Aug 13, 2024 | Spring Music
Spring Music Lesson Plans for preschool and elementary can be found in Music Box by using the Search feature at the top right on the menu bar. Several of my favorites are “All Around the Gardener’s Bench,” and “I Plant a Little Seed,” from Farm Songs and the Sounds of Moo-sic . And as long as we’re singing about dirt, you may want to consider the very popular “Lots of Worms.” Of course, I love using all my puppets and props for these. Here’s a few things I use:
“All Around the Gardener’s Bench,” I use tinsel for the rain. Children can have one or two strands in each hand and you have beautiful rainfall! Rain sticks are also added. Little dancers pop up with yellow scarves for the sun, chimes are played from low to high for a beautiful sunrise. I have “critter” hats and headbands with ears for those who choose to sneak in to eat the flowers. The child playing the farmer wears a bandana and tries to catch the critters. Then he gives up and puts more flower seeds in the ground, repeat and repeat!
“I Plant a Little Seed,” from Farm Songs and the Sounds of Moo-sic needs sun and rain so use the same props as “All Around the Gardener’s bench.” For “Lots of Worms,” I use my body bag, a tight fitting fabric that is hilarious to step into, pull up over head and wiggle like a worm while everyone giggles and squeals with delight. HA. So entertaining! Watch this in Music Box Videos, and see what one of our Music Box friends did for her critter concert. The best worm dancing I’ve seen!
“Who’s That Hatching” and “Mister Sun are classics from In All Kinds of Weather, Kids Make Music.
I hope you can enjoy some sunshine this spring while playing triangles, finger cymbals, glockenspiels with “Mister Sun!”
Books with CDs are at www.musicrhapsody.com
Downloads of printed lessons, music and recordings are at www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com
Questions? Need more ideas? Click Forum, Ask Lynn Questions and I’m happy to help.
Thanks for bringing music to the lives of your students and families.
Happy Spring!
Lynn Kleiner
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Preschool Music Lesson Plans, Pre-K and Kindergarten Music Curriculum, and all the early childhood music lessons are designed to stimulate and develop every part of the young child’s brain: hearing, vision, speech, blance, coordination, behavior, movement, sensation, memory, emotion.
Movement Activities develp motor skills, coordination and body awareness.
Listening to Music develops thinking skills, while the songs, rhymes and finger plays strengthen memory.
Repeating Patterns, rhyming words and counting beats develop math and literacy skills.
Group Dances and musical games develop timing and encourage social skills.
Singing includes a huge variety of songs, singing games, seasonal favorites. Being able to vocally match pitch is a musical skill that the children learn through Lynn’s game-like atmosphere, often using puppets, stories and other imaginative visuals.
The curriculum, based on an active music making, Orff Schulwerk approach, is available in weekly lesson plans, mostly from materials in Lynn Kleiner’s books/CDs, which are available at a special package rate for new teachers. https://musicrhapsody.com/product/lynn-kleiner-book-special-2/
Weekly lesson plans for specific seasons, themes and school use are available in www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com.
For detailed lesson plans, 5 age levels, infants – age 6, that include a video of every activity, all recordings in weekly playlists, music and lyric sheets, at a glance plans, and complete online training go to https://musicrhapsody.com/teacher-training/. Following the training, membership is available which grants permission to use all materials. Questions? Request a consultation here: https://musicrhapsody.com/teacher-training/.
Aug 13, 2024 | Classroom Management
Kindergarten Music Lessons are so much fun when you have amazing lesson plans AND you know the tricks for smooth transitions, classroom management and engagement techniques for all (or hopefully at least most!) of the students. I have taught this age group for a very long time and still love to be in the music room with kindergarten and also the Pre-K music classes….well, that is, if I’m prepared with my Music Rhapsody lesson plans, using the “WHAT’S NEEDED” to be sure my set up is ready to go..
Variety, unpredictable, surprises, flexible..these are words that describe the lessons. Listening and looking for the children’s input, looking for those moments to show a child he has great ideas, she is influencing the music making, we are all music makers.
Unique cues, both visual and aural cues are used in a way that’s interesting for the students, not just the music teacher talking, talking, explaining, saying directions, talking ABOUT music, blah blah blah…. like they hear from “regular” teachers all day long. The music teacher is something special! We don’t need all this talking in the musical environment we are trying to create. The music teacher uses interesting sounds (tongue clicking, snapping, clapping, etc.) or instruments (tick tock block, cymbals, cowbell, etc) to signal what to do! An article in Music Box, The Young At the Bars (Orff Instruments!), lists the sounds (instruments or body percussion and vocal sounds) that signal putting the mallets down, moving to a different row or area of instruments, when its “free play” opportunities and repeating specific rhythmic or melodic phrases (echos). Singing directions are also much more fun and interesting for a group who hears mostly TALK. I have lots of transition songs (especially check out “Colors Are Gliding” for putting away scarves) in my book, Kids Make Music, Babies Make Music Too!
In the back of my books, I include suggestions for making lesson visuals. There’s also a category in Music Box called “Teaching Visuals.” I highly recommend printing these out in color on card stock, laminate and use year after year. Showing a visual that’s unexpected or interesting will grab the attention of students who are visual learners and are attracted to visual stimulation. Add to the fun with the homemade puppets or invest in the recommended puppets that are discussed in my books and lesson plans. Using puppets following my suggestions (check out “Lynn Kleiner’s Puppets with a Purpose” on YouTube or in Music Box videos), will guarantee you more participation and focus.
NO TEACHER SPOT! The teacher moves all over the music room, sitting between the children who were talking, standing next to the child who was gazing out the window, moving towards the child who was pushing, while all along continuing the flow and excitement of the lesson. DO NOT BE PREDICTABLE. Instead of saying what not to do, guide the children to participate in your beautiful lesson that’s full of moving, playing, storytelling, and so much fun!
If you are new to teaching early childhood (infants – age 8), check out these training opportunities this summer or online anytime. Detailed lesson plans, videos, recordings available too.
Questions? Sign up for a free consultation!
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Wow, what a Pre-K music week I had! After 6 rehearsals with delightful 2-5 year old preschool concerts, I had assemblies at a school district for their Pre-K and K classes.
For the assemblies (I call this Music for the Masses), I used the Five Little Monkeys activity from Jungle Beat. Here’s the process.
First I asked them to tap the beat while I sang the first verse.
Then I asked them to sing and tap with me.
Next we added a clap on the quiet beat at the end of the phrase.
Then I called one child up for the Lynn and ________ show. (Fill in the child’s name). I explained we would tap the beat while singing and then put both our hands out to clap both hands with our partner, instead of just clapping our own hands.
Then we tremolo (tap very quickly) on our legs from soft to loud for “Along comes Mr. Crocodile…..” (I introduce the word crescendo.) Then hit with my partner for SNAP!
All this leads to me and the child choosing a new partner so now 4 are up in front of the masses doing this for the next verses. Now they choose partners, so we have 8 (4 pairs) children up, etc. Finally, I have most children, even if they have not been picked yet, doing this with a partner.
Partner work is so much fun for this age and placing a hand drum or tambourine in the middle for both to play allowed them to all play an instrument (since I did not have enough for EIGHTY 4 and 5 year olds! HA!) is exciting. They keep the beat on the drum and they play the tremolo from soft to loud for the Crocodile. They clap with their partner on the quiet beats at the end of the phrases and for SNAP!
For the big finale, perform the entire song using the recording from the Jungle Beat CD. They love that recording and we pretended to play piano between the verses. The most exciting part is starting super soft with a tremolo since that crocodile is so quiet and sneaky!
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Dear Music Box Friends,
Wow, what a Pre-K music week I had! Talk about music for the masses! After 6 rehearsals with delightful 2-5 year old preschool concerts, I had assemblies at a school district for their Pre-K and K classes. See the photos below for one of the activities that we did with these kindergarteners (They are great for PK and 1st Grade too!) LOVE. Check out the process for this Five Little Monkey lesson from Jungle Beat. http://www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com/blogs/4/135/pre-k-and-kindergarten-music-5
See the video below, and check out the success of these preschool teachers playing glockenspiels for the first time. Dear Carl Orff, thank you for this amazing idea to remove the 4th and 7th tones. This song is from Kids Make Music, Babies Make Music, Too book. Music Box Members: get your FREE download of this fun hello song. Click here (Music Rhapsody members, this is in Module 1 for the Big Kids Make Music lesson plans.)
Thank you to everyone who attend our very first webinar. The response was so incredible. Here is a link to the recording in case you missed it! Click here for the video.
We hope to have you at one of our Dynamic Teacher Trainings this summer. If you have previously attended a teacher training, we would love to have you join us again. Click here for more information about teacher training. If you a returning attendee, you pay 1/2 price! Thank you to all the teachers for sharing the following comments. I appreciate it so much.
Here are the top 5 benefits according to teachers and participants about teacher training!
Testimonials!
“I want to tell you, I just love teaching the Music Rhapsody Curriculum and thank you for encouraging me to attend the training and becoming a member:) I am grateful to you for the role you played in getting me to come out to receive the training in California last summer.” – Caryn Thomson
“Your program is fantastic! My son (2 years old) walks around the house singing “Sally go round the sun…” Jill Fenske, Parent
“Lynn is like a great kid – she’s lots of FUN! The class is well formatted and the Orff ideas are perfect!” Christina Purcell, Santa Cruz CA
“Lynn’s boundless energy, enthusiastic encouragement of all teachers, and all of her great creative ideas are only a few of her gifts. Lynn is doing some amazing work! And inspiring others to do more of the same!” Phoebe Fazio, Redding CA
“I loved Lynn’s summer teacher training course. It’s the best workshop I have ever taken!” Lynne Levy, Falmouth MA
Happy Music Making,
Lynn
