Snowmen Melodies - d m sl

My older students have been using Pentatonic Snowmen Activity.  Soon, I'll be able to post a bulletin board created with their snowmen.

My 2nd graders are ready for low do.  I decided to adapt the activity for them.  You can download it here: Snowmen Melodic Activity - Do-Mi-So-La.  We'll be using it in January.

First, we read the following song on the board.  We add instruments and come up with creative motions (2nd graders are great at this - they are very creative.  My only problem is I have to remember which motion goes with what class when we sing it again!)

I have styrofoam balls that I used in the Winter Program.  I'm thinking we'll create the following form:
A. Sing song with instruments
B. Throw styrofoam balls around while instruments improvise
The balls are really soft and won't hurt anyone.  I'll probably have only a few "throwers" at a time and take volunteers to be targets (kinda like dodgeball).

For the next lesson, students will be in groups.  They will have four lyric snowmen bottoms (the words) that they'll need to match with four rhythm middles (quarter notes, quarter rests, eighth note pairs) and finally four melody heads on top (d   m   sl).   They can then use the hats to create their own original order of the phrases, although they'll need to ignore the double barlines when they sing them all together.  This activity uses vocabulary too, such as: phrase, melody, lyrics, rhythm, double barline, time signature.  After finishing, the students can add instruments (you can also use boomwhackers) and movement.  They'll perform their composition for the class.

For the last lesson, students create their own lyrics on a blank "bottom" snowman piece.  We'll do this as a group, after brainstorming words to use.  The students will see that they have four steady beats to use.  Then, they'll add corresponding rhythms (quarter note, eighth note pair, quarter rest).  Lastly, they'll add a melody on the music staff.  (I model this whole process first, and am on hand to help struggling students).  Glue them on a blue paper, add the students' names, and maybe a squirt of "Santa Snow" paint to add a little snowfall look, and there you have it!  Cute!

Snowman Middle and Head

Snowman body and hat