Mouse and cat on instruments (structure, pitch, tempo) - Song

Mouse and Cat on instruments (structure, pitch, tempo)

Divide the children into two groups. One group is the mouse, the other the cat. Everyone chooses an instrument from the Mouse section or the Cat selection that you have put out earlier.

A capable child (or group of children) from the Mouse group says the words of A Little Mouse expressively, one line at a time. At the end of each line, the Mouse group instrumentalists imitate the speed and loudness of OUT POPPED HE!

Next the Naughty Cat group can do the same with their poem. You now have two little performance pieces and each group gets the chance to listen to the other group. It's a good opportunity for you to ask the listening group to do Three Stars and a Wish - say three things they liked about the performance and make one, positive suggestion for improvement. The performers might then have another try.

'Think the words'!

A variation on this activity is for the children to 'think the words' as they play the sounds without speaking. Sound recordings are easy to do on a mobile phone and there's no problem with excluding children who are not to be filmed on video. Here's a recording of our Naughty Cat group. The cat is represented by the xylophone and the mouse by a shaker and Indian bells. I like the way the 'cat' did fast, high-pitch sounds for running round the house, then slower sounds for going to sleep. One of my 'wishes' in Three Stars and a Wish was for the sleeping cat sounds to get lower and lower in pitch, which is what happened in this second recording.