MUSIC ACTIVITIES TO TEACH HIGH AND LOW

I’m sharing  HIGH/LOW Music Activities for the elementary music classroom. I’ve included some games, songs, movement activities to teach high and low.

TEACH WITH A PUPPET

Gallump went the little green frog is an activity song that can help children get to know high and low sounds.

Movement is an important part of any music lesson.

It helps the body and the mind work together.

Puppets to teach high and low.

Puppets to teach high and low.

Beat Buddies to show high and low.

Start off with some body movement pretending to be frogs. Students will jump on the word “Gallump”.

The puppet can help teach the song.

FROGGY MOVEMENT GAME

Play this fun froggy movement game as students are learning the song.

Students stand in a circle.

The inside of the circle is the pond.

Choose about 5-6 students to be frogs. They get to hop around the pond as the other students sing the song.

After singing the song, the froggies then choose a new group to go into the circle and be frogs.

This is a fun action packed activity that incorporates movement with singing as well as moving from low to high.

Later you can ask questions like, “describe how the froggies jumped”. “Did the frogs jump from low to high or high to low?” 

If the frogs were on a log and jump down into the pond, how would that sound?

SCARF MOVEMENT TO SHOW HIGH & LOW

Students can show high and low using scarves.  Have them sing the song and wave their scarves on the word “Gallump”.

Experiment with different low and high pitches.

You can use a xylophone to play notes for them to respond to low and high. 

See if they can differentiate between a small step and a leap.

Use scarf movement cards to help students visually see high and low.

SCARF MOVEMENT CARDS TPT LINK

SCARF MOVEMENT CARDS MY SHOP LINK

PLAY A HIGH LOW ANIMAL SOUNDS GAME

Another game you can play to help students learn high and low is an animal game. 

In the free resource there are animals with sounds.

Students play the sound and then show or tell if it’s high or low.

I have my students stand bent over with hands on knees.  If the sound is high-they jump.

If it’s low-they crouch down.

You can do this game in your classroom too with little or no prep.  One way would be to use some animal pictures and have the students make the animal sounds.

Then have them decide if they are high or low sounds.

If you want to play this game without any props, you can choose an animal and a student. Ask the student to make the sound. 

If they make it HIGH then have the students jump up. 

If it’s LOW then have them crouch down.

This is a fun activity to use any time of year. It’s a great game to use when you have a few minutes of extra time before class ends.

READ A BOOK TO TEACH HIGH AND LOW

“Boom Chicka Boom” is a fun song you can sing in your classroom to help teach high and low.

I said boom chicka-boom! (Echo: boom chicka-boom)
I said boom chicka-boom! (Echo: boom chicka-boom)
I said booma-chicka-rocka-chicka-rocka-chicka-boom!
(Echo: booma-chicka-rocka-chicka-rocka-chicka-boom!)
Uh huh! (echo)
Oh yeah! (echo)
One more time…

Sing the song with variations in pitch. Here are some ideas:

High Voice

Low Voice

Variations of High and Low voices: Opera Style, Mouse/ Lion, Bird/Frog

Ask the students to choose some animals to use for this activity.

Encourage movement as they sing the song.

I use a Voice Choice set of activities too with Kindergarten.  I created a little song for each of the voices to sing.

You can find that resource in my TpT store.

VOICE CHOICE RESOURCE LINK

VOICE CHOICE RESOURCE MY SHOP

INSTRUMENT GAME TO SHOW HIGH LOW

Another activity for teaching high and low is to have the students choose which instruments play high and low notes.

In the free resource there are pictures of instruments.  I have recorded instruments in my INSTRUMENT FAMILY PRODUCT BUNDLE, but you can find them on YouTube too!

INSTRUMENT FAMILY BUNDLE TPT LINK

Play the instrument sound and have the children show HIGH or LOW.

I have also played this game using a piano and/or a guitar.

The students can’t see your hands, all you have to do is play some high or low notes and have the students show you their guess.

Again, you can have the students jump up when you play a high note and crouch down low on a low note.

You can also use your classroom instruments, xylophones, triangle, bongo drum, wood blocks. Just be sure to hide them so the students don’t know what the instrument is and can use their ears and not their eyes for this activity.

VOCAL EXPLORATIONS FOR HIGH AND LOW

Another high low activity is to use vocal explorations.  Students use their finger and their voice to follow the path.

This is a wonderful tool for helping students who respond well to visuals.

It’s also great preparing and pre-note reading activity.

I like using these in my Kindergarten classes.

I created a complete year of vocal explorations.  Each month has a different theme.

You can get the BUNDLE of Vocal Explorations here.

VOCAL EXPLORATIONS BUNDLE TPT LINK

Learning high and low activities can be an integral part of your Kindergarten classes.

Practicing following the patterns is a great way to prepare students for reading music and reading words.

And, it’s a great way to warm up little voices.

You can begin class with a vocal warm up and then sing your hello song.

Eventually your students will be able to lead this activity without your help.

I hope these ideas help you in your music classroom.

Let’s keep kids moving and learning with music!

Read this post for more music lesson activity ideas.

STEADY BEAT MUSIC ACTIVITIES FOR KINDERGARTEN