Planning concerts around a theme is always motivating for me. Choosing songs, creating our own verses and movement, solo singing, playing instruments, and beat keeping are all beautiful demonstrations of what we do in our weekly music lessons.
I especially love it when classroom teachers and other subject specialists (art, drama, dance, science, math, reading, etc.) are inspired by the concert theme as well, singing the songs throughout the week, and integrating the theme into their lessons and activities. This can include the students designing the cover of the concert invitation/program, decorating the concert venue and even setting up a “photo booth” area. Teachers always love having the lyric sheets and practice CDs in the classroom.
One of the most popular songs from the Jungle Theme is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Here are some suggestions how to use this song in your lessons, from babies to older elementary, accompanying the song with gathering drum, ukulele and Orff instruments.
The Orff Orchestration you hear in this recording is included in the new Jungle Beat Concert Plan and would be great for older elementary students.
Two concert plans (one for preschool/K-1, one for elementary PreK-3). Includes details on how to prepare the pieces, transitions, a preparation timeline, piano and Orff accompaniment (sheet music), and specifics on hand motions, movement, and instrument playing.
Sample concert programs (one for each age level). The programs highlight the objectives of each song selection and give tips on the importance of childhood music.
Lyric sheets for classroom teachers. Can also be sent home with students!
A total of 26 pages to use with your Jungle Beat Book/CD to have an adorable theme.
If you’re a Music Rhapsody Members and have purchased Big Kids or Young Musicians Module 4, you already have Jungle Beat lesson plans and video of the preparation and concerts. Just let me know if you’d like this new Concert Plan and I will send it to you FREE.
I can’t believe most of us are in Module 4 now! I know I say this about ALL the modules, but this has so many of my favorites!
The past month or so, the amazing butterfly migration here in Southern California made me smile because The Butterfly is in Module 4! Here’s some Young Musicians (remember, I only have permission to video my studio class, not my elementary schools, so these little sweeties come after school once a week).
And just in case you are curious… the reason we had millions of butterflies is because we had a very unusual amount of rain, which helped produce tons of flowers, thus millions of butterflies came to visit! Happy Spring!
Homemade instruments using recycle items are a delightful and musical way to celebrate “Love our Planet.” I have many ideas for homemade instruments in In All Kinds of Weather, Kids Make Music, Songs of the Sea, Farm Songs, Jungle Beat and My Trip to the Mountains. I think these themes celebrate our planet and so many of the songs in these collections are awesome when accompanied by homemade instruments!
Water bottles (I’m thinking of the ones that are ribbed) are great for a guiro. Soak in soapy water to remove the label. Use the water bottle cap to scrape or tap on the bottle. If you want it to also be a shaker, put small items like beads, pebbles or rice inside and close with the cap. Use a cap from another type of bottle to play it or use another item like a plastic spoon to hit and scrape.
Toilet paper or paper towel rolls can be used to make shakers. Decorate the tube, add small water bottle caps, cover with fabric scraps and use glue or rubber bands to fasten.
Old socks can be decorated to be silly worms. Add some small stones in a small dressing container, place inside the sock and shaka shake for “Lots of Worms” from Farm Songs and the sounds of Moo-sic.
Refer to the instrument making section in the back of my books for lots more ideas.
If you type in Earth Day using the Search feature in Music Box, you will find more ideas.
Sometimes you just never know! My 4-6 year old introduction to Orff class was practicing their parts for “The Butterfly” from my book Jungle Beat. Each had decided on the part they wanted to play on their Orff instruments (the butterfly flying, the caterpillar down below, the spinning, the sleeping…) which were preset in C pentatonic. (Since this is a poem, it really doesn’t matter which pentatonic key you use.) One of 6 year old boys had decided to do a lullaby for the sleeping caterpillar on an alto metallophone, saying the week before that he was choosing this part because his mother sang a lullaby to him every night before he went to sleep. (AH! how sweet is that for his music teacher to hear!!) I observed as the children joyfully practiced their improvisations/compositions but noticed this particular boy was holding back tears. When I asked him what was upsetting him, tears started pouring down his face and between sobs he said “There’s no F! I cannot do it without an F!” I quickly went to the cabinet where I had stored the bars that were removed and placed the F in his instrument. He started playing. I asked if everything was working well for him and he sniffled and said “yes, I just didn’t want a skip there and now I can play my steps!” HA!
To avoid “mindless random banging” instead of thoughtful exploration/improvisation, I use terms such as steps, skips and repeats when describing what I heard someone play. I was happy to know this little musician was able to communicate his lullaby plan. Great moments in teaching. For first time Orff lessons, go to in Downloads at www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com.
It’s not just a song! “Five Little Monkeys” has drama, emotion, adventure, suspense, and joy! In this clip, watch and listen to our young ones pretend to be monkeys as they go for a walk, spread out their blankets, climb a tree, sneak around, and more. This is another hit from the Jungle Beat Book and Concert Plan.
Be sure to keep watching all the way until the end (at 4:49) to see some “monkey business” with our kids! Dealing with the monkey rejection of a high five is hard to take… especially for us teachers! HA!
Schools often celebrate the 100th day of Kindergarten. Here’s a few ideas from Lynn Kleiner for a counting celebration activity. musicrhapsody.com
After introducing the rhymes using echos, students stand around the parachute, unpitched percussion are placed on the edge of it. When switching instruments, the teacher plays the cowbell as students have 8 beats to walk around the parachute to a new instrument. The teacher uses sopranino improvisation (see Lynn’s training if you don’t know how to play!) or another signal to give some “free play” time.
Use the 100 Days of Counting poem for the A section of a rondo form. Choose instruments, such as rhythm sticks, hand drums, tone blocks, xylophones (remove Fs and Bs) to play on the underlined words. Choose metals, such as triangles, finger cymbals, glockenspiels (set up without Fs and Bs) to play on the X’s.
To simplify, consider the following choices:
-Everyone plays together on the entire rhyme when they think it will sound best
-Everyone plays only on the rests (the Xs)
-Everyone plays on the underlined words
-For additional challenges, have only woods on the underlined words and all others on the Xs. Try other groups of instruments.
One hundred days of count -ing, X One hundred days of fun, X One hundred days to sing and play, Aren’t I the lucky one? X
Play and count 16 beats, then repeat the rhyme.
More counting opportunities:
Play only on the numbers of the following rhymes, using them as a B, C and D section to become a rondo using the rhyme “One hundred days of counting”.
1, 2, 3 4, 5 Once I caught a fish alive
6, 7, 8 9, 10 Then I let him go again
Why did you let him go? Because he bite my finger so
Which finger did he bite? The little finger on the right.
PLAY 8 BEATS ON A COWBELL TO SIGNAL SWITCHING TO A NEW INSTRUMENT, THEN PLAY THE 100 DAYS RHYME AND CONTINUE WITH THE NEXT RHYME, PLAYING ONLY ON THE NUMBERS)
One,two,three musicians, four,five, six musicians
Seven, eight, nine musicians, ten musicians counting. (REPEAT)
(From the Sound Shape Play book by Lynn Kleiner and Christine Stevens)
COWBELL SIGNALS THE INSTRUMENT SWITCH, PERFORM THE 100 Days of COUNTING RHYME AND CONTINUE WITH THE RHYME BELOW.
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!
Concert plan includes everything a teacher needs to know about planning and executing a concert for young children and early elementary grades. Includes 2 different concert plans (one with unpitched percussion, one with Orff instruments) for 3 or 4 separate groups (classes, ages, grade levels) to participate together in a jungle-themed concert.
In this package, you’ll find: detailed concert plan for the music director, concert plans for the classroom and assistant teachers, an attractive song sheet for practicing songs in the classroom or to send home, printed concert programs with write-ups on the importance of music education, and of course all of the support you could possibly need in planning your concert with help from Lynn in Music Box!
Available songs include The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Matilda the Gorilla, Five Little Monkeys, and much more!
Concert Plan by Lynn Kleiner. Lesson plans, Orff arrangements and recordings from “Jungle Beat” CD. Other resources available at www.musicrhapsody.com or in Music Box Downloads.
“Walking through the Jungle, What do you See?”, Jungle Beat Book page 39. Also popular for these felts, “Walking through the jungle, Who do you See?” comes from changing the words of “Going on a Bike Ride”; from “Kids Make Music, Babies Make Music Too! Book page 38.
Little Folk Visuals Butterflies Set. Bright and Colorful, this set gives you all you need for caterpillar, cacoon, and butterflies for the precious poem and activities in “The Butterfly” from Jungle Beat CD and Book page 26.
Little Folk VisualsBeginner’s Counting Set. FROGS, LADY BUGS, KITTENS, SNOWMEN and MORE!
This set is a basic staple for our teacher tool bag! Here’s a few of Lynn Kleiner’s favorites.
“Ten Little Froggies” Jungle Beat Book page 30 Join the fun with counting, playing and moving! Perfect for when your kids are especially ACTIVE!
Using the In All Kinds of Weather, Kids Make Music CD and teacher’s book, You will love using your felts for these lessons:
“5 Little Jackolanterns” page 17
“5 Little Snowmen” page 35. So precious to play the melting music on our little glockenspiels as they slowly sink into a puddle!
“Ladybugs” page 28
