Prek & K Grade - Lesson 4B

• Music
• Age 5

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.

Class Expectations (5min)

• Read over classroom expectations for the Little Fingers class.
• Have students describe what these behaviors look like and don't look like.
• Example: A good choice is following directions. A silly choice is to be laughing at your friends.

Movement Activity

This movement activity at the beginning of class gets the wiggles out and helps mentally prepare students for the start of class.

Little Fingers - Lesson 1

Movement Activity Videos

• Choose a video from either 3 slides

Little Fingers - Lesson 1

Movement Activity Videos

• Choose a video from either 3 slides

Little Fingers - Lesson 1

Movement Activity Videos

Choose a video from either 3 slides

Vocal Exploration (3min)

Ask students "What kind of shapes do you see?"

*You will need to guide students to identify a line up, a line down, and a squiggle line*

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.

Blank Slide

*next slide is for instructor reference only*

Rhythm Echoes

*instructor will stop sharing screen*

Instructor invites students to show an example of a steady beat. Pick one example for class to use.

"Ready and echo me."

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.

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".

Rhythm Reading - Quarter & Eighth Notes

Students are beginning to differentiate between the quarter (Pear) and eighth-note (Apple) beats. 

Have students follow along with the video. Stop the video to go over the beats with the students.

Blank Slide

*next slide is for instructor reference only*

Body Piano

*instructor will stop sharing screen*

High/Low Patterns

*instructor reference only*

Notes for instructor:

These do not have to be sung with a steady beat. While it is important to maintain a steady beat while doing rhythmic exercises, it is not as important here when performing tonal exercises. The main goal is to get these tones into the students' musical vocabulary. 

"Let's review our body piano from last week. What two places did we use?"

Forehead and chin

"Which one was for high sounds?"

Forehead

"Which one was for low sounds?"

Chin

"Echo me."

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

High and Low Reading Assessment (1) 

Record this activity for student assessment.

Instructor place students in groups of 4-5 according to assigned color and number. 

Invite 1 group at a time to come up and read slides for assessment.

Stop recording once all groups have been assessed. 

High/Low Exploration

Continue learning "Seesaw" or review.

Once students are comfortable and part of the class can play both the melody and the other part can play steady beat on C, move to improvisation.

"Let's go back to a few lessons ago where you made up your own melodies on high and low. Remember, what colors are we using?"

Dark green and yellow

"I am going to give you 10 seconds to see if you remember how to play those melodies you made up."

Give students a few seconds to review the 8-beat patterns they improvised.

"Ok. Let's try them together. You are going to have 8 beats. When I stop, you stop. Ready and here you go."

Students play melodies while instructor counts 8 beats on fingers for students to see. 

"Who would like to share their melodies?"

Instructor pick 3-4 students to share their 8-beat melodies, one at a time.

Putting it together:

Half of class plays steady beat on C. Other half of class plays melody. After song has been played once, the steady beat players continue while one student chosen will improvise for 8 beats. Second chosen student will improvise for 8 beats. Continue with class playing "Seesaw" again. Repeat process with next 2 improvisors. End with class playing "Seesaw." (Record this part of lesson if time permits)

Movement Activity

This movement activity at the beginning of class gets the wiggles out and helps mentally prepare students for the start of class.

Little Fingers - Lesson 1

Movement Activity Videos

• Choose a video from either 3 slides

Little Fingers - Lesson 1

Movement Activity Videos

• Choose a video from either 3 slides

Little Fingers - Lesson 1

Movement Activity Videos

Choose a video from either 3 slides

Lesson Recap

Recap with students what they learned.

• 
  
• Steady Beat
• Low and High Sound