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 K Lesson 1 Page 1

Lesson # 1 Grade: Kindergarten

NCCAS Standards and Benchmarks (standards utilized in this lesson will be in bold)
Create
Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Perform
Anchor Standard 4: Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Anchor Standard 6: Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
Respond
Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work
Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Anchor Standard 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Connect
Anchor Standard 10: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and
historical context to deepen understanding
Anchor Standard 11: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to
make art.
Objectives:
1) Students will demonstrate understanding of music room rules and procedures
2) Students will begin feeling the steady beat with hand movements to the
rhyme, “Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop”
3) Students will demonstrate an echo by singing after the teacher using the same
voice the teacher used.
Prepare:
1) Steady Beat 2) In Tune Singing 3) Four Voices
Present: none
Practice: none
Materials: “She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain” - book, rhythm sticks (if
desired), plastic microphone, music room poster “Make Good Choices”, “Two
Little Blackbirds” picture
:Songs and Rhymes
1. Stars and Stripes Forever by Sousa 7. Two Little Blackbirds
2. Here We Are Together 8. She’ll Be Coming Around the
3. Johnny, Johnny Jump Up Mountain
4. No More Pie 9. Goodbye song (use any you like or5.
5. Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop sing “Make Good Choices” as they
6. Waltz in A flat by Brahms line up.

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 K Lesson 1 Page 2
Rhythm/ Beat Songs/Rhymes Melody Songs/Rhymes
1.Build a song rep. “Stars and Stripes 1. Tuneful Singing “Johnny, Johnny Jump Up”
2. Develop social skills: Forever” – steady (Head voice) – in tune singing, four
a. taking turns beat, marching feet a. Vocal voices (singing voice)
b. making choices Exploration
c. respecting others “The More We Get b. Echo Singing “No More Pie” – echo
3. Develop Physical Skills Together” seated c. Pitch singing (ES)
a. making a circle circle (or another Matching
b. Fingerplay greeting song) 2. Four Voices “She'll Be Coming Around
c. movement the Mountain” with book-
exploration “Chop Chop Vocal Exploration (VE)
4. Steady Beat Chippity Chop” –
fingerplay “Aunt Came Back” ES

“Two Little Black

Birds” fingerplay

Procedures:
1. Entering the music room (steady beat and listening) “Stars and
Stripes Forever”- Sousa: Decide how you will have students enter the
music room. I have a Velcro circle in my room and we almost always
start off there. This procedure is very easy to teach even in Pre-K and
Kindergarten if you have them come in a certain way. Greet them in the
hallway, and explain to them as soon as they hear the music, they will
get to march into the music room and follow the circle with their feet.
They have to stay in the order that they are in in the line, and when the
music stops, they stop and sit on the closest Velcro. They cannot share
or fight over spots. I would have them practice their marching feet in the
hallway to make sure we all knew what it should look like.
I find a great march or some fun music with a tempo of 120-180 bpm.

2. Greeting Song- “Here We Are Together” See following page for game
ideas and instructions. The ideas incorporated in the use of this song are
not my own. It was learned from Jo Kirk and used with permission.

© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom

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 K Lesson 1 Page 3
Learned by Jo Kirk. Used with permission.

Steps for “Here We Are Together”

Circle formation - Children sit on floor
Teacher: Oh My! My hands are LOCKED! (T crosses arms in front of body
and "locks" hands under arm pits. Pretend to try to pull hands out from
underneath your arms...but CAN'T!!)
Oh No! I wonder if your hands would get stuck too! THEY ARE!
There is only ONE WAY to get them unstuck and that's with the 'magic word'
And the "magic word" is FLOOR! (T quickly puts both hands on the floor - like
magic!)
It really works! Watch again!! (Sing words below as hands are under your
arms and you sway side to side to macro beat)
Oh here we are together, together, together
Oh here we are together all sitting on the FLOOR!
(hands go quickly to the floor)
See if it works to unlock your hands
(repeat with children joining the motion - some will already have
joined you during first demo)
"lock" your hands in different places such as:
Behind your back
Under your knees
On top of your Head
Ask the children to share their ideas where we could "lock" our hands.
Ask if we could use their idea...making sure that they show the whole class
what it looks like...such as - HOW do your hands look when they are behind
your back?
After about 4 -5 repetitions...then I add the second section B section
"Now that are hands are FREE...I'm going to add something....
Watch and be able to tell by the end of the song what I added,
(Start song from beginning using NEW LOCK position but add the B section)
For your friends are my friends POINT TO SOMEONE
And my friends are your friends POINT TO SELF
What did I add? (discuss.....then children join in the motions as you sing and
Lock again._ (you can sing the children's names....or have them sing their own
name.....I'd probably use this step another day....)

© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom

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 K Lesson 1 Page 4
Procedures con.t:
3. Transitioning from Circle to Board Spots: I do singing games, and circle games on
the circle, but more of the “instruction time” happens in front of the board. My kids
need to get used to transitioning between these different areas in the room, so that
is one thing we practice a lot on the first day. To transition from the circle to their
assigned board spot, I explain that when I sing their name, I want them to jump up,
and have lovely walking feet to their number at the board.” I will sing “Johnny,
Johnny, jump up” (s m s m m s) That student pops up and walks very nicely to their
assigned number. I make a huge deal about his very nice walking feet, the way he sat
criss cross applesauce on top of his number and is sitting very quietly to show me he
is ready for what’s next.
I continue through all of the students this way. It get everyone to their assigned
seats and helps me start placing names with faces in a way that doesn’t put them on
the spot.

4. Rules and procedures of the music room. For Kindergarten, I only go over one
rule a day, so for today it is “M- Make good choices”. We talk about what making
good choices would look like in the music room. I give a few good and bad examples
and have students show with a thumbs up or down if it is making a good choice.
Then we learn the “Make Good Choices” song.

5. Echo Singing/Build Song Repertoire. “This summer I got to go to my grandma’s

cabin in Colorado and while we were there, my FAVORITE person in the world came
to visit. MY AUNT! Raise your hand if you have an aunt. Amazing! Think of your aunt
while I tell you about mine. Aunts are very special people. My aunt lives very far
away down in New Orleans, but she was coming to visit me this summer in the
mountains of Colorado. My grandma has a cabin there that we can all stay in. I was
getting so excited for my aunt to come that my grandma and I decided to make a
pie. And not just any pie, we made her FAVORITE, what kind do you think it was? (S.
answers.) Take whatever answer they throw out. “Absolutely! She loves ________
pie. So I made the pie, then I put it in the refrigerator overnight and when I went
downstairs to take it out this morning, GUESS WHAT?!?! It was GONE! My brother
ate the whole pie. (Grab toy microphone) Say what I say (point mic at me) “Oh MY”
(point mic at students) S. echo (“OH MY”) T. “No more pie!” S. echo “No More Pie”.
Wow you are great at copying! Keep it up! T. sings “No More Pie” Students respond
on echo.

6. Steady beat preparation/build song repertoire “Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop”:

Well, as soon as I remembered that you all were coming today, I wasn’t sad anymore
because I knew you would be able to help me bake a new pie. What was her favorite
kind of pie? ________ Great! Hold out your ________ in your hand. Get your knife…

© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom

www.kodalyinspiredclassroom.com
 K Lesson 1 Page 5
Procedures con.t:
…ready, but make sure you don’t cut yourself! T. chants “Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop”
and performs beat movements of chopping. “We’re going to make this pie even
bigger and better than the last one! What else could we add to the pie?” Take a few
more answers and repeat. You might add rhythm sticks to chop your pie ingredients
and that is totally up to you. If so, make sure that you go over procedures for getting
instruments out and putting them away by first modeling it.

7. Expressive Movement/ Movement Exploration “Waltz in A flat”, Brahms: Let’s

clean up the kitchen! I’ll put on some cleaning music. Movements come from
Feierabend’s Move It Volume 1. Name the foods you chopped as you clean the
kitchen with your pretend towel.

8. Transitioning to other areas of the room and back to their spots. For the first few
weeks, my kids practice moving to all of the different spots in the room, so that they
get used to moving quickly and quietly to different formations and so they get
practicing finding their assigned board spot. It’s easier for them to remember where
they were sitting one minute ago than 2 days ago, and this will help them remember
their spots a little better the next time they come to music.
I use these spot posters (see image on page 16 or click on link)
I found them FREE on this blog and tweaked them to fit my needs.
Transitions practice
- Board spots to circle spots – only one color moves at a time and they must now
sit on the same color on the circle as they do at the board
- Circle spots to board spots
- Board spots to scatter spots
- Scatter spots to board spots
- Board spots to reading corner (Which sets us up for the next thing!)

9. Preparing the four Voices and steady beat through the fingerplay, “Two Little
Blackbirds”: Students seated in story corner. T. sings- Look at this picture; what do
you see? (s mm s m, s mm s). Students sing (“mountain”, “sun”, “grass”, “birds”)
Students may not respond in a singing voice, but if they do, say something about it!
“Wow, I love Tina’s voice!” T. speaks rhyme, “Two Little Blackbirds” with actions. T.
“Where do you think the birds were going when they flew away?” S. answer “to eat
ice cream…etc” Let’s think of another play they could go? “Two Little Black Birds”.
Put your blackbirds on your knees. T and S. perform actions to “Two Little Black
Birds” while T. chants.

© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom

www.kodalyinspiredclassroom.com
 K Lesson 1 Page 6
Procedures con.t:
10. Song Story/Vocal Exploration/ Listening. “Well, you probably can’t see her
because she is on the other side of the mountain, but there is someone very special
coming around this mountain. MY AUNT! My aunt took a rather unusual way to get
from New Orleans to Colorado. She took the train. When she arrived at the train
station, she asked for a train ticket for the biggest train in the whole world. The
ticket salesman said, “Oh, you must mean Engine #9” YEP! That’s the one! She got
on the biggest train in the whole wide world. How do you think it sounded like?
(Students may be very timid with “toot toot” or “choo choo”) You think the BIGGEST
train in the whole wide world would sound like (model students “toot toot’)? They
try again bigger and louder. Absolutely! I’ve got a special job for you. Any time I go
like this (train whistle motion with arm) you do your TOOT TOOT! T. sings “She'll Be
Coming Around the Mountain”-with book. S. may join in with vocal exploration
sounds.

11. Closing/Goodbye Song: “Let's Wave Goodbye, Goodbye” or “Make Good

Choices” to remind them of the new music room rule they learned.

Line up and exit quietly – you may want to have a certain procedure for lining up.
Our students line up in ABC or number order. I let one student model how they are
going to walk quietly to their spot to line up at the door, then when I see other kids
who are ready to line up, I will tap on their heads and they may line up exactly like
that. If there is any pushing, shoving, etc. they get to come back and try it again.

Songs and Rhymes used in this lesson:

*All songs used in this lesson that are public domain are included below

© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom

www.kodalyinspiredclassroom.com
 Two Little Black Birds
fingerplay
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill,
(Bounce two fists one knees, with your thumbs up as the birds’ heads.)
One named Jack.
(Hold out one fist)
One named Jill.
(Hold out the other fist)
Fly away, Jack.
(Place one hand behind back)
Fly away, Jill.
(Place other hand behind back)
Come back, Jack.
(Return one hand to its knee)
Come back, Jill.
(Return the other hand to its knee)

No More Pie

additional verses:
Pie's too sweet, I want a piece of meat.
Meat's too red, I want a piece of bread.
Bread's too brown, I think I'll go to town.
Town's too far, I think I'll take a car.
Car won't go, I fell and stubbed my toe.
Toe gives me pain, I think I'll take the train.
Train had a wreck, I fell and hurt my neck.
Oh, my! No more pie.
© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom
www.kodalyinspiredclassroom.com
© Lindsay Jervis: Kodály Inspired Classroom
www.kodalyinspiredclassroom.com
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