Stanley Day Nursery Musicianship Activity Ideas

Session 1: 1st & 8th Sept 2015

Note:

I mentioned this week about some of the rhythm patterns we have covered. You may have noticed that lots of the songs have repeated patterns e.g

“Cobbler cobber mend my shoe” & “engine engine number nine” – if you were to clap the syllables (the rhythm) you may realise they are the same!

We say it like this: tee-tee, tee,-tee, tee-tee, ta

Also “yes, no maybe so” and “see saw up and down” would be Ta, ta, tee-tee, ta. We will be working towards the children recognising these patterns so the more you sing these songs the more ingrained they will be.

See Saw – DEVELOPMENT OF PULSE – starting and stopping together.

Leader: Sing the song.

For Toddlers: If you can use a pop up puppet one you can hide away. Whilst you sing use the puppet to show the high and low pitches. E.g. When the puppet is up (high pitch) and down (low pitch). You might be able to construct a box for a puppet you already have and pop him up and down.

Ask the children to either put their hands up and down as the puppet appears and disappears or stand up and sit down. You will have to sing quite slowly at first.

Use this song if you have a seesaw rocker at nursery – sit two children one each end and move the see saw to the pulse. You can also do the seesaw actions below.

For Pre-school: Sing the song. Sing again showing the see saw actions – arms stretched out to the sides rock right then left mimicking a seesaw. Ask the children to join in starting and stopping together. Did they manage to do it? Were they able to move at the same time?

Children: Ask the children to form pairs standing up. In their pairs they should make a see saw together and just like they rocked side to side sitting down they are now to rock together but standing up.

Choose a pair to show. Sing together again. Choose another pair to show. Sing together. Make sure everyone gets a turn to show their see saw.

Hob shoe Hob – PULSE

*This song is very similar to Cobbler, Cobbler in that you can use tapping actions.

Leader: Sing the song whilst tapping the bottom of your foot or a shoe. You can make a fist like a hammer if you like. You can also tap the palm of your other hand and swap over. If you have sticks or claves you can use these in different ways. E.g tapping together, tap on floor, tap alternately on floor, ‘walk’ the sticks, use them as a hammer and nail.

I saw Esau - PULSE

Rhyme:

I saw Esau sitting on a seesaw

I saw Esau he saw me

I saw Esay sitting on a seesaw

One, two , three!

Leader: Say the rhyme whilst tapping your legs. The important part of this as with all pulse games is to encourage the feeling for pulse. You can do this rhyme slower or faster.

Children: This can be played in various ways as a group or pairs.

Using a parachute or stretchy lycra swing the fabric side to side in time to the pulse. On the words “One, Two ..” Bounce the fabric on each word and on “three” lift the fabric in the air. This is lovely to do with a teddy or soft doll on the fabric.

Another way to play is in pairs. Each child should have a scarf and a doll or teddy. Place the doll/teddy on the scarf and ask the children to hold each end of the scarf. If you don’t have scarves ask the children to hold each end the doll / teddy (e.g legs and arms). Again the children should swing the doll/teddy side to side and on three toss them into the air.

B I N G O – Differentiation of PULSE & RHYTHM

This is a great song for showing the difference between pulse and rhythm.

If you have a dog puppet – nod his head to the pulse and clap his hands for the rhythm.

The PULSE is like a heartbeat – it is ongoing it never stops and it doesn’t change. We might choose to sing faster or slower in which case the pulse will be quicker or slower but it doesn’t speed up within a song.

The Rhythm is the words of the song. Without pulse we have no rhythm. In the case of this song we are using the BINGO pattern to show rhythm.

There was a farmer had a dog

His name was Bobby Bingo

B I N G O

B I N G O

B I N G O

His name was Bobby Bingo

The rhythm pattern of BINGO is the same as See saw up and down / Yes, No maybe so / hey hey look at me.

Keep Singing

Melanie x