lesson plan

Lesson Plan Overview: Little Fingers First Grade - Lesson 5A

Ready to use this lesson plan? Use the button below to save a copy of this lesson plan in your account. After doing so, you will be able to modify the lessons as you wish.


First Grade - Lesson 5A

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.

Objectives: 
  • I can use my singing voice
  • I can make patterns using my voice and xylophone
Directions
  • Prompts for the instructor to say will be in bold.
  • Students’ expected answer will be in normal font.
  • OUTPUT DATA none to be collected in this lesson
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 below.
Document
Document
Document
Document
Document
Document
Document
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 (Slide 3-6)
  • Movement activities at the beginning of class helps with:
  • Physical de-escalation if needed
  • Mental preparation for student’s engagement at the start of class
Vocal Explorations (Slide 7)
OBJ: Students are demonstrating that they can change their voice to different types.

Teacher Script
  • Ask students "What is this a picture of?"
  • An elevator
  • "What does an elevator do?"
  • It moves people up and down in buildings
  • "I want you to point at the elevator and I will demonstrate how the voice can move up and down like and elevator.” (Use your finger and your voice to show the elevator is moving up and down)
  • "Now use your finger and voice to show the elevator is moving down."
  • Students move finger from high to low while making siren sound going from high to low. Try different combinations at various speeds. Ex: vowels, birds, cow, howl like wolf etc. Make it fun!
New Song - Swirling Wind (Slide 9) 
OBJ: Students are building fluency of melodic intervals

*Instructors will not share screen here*

Teacher Script
  • "I want you to listen to my song. When I am finished, I want you to tell me how the wind is blowing."
  • Instructor sings song
  • Fast and high.
  • "Listen to my song again. When I am finished, tell me how the wind is moving through the sky.”
  • Swirling and spinning
  • 4
  • "When I am finished, tell me what sounds the wind makes."
  • Whoosh and whistle 
  • "Listen one more time. When I am finished, tell me what the wind is blowing over."
  • Rooftops
  • "Echo me."
  • Instructor sings measures 1-2.
  • Students echo. 
  • Instructors sing measures 3-4.
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor sings first line.
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor sings measures 5-6.
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor sings measures 1-6. 
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor sings measures 7-8.
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor sings whole song.
  • Students echo.

Rhythm Echoes (Slides 10 - 11) 
OBJ: Students are building fluency of rhythmic patterns

*Instructors will not share screen here*

Teacher Script
  • Once all rhythms are read, read using rhythm syllables (quarter note = ta, eighth notes = ta-ti; cover mouths for quarter note rest; refer to rhythm syllable cheat sheet if needed)
  • Students echo. 
  • Instructor reads each rhythm on neutral syllable "bah."
  • Students echo.
  • Instructor reads each rhythm with rhythm syllables "ta" and "ta-ti."
  • Students echo.
  • "Now it's challenge time! Remember, I am going to say 'bah.' What do you say?"
  • Ta and ta-ti
  • 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"
Presenting Rhythms Visually (Slide 12) 
OBJ: Student are building rhythmic fluency by learning visual icons for rhythmic patterns.

*Instructors will share screen here*

Teacher Script
  • "Now I would like for you to think about how many sounds each note makes. For example, how many sounds (or syllables) does 'ta' have?"
  • 1
  • "Now I want you to point at the hearts and say 1 ta."
  • Students point and say "ta"
  • "How many beats was one ta?"
  • 1
  • "Try again and make sure you were correct."
  • Students point and say ta again, ensuring ta is 1 beat.
  • "Hmm...so which one of these do you think is going to be ta? The note with one head, the note with 2 heads, or the one that looks squiggly?"
  • The note with 1 head
  • "Why does the note with one head sound like ta?"
  • Because it has one head and ta is one sound
  • Instructor drag quarter note into a heart
  • "Ok. Let's move to ta-ti. How many sounds (or syllables) is ta-ti?"
  • 2
  • "Now point at your hearts and say one ta-ti."
  • Students point and say "ta-ti"
  • "How many beats was ta-ti?"
  • 1
  • "One beat! But how many sounds is ta-ti again?"
  • 2
  • "Interesting...so which note do you think ta-ti is going to be?"
  • The one with two heads
  • "Why does ta-ti get 2 heads?"
  • Because it has 2 sounds
  • Instructor moves eighth notes into one heart to show one beat. 
  • "Point at the heart that has the ta-ti and read it for me."
  • Ta-ti
  • "Again."
  • Ta-ti
  • Instructor remove all notes from hearts
  • "Now I want you to figure out how many beats this rest is. You're listening for silence. I am going to say 4 beats. I need you to point at each beat as you listen. Remember, you are going to tell me how many beats the rest is."
  • Instructor and students point at beats as instructor says three quarter notes (ta, ta, ta, *rest*)
  • "How many beats was the rest?"
  • 1
  • "What do you think the rest is going to look like?"
  • The squiggly line
Rhythm Reading Practice (Slide 13) 
OBJ: Student are building rhythmic vocabulary.

Directions
  • Instructor show first pattern in video. Do not play video yet! Invite students to read together. Assess for accuracy. 
  • Instructor continue onto second rhythm in video. Invite students to ready together. Assess for accuracy.
  • Practice each rhythmic pattern in the video until completed. Once every pattern has been practiced without background music, play from beginning of video and assess student reading for accuracy. Remember to account for possible time lag.
Preparing La (Slides 15-17) 
OBJ: Student are building tonal vocabulary.

Teacher Script
  • "Stand up, use your body piano, and echo me."
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure, one at a time, on neutral syllable "bum." Students echo each measure
  • See next slide for continuation of this activity 
Slide 15
Teacher Script
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure one-by-one using solfege and body piano
  • Students echo
  • "Time for our challenge! Remember, I am going to sing 'bum.' You sing sol and mi."
  • Instructor uses body piano and sings each measure using neutral syllable 'bum.'
  • Students echo using solfege.
Sol and Mi visual preparation (Slide 18) 
OBJ: Student are building tonal vocabulary.

Teacher Script
  • "Now let's use sol and mi to see if we can read some music. Is sol a high sound or a low sound?"
  • High
  • "So where should I put sol? At the top or the bottom?"
  • Top
  • "And mi is a high sound or low sound?"
  • Low
  • "So where will mi go?"
  • Bottom
  • Instructor moves sol and mi to their places.
  • "Now I am going to use move these dots around to make a song for you to sing."
  • Instructor moves dots to make pattern (smsm may be easiest to start)
  • Remind students to read from left to right. Instructor points at each note as students sing.
  • Instructor writes another pattern. Students sing. 
Solfege and hand sign practice (Slide 19) 
OBJ: Student are building tonal fluency by matching a tone with a kinesthetic action.

*Instructor will not share this screen*

Directions and Teacher Script
  • "Sing 'Hopping Through the Snow."
  • Students sing.
  • "Now I want you to sing the song with words, but use your body piano/hand signs. Are we going to start with high or low?"
  • High
  • Students sing and use body piano/hand signs. They will probably be lost on the last note. If students are lost, say the following:
  • "Don't worry about the body piano or hand signs for the last note of the song right now. We will talk about that later. For now, I want you to sing the song again, but instead of singing words, I want you to sing using sol and mi. Remember, don't worry too much about the last note."
  • Students sing using solfege and body piano/hand signs. 
High/Low Exploration (Slide 20) 
OBJ: Student are building tonal fluency by playing a xylophone.

*Instructor will share this screen*

Directions and Teacher Script
  • Remind students on caring for xylophones
  • "Now let's see if we can play that song. Find sol and mi on your xylophones. What colors are they?"
  • Dark green and yellow
  • "Ok. I am going to give you 30 seconds to practice on your own. Remember to sing and play and don't worry about the last note just yet!"
  • Students will take 30 seconds or less to practice singing and playing with their fingers the previous pattern instructor wrote on slide 16.
  • Students sing and play.
  • Instructor will add a last note that will be a “bass line” to play with melody (do not label. Just tell students to play the lowest note on their xylos). The C will be used a steady beat bass line.
  • Students sing and play.
  • Divide class in half. Half of class plays melody while other half plays steady beat on C. Switch parts. 
Movement Activity (Slides 21 - 24) 

End class with a brain break