Ourselves & Our Friends Level: Early Grades - Skills & games

Fast, Slow and Walking! (tempo)

Mrs Crocosaurus helps to explain fast and slow tempo in terms of movement. You can follow this up with singing a song at a fast tempo, and then sing it slowly.

Copy Me (rhythm, pulse)

Using a 'sing-song' voice the teacher sings the first line, Copy me, copy me, clap like me, then claps three times, which the children copy. For subsequent lines, the teacher sings then does something different, which the children copy. The idea is that the teacher does the singing and the children copy the actions, in time with the pulse.

• Copy me, copy me, clap like me
• Copy me, copy me, stamp like me (stay sitting on bottoms)
• Copy me, copy me, tap like me (tap on knees)

Copy Kitten (pitch, rhythm, timbre)

You need a toy fluffy cat for this game. Begin by asking the children to show you all the sounds they can make using their mouths and voices. Ask them to decide which is their favorite sound and then everyone practise copying each other's sounds.

Next, teach the song with everyone sitting in a circle. Child 1 holds the furry 'Copy Kitten' and makes a sound at the end of the verse for everyone to copy. Child 1 passes Copy Kitten to the second child in the circle; all sing the song again and Child 2 makes a sound for everyone to copy, and so on.

This activity also focuses on timbre, the essential difference between sounds made in different ways.

• Copy kitten, copy kitten
• Miaow miaow hiss
• Copy kitten, copy kitten
• Sounds like this