Unit 4: Making Music

Teach children a silly name chant. Chant a verse using your own name. Then have children join you as you recite a verse for each child.

Gather children around the materials and invite them to talk about and demonstrate some of the observations they made while exploring making sounds with rubber bands.

Have children continue exploring making sounds with rubber bands. Ask children to describe what they see when they pluck the rubber band.  Introduce the word vibrate.

Have children continue plucking the rubber band guitars and watching the rubber bands move and vibrate.  Talk about other things that vibrate to make sound.

Have children close their eyes and listen to a short jazz recording before you read the story Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler. 

Reread a few pages of Jazz Baby that feature sound and action words.  Have children choose one of the words and draw a picture.

Read aloud a few spreads of Jazz Baby to children, emphasizing the rhythm of the words. Help children notice the rhythm and clap along.

Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter “Jj” and the word jazz.

Use the Sandpaper Writing Routine to help children recognize and begin to “write” the letter “Jj.”

Recite the poem “Jazz Baby, Jazz Baby” with motions. Invite children to join you in reciting and acting out the sound words.

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.

With children, recite the verse of “The Name Game” for each child. Have children repeat the verse after you.

Revisit the book What Is a Scientist? By Barbara Lehn. Help children make connections between their explorations of sound and the skills described in the book.

Have children explore listening to sounds through tubes and hoses.  Encourage children to make predictions and make sounds for each other to listen to.

Join small groups of children as they explore listening with tubes at the Science and Math Center. Engage them in conversation and notice what captures their attention.

Children imagine they are listening to the music in the story Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler as you read it aloud.

Ask a child to pull an object from a bag filled with objects that begin with the /j/ sound. Name the object emphasizing the beginning /j/ sound.

Play the Between the Lions video “Lions Jabbering, Doing a Jig, and Jogging.” Pause to explain the words jabber, jig, and jog as you watch the video.

Reread the poem “Jazz Baby, Jazz Baby.” Divide children into groups: have one group recite through a tube, and others do the action.

Have children use their tubes to recite the verse. Each time call out a direction to change the volume, pitch, or timbre of their voice.

Have children recall some of the ways they used tubes and some of the discoveries they have made while listening through tubes.

Invite children to explore talking through tubes. Guide children to talk or sing without the tube first, then with the tube to compare the sounds.

Join small groups of children as they continue to explore listening and talking with tubes at the Math and Science Center.  Help them explore vibrations as well.

Watch a Between the Lions video about Ruby who learns to sing a type of music called the Blues. Help children make connections to the video.

Play a game with children where they raise and lower the volume of their voices. Use cardboard remote controls to adjust others’ volumes.

Use the Sandpaper Writing Routine to help children begin to recognize and to “write” the letter “Ll.”

Watch the Between the Lions video clip  “Words Beginning with the letter ‘l’.” Ask children to notice the letter “l” when it appears on the screen.

Have children use their tubes to sing the verse. Each time call out a direction such as a high or low pitch.

Talk about how different music can make you feel happy, sad, or even silly. Play a piece of music and ask children how they feel.

Play a piece of music and ask children to paint how they feel.  Turn the volume up and down as they paint.

Watch the Between the Lions video “Ruby Sings the Blues” again. Ask children to focus on how people in Ruby’s life feel about her volume.

Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter “Ll” and the word loud.

Play a sound game to help children listen for and recognize the /l/ sound in the beginning of familiar words.

Write a music poem with children. Have children dictate how music makes them feel to complete the poem.

Have children use their tubes to sing the verse. Have each child call out “loud” or “soft” to direct the group how to sing.

Display the rubber band guitars and tubes from the Discovery Time activities during the week. Review with children what they observed during their explorations.

Play a piece of music that contrasts the previous day’s piece.  Have children repeat the exercise of painting how they feel.

Have children watch the PEEP and the Big Wide World video “Hear, Here” and listen to the different sounds in Quack's voice. 

Reread one of the books or select a book from the Recommended List and review the concepts about sound.

Use the Letters in Our Names Routine to help children recognize “Ll” and “Jj” in their names.

Have children watch a short Between the Lions video clip to review with children the letter sounds /l/. 

Have children watch a short Between the Lions video clip to review with children the letter sounds /j/. 

Sing “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” with children. Vary the volume of the verse each time you sing and sing the chorus loudly.

Display the rubber band instruments and tubes and have children demonstrate sounds they have learned. Encourage them to change the volume, pitch, and timbre of their sounds.