.org
  • Password: @@LetsGo2024!!
Login Procedure:
  1. Click on "Login."
  2. Choose "App Login" from the options provided.
  3. Enter one of the emails listed above. If you encounter an issue indicating the account is in use, try using one of the other email logins provided.
  4. Select "Sign in with Password."
These steps should help you successfully access the Prodigies website and its lesson videos.
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Lesson Plan Outline

If some classes do not complete this lesson in one day, do your best to cover as much as you can. When necessary, resume from where you stopped at the start of the next lesson.

Introduction (5 minutes)
  • Greet the students and introduce the K-Piano equipment and learning system.
  • Provide an overview of the lesson objectives and what students can expect to learn.
  • Review previously learned concepts. Heartbeat, Body Piano, and moving to Walk/Tiptoe
  • State the new learning concepts students will be able to build from lesson one and achieve in lesson two.
Class Expectations (5 minutes)
  • Read over classroom expectations for the Little Fingers class.
  • Have students describe what these behaviors look like and don't look like.
Ex: A good choice is following directions. A silly choice is to be laughing at your friends.

Movement Activity - Video (5 minutes)
  • Begin with a movement activity to allow students to practice listening, maintain a steady beat, and release excess energy before class. Click on one of the videos to choose a movement activity, or ask the students which one they would like to do.
Rhythm Steady Beat (5 minutes)
  1. Show the Heart Beat slide to students
  2. Review with students the steady beat
  3. Read the rhythms on the next slide, referring to the Rhythms Echos slide (see resources), while students maintain a steady beat either on their bodies or by pointing to the hearts.
Rhythm Echos (5 minutes)
*Do not show slide. This is for teacher reference only*
  1. Read rhythm syllable patterns on the neutral syllable "bah" 4 beats at a time.
  2. Students echo
  3. Read patterns under "Rhythm Syllables" again using rhythm syllables "ta" and "ta-ti" 4 beats at a time.
  4. Students echo
Translation Challenge (5 minutes)
*Do not show slide. This is for teacher reference only*

Tell students we have a new challenge for them today. The instructor will say rhythms under "Translation Challenge" with the neutral syllable "bah," and students will echo using rhythm syllables "ta" and "ta-ti." See example below
  1. (ta-ti, ta-ti, ta-ti, ta 
  2. ta-ti, ta, ta-it, ta
  3. ta-ti, ta-ti, ta-ti, ta-ti
  4. ta, ta-ti, ta, ta-ti
  5. ta, ta-ti, ta-ti, ta)
Rhythm Exploration (5 minutes)
*Do not show slide. This is for teacher reference only*
  1. Instructor improvises various combinations of "walk" and "tiptoe."
  2. Ask students what two movements they will demonstrate.
  3. Ask students to stand and demonstrate walking and tiptoeing.
  4. Ask students to demonstrate walking or tiptoeing as the teacher says patterns (see slide)
Rhythm Read Along - Video ( 5 minutes)
Before playing the video, go over the following with the students:
  1. Discuss how many sounds (syllables) in "walk" (1).
  2. Discuss how many sounds in "tiptoe" (2).
  3. Discuss what fruits they see on the screen (apples and pears).
  4. Discuss the number of sounds for each word (pear = 1, apple = 2).
  5. Once students understand how many sounds and syllables, show the video.
  6. Ask students to read along with the rhythm video.
Movement Activity - Video(5 minutes)
  • Select another movement activity to practice active listening, steady beat, and to provide a brain break.
Tonal Practice (5 minutes)
  1. Instruct students to echo the teacher's actions.
  2. Demonstrate and improvise 4-beat patterns using "do," "re," and "mi" on a body piano, using the neutral syllable "bum." Use the body piano notations on the next slide as a reference.
  3. Have the students echo the demonstrated patterns.
  4. Proceed to improvise 8-10 tonal patterns following the same process.
  5. Improvise 4-beat patterns using "do," "re," and "mi" on a body piano while singing the solfege.
  6. Prompt the students to echo and replicate the patterns they have just observed.
  7. Conclude by improvising an additional 8-10 patterns using the same method.
High and Low Exploration - Dinosaur Song (5 minutes)
*Do not show slide. This is for teacher reference only*
You can review the Dinosaur song on Prodogies by following this link: https://play.prodigies.com/programs/448604

Before continuing, please get your xylophone or use a digital xylophone from this link:

Request the in-class teacher to distribute the Xylophones. Then, instruct the students to place their Xylophones before them and listen attentively.
  1. Discuss measure 3 - Instructor sings "walking through the" - is the sound going higher or lower? (higher)
  2. Discuss measure 4 - Instructor sings "valley" - is the sound going higher or lower? (lower)
  3. Discuss measure 7
  4. Discuss measure 8
  5. The instructor randomly plays measures (2, 3, 7, and 8) on Xylo. Is the sound going higher or lower?
  6. The instructor randomly plays another measure (2, 3, 7, or 8) on Xylo. Is the sound going higher or lower?
  7. Discuss directions (lower = left, higher = right)
  8. Assess learning by asking students to play higher and lower on xylos
Students may find it easier if instructors perform actions in reverse (such as instructing students to point to the right while the teacher points to the left) since students tend to mirror their instructors.

Review (5 minutes)
Revisit what the student learned earlier by asking the following questions:
  1. How many sounds are in "Pear" and "Apple"?
  2. Recall the higher and lower sounds on the xylophone.
Conclusion: Movement Activity - Video (5 minutes)
If you have time, finish up with a movement activity.
  • Select another movement activity to practice active listening, steady beat, and to provide a brain break.
If some classes do not complete this lesson in one day, do as much as you can and resume from where you left off at the start of the next lesson.