Shoe Songs

I love shoes and I'm always snatching a new pair of heels when I can.  I'm even brave enough to wear them to work.  That way I can tease my 5th graders, "Hey, I'm doing this choreography in heels!" (I have great 5th graders and pretty much all of them are better dancers than me, haha).

This little shoe-based bundle of so/mi and ta/titi fun is something fun for kinder or 1st graders, depending on their skill level (also a good review for 2nd graders, but at the beginning of the year).  I'm in the process of starting some end of the semester assessments for my younger kiddos and these lessons are full of vocabulary, they revisit (or reintroduce) basic rhythmic and melodic elements, and they incorporate movement, instruments, and student compositions.

I included 10 melodic preparation slides for practice in case you need them - they are a good warm-up activity.  Try singing them while reaching up for higher pitches and down for lower (I call these "music workouts" and the kids love a chance to be activity - and I love any extra calories I can burn during the day):

I also included 10 so and mi practice slides - sing these with Curwen Handsigns:

This first lesson ( a 54 slide PowerPoint is included with my instructions/tips in "notes section") is "One, Two, Tie My Shoe".  Here's the lyrics slide.  We like to stand and act out the words during this slide (motions are included)

Here's the steady beat slide:

I print out this Beat Chart on one side and the Rhythm Icon Chart (see below) on the other.  Once laminated (or placed in a page protector) students can track the beat themselves (mini-assessment opportunity for the teacher).

Then, we add in tools to organize the music.  Sure, it is important for students to be able to label and identify these structures, but it is also important for them to know and describe why they exist.  Ask question like, "This is the double bar line.  What does it tell us?"  Or, "Why are there two beats in each measure (or "between the barlines")?"

Then, the students track the rhythmic preparation icons (printable included also):

The students can say "chicken" and "boy" for more practice relating the rhythms to text.

Then, we review basic rhythms (I do label them with their correct name and this is available on our word wall for students to refer to - "ta" and "titi" are their "nicknames" or "how we say them" - the students learn about how their names originated in later grades when we relate them to the whole note):

When reading rhythms, we often incorporate body percussion.  Students like to keep the body percussion going while reading the correct lyrics.

I often stop there in one lesson, that way we can move on to other activities.  Since the PowerPoints are full of questions to address, vocabulary to learn, and things to discuss, they often take me a while and I like to break them into "chunks".  Try adding students on the steady beat (stomp then transfer to drums) while some are on the rhythms (clap then transfer to rhythm sticks) to add fun instrumentation to a song. 

In a subsequent lesson, I give the students this worksheet and have them fill it out (we work on the first line together):

With the rhythms and the words reviewed, students are ready to discuss and learn the melody:

Yes, I define these words.  I use them often in our warm-up activities so students can have multiple opportunities to use them.  I relate pitches to words, phrases to sentences, and melodies to stories - this can help students relate musical language elements to language structures they already know.

Students can sing the words (or icons then words) on higher and lower pitches while tracking or moving (touching heads for high or shoulders for low).  Then, we add in So and Mi.

Then, we incorporate the music staff (students have already learned about that at this point, I label it as "a home for pitches" or "the paper we write music on" and it means that we will "use our singing voice" or "play a melodic instrument, like boomwhackers or the xylophone").  The students have also already learned how So and Mi relate to each other on the music staff - but this is reviewed:

Then, we move on to adding the rhythms back in:

Then, we incorporate everything together:

I've also included a partner movement activity that most of the students do while other play instruments.  An interlude can add more movement opportunities as well as the opportunity to discuss A(sing and play with partner) and B (find a new partner while instruments play).

The next song is "Cobbler, Cobbler" and it works much the same way.  Here are some slides:

This composition has the students creating their own so and mi song:

They can also cut out their square after gluing the shoes and mount it on construction paper for a cute activity to take home.

You can download this lesson set here: Shoe Songs