Lesson Outline
Little Fingers Title Slide (Slide 1)
- Welcome students
- Have students take their places
Class Expectations (Slide 2)
- Go over class expecations for the first class. After the first class you can remind the students of the expectations.
Movement Activity (Slides 3 - 6)
Movement activities at the beginning of class helps with:
- Physical de-escalation if needed
- Mental preparation for students engagement at the start of class
Vocal Explorations (Slide 7-8)
OBJ: Students are demonstrating that they can change their voice to different types to build fluency.
The instructor will practice echoing different voices with students.
Teacher Script
- "What kind of shapes do you see?"
- *Teacher will need to guide students to identify a line up, a line down, and a squiggle*
- Ask students to use their pointer finger and draw each line with you.
- "Now you will use your finger and your voice when you follow the line"
- Demonstrate the first line using a siren tone start low and slide up using your pointer finger and your voice. Exaggerate the siren as much as possible.
- Do the same for all three lines having the voice follow the direction of each line.
- You can go backwards and forwards on all the lines.
New Song - Snowflakes (Slide 9)
OBJ: Students are building fluency in their tonal vocabulary by learning a new a song.
This slide is for instructor viewing only. Instructors will stop sharing screen here.
Teacher Script
- "I have a new song for you today. Listen to my song first, and then I will ask you some questions."
- Instructor sings song.
- "I am going to sing again. After I finish singing, tell me what the subject of the song is."
- Instructor sings
- Snowflakes
- "After I am finished singing, tell me if the snowflakes are drifting fast or slow."
- Instructor sings
- Slowly
- "I am going to sing one more time. When I am finished, tell me what direction the snowflakes are falling."
- Instructor sings
- Down
- The instructor invites students to sing the song by themselves. Give the starting pitch.
Rhythm Echoes (Slide 10)
OBJ: Students are beginning to differentiate between different beats quarter and eighth note.
*Instructor will stop sharing screen here.*
Teacher Script:
- "Now let's continue keeping a steady beat, but now I need you to echo me. When we do echoes, who goes first? You or me?"
- You (the instructor)
- "And who goes after?"
- Me (students)
- Instructor reads rhythms four beats at a time using neutral syllable "bah." You may need to point to your self at your turn and to class at their turn as a reminder when to echo. Also keep the steady beat even with the zoom delay.
- Students echo.
- Once all rhythms are read, repeat using rhythm syllables (quarter note = ta, eighth notes = ta-ti; refer to rhythm syllable cheat sheet if needed)
- Students echo.
- "Now I am going to do a challenge. I'm going to say the rhythms using 'bah.' When you echo, I want you to echo using the rhythm syllables 'ta' and 'ta-ti.' For example, if I were to say (instructor says first rhythm using 'bah'), you say..."
- Ta-ti, ta, ta, ta
- "Ok let's try it without stopping."
- Instructor reads rhythms a third time, 4 beats at a time using neutral syllable "bah" while students echo using rhythm syllables "ta" and "ta-ti"
Walk, Tiptoe (Slide 11)
OBJ: Students are reviewing opposites by using body motions
*Instructor will show screen here*
- The instructor invites students to stand up in their spots.
- “I am going to say a word, and I want you to use your feet to match the word as I say it. I will clap too. Make sure your feet match my hands. Walk, walk, walk, walk.”
- Students should be walking in place, stepping to each syllable. Make sure students are stepping to rhythm of quarter notes here.
- “Freeze. Now I am going to say a new word. Make sure your feet match my hands as I clap. Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe. Freeze. Now I am going to say a new word. Make sure your feet match my hands as I clap. Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe.”
- Students should be stepping in place to each syllable. Make sure students are stepping to rhythm of eighth notes here.
- “Now we are going to play a game! I want to see who the best listeners are. I am going to change between walk and tiptoe. Make sure you're listening and change when I change. Don't get tricked!”
- The instructor improvises various rhythms, including walk and tiptoe, ensuring students listen and step to the correct rhythm.
Steady Beat Practice (Slide 8)
OBJ: Students are reviewing the steady beat by physically demonstrating it.
- “Let's review our steady beat. Does a steady beat change or stay the same?”
- Students say “Stay the same”
- “Show me a steady beat with your hands. How about a steady beat on your head?”
- Students will demonstrate a steady beat with hands and heads. Instructor be sure to track students and be aware that students are keeping their movements aligned together.
- The instructor plays the video and students follow along.
Student Assessment
- Divide students into their assigned groups of 4-5 according to colors and numbers.
- Practice lifting the paddle before beginning assessment.
- Start recording assessment. Please use zoom recording and save file with yourname.homeroomteachername.schoolname.date.lesson#
- Have students show the steady beat as they follow along to the video.
- Stop recording once all students have been assessed.
Tonal Echoes (Slides 14-15)
OBJ: Students are building tonal vocabulary and fluency by demonstrating high and low patterns on their body.
- Slide 10 is for instructor reference and recall if needed for where to position Body Piano for high and low.
Teacher Script
- Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure, one at a time, on neutral syllable "bum." Students echo each measure
- Once all the patterns have been sung, repeat each measure but sing using the words "high" and "low"
- "Now I have a challenge. I am only going to sing 'bum.' Your job is to echo it back using high and low. So, if I sing (instructor sings and shows first measure on body piano), you will sing..."
- High, low, high, low.
- Repeat with each measure.
Seesaw (Slides 16)
OBJ: Students are being building fluency to high and low tones by using a song.
This slide is for instructor viewing only. Instructors will stop sharing screen here.
Directions
- Review the song with students.
- Ask students to stand and sing song.
- Ask students to pretend they are on a seesaw while singing - remind them to start low and stand up high when they start singing.
- Ask students to sing song using their body piano starting on their heads.
- Extra challenge: Ask students to sing song using only high and low.
High Reading Activity (Slide 17)
OJB: Students are being introduced to visually differentiate between high and low
The instructor can share the screen again here.
Teacher Script:
- "Now I want to write the song. What note did you start on?"
- High
- Instructor moves one dot to high.
- "What note came next?"
- Low
- Instructor moves another dot to low.
- Continue this process until the first line of the song is written.
- Invite students to sing what is written. Be sure to encourage students to use body piano if needed. Also, be aware that students are using their singing voice and not a different voice. You may need to remind students where to find their singing voice by echoing sirens or echoing different voice types. (ex whisper, speaking, monster, etc)
High/Low Exploration on Xylophones (Slide 18)
OBJ: Students are learning to differentiate between High and Low using the xylophone and demonstrating what they have retained.
- "Before we get our xylophones, we have to talk about how to use them safely. When carrying our xylophones, should we use two hands or one?"
- Two
- "And when we carry our xylophones with two hands, should we hold it by the top or the bottom?"
- The bottom
- "What happens if you carry your xylophones by the top?"
- The bars will fall off.
- "What happens if a bar falls off?"
- We get a grown up
- "Which bar goes on the left?"
- Big red bar
- "Which bar goes on the right?"
- Little green bar
- "Let's go back to our dark green and yellow bars. Which one was the high sound?"
- Dark green
- "Which one was the low sound?"
- Yellow
- "Use your fingers! I want you to sing 'Seesaw' using the words high and low again. This time, use your fingers to play high and low while you sing. I will give you 10 seconds to practice."
- Give students a few seconds to practice. Instructor gives starting pitch for students to sing and play.
- Extra challenge: Divide class in half. Half play melody while other half keeps steady beat on C.
Movement Activity (Slide 19 - 22)
OBJ: Students are being prepped to transition to a new class and finish Little Fingers class
Lesson Recap (Slide 23)
- Review what you have learned with the students.