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Kindergarten math lesson - working on counting 1-10 and addition/subtraction

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3rd grade literacy lesson working on inferring in a story

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Everyone loves the traditional tale of The Three Little Pigs, it's a such an old favourite that little ones never seem to tire of. But with some added percussion sound effects and catchy songs and chants to help to tell the tale, this storytelling activity is a wonderful way for kids to explore the sounds and effects of different instruments and their voices. It's a great way to get them them really involved in the story.

To get an idea of the activity, watch the video below.

If you're not familiar with the story, you can print my re-told version here along with free printable puppets. Alternatively you can pick them up fairly easily and cheaply. It's a great book to add to the collection - this one here has particularly nice illustrations.

Storytelling Preparation

What you need:

Puppets and your script (print here)
If you want, a puppet theatre as a stage
Maracas or Shakers
Rhythm Sticks
Tambourine
Cymbals/saucepan lids

First spend a little time teaching the song which is super quick to pick up with it's repetitive words and familiar tune.

Do this by singing it to them first, then taking two lines at a time, and encourage the children to join in after they have heard it a couple of times.

The tune is borrowed from 'Little Brown Jug' and there is a chime bar clip to listen to below if you're not familiar with it.

Introduce the idea of using the 3 different instruments to represent the 3 houses. Maracas for straw, wooden sticks for sticks, and a tambourine or drum for bricks.

Discuss some other effects like drumming the floor loudly when the houses fall down, and all practise your scary wolf voices and huffing and puffing together to prepare the children to join in at the appropriate places in the story.

To start off with, it is easier for everyone to do the effects and instruments together in unison. Later on you can give different children an individual job, when they know what to expect.

The teacher narrates the story, and the children are encouraged to join in with the singing and chanting and special effects wherever they can.

If this musical storytelling activity goes down well, check out our others in the series: How To Make an Upcycled Puppet Theatre Goldilocks and the Three Bears

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Storytelling with Instruments : The 3 Little Pigs - Let's Play Music

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The Three Little Pigs storytelling Lesson Plan with percussion intstrument sound effects and improvisation - It's so much fun!

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This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same and I get a small commission. Yay! (Please see my/our full disclosure for further information.)
We all love to use books in the music classroom. Brown Bear Brown Bear is one of my favorites-and it has so many extensions! I am planning to do a bear themed unit in January, so I am trying to find some fun things to do. If you have some ideas for bear themed lessons, let me know in the comments!

This lesson includes a solo singing game, a book, and a rhythmic/composition extension my students have really enjoyed.

You can get the Brown Bear book here.

I also saw this version in one of our first grade teacher's rooms this week. It's about polar bears and it uses the same structure, but with endangered animals. I am planning to buy it soon.

Update: My kids loved this book! I did it the week after Brown Bear, and then we played animal sounds and tried to guess what they were. Hilarious.

Also, I am starting something new! I wanted a way to provide my subscribers with extra exclusive free content, so I have created a resource library. As of Nov. 2018, I have a free beat chart (in 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4) and 2 music interest surveys available in my free resource library. Sign up for my email list and I will send you the password to the library. Once a member, always a member. More things are being added every few weeks, so check back to see what is new. Sign up here.

You can level up your lesson by purchasing the accompanying activity on Teachers Pay Teachers. It includes a powerpoint of the lesson and the game direction, printable lesson plan, and printable animal cards to use if you don't have stuffed animals! Get it here!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear lesson

First off, read the Brown Bear book.

Next, read the book while singing. I have seen a few different songs, but I have always used the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You use the melody for "twinkle twinkle little star" for the words "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" and "how I wonder what you are" for "I see a white dog looking at me". And it repeats over and over and over again.

Read the book again, and have the students sing along with you if they have not already been singing with you.

Then you can play the game!

Game instructions:

Get into a circle. Every student gets a stuffed animal (if you don't have stuffed animals, then you can get the lesson and printable animal cards to go along with the lesson by clicking here!). I usually start holding a brown bear. Everyone sings the opening melody. Since I am holding the brown bear, then I get to sing, "I see a ______ looking at me." I put a name of someone else's animal in the blank. I put my animal in the middle. Everyone sings to the person who has the animal I called. Then that person picks another animal.

For example: I am holding a brown bear. Everyone sings "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" I sing, "I see a cheetah looking at me." Everyone sings "Cheetah, cheetah, what do you see?" and the person with the cheetah sings, "I see a red bird looking at me." And we keep going until all of the animals are in the circle.

PS. I usually have the kids echo sing the animal names on sol-mi before we do the game. This is helpful, especially if you have any weird ones.

Extensions:

You could stop there, but I usually take it a step further. I will put up rhythms. With kindergarten, we will use ta and titi. With first grade, I will use quarter note quarter rest, two quarter notes, and eighth notes quarter note. We will sort the animal by the rhythm of their name. So "brown bear" would be two quarter notes. We do this together once and then in groups after that. There are some discrepancies, so I always ask the kids the name of their animal. Because "bear" and "brown bear" have different rhythms, but they are not wrong.

You could also use my Brown Bear Rhythm cards to play rhythms with instruments, or to match to the animals.

Then we use the Brown Bear rhythm cards to have students compose new rhythms. I don't like to use the actual animals, because composition is a little too free and I find they end up just playing with the animals. If your kids are more self sufficient, then you can try the animals and let me know how it goes!

I am working on a few more extension activities, but for now, this is it! That is a lot of content for just one book.

I hope your students enjoy Brown Bear- mine love it and ask for it by name! I usually pull it out twice in the same year because it is so much fun... And I also use it as a solo singing assessment.

You can purchase the printable lesson, printable animal cards, and PowerPoint by clicking here!

You can get the book here.

And you can get 25 beanie babies off of Amazon here!

If you liked this post, make sure that you share it so more people can enjoy it too! You can also subscribe to my email list here. You will get two emails a month with updates about my blog, YouTube, and TPT shop. You will also get a FREE music interest survey for signing up!

And let us know what your favorite activities for Brown Bear are down in the comments! I would love some ideas!

Happy teaching!

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Free Music Lesson: Brown Bear Brown Bear - Becca's Music Room

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This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same and I get a small commission. Yay! (Please see my/our full disclosure for further information.) We all love to use books in the music classroom. Brown Bear Brown Bear is one of my favorites-and it has so many extensions!

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Since I started teaching, I have wanted to incorporate more books into my lessons, but I had two problems: 1. I didn't have many books and 2. I didn't know what to do with them.

Over the past few months, I have been working to remedy #1, and not I am working on #2- figuring out what to do with these books.

Now, of course, you can read a book just to read it. You can also read a book that has a similar theme to a song that you are learning. Even though both of those ideas are valid, I wanted more meaningful, musical ways to read books. These different ways are coming along (slowly but surely!) as I try to incorporate one to three books in each set of lessons.

This lesson was a huge hit.

This lesson is based off of the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. It includes beat, rhythm, instruments, and more!

I also have a Teachers Pay Teachers product that has some helpful resources in it. You can do this lesson without it, but it has a printable lesson plan, powerpoint, and a bunch of printables to go along with it! You can get it here!

So without further ado, let's get into the lesson!

Prefer to watch or listen? You can see this lesson on YouTube!

Warmup:

Go to the piano (or grab a guitar or ukulele) and play along with the students while reviewing a previous song. Allow students to keep the steady beat.

Say, "I wonder who can keep the steady beat to this song" and start to sing the alphabet song.

Next, say, "Great! That reminds me of a super fun book that we can read today! And we can keep the steady beat to it."

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Lesson:

Read the book and have students keep the beat (quietly) on their bodies. It helps if you keep the beat on a drum- I have this djembe and use it all of the time.

After reading the book, tell the students you are going to play the instruments- but first you have to figure out what to play. Write the words to some of the lines that repeat themselves on the board with heartbeats on top (or use the cards that come in my TPT product, which will make this part much easier!) and have students help you figure out the rhythms. We do this one beat at a time and I ask if there is one sound or two on the beat. Then I ask if that is ta or titi.

Beat strips with the rhythm on top. I found it works best if you put paperclips across the top to hold the rhythms in place.

Practice reading the rhythms with both the words and the rhythm syllables.

Then, pass out small percussion instruments. I used castanets, which are my favorite.

Have students practice the rhythms with the instruments.

Once the students know the parts they are playing, read the book again. When you get to the parts you pulled out (Chicka chicka boom boom, Will there be enough room?, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree, etc), pick up your instrument and play the rhythm. Have the students repeat it back to you and play their instrument.

*Note: I have students put their instrument on the floor and hands on their shoulders when they are not playing, and I do the same so they have a visual reminder of what they are doing.

Closing:

To close, you can do something that practices ta and titi. Here are a few suggestions:

Have students work in small groups to figure out the rhythm of a different line in the book

Have students write the rhythms to one of the lines. I have pages in my product pack where students can write the rhythms and color in a picture of that scene.

Give every student a card with a word on it and have them sort the words into ta or titi. (This is a good example of an exit ticket that does not require any writing- which is helpful if you don't have tables!)

Give students a heartbeat chart and have them write rhythms or use manipulatives to make rhythms.

Need some heartbeat charts? There are a ton of different ones in my FREE resource library! Not a member yet? Sign up here! You will get access to all of my free resources- and I add new ones every month! You will also get one email a week with tips and tricks that you can use in your classroom tomorrow.

Alright friends, that is my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom lesson. It was a huge hit with my first graders at the beginning of the year (and you know 1st grade needs some alphabet reminders at the beginning of the year).

Don't forget to pick up the book here and check out my Teacher Pay Teachers product to get more resources for this lesson.

If you have a book you would like a lesson on, let me know in the comments or shoot me an email at beccasmusicroom@gmail.com and let me know!

Happy teaching!

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: Beat and rhythm lesson - Becca's Music Room

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Since I started teaching, I have wanted to incorporate more books into my lessons, but I had two problems: 1. I didn't have many books and 2. I didn't know what to do with them. Over the past few months, I have been working to remedy #1, and not I am working on #2- figuring out what to do with these books.

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Music Sub Plans For Busy Teachers

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Music theory worksheet focusing on melody

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Music theory worksheet that focuses on rhythm

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Copy of Bee Bee Bumble Bee Stick Notation

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Could be chanted or played as a game! Have students work on addition by students partnering up and holding up a number. The first to get the answer "wins" the round.

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Fun and engaging way to work on counting

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"called for another little elephant to come" is a great way to work on addition!

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This could be used as a brain boost - have the students do the hokey pokey while singing

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A fun and easy way to get your students briefly moving so they can be more focused!

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Elementary Music Scope & Sequence.docx copy