Afraid to Incorporate Instruments into your Center Time Activities? Try this idea!

Like many preschools, we have a big box of instruments in our collection of toys and resources.

The kids love to "make music" and we often pull out our class set of rhythm sticks and shakers for directed use at circle time. 

But what about letting the kids play instruments at center time?  On their own?

  Do we frequently encourage that?  

Hmmm....not so much!  

Quite frankly, the noise of free-for-all preschool music can be a little hard to take!

But we do put out instruments for free play time on occasion.  

The kids love having some freedom to play their own thing and as hardy preschool teachers we are willing to put up with a bit of extra noise to support their learning. :)

Like this week, for instance.

We created a music station with glasses filled with coloured water at varying levels. 

For mallets we set out a variety of items that we had on hand - real wooden mallets, rhythm sticks, and even the odd pencil or two.  

The sets of glasses were each labelled from #1 - 4 so that in addition to random tapping, the children could try to play a song that we had included at the center.  

 I worked out a rendition of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the jars beforehand and then recorded the song using the numbers on the jars.

 My final version of the song looked something like this :

3     2    1    2   333

222    333

3212    333 

 22   3  2 1

The preschoolers had the option of trying to play this song as well as playing their own random music.  

To encourage the children to record their own original songs using numbers, I laid out white boards and erasable markers.   

It was great to see how this simple activity encouraged even the children who don't like writing to eagerly sit down to record a series of numbers.

They didn't know they were getting practice holding a pen, they didn't know they were learning how to write a "4," or that they were going to basically "read" their writing later...

All they knew was that they were creating a song and as one boy eloquently stated, they were going to "rock out."

The beauty of learning through play!

  

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Need some Song Ideas for Your Mother's Day Performance? Check out these Songs and Crafts!

We love to do performances for the parents in our class. 

 And no matter how the show goes, parents always seem to LOVE watching the kids perform. 

 Whether the children all sing or don't sing -- doesn't matter!  
Whether the children all remember their lines or some of them forget -- not a concern!

  Parents don't even seem to mind misbehaviour.  

In fact, sometimes a child doing "his own thing" is the most amusing part of the show - unless of course, it is your child who is "doing his own thing!"  
Then it is not so amusing!  :)

So, with our Mother's Day Tea Party coming up, of course we are planning for the children to perform a few songs.  

One pick for this year will be the song Skinnamarink.

If you're not familiar with this one, just check out the words below.  The tune you can easily find on You Tube.

I have written some possible actions for the children beside each of the lines.  
Hopefully you can figure them out with no visuals!  

Skinnamarink

Skinnamarinky dinky dink 
(arms out with elbows bent like a genie on "skinnamarinky"
then one elbow bends so that right hand goes in the air and wiggles fingers on dinky dink)
Skinnamarinky do,
(arms back down like a genie on "skinnamarinky" and then switch to bend other elbow and have left hand in the air with wiggling fingers on "do")
I love you!
(hands to heart and then point towards the moms)

Skinnamarinky dinky dink 
(same actions as above)

Skinnamarinky do,

I love you!

I love you in the morning,
(hands touching to create a circle down low)

And in the afternoon
(raise the circle to waist level)

I love you in the evening,
(raise the circle above head)

Underneath the moon…

Skinnamarinky dinky dink
(repeat chorus actions)

Skinnamarinky do,

I love you!


And for another song option...

A song that is familiar to most, but still a big hit with the moms, is "You Are My Sunshine."

We usually just sing the first verse below.

You Are My Sunshine

You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy 
When skies are gray
You'll never know, mom
How much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away.

While performing the song, the children hold up a sun that they have made.

When the song is finished, the children each take a turn coming up to the front.

We ask each of them, "Why is your mom your sunshine?" 

Then the child flips his sun around and holds it high in the air.
Written on the back of the sun is the reason that they chose.

The children can either say their reason out loud, or the teacher can read it for them. 

If you read it for them, it is helpful to record each child's reason onto a master list so that you don't have to try to read from each child's sun.

It was a couple of years ago that I performed "You are My Sunshine" on Mother's Day.  

But I remember the laughs, giggles, and even a few happy tears being shed when the moms listened to the reasons why they were loved by their kids.    

I do like to bring out people's sentimental side!

Below, I have a copy of the directions and worksheets (2 options) to make the sun craft if you'd like to try it with your class.

To pick up your FREE copy, just visit my Teachers Pay Teachers shop by clicking
HERE

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Start Your Circle Time with this Fun Colour Song

Every morning at circle time, we do a quick fingerplay and then enter into a Good Morning Song.   I have a few favourites, but I do like to switch things up regularly.  Variety is good!

One great way to start our circles is with a colour song.  I pick a colour that each student is wearing and then move my way one by one through the class.  

The tune for this song is "The Colour I See."

The words go like this (depending, of course, on what colour each student is wearing): 

Red, red is the colour I see

If you're wearing red please show it to me.

Stand up and turn around.

Show me your red, then sit back down.

Green, green is the colour I see

If you're wearing green please show it to me.

Stand up and turn around.

Show me your red and then sit down.

etc.

To turn this song into a game, you could also hand out 4 colours of paper to the class.  To make the game more challenging for older students, choose colours that you think they are less familiar with - grey, silver, gold, etc. 

Tell the children that when you sing about the colour they are holding, they can stand up and turn around.  

For more fun colour activities and games, click HERE to see a previous post.

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Do Your Preschoolers Like to Wiggle? Try these Fun Preschool Movement Songs!

As we all know, preschoolers are wiggly little creatures. They can only sit for so long during circle time before needing to burn a bit of excess energy!

I incorporate at least one movement song into my circle time when I see the children are starting to lose focus. 

I recently discovered a site which gives me some great ideas in this area. The performer is a colourful character named "Debbie Doo." 

The songs she sings are on YouTube so you get the benefit of hearing the words AND seeing Debbie perform the actions. 

You can take a peek at one of her songs below.  If that one doesn't grab you, she has many more tunes (both oldy, but goody's and newer ones) from which to choose.

Three cheers for Debbie Doo!!!