Mother Goose K, 1 and 2

Here are some ideas for music lessons based on Mother Goose stories. I begin by reading a few Mother Goose nursery rhymes and having students read them back to me. 

We learn the song Baa Baa Black Sheep together. I use a Mimio Studio file. Here it is as a jpg:

I create a simple accompaniment for the bells (colored notes) but they can also be used with boomwhackers, xylophones and other grade levels.

I am using craft sticks to show the rhythms of the first two lines. These nursery rhymes are so rhythmic that they lend themselves easily to teaching rhythm patterns.

I model and then mix up the sticks, having students try to recreate the patterns on their own. 

I have a Baa Baa Black Sheep mini book to read and color as an additional activity. I enlarge it to make it one full page.

For First Grade, I use Hey Diddle, Diddle to teach the concept of triplets. I create a simple melody and we add accompaniment using drums, tambourines and bells with triplets. 

I print out the words, laminate, then cut them into sentence strips. I place them in front of student groups of 4 and ask them to put them in order.

The next week, we learn Mary Had a Little Lamb. I use a Mimio file and add the bells as well.

Here it is with just the colors. Sometimes I ask them to use the bells to discover the song first using this file:

At the closing of this lesson, I ask students to create a new version of Hey Diddle Diddle. 

With Second Grade, I begin with the story The Jolly Postman. I love this book! It is a great literacy tie in with letter writing. We learn the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. I create a song illustrating his rise up the wall (ascending scale) and fall down (descending).

Do Re Mi Fa Sol Sol Sol Sol

(Hump-ty Dump-ty sat on a wall)

Sol Fa Mi Re Do Do Do Do

(Hump-ty Dump-ty had a great fall)

Do Do Re Mi Mi Fa Sol Sol Sol Sol

(All the kings hor-ses and all the king's men)

Sol Sol Fa Mi Mi Re Do Do Do Do

(Couldn't put Hump-ty to-ge-ther a-gain)

Students learn to play the xylophone using the pattern:

(Ascending) Do Re Mi Fa Sol 

and 

(Descending) Sol Fa Mi Re Do

I made a post card template and ask students to choose a character and write them a postcard. (I copy the template onto white construction paper.) I always do an example on the board with the entire class.

 

I read the postcards or ask brave students to read them aloud to the class. Most of them love to read (their postcards) to the class! They may decorate the front. 

The last part is the Mother Goose Suite. I have students listen after discussing sections of the piece. There is a beautifully illustrated and played (piano) version of Ravel's piece on youtube.

  Mother Goose Suite -1 Sleeping Beauty
Mother Goose 2-Tom Thumb
Mother Goose 3-Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas 
Mother Goose 4-Beauty and the Beast 
Mother Goose 5-The Fairy Garden 

I ask students to remember three of the tales, write one sentence to describe each tale, and draw three pictures in order that they were heard in the suite. 

Here's an extra for Jolly Postman: