Kinder Beginning of the Year Lesson Plan

Submitted by Stephanie Menefee, Tacoma, Washington

Idea posted July 25, 2005

I always start off the year with Kinders by reading David Goes to School by David Shannon (part of the No! David! series), to sort of set up rules and expectations in my room. Then I teach them two songs, "Octopus" and "I Am A Pizza," by Charlotte Diamond. We sing them all year long, and they quickly become favorites. I have motions I use with the songs, but we sing them sitting down.

Get them singing on the first day! Pick a favorite song that is either easy to teach/learn or that many of them already know.

I do a lot of keeping the beat with my Kinders. I teach them that to keep the beat, we stick the heels of our hands on our legs and just move our fingers to the beat. This serves several purposes: it keeps the kids from getting sore legs and hands from slapping them all the time, it keeps the kids from racing as a group (think adults clapping along with any Sousa march and speeding up), and it also keeps the kids who can't yet keep the beat from pulling others off beat. I always model on my own legs so they can watch me. I also survey the class as we are doing this, and I can easily see who can keep the beat and who cannot just yet. We keep the beat with just about every song we listen to at least the first time through.

Within the first two or three weeks of school, I also start rhythm reading. First, they need to know about keeping the beat, which we do from day one. I introduce "ta" and explain that ta gets one beat. (Then I ask, "How many beats does ta get?") We then echo four ta's with various vocal inflections (i.e., whispering, ascending pitch, descending pitch, various places on the body, etc. Be creative!). I write "ta" on the board so they can learn to recognize it. I also use the Montessori math beads to help with the concept of note values. It works like a charm!

Use Music K-8 magazine! There are so many wonderful songs that these kids love. Some of their favorites, which are requested every day, include:

"Freeze!" from Music K-8, Vol. 14, No. 2. I also use this with all classes PreK-3 to line up every day at the end of class. My principal loves watching them line up! She'll point it out especially when she has people on tour of our school.