Prep. Lesson 8. Exploring voice
Prior learning: None
Duration: 30 minutes
Materials: Cardboard dog bone
Keywords: Beat, singing, chanting, partners, rhymes, circle games
Difficulty: 
Melodic development
Reinforces students' pitch ability through listening, imitation, and repetition.
- This is a mid-year video of Prep singing 'Good Morning". You will notice the difference in skill level from the performance in Lesson 1.
- This greeting is perfect for building the children's confidence in singing and may be a regular start to the music class for Prep.
- Begin singing 'Good morning" using so and mi and choose a student to respond after the class responds back.
- Repeat as time permits.
Melodic development II
Students experiment with this song to recognise colours and find rhyming words.
- Teach the song to the class, who are seated. The learning intention of this song is for the class to determine not only the colour of Ida's dress but to be conscious that there is a rhyming word to match the colour of the dress, i.e, blue/shoe.
- Using the visual props provided [pictures of a girl with different colour dresses] sing the song to the class.
- When finished, point to the prop and ask about the dress colour.
- Upon the correct answer, the class are required to provide a rhyming word to match the colour.
- Repeat with other dress colours.
Click on the image. For your convenience, please find a selection of Ida 'princesses' for you to download and print.
Lyrics
Down the road and across the creek,
Can’t get a letter but once a week.
Ida Red, Ida Blue,
I got stuck on Ida too.
Down the road and across the creek,
Can’t get a letter but once a week.
Ida Red, Ida Green,
Prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.
Game
Students identify an individual from their voice alone.
- Teach the song and explain the movements to the class.
- Students are seated on the floor in a circle.
- Select a student to move to the middle of the circle and kneel, head down, with their eyes closed.
- Say to the class “I’m looking for someone who has got their beautiful singing voice.”
- The class sing the song as the teacher moves around the circle.
- Choose a student. A cardboard prop of a dog bone is placed into a student’s hand in the circle.
- When the class has finished singing, the student in the circle must sing "who has my bone?"
- The student who has the bone must reply "I have your bone"
- The student in the middle must identify the owner of the bone only by listening to the owner of the bone.
- When correctly identified, the owner of the bone moves to the centre of the circle and the game restarts.
- Repeat as time permits.
Click on the Bone button below and download the bone cut-out. It is advised to laminate when printed for multiple uses.
Rhythmic development
Students listen and explore rhythm-based fingerplay. This is a good rhyme to improve manual dexterity.
Ten Little Soldiers, stand up straight. [Hands facing outwards, fingers together]
Ten Little Soldiers, make a gate. [Hands clasped together, fingers interlocked in an 'X' shape]
Ten Little Soldiers, make a ring. [Hands form a circle]
Ten Little Soldiers, bow to the king. [Arms apart, fingers bend 90 degrees and 'bow']
Ten Little Soldiers, run and play. [Fingers and thumbs twiddle up and down]
Ten Little Soldiers, hide away! [Arms behind back, hands are hidden]
Ten Little Soldiers is a good fingerplay exercise for developing language abilities (rhyme) and dexterity (students gain proficiency in moving their hands and fingers.)
This exercise and other similar fingerplays can help with the instrumental techniques for untuned and tuned percussion, the recorder, the ukulele etc.
Finger dexterity is also of help for fine motor control involved in a pencil grip, using cutlery and dressing.
Video
Miss Plumtree discusses the different ways we can use our voice.
Farewell
Reinforces students' pitch ability through listening, imitation, and repetition. 'Good morning' or 'Bee, Bee, Bumblebee' are good examples.
Suggested lessons
Prep. Lesson 9. Rhymes & song
Students identify a song from a hummed melody and practice keeping the beat using clapping. AC9AMUD01
Prep. Lesson 10. Higher & lower sounds
Students identify high and low sounds through singing and using instruments. AC9AMUD01
Prep. Lesson 11. Different sounds
Students discover sounds that are made from wooden and metal instruments. AC9AMUD01