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Throwback Thursday: Star Actvities

Happy May Day! 

I am linking up with Aileen Miracle today for a Throwback Thursday. This is an opportunity for me to take a blog post from a long time ago and re-post it so that maybe those who haven't seen it yet may have the opportunity to get some new ideas!


This post comes from March 2013.

Since I don't see kindergarten, my first graders are preparing high/low and so/mi at the same time. We are very close to presenting high/low and hopefully I will get to so-mi by the end of April.

I used the poem "Two Little Puppets" but I changed it to "Two Little Stars" to fit with my other songs of the day.

Two little stars 
One on each hand
Isn't she pretty
Isn't he grand
Her name is Bella
His name is Bo
She says "Hi" (high voice)
He says "Hello" (low voice)

I found these glow in the dark star wands at my local Dollar Tree. We turned the lights down and used the pink star as Bella, holding her way up high in the sky and the blue star was our Bo, and he lived lower in the sky. My kids adored this and wanted to have turns holding the stars and helping with Bella's (high) voice and Bo's (low) voice.

Then we played a game with the song "Starlight Starbright" and I went around the circle with my star wand singing. At the end of the song, whoever it landed on got to make a wish and even though that doesn't sound all that exciting, to a first grader, it is. And they ALL want a turn to think their wish (because if you say it out loud it won't come true!). This year I added an Orff bourdune that the students got to play if the star landed on them. It made for an easy way to take a few turns and not be bent out of shape if we didn't get turns because the star was picking. ;)


We put the high and low sounds on our bodies to help our kinesthetic learners.

I bring this song back out again in another lesson with a counting book called Dreaming


I sing "Starlight, Starbright" on the page turns. You could really use any night time sleepy book. I like that this one is a counting book and mentions stars and was already a part of my book collection. 

We also did a movement exploration called "Star Dance" from John Feierabend's Movement Exploration Book. We use our hands to be the stars. The stars rise up in the sky, dance together and apart and then travel across the galaxy where they dance with other stars. It is so fun to see the kids move expressively to beautiful music. I think they feel like artists and musicians when they do! :)

Later, when I am ready for high/low practice or sol-mi I bring these visuals out.

 Icons for high/low:

 Icons for so mi:
 

 so and mi with icons on the staff:


 Icons on staff without solfege:
 Real notes with solfege on staff (f do):

 Notes on staff (g do):

 Standard notation without solfege (f do):

 Standard notation without solfege (g do):


 Iconic pitch flashcards - print and cut on dotted line.

 Rhythm worksheet:



This packet is available on my TPT page: click here!






2 comments:

  1. I love that the students made a wish. What a great way to keep them engaged as you practice the song! I will definitely be trying this next year with my first grade when they sing Star Light, Star Bright :)

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