Submitted by Barbara Lee

Idea posted June 13, 2011

My Kindergarten lessons are focused around whatever letter of the alphabet the Kindergarten is focusing on. The letters are not in alphabetical order; rather, they are associated with whatever sounds they are studying.

I'll give you a few examples of what I might do with a particular letter.

Letter F - We'll sing and add motions to a fire truck song from one of the Lynn Kleiner books. We'll talk about the American flag, and I use that as a spring board for the National Anthem. While I don't teach all the words to the National Anthem to Kindergarten students, I do expose them to the song, and we learn proper flag etiquette. Many students know some of the words (or all of them). Music K-8's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a wonderful, age-appropriate version to use in the classroom.

Letter J - We sing and move Music K-8's "Jump!" (from Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 5) This song - wears them out! :)  I use the Graeme Base book Jungle Drums and add Orff instruments to the various animals in the story, and, of course, the drums.

Letter N - We talk about noise and what the difference is between "noise" and "music." A great book that ties in beautifully with the concept of noise is Too Much Noise by Simms Taback. Adding unpitched percussion for the animals represented in the story, along with quiet sounds and instruments for the house, works beautifully. This generates good discussion of loud and quiet - use the Music K-8 song "Forte Piano." It's not the letter N, but it continues the music concept.

Letter O - Kindergarten does "opposites." So we do "musical opposites":

  • loud/quiet (aforementioned "Forte Piano" song)
  • fast/slow - lots of tempo activities with scarves moving to music like "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Tortoises" from "Carnival of the Animals"
  • Music K-8 song "Presto Largo" (from Music K-8, Vol. 15, No. 5) - run in place for presto; step big, slow steps for largo
  • "Legato Staccato" (from Music K-8, Vol. 14, No. 1) - greatMusic K-8 song - add scarves; "Kangaroo" from Carnival of the Animals
  • high/low - activities with Orff instruments, Boomwhackers®, voices, etc.

Letter V - That's when I concentrate on the four voices - talk, sing, whisper, shout. We do lots of nursery rhymes with our four voices - (singing them using la, sol, and mi) - play the "Good King Leopold" game - sometimes with a king puppet, sometimes with a crown and scepter (crown made of gold bulletin board border and the scepter is a ribbon wand - simple, but they work).

Those are just a few examples. Even though I'm using "their" letter of the week, I make a point to emphasize musical concepts because they're in the music classroom!