TheApple

Lesson Plans >> Browse Articles >> Seasonal/Holiday Lessons

K-3: Valentine Singing/Guessing Game

This is a great game for young elementary, K-3.

Students will:

1. Learn to hear similar and different phrases 2. Sing in a group 3. Sing a solo 4. Listen for vocal sounds

Preactivities

Review the simple song “Love Somebody”

Love somebody, yes I do. Love somebody, yes I do. Love somebody, yes I do. Love somebody but I won’t tell who.

The tune in solfedge:

Do, Mi, Sol, Sol, Re, Mi, Fa Do, Mi, Sol, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re Do, Mi, Sol, Sol, Re, Mi, Fa Mi, Mi, Re, Re-Re, Do, Mi, Do

You can see that the melody of lines one and three are the same.

Activities:

1. Sing the entire melody above for the class, making arched phrase marks with your arm for each of the 4 lines. Do this at least 3 times.

2. Ask students how many phrases they heard (and saw) in the song. =4

3. Students must determine which phrases are the same.

4. Using a felt board, have a student come to the front of class and choose a felt shape to represent the first phrase, sing it again and point to the shape. (If you don’t have a felt board, have the student draw a simple shape on the chalk board.)

5. Continue this process for phrases 2, 3, and 4. At the end of the phrasing dictation, you should see two like shapes out of four, three different shapes total.

6. After this exercise is complete, students should know the song very well.

7. Sing through the first three phrases as a class, then when you get to the fourth phrase, tell the students that only you will sing it.

8. Do this again, but let only the girls, then the boys sing the fourth phrase by themselves.

9. Now the game is set up. One child will sit in a chair in the front of the class facing away from the class with their eyes closed. A paper heart will be handed out by the teacher to a student who is sitting quietly.

10. The entire class sings the first 3 phrases of the song, but only the “secret heart singer” sings the fourth phrase as a solo. The person who is “it” in the chair tries to guess who’s voice they heard singing in 3 guesses.

Comments:

As always when playing games with young children, set up the rules so that anyone who cheats looses their turn as “it.” This is a great way for a music teacher to hear the child’s solo voice and how on pitch it is, noticing what to work on as a class.

Return to Lesson Plans

---