As students develop their singing voices, we sing a lot of echo songs in music class. Echo songs give students the ability to hear and remember a short piece of a song and practice singing it back in their most tuneful singing voice. We start by echoing as a class and eventually students will echo solos - all by themselves!
The song "My Aunt Came Back" is fun because once we were good at singing it, we added motions for each gift the aunt brought. With each motion we added, we looked sillier and sillier. There is also a great book to go along with this song and we enjoyed looking at the pictures while singing.
Let your child be the leader. Can you echo them? Then see if you can add the motions!
Oh my aunt came back (echo: Oh my aunt came back)
From Timbuktu. (From Timbuktu.)
She brought with her, (She brought with her,)
A wooden shoe. (A wooden shoe.)
Tap one foot on the ground and keep singing!
Oh my aunt came back (keep echoing!)
From old Japan.
She brought with her,
A waving fan.
Keep tapping one foot, wave a "fan" with one hand.
Oh my aunt came back (keep echoing!)
From old Algiers.
She brought with her,
A pair of shears.
Keep tapping one foot, wave a "fan" with one hand, snip with "scissors" with the other hand.
Oh my aunt came back from Guadelupe.
She brought with her a hulu hoop.
Keep tapping one foot, wave a "fan" with one hand, snip with "scissors" with the other hand, twirl a "hulu hoop."
Oh my aunt came back from the county fair.
She brought with her a rocking chair.
Keep tapping one foot, wave a "fan" with one hand, snip with "scissors" with the other hand, twirl a "hulu hoop," rock in a "rocking chair."
Oh my aunt came back from the city zoo.
She brought with her a nut like YOU!
Stop what you are doing and point at the other person.
Hear Miss Carroll's class sing this song here: My Aunt Came Back
Did your child sing you this song from their "Ask Me" book? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form. Your child will earn a sticker!
Keeping the beat is an important skill for students to practice as they become musicians. 1st graders started the year off with the song "William He Had Seven Sons." We came up with steady beat motions to represent the things the sons did, and each student got a turn to strum the steady beat on the Autoharp!
Can your child sing you this song? The words are:
William he had seven sons,
Seven sons, seven sons.
William he had seven sons,
And this is what they did.
Hear Miss Gagnon's class sing this song with the Autoharp by clicking this link: William He Had Seven Sons
Did your child sing you this song from their "Ask Me" book? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form. Your child will earn a sticker!
We have been making soup in kindergarten with our first fingerplay, "Chop, Chop, Chippety Chop." A fingerplay is a song or rhyme with motions. Fingerplays teach students about the form of the song by adding motions for each section, and teach students about speaking or singing with expression appropriate to the words.
As we chop up the imaginary ingredients, students get to choose what to add to our soup. We have used some interesting ingredients, including a lot of candy! At the end, we always remember to taste our creation!
Make some soup with your child while reciting these words:
Chop, chop, chippety chop,
Cut off the bottom and cut off the top,
What there is left, we put in the pot.
Chop, chop, chippety chop.
Hear Mrs. Scavone's kindergarten class recite this rhyme by clicking the link below:
Chop, Chop, Chippety Chop
Did your child say this rhyme for you? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form.
3rd Graders started off their year with an echo song to remind them of how to use their singing voices after a long summer off. Echo songs are a great way to review appropriate singing because students need to remember only a very short song fragment and sing it immediately. This song had the added challenge of a chorus that students were able to remember after several listenings. After students were comfortable with singing the echos as a class, they sang them as solos.
Can your child lead you in this echo song? The words are:
The littlest worm (echo: The littlest worm)
I ever saw, (I ever saw,)
Was stuck inside, (Was stuck inside,)
My soda straw. (My soda straw.)
Chorus: The littlest worm I ever saw,
Was stuck inside my soda straw.
He said to me (keep echoing!) "Don't take a sip,
'Cause if you do, you'll really flip."
(Repeat words for the chorus)
I took a sip, and he went down.
Right through my pipes, he must have drowned.
And now he's gone, this is the end.
He was my pal, he was my friend.
Hear Mrs. Fazio's class sing this echo song by clicking this link: The Littlest Worm.
Did your child sing you this song from their "Ask Me" book? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form. Your child will earn a sticker!
2nd Graders are working in their visualization skills in their classrooms. We decided to also work on these skills in the music room. We always end class with a songtale, a story that I sing to the students. Recently, I sang the song "Momma, Buy Me a China Doll" to the students, but I did not show them the pictures in the book. They needed to imagine their own pictures as they listened. After a few weeks of just listening, I showed the students the beautiful illustrations by Allyssa Norton. Hear a recording of the song here: http://www.giamusic.com/mp3/momma-buy-me-a-china-doll.mp3 You can download this professional recording to listen at home by clicking the three dots on the media player and clicking download.
Did your child sing this song for you? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form.
3rd and 4th graders have moved on to a new rhythmic unit and started their year by learning some songs and rhymes that featured their new rhythmic element. The first rhyme we learned was a nonsense rhyme called "Oh My, Fish in the Sky." The words are:
Oh my, fish in the sky.
Shoes on the ceiling and trees walking by.
Reaching up low, bending down high.
Everything seems to be wrong, right?
To help us learn the rhyme, we needed to hear it as many times as possible. To keep students actively engaged, we played a game called Four Corners while saying the rhyme. By the time the rhyme ended, students needed to choose a corner of the rug to stand on. We would use an online random number generator to choose a corner for us and those students would be out. They got to play the steady beat on the rhythm sticks until we were left with only one person: the winner!
After students were able to successfully say the words of the rhyme, they were asked to decode the rhythm of the rhyme using rhythm syllables. Using these rhythm syllables, we will soon be able to read and write the rhythm of this rhyme.
3rd grade families: Did your child teach you this rhyme from their "Ask Me" book? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form. Your child will earn a sticker.
2nd Graders started off the year with an echo song to remind them of how to use their singing voices after a long summer off. Echo songs are great for learning about singing because students need to only remember a short song fragment and immediately sing it right back. After singing the song as a class, students sang the fragments as solos.
We practiced active listening by naming the details in the song. What is Ricka Bamboo? What colors is it? Where is it?
Can your child lead you in singing this echo song? The words are:
Oh Ricka Bamboo (echo: Oh Ricka Bamboo)
What do I see? (What do I see?)
It is a bird, (It is a bird,)
High in a tree. (High in a tree.)
It's red and gold, (It's red and gold)
And purple too. (And purple too.)
That's why it's called (That's why it's called)
Old Ricka Bamboo. (Old Ricka Bamboo).
Did your child sing this song with you? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form. Your child will earn a sticker!
