People Who Help Us Level: Early Grades - Skills & games

Window cleaner (pitch)

Use a finger puppet or a cut-out picture of someone who might be a window cleaner. Make a picture of a ladder (or you may even be able to borrow a real one). Make the puppet go up and down the ladder. When it goes up, the children make an Ooooooh sound, going higher and higher. When the puppet goes down the ladder, the children make a downward Ooooooh sound.

The Music Stave Ladder

In music, the musical stave looks a bit like a ladder and you could show the children an example and make the window cleaner go up and down the stave. It works in just the same way as a ladder - higher up the stave for higher notes and lower down the stave for lower notes. The children can make the same Ooooooh sound, or experiment with different vocal sounds that go up then down. This may be transferred to any instrument that makes pitched sounds, for instance a tuned percussion instrument but, at this stage, I would concentrate on the general principle and not introduce any specific note names.