Candy Hearts Activity Packet

I'm always trying to get my students to make connections.  This activity will help them make connections between rhythms and lyrics, solfa (drm) and recorder pitches (g-a-b) while connecting to Valentine's Day.

I created this set of three activities to integrate into our recorder unit (this is designed for my 3rd graders, although my older one will use it as a review).

The first activity is called, "I Heart Music" and the students will dictate melodies using conversation hearts.  I had great success with a similar activity during Halloween using candy corns.  For my kids with allergies, I provide corresponding stickers (I found some at Target).

Each student will be given the following worksheet (printed on cardstock and laminated) and four candy hearts.

We will practice four-note melodies (such as Do-Re-Mi-Mi or G-A-B-B).  First, we'll draw it.  Second, we'll sing it with Curwen hand signs.  Third, we'll play it on our recorders.

During the next lesson, we'll use a Power Point:

First, we'll review the rhythms we'll be using.  Although these are fairly simply to the students by now, they do correspond to most of the songs they'll be learning on the recorder.  I love using body percussion when we do anything rhythmic.

Second, we'll review the pitches we're using (with hand signs and also recorder fingerings).

Then, we'll follow these steps as we turn Candy Heart phrases into musical ones.

Here's an example:

The lyrics appear first and we read them.  Then, the rhythms appear and we perform them with body percussion and syllables (ta) then with body percussion and lyrics.  Next are the solfa pitches.  After these appear, we sing them, then sing the lyrics on the correct pitch.  Last are the letter names of the recorder pitches.  We sing these while moving our fingers on the recorder.  Then, we play our recorder.

Then, we sing and play it again, looking at accurate notation.

For the third activity, students will have to create their own melody.  They can choose from four "Candy Heart" phrases.  Here's an example:

Students can share their melodies with others in their group (sing and/or play them).

These three activities took me a while to think up and create, so they aren't for free.  I haven't put them in PDF format in case you want to create more "Candy Heart" worksheets.  You can download them here:
Candy Hearts Rhythm, Solfa, and Recorder Activity