All Creatures Great and Small – Lesson Plans about Animals using Handchimes

What better time of the year to introduce songs about our furry and feathered friends!  At ChimeWorks, we have lesson plans that will surely delight your students as they sing and chime along to some new and some familiar tunes while learning how to harmonize a melody or follow the steps to early music reading.

ChimeWorks uses three teaching methods with the folk songs below to implement handchime use in the classroom or singing rehearsal.  With icons, students will develop eye – hand coordination by initially using symbols or colors to introduce music literacy and gradually progressing to score reading.  By using chords indicated by the teacher pointing to a chart, students can easily harmonize their singing.  And finally, with ostinati lessons, harmonic patterns are taught by rote to harmonize the singing and develop more independence when playing.

All of the lessons are available for immediate purchase and digital download for pennies per student.  Only one copy of the lesson is needed for teachers to bring effective music-making and success to the classroom.  Browse our complete store here for other creative and successful lesson plans.

When using these lessons, be sure to check out Malmark’s colored bands to wrap on the handchimes which act as a valuable teaching aid when using colors.

 

 

Lessons using Icons

 B-I-N-G-O

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Language: English
  • Origin: England

B-I-N-G-O is an English language folk song dating back to the late 1700s.

 

Baa, Baa Black Sheep

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Language: English
  • Origin: England

Baa, Baa Black Sheep is an English nursery rhymed dating back from 1731.  Its original context is thought to be a complaint on the taxation of wool.

 

The Farmer in the Dell

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Germany

The Farmer in The Dell is a nursery rhyme and children’s game.  The song originated in Germany and was brought to North America in the late 19th century.

 

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Language: English
  • Origin: America

Old MacDonald Had A Farm dates to the early years of the 20th century.

 

Lessons using Chords

 Six Little Ducks

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Chords: 2
  • Language: English
  • Origin: England

Six Little Ducks is an English language nursery rhyme and singing game.

 

Ev’ryone But Me

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Chords:3
  • Language: English
  • Origin: America

Ev’ryone But Me is an American folk song with roots in New England.

 

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2, 3 – 6
  • Chords: 3
  • Language: English
  • Origin: France

Jean-Jacques Rousseau composed the original tune as a gavotte or dance in the mid-1700s.  The tune later traveled through England, Germany to New England where the folk text was added.  Countries around the world use the tune for various folk texts.

 

Old MacDonald

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Chords: 3
  • Language: English
  • Origin: America

Old MacDonald Had A Farm dates to the early years of the 20th century.  The tune will be familiar and allow the students to focus on chiming.

 

Lessons using Ostinati

The Frogs

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Canon: Yes
  • Language: English
  • Origin: America

The Frogs is a traditional campfire song sung by Girl Scouts in North America.

 

Sweetly Sings the Donkey

  • Use: Secular
  • Level: K – 2
  • Canon: Yes
  • Language: English
  • Origin: England

Sweetly Sings the Donkey is a traditional song that children love to sing.  Additional verses may be created by adding animals and their sounds.

Music Literacy in a Snap with Colors and Handchimes

A great start for any teacher would be to introduce music literacy to more students during this year.  If you have handchimes at your disposal, teaching music reading with the help of colors couldn’t be simpler! At ChimeWorks, we have developed tools for teaching young children to develop eye-hand coordination using colors and symbols and then, systematically moving on to colored-coded notes on the staff and ultimately reading handchime/handbell notation.

We begin by using colors that are closely correlated to those used in Boomwhacker® and KidsPlay® systems.  Therefore, one will be able to use our lesson plans with handchimes and/or Boomwhackers and KidsPlay bells to teach music literacy.  Sensitivity is given to the use of colors alone due to the statistics that 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 females suffer from color vision deficiency.  Along with a select color for each pitch we have allocated a shape modeled closely to those used in shape-note singing.

Coupled, these symbols are referred to as Icons – non-traditional symbols used to notate music.   They allow students to quickly “read” music without the worry of not knowing standard musical notation.   They also allow students to quickly express themselves at an early-learner stage with known symbols rather than struggling with music notation.  The use of icons develops eye-hand coordination rapidly allowing students to quickly adapt to numbers, pitch names, solfege and then standard music notation.

ChimeWorks has developed Colored Bands which can be wrapped around the handchime tube so that each student can identify a pitch with a color.  In the case of vision deficiency, the shape may also be drawn on to the band.  These bands are available for Malmark, Inc. and be found by clicking here.  Colored bands can be an effective tool in the classroom when denoting pitches and chords.  Using the ChimeWorks Icon Chart, each pitch is assigned a color.  By wrapping the appropriate colored band around the shaft of the handchime tube at the base, you can effectively indicate which handchimes are assigned to pitches or chords.

Since icons are used with non-music readers, they can be utilized with younger children.  These same children may not yet be literate and understand how to track from left to right.  We suggest that great success will be met when the icon chart is presented through a computer-generated slideshow presentation or interactive whiteboard so that the teacher may point to each shape tracking for the students in tempo and rhythm.

Once the students master the melody using icons, they may continue with the Chroma-note® (colored note head) score. Older students may meet success by just having the location of the pitch on the staff on the note designation label which is standard on all brands of handchimes and may be able to move quickly to the handchime score which is in standard music notation.

Icon lesson plans may be found here on the ChimeWorks website.  By introducing these easy to teach lessons, your students will color their world with music through handchimes.