I do not currently see Pre-K in my music weekly schedule at Gateway. I look forward to having them in my class in Kindergarten!
(These are sample lessons from my time teaching Pre-K in NYC.)
September Lessons
This month in music class, we are learning each other’s names and figuring out what our time together is all about as we sing, say, dance and play together!
- Tideo (Time for music, Tideo)- sang and played jingle bells on the “jingling joe” part, sang hello to each new friend and practiced singing our classmates names
- We Play and Then We Stop– explored playing our jingle bells and egg shakers fast and slow, learned to stop at the ends of each musical phrase
- It’s So Great to See You– explored nonlocmotor movements and playing instruments while counting to 8 (self control/start and stop)
- Pop Goes the Weasel– sang and moved scarves to the melody tossing and catching on POP!
- The Colors are Gliding– exploring long and gentle movements with scarves (leaves blowing on the wind)
- 5 Little Ducks– sing along with a storybook, discuss pictures, predict text, count backwards together
- I’m Gonna Follow– movement and singing game that imitates different animals (frog, horse, octopus, mouse, etc.)
- Syanora– good-by transition song
October Lessons
We will be venturing to the music room for the first time this month now that we have gotten to know each other and are starting to make our way around the school. We are very excited to see where all the instruments, books, and scarves live!
- Tideo– continues as our hello song this month, working to keep the steady beat, clap on our “tideo” response, and sing independently
- Where is Thumbkin- exploration of different fingers, singing, finger play
- My Thumbs are Starting to Wiggle– discovering different parts of our bodies that can wiggle while we sing: our thumbs, hands, feet, hips, whole bodies, tongue- What else can wiggle?
- The Aquarium by Camille Saint Saens– listening to a new piece of music and describing how it sounds, what we hear, and how it makes us feel and move; using hula hoops to mark our personal space, we moved to the music with our scarves showing the different things we heard (bubbles, seaweed, fish, octopus, etc.)
- The Colors are Gliding with Little Johnny Brown– we explored moving at different levels with our scarves like leaves falling from the trees outside; we used our clean up song Little Johnny Brown to practice folding our scarves and putting them away in the scarf bins
- In Their Home-this song helps us remember where our instruments go on the shelf (n their basket that has their picture) after we are finished playing them
- I Have an Echo, Echo the Owl, The Owl Song– learning to match the pitches that Echo the Owl puppet sings to us in our singing voice and to match the echo pictures on our vocal cards
- Pumpkin Pumpkin Round and Fat– singing, keeping the steady beat on our bodies, and imitating different emotions with our faces as jack-o-lanterns
- The Spider Kept on Spinning with Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider– keeping the steady beat, exploring different ways to spin, twirl, whirl, etc. with our bodies and with scarves, singing along with a storybook and making a web of string
- The Itsy Bitsy Spider– explored instrument playing with visual cue cards on each phrase including the rainstick, the glockenspiel, and the suspended cymbal
- Come My Friends– good-bye transition song for the next two months; singing with guitar accompaniment to transition back to line-up and getting ready to leave the music room
November Lessons
- Tideo– continues as our hello song this month, working to keep the steady beat, clap on our “tideo” response, and sing independently, changing words to Winter’s Coming with Snowflake poem (will continue with this in Dec)
- Clap Your Hands, Oh Belinda– keeping the steady beat on different parts of our bodies while we sing
- Marching Eurhythmics game– learning to negotiate personal space while moving with one another in the classroom, learning to use musical cues (non-verbal) from the piano to start and stop movements, and putting the beat of the music in their full body by marching to the tempo of the music
- Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed- chant with steady beat and expressive voices and motions, sequencing and counting down from 5, noticing details on small monkey puppets and sharing those with fellow classmates
- Five Little Leaves– singing, moving with the parachute together, exploring the melodic contour of the scale at the end with our voices, leaf icons on the board, and finally on the xylophones, adding wind chimes to our instrument list
- Rhythm Stick Exploration– adding a new instrument to our repertoire, discovering how the rhythm sticks can make sounds y passing them around the circle and watching each other explore with them, keeping the steady beat to recorded music
- Come My Friends– good-bye transition song for the next two months; singing with guitar accompaniment to transition back to line-up and getting ready to leave the music room
December Lessons
- Tideo/Winter’s Coming– continues as our hello song this month, changing words to “Time for Winter or Winter’s Coming” instead of “Time for Music” and “Jingle as the Snow Falls” instead of “Jingle at the Window” with Snowflake poem, discover ABA (red/blue/red and circle/triangle/circle) form with this piece
- Five Little Jingle Bells– singing and counting with jingle bells, moving through space as a “train” of horses while galloping to the chorus
- Eurhythmics Movement Activity– differentiating between marching, slow walk, and skipping/galloping music on the piano through movement around the room; discovering and practicing personal space while moving through space
- Willoughby Walloughby Woo– hello song with name game turning the first sound into a W
- Rockettes DVD– explore the dance line style of choreography and talk about the history of the Rockettes in NYC, discuss the costumes, dance moves, music, etc.
January Lessons
- Willoughby Walloughby Woo– hello song with name game turning the first sound into a W
- Come My Friends– good-bye song for line up and transitions
- Teddy Bear Teddy Bear– singing with action motions, playing a SM pattern on xylophones
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear– (book by Eric Carle) singing a pattern book with call and response, solo singing, and sequencing
- FAMILY– (by Laurie Berkner) discovering songs about different kinds of families
