In the fall in Kindergarten, I begin the year with having students “read” music dot notation. Just simple green, yellow, red dot patterns. I have an anchor chart that shows the students that red=stomp, yellow=pat, green=clap.
We then spend the next few weeks just practicing different dot notation. I usually stick with patterns of 4 at first, then will break down into patterns of 2 and eventually random patterns of 4. Kids come and point and we do the stop, pat, clap pattern for three or four weeks in September.
Once the leaves are ready we go outside and find leaves of yellow, red, and green. Each Kindergartner finds four leaves in any combination of those colors they want. It gets them outside in the fall air and they love finding them. We then go inside to make our very own four beat stomp, pat, clap composition. I use large 11 by 18 paper for the kids to place their leaves in the order they want. I throw some modge podge on the paper and they press them down. I do modge podge their whole leaf after class so the leaves are sealed and keep their color. The next week we practice our own composition and then we work in groups of three or four to make longer compositions. The kids have such a blast. It reinforces so many of early reading skills in literacy and music. It sets the stage for the introduction of the quarter note later in the fall.
TARGETS:
I can make a song with four steady beats.
I can read notation.
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