lesson plan

Lesson Plan Overview: Little Fingers First Grade - Lesson 7B

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First Grade - Lesson 7B

If your class does 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.

Directions
  • Prompts for the instructor to say will be in bold.
  • Students’ expected answer will be in normal font.
Objectives: 
  • I can identify a note with four sounds
  • I can identify la in a tonal pattern
OUTPUT DATA is to be collected on slide 11.

Materials Needed
  • Music playlist for rhythm play-along and freeze dance (located in the presentation)
  • Classroom space with enough room for movement
Resources
  • See the attached file(s) below.
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Lesson Outline

Little Fingers Title Slide (Slide 1)
  • Welcome students
  • Have students take their places
Class Expectations (Slide 2)
  • Go over class expectations 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 help with:
  • Physical de-escalation if needed
  • Mental preparation for students' engagement at the start of class
Vocal Explorations (Slides 7-8)  
OBJ: Students are demonstrating that they can change their voice to different types.

Teacher Script
  • Ask students, "What direction is high?"
  • Up
  • "What direction is low?"
  • Down
  • "What shapes can we use to draw moving up?"
  • EX: swirls, hills, squiggles, mountains use zoom tools to draw shapes/lines
  • *be sure to review reading page from left to right using the girl and orange eighth note as a guide*
  • Teacher will draw these shapes and use singing voice to follow the shape to sing "high"
  • "What direction is low?"
  • Down
  • What shapes can we use to draw going down?
  • EX: swirls, hills, squiggles, mountains
  • If time allows you follow shapes with vowels; Ah, Eh, Eee, Oh, Ooo
New Song - Running Fast (Slide 9) 
OBJ: Students are building fluency of rhythmic patterns

*Instructors will not share screen here*

Teacher Script
  • "I want you to sing the part of 'Running Fast' that we learned last time."
  • The instructor gives the starting pitch. Students sing.
  • "Now we will be learning the rest of the song today. Listen first as I sing. When I am finished, tell me how many times I said 'run' at the beginning."
  • Instructor sings measures 5-8. 
  • 3
  • "Listen again. When I am finished, tell me what we are going to do after we take a breath."
  • Instructor sings measures 5-8.
  • Run some more
  • "Listen one more time. When I am finished, tell me what running makes us want to do."
  • Instructor sings measures 5-8. 
  • Soar
  • "Echo me."
  • Instructor sings measure 5. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • Instructor sings measures 6. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • Instructor sings measures 5-6. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • Instructor sings measure 7. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • Instructor sings measures 5-7. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • Instructor sings measure 8. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • Instructor sings measures 5-8. Give audiation breath. Cue students to sing.
  • "Now I am going to sing the entire song from the beginning. I want you to listen first."
  • Instructor sings the entire song.
  • "Listen again. This time, as I am singing, I want you to sing the song in your mind. Don't use your singing voice just yet! I want you to use your inner voice to sing the song."
  • Instructor sings the song while students think about it in their minds.
  • "Ok. Your turn to sing."
  • The instructor gives the starting pitch and cues the students to sing. 
Rhythm Echoes (Slide 10) 
OBJ: Students are building fluency of rhythmic patterns

*Instructors will not share screen here*

Teacher Script
  • The instructor invites students to demonstrate a steady beat. Pick one example for class to use.
  • "Ready and echo me."
  • Instructor reads rhythms four beats at a time using a neutral syllable "bah." 
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor reads rhythms four beats at a time using rhythm syllables. (Use cheat sheet if needed)
  • Students echo.
  • "Now it's time for our challenge. Remember, I'm going to say 'bah.' You use your rhythm syllables."
  • Instructors remember to assess for accuracy. Go back and correct mistakes if students make mistakes.
  • Instructor reads rhythms using neutral syllable "bah."
  • Students echo using rhythm syllables. 
Rhythm Assessment (Slide 11)
Directions: 
  • Begin the assessment. Please note that we are no longer recording the students.
  • Divide students into groups of 4-5 based on color and number on the roll sheet, and hand out the assigned paddles. 
  • Be sure to ask the classroom teacher for support if needed.
  • Place students in line by color, in numerical order.
  • Have students place paddles on the floor in front of them.
  • The instructor invites 1 group at a time to come up and do a rhythm challenge.
  • Instructor reads each rhythm using the neutral syllable "bah."
  • Students echo using rhythmic syllables.  
  • Ensure all students have been assessed.
Preparing La (Slides 13-15) 
OBJ: Students are building tonal fluency by reviewing tonal patterns. 

*Instructor will not share this screen*

Teacher Script
  • "Use your body piano and echo me."
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure, one at a time, on a neutral syllable "bum."
    Students echo.
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure, one at a time, using solfege (la should be referred to as "higher")
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure, one at a time, using neutral syllable "bum."
  • Students echo using body piano and solfege.
  • Instructors assess for accuracy. 
Practicing Sol and Mi (Slide 14) 
OBJ: Students are building tonal vocabulary.

*instructor will not share screen here*

Directions
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure on neutral syllable "bum."
  • Students echo in solfege.
  • Perform using hand signs instead of body piano
Extra challenge:
  • Instructor may take out body piano/hand signs if students are ready (students should be able to sing solfege and use hand/signs or body piano on their own)
La Hand Sign (Slide 15) 
OBJ: Students are building tonal vocabulary.

*instructor will share screen here*

Teacher Script
  • "Let's review our hand signs. What is the hand sign for sol?"
  • Students show the hand sign
  • "What about the hand sign for mi?"
  • Students so hand sign
  • "Now let's add our new note: la."
  • Instructor show hand sign for la. 
  • "Echo me."
  • Instructor sings and signs "la, la, la, la."
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor improvises (or uses examples from the previous slide) patterns using la, sol, and mi for students to echo and sign. 
Xylophone Set Up (Slide 16)

Directions
Remind students of caring for xylophones
  • "I want you to sing the beginning of 'Running Fast.' Just the part we learned last week."
  • The instructor gives the starting pitch. Students sing measures 1-4. 
  • "Now I want you to see if you can sing the song using solfege and your body piano. We will start on sol. Where is sol on your body?"
  • Forehead
  • "Take 10 seconds to see if you can figure out the song using solfege and body piano by yourself. We will go over it together after."
  • The instructor gives students a few seconds to figure out solfege.
  • "Let's see if we can sing it together."
  • The instructor gives the starting pitch. 
  • Students sing the song using solfege and body piano. 
  • The instructor does not sing with the students. Instead, the instructor watches to assess for accuracy. If students are struggling, the instructor may discuss melodic contour (example: We started on sol. Running, running is all on sol. Now did we go higher or lower for 'fast?' Lower. What note is lower than sol? Mi...etc.)
  • Once students can sing solfege and play body piano, add xylophones with fingers. 
  • Add mallets once students are comfortable playing with fingers first. 
  • We will finish playing this song in the next lesson. 
Movement Activity (Slides 17 - 20)

Lesson Recap (Slide 21)
  • Review what you have learned with the students.