One of our focuses in preschool music is becoming "beatful" - that is having the ability to keep the steady beat. To help us become beatful, we sing songs and keep the beat with our bodies or instruments.
We have been singing a fun song about tools called "Bling, Blang." First, students kept the beat by miming a hammer and a saw on their hand. Next, we added some instruments - the claves that tap were the hammer and the sand blocks that scrape were the saw. Students listened carefully so they would play at the correct time.
Once we had a chance to play these instruments to the beat, I introduced a book about this song that had some more words. We listened to the verses of the song, then played our instruments during the refrain. We also listened to a recording of someone else singing this song.
