K-1 Solfege/Rhythm Preparation Activities
1. So-mi
TSW sing the song “Snail Snail” using head and shoulders for sol-mi pitches. TW sing the song signaling
sol-mi patterns using head and shoulders. TW sing the song twice before signaling “your turn” to the
students.
TW ask the students what is our song about? which notes sound higher? Do we hear some of the sounds
more than once?
TW signal the students to join in singing “Snail Snail”. TSW sing “Snail Snail”
TW listen and correct problematic sections.
TSW sing “Snail Snail” twice through using head and shoulders for so-mi patterns.
2.
Kinesthetic awareness stage:
o Sing Hot Cross Buns and keep the beat
o Sing Hot Cross Buns and perform the rhythm, “put the words in your hands”
o Sing and point to a representation of the rhythm (for the heartbeats with no
representation, ask students to put that beat on their shoulders)
o Divide the class into two groups; group A performs the beat while group B performs the
rhythm
o Clap the rhythm, walk the beat, while singing the song
 Aural awareness stage:
o Assess the students’ kinesthetic awareness by allowing the class to perform several of the
above activities independently; the teacher sings one phrase on “loo” while performing
the beat before asking questions (How many beats are in the phrase? Which beat has no
sound? Etc.)
 Visual awareness stage:
o Assess kinesthetic and aural awareness by allowing the class to perform several of the
kinesthetic and aural awareness activities
 The instructor hums the target phrase and asks students to create a visual
representation of the target phrase
 The students share their representations with each other and the class
 The students sing the first phrase of Hot Cross Buns with a neutral syllable and
point to their representation
 Identify known rhythmic elements
3.Quarter and two eighth notes
Teacher provides students with a series of discovery learning activities that will develop their knowledge of
do’ through known songs: Queen, Queen Caroline
Ensemble or part work: All of the following activities develop the ability to do more than one skill at the
same time.
Stage One: Developing Kinesthetic Awareness
1.Sing Queen, Queen Caroline and perform the beat. Perform the beat by patting knees or touching the hart
2.Sing Queen, Queen Caroline and clap the rhythm
3.Sing and point:
a. Sing and point to a representation of beat and rhythm
b. Sing the target phrase and point to the beat
c. Sing the target phrase and point to the rhythm.
d.Walk the beat, clap the rhythm, while singing the song.
Stage Two: Developing Aural Awareness
Assess kinesthetic awareness activities as class performs activities independently
1.Sing phrases on “loo” and pat beat on knees
2.Questions: Determine the number of beats, Determine which beat had more than one sound,
Determine the number of sounds on the other beats in the phrase
Stage Three: Developing Visual Awareness
Assess kinesthetic and aural awareness
1.Instructor hums that target phrase and asks students to create a visual representation of the
melody.
2.Students share their representations with each other
3.Instructor invites one student to the board to share their representation with the class
4.Students sing Queen, Queen Caroline with a neutral syllable and point to their representation
4. Eighth notes and quarter
Repertoire: Cobbler Cobbler
Element “3 sets of eighth notes and quarter”
1. Sing Cobbler Cobbler while patting the steady beat.
2. Have students clap the rhythm or “the words”
3. Divide the group into two. Have one half keep the steady beat and the other half clap the rhythm.
4. Ask the students how many beats are in the first phrase. “4”
5. How many sounds do you hear on the first beat? How many sounds do you hear on the last beat of
the phrase?
5. So-Mi-La
Stage One: Developing Kinesthetic Awareness
1. Sing Doggie Doggie and point to a representation of the melodic contour at the board.
2. Sing Doggie Doggie and show the melodic contour of the entire song
3. Sing Doggie Doggie with rhythm syllables and show the melodic contour
Stage Two: Develop Aural Awareness
Sing while keeping the beat before asking each question. Review Kinesthetic activities
Determine the number of beats in the phrase.
Determine the lowest and highest notes and name.
Determine the solfege syllables for known notes
Discover new sound and determine if the pitch is higher or lower than so.
Sing song with solfege, using the neutral syllable “loo” for the new sound.
Stage Three: Develop Visual Awareness
Assess Kinesthetic and aural awareness by allowing the class to perform several of the kinesthetic and
aural awareness activities
1. The instructor hums the target phrase and asks the students to create a visual representation of the
melody of the target phrase. The students may use manipulatives.
2. The students share their representations with each other
3. The instructor invites one student to the board to share his or her representations.
4. The students sing Doggie Doggie with a neutral syllable and point to their representation
5. The students identify known rhythmic elements.
K-1 Rhythm/Solfege Presentation
6. Present Quarter and Two eighth Notes
Review stage One: Aural Presentation
1.When we hear one sound on a beat we call it ta. When we hear two sounds on a beat we can call it ta di.
Ta and ta di are called rhythm syllables.
2.The teacher sings Queen,Queen Caroline with rhythm syllables and the students echo sing “ta ta ta di ta”
3.The teacher sings phrase with “loo” and the students echo sing with rhythm syllables
4.Repeat step three with related songs.
Stage Two: Present Notation
1.We can represent one and two sounds on a beat using traditional notation. We can use a quarter note to
represent one sound on a beat. A quarter note has a note head and a stem.
2.We can use two eighth notes to represent two sounds on a beat. Two eighth notes have two note heads,
two stems, and a beam.
3.Our first phrase of Queen, Queen Caroline looks like this
4.We can read this rhythm pattern using rhythm syllables
5.The teacher sings rhythm syllables while pointing to heartbeats; the students echo sing use rhythm
syllables while pointing to heartbeats.
6.Stick notation is an easy way to write rhythmic notation. Stick notation is traditional notation without the
note heads for quarter and eighth notes. Our first phrase in Queen,Queen looks like this.
7. Present La
Repertoire: Doggie Doggie
Stage One: Label the Sound
1. We call our high sound on beat two la. Show the hand sign
2. Teacher sings “so so mi la” with hand signs to individual students who echo the pattern
Stage Two: Present the Notation
1. Show the position of la on the musical steps, in stick notation and staff notation.
2. “La looks like this on our steps”
“ We can write our phrase using rhythmic notation and put our solfege syllables under it”
8.
Stage one aural presentation
o Briefly review the kinesthetic, aural, and visual awareness activities using Hot Cross
Buns
o Present the name of the new element
 Label the sound
 Immediately sing Hot Cross Buns; say “shh” every time a rest occurs
 Sing Hot Cross Buns and perform the rhythm, putting the “rests” on
shoulders
 Present the notation
 Illustrate the traditional notation; quarter notes and quarter rest; when
writing in stick notation, use a “z” for the quarter rest
9. Present Strong Beat/Accent
Repertoire: Hunt the Slipper
Stage One: Label the Sound
1.
In music, we call the strong beats accents. We can show the strong beats by conducting. Sing Hunt
the Slipper and conduct
Stage Two: Present the Notation
1. “ We can show strong beats in two ways, using an accent or writing barlines.”
2. Instead of drawing accents, musicians use another method. We put a line before each strong beat.
This is called a bar line.
3. How many beats are between the bar lines?
4. Musicians call the distance between bar lines a measure.
Musicians chow the number of beats in each measure by erasing the first bar line and writing a time
signature. When there are two beats in a measure, and each beat is a quarter note in length when the time
signature is 2 4 (This may take Many lessons to present)
10. Present so-mi-la
Review the Kinesthetic and Aural awareness and visual awareness activities with the focus song
Stage One: Label the sound
We call our high sound la. Show the hand sign for la.
The teacher sings so-so-mi-la-so with hand signs to individual students who echo the pattern.
The teacher sings Someone stole it from and the students echo so-so-mi-la-so
Stage Two: Present the Notation
Show the position of la on the musical steps, in stick notation, and staff notation.