I’m sharing some fun and fabulous elementary Music Class Free activities with you in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. If you’re like me, you’re in the middle of practicing and performing music concerts and programs. Sometimes it’s nice to get a fresh idea for a lesson that’s easy to pull together and get students engaged quickly.
I feel like it’s a great week to play games. I sit down in the circle and ask my students to look around at the other students. Each one of us is a “star” in the music room. Then, everyone getsvery quiet. I remind students that we play games in music class to learn music-but also show our classmates that we like them-that they are part of our music class community and together we work hard to make music.
Believe is or not-everyone nods their head and I smile. “So let’s play a game! I’m going to need everyone to be the best listener ever today because I have a few surprises up my sleeve that I’m going to reveal if you are able to play the game cooperatively.” I find that this conversation set’s the stage for a more successful playing time. I do change the words and tone according to the grade level, but I’m sure you get the idea.
FREE KINDNESS MUSIC CLASS ACTIVITY #1
COMPOSITION ACTIVITY
During the week of Valentine’s Day I like to focus on the students “kindness” towards each other. It’s a good time to do this because they make the connection between all the Valentine’s Day activities and being kind to others.
Here’s the activity I’ll be using in my upper grades.
Students will create a personal composition and make a cute Valentine’s Day Card for their classmates. Use this fun and creative activity for Valentine’s Day as a way to help students make friends in the Music Room.
They will compose a short melodic phrase and then share it with a buddy. Or, you can have them use it s a card for a special person in their life.
Try doing some brainstorming with students about “friendship” words and their “sounds on the beat”. Students will choose a word and compose a melodic phrase. Share them as a class or use for a performance opportunity.Use this as an opportunity to build notation skills. Working on so-mi? Ask students to compose using those notes. If you want to use it for Kinders and First Grade? Ask them to use Heart shapes or dots for their notes.
I’m thinking that this cute set of Valentine’s Day lessons can be adapted to several grade levels. My guitar students can learn to play the songs on chords I and V. I can even let them try to play it in several keys. My fourth graders will enjoy practicing sixteenth note rhythms and singing/signing and playing “fa”. If you’re teaching recorders, it’s a great “g-a-b-c-d” song.
Play a GAME!
How about Kindergartners playing a simple chasing game? Everyone sits in a circle facing outside. 1 student is the “chooser” who will walk around the circle. Students sing the song WITH EYES CLOSED and HANDS OUT as the “chooser” walks around the circle. On the phrase “won’t tell who,” the “chooser” places a “heart” in the hands of the student sitting in front of them.
That student jumps up and tries to catch the “running chooser” around the circle. If caught, the “chooser” sits in the center of the circle. If not caught the “chooser” get’s 1 more turn. I prefer to let the students join back in the game-but I tell them that only one person get’s a turn and ask them to NOT hold their hands out for a heart.
If you want to have your students make a card for someone-here’s one of my Valentine’s Day Freebies.
“A Tisket A Tasket” is a fun game to play anytime.
I have used it before and my students just love it. I purchased some foam hearts from Wal Mart and use them for many activities. You could use foam shaped hearts in the basket to play this game.
This is a lyric sheet you can post using your LCD Projector. Game instructions are included for this duck duck goose style game. Students love the game and song and is great for solfege and rhythm readiness in your Kodaly curriculum. This isn’t necessarily a Valentine’s Day song but it always falls in February for me so I ran with the theme.
I found this youtube video with the traditional lyrics.
All you’ll need to do is to divide your Kinder or First grade class into two teams. You’ll need a soft ball or koosh ball…or you could just have them tap the animal of their choice. The cute graphics and interactive slides make this a winner!
Get this FREE RESOURCE when you SUBSCRIBE to the Sing Play Create Resource Library.
This fun freebie has 3 music activities for grades K-2 Singing, Rhythm Match and Recognizing Rhythms. VALENTINE’S DAY MUSIC ACTIVITIES
It includes three Music Activities for grades K-2. 1. Five Little Valentines 2. Love Somebody- Teaching Purpose: Singing together, beat, quarter note, eight notes, playing on instruments. 2. Valentine’s Rhythm Match- Teaching Purpose: Match words to rhythmic patterns. Curriculum connections- ELA (syllables, Valentine’s Day vocabulary). 3. Which one did I play? – Teaching Purpose: Reading rhythmic patters. Recognizing rhythmic patterns by listening.
I’ve found that students love to make cards and give them to others. Here’s a Free Card activity that they can do in any Elementary Classroom. How about asking students to write cards for the principal? How about asking students to write cards for the custodians? Writing cards gives the students a way to show kindness for someone.
If you’re interested, I have several games for sale in my store-but this one is my favorite:
By the way, it’s a great game to encourage improvisation, or use as an assessment, or just practice rhythmic and melodic phrases. You’ll find the sheet music, teaching pages and Vocal and Accompaniment Tracks included.
Thinking about games? You’ll want to check out all the Sing Play Create February Music Resources. Click on this link to go to the TpT store?
Hi there! I’m Sandra, one of the authors behind Sing Play Create. My goal is to provide teachers with interactive resources and activities to improve the effectiveness of their teaching and enhance student learning.
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