Juliana Swanson

Dr. Talbot
Mus_149

Introduce NONVERBAL Song Lesson

Assignment: #4.2, Introduce a New Vocal Song
Context: In the kindergarten age group, we have been exploring different musical pieces and
basic notation, such as quarter notes/rests, half notes/rests, whole notes/rests, and eighth
notes/rests, and we have explored imitation and songs with basic rhythm.
Essential Question: What affect does tempo have on music?
National Standards:
 MU:Cr1.1.Ka With guidance, explore and experience music concepts (such as beat and melodic
contour).
 MU:Cr1.1.Kb With guidance, generate musical ideas (such as movements or motives).
 MU:Pr4.3.Ka With guidance, demonstrate awareness of expressive qualities (such as voice
quality, dynamics, and tempo) that support the creators’ expressive intent.
 MU:Re7.2.Ka With guidance, demonstrate how a specific music concept (such as beat or
melodic direction) is used in music
 MU:Re8.1.PKa With substantial guidance, explore music’s expressive qualities (such as dynamics
and tempo
 MU:Cn10.0.Ka Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and
intent when creating, performing, and responding to music

Learning Outcomes:
 Students will define tempo through discussion.
 Students will identify the difference between fast and slow tempos.
 Students will perform the concept of tempo through an introduced song.
 Students will improvise musical tempos through performing the introduced song at
the tempo of their choice in groups.
Key Terms:
 Beats - The regular pulse of music which may be dictated by the rise or fall of the hand
or baton of the conductor, by a metronome, or by the accents in music
 Breath Support - the engagement of the abdominal muscles (including the sides and
lower back) during exhalation.
 Pitch - The specific quality of a sound that makes it a recognizable tone; it defines the
location of a tone in relation to others, thus giving it a sense of being high or low.
  Tempo - The speed of the rhythm of a composition; it is measured according to beats per
minute.
 Trill - An ornament that consists of rapid alternation between one tone and
another tone either a step or a semitone away from the first tone. 
Materials:
 Spacious area for warm-ups, singing, and dancing
 Arms/body
 Phone with speaker/ Audio device with speaker AND ability to connect to Youtube.
Procedure:
1. As students enter the room or area, the Teacher will direct students to sit in a circle. The
Teacher will join them in the circle.
2. Once students have made the circle, Teacher will begin vocal warm-ups…
a. Teacher will establish a “my turn, your turn” dynamic through gestures.
b. Teacher will “yawn” loudly going down lower pitches, and then proceed to use
hands to demonstrate the action of sliding down pitches as they yawn. Then the
teacher will point to the students to do the same and do the exercise with them.
The Teacher will repeat this several times with different starting pitches. (This is
to help raise the soft palette.)
c. Moving on, teacher will demonstrate lip trills amongst students, then having them
join in and imitate the lip trills. The next step of this exercise is to add different
pitches to the lip trills, potentially sliding up and down pitch classes. (This
exercise helps with using air in singing.)
d. The Teacher will then demonstrate stretching basic stretches quickly for students
to follow (to open up their bodies and release tension for good sound). Teacher
will then inhale and bring arms up slowly for 4 counts until their arms are
stretched as high into the air as possible. Then, they will hold the air in, and
release it and bring arms down slowly, demonstrating stretching air to last 4 beats.
Teacher will invite students to join in this exercise, before breathing holding up
how many beats the class will be breathing out for (i.e. 6 beats, 8 beats, 10 beats;
this will aid in breath support for common singing phrases)
3. Teacher will now begin to teach students the lyrics and motions of the Bakery Song –
shown in Figure 1.
a. Teacher will sing the whole song first, demonstrating the lyrics and rhythms for
the student’s understanding before they join/learn/sing along
b. Teacher will gesture to listen by pointing to their ear, they will sing and shorten
the whole song to line 1 and sing it, then gesture for the students to sing it back to
her. Teacher will aurally gauge if students have learned the line from the
imitation…
i. If they have not learned and are not repeating the lyrics back well, repeat
these steps.
 ii. If they have learned and are repeating the lyrics back well, move to step
“c”.
c. Teacher will repeat step “b” for the next 3 lines of the song.
d. Once the Teacher has taught the first 4 lines of the song and all the students are
sure of each individual line, teacher will begin singing two lines and have students
imitate two lines back, doing this in 2 parts – part 1, the first two lines, part 2, the
last 2 lines.
e. The Teacher, once students have successfully completed step “d”, will sing the
whole song and invite all the students to sing together through the 4 lines.
f. Once the entire class sings the first 4 lines together, the teacher will celebrate and
congratulate the class! Teacher will gesture to sing the 4 lines again to the class,
and while the class sings, the Teacher will demonstrate all the motions of this
song – shown and described in Figure 2.
g. Teacher will go through the motions in the song slowly so students can observe
all of the motions. The Teacher will then go over the motions of the first line
slowly—singing slowly and demonstrating slowly, doing it alone first, and having
students mimic afterwards
h. The Teacher will then slowly sing the second line and demonstrate the motions,
and gesture to students to imitate afterwards.
i. The Teacher will repeat step “h” for the third and fourth line of the song as well.
j. Teacher will do the same as before, grouping the first two lines together and
demonstrating those motions, then having students imitate those motions and sing
back. Then, the same thing will be done with grouping lines 3 and 4.
k. Teacher will gesture that everyone in the class will sing and perform motions
together and slowly perform the whole song with the class.
i. Teacher will continue to repeat this song, going faster and faster to see if
students can keep up or if they are struggling.
l. Teacher will sing the concept of tempo to whatever melody they choose,
describing how tempo can make a song slow and lyrical, or fast and intense.
m. Teacher will have students do an activity on tempo through a video—this video is
cited but can also be found at the following link:
https://youtu.be/D5upSAO0Lm0. This video can be projected or can just be
listened to, as it plays audio clips of different songs with fast and slow tempos.
The Teacher will instruct through singing that if students think the tempo is fast,
they will stomp or dance quickly, and if they think the tempo is slow, they will do
ballet, or dance interpretively and slowly to the music.
n. At the conclusion of the prior activity, Teacher will bring up the Bakery song
once again, and will sing the song once slowly with students, establishing a slow
tempo. Teacher will then sing the song again faster, establishing a quick tempo.
o. Teacher sing the melody of the Bakery song but change the words to ask students
to perform the song in groups of two or three for everyone. This will help the
teacher assess if there are students excelling at this activity and the
skill/musicality involved, or if there are students who are not as confident.
 Teacher will also emphasize that students must pick a tempo—fast or slow for
now—when they perform. Lyrics to propose this to students are in Figure 3.
p. To wrap up the lesson, Teacher will encourage students to talk to the person next
to them to discuss the definition or the student’s understanding of tempo.

Teacher Assessment:
 Teacher will assess student’s definitions of tempo through aural responses within
group discussions.
 Teacher will assess students’ identification of fast and slow tempos through the
students dancing, which interprets what speed they believe the tempo is in the
listening activity.
 Teacher will assess students’ performance and demonstration of tempo through their
performance of the lesson’s introduced song.
 Teacher will visually and aurally assess individual student’s performance of the
introduced song with improvisation of musical tempos in groups according to the 1-2-
3 scale.
o If a student accurately sings the song and do the motions of the song at an
established tempo, they receive a 3.
o If a student accurately sings the song but does not perform motions, OR if
student performs motions well but does not sing (accurately or at all), but they
perform either at an established tempo, they will receive a 2.
o If a student does not sing or perform the motions and is uninterested, not
consistently keeping any kind of pulse or tempo, they receive a 1.

**Regardless, if a student does not want to engage or participate, it will be

noted, and the Teacher should make an effort to reach out to the student about
their lack of effort or participation.

Further Learning/ Extension:

 As further learning, teacher will discuss in the next class what the students thought about
the prior class, and go over with students once again what they think about tempo, what
tempo is, and what it can do in music. The teacher will also introduce the idea of the
metronome, building the idea of tempo and beats/pulse in music, and introducing the idea
of beats and rhythms in music (as up to this point, students have only been imitating
rhythms, songs, and pitches—now they will learn the technicalities of rhythms, songs,
and pitches with rhythm/song structure and notation, and pitches on a staff, going through
ABCDEFG and solfege.
Figures:
Figure 1 – The Bakery Song
Figure 2 – Line identification and motions to the Bakery Song

Figure 3 -
Lyrics to instruct students to perform Bakery Song in groups – in the melody of the Bakery Song
References/ Citations

 2014 Music Standards (PK-8 General Music) [PDF]. (2014). National Association of
Music Education. From https://nafme.org/wp-content/files/2014/11/2014-Music-Standards-
PK-8-Strand.pdf
 Amy Hartl (Creator). (2017, October 5). Fast or Slow: Tempo ID [Video File]. Retrieved
September 29, 2020, from https://youtu.be/D5upSAO0Lm0
 Musical Dictionary. (2020). Classic for Kids. Retrieved September 27, 2020, from
https://www.classicsforkids.com/music/musical_dictionary.php
 OnMusic Dictionary. (2015). On music dictionary. Retrieved September 27, 2020. From
http://dictionary.onmusic.org/
 Pimentel, B. (2010, July 10). Breath support. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from
https://bretpimentel.com/breath-support/
 Swanson, J. (2020). The Bakery Song [PDF]. Retrieved September 27, 2020.

Honor Code
I affirm that I have upheld the highest principles of honesty and integrity in my
academic work and have not witnessed a violation of the Honor Code
– Juliana Swanson