Folk Song Friday {Let Us Chase the Squirrel}

I am so excited to announce a new series on my blog: Folk Song Friday! I can't commit to or promise that every Friday I will have a new post up, but when I can, I hope to post one of my students' favorite folk songs and share with you what I do with that song in my classroom.

Song of the Week: Let Us Chase the Squirrel

Hardest Rhythmic Concept: half note (ta-a or ta-o)

Other Rhythms: ta and titi

Hardest Melodic Concept: re

Other Pitches: d m sl

I have two different games that I play with this song.

Game #1: Students are in long ways sets, forming arches with their partner as the "trees in the forest". Whenever the teacher plays on the triangle, the two students at the end of the set duck down and run up the trees going through the arches and forming a new arch at the end. The sets can travel all around the classroom this way.

Game #2: Students are in groups of three around a circle. Two form a tree and one is the squirrel under the tree. Any leftover students go to the middle of the circle and are squirrels. On the word "tree" all of the squirrels must go to a new tree and the squirrels in the middle can try to steal a tree. 

Here's a video of my students playing the second game:

If you are looking for visuals for the song, I've redone my "Let Us Chase the Squirrel" file to give it a fresh look and include slides for re. It has gone from 12 pages to 67!

If you own this file:

 

It has now become this:

I project this page and have them tap along with the beat when I am working on half note prep. Eventually, the kids will find a sound that lasts for two beats.

I bring this song back out when we are working on the melodic concept, re. We play the game during re prep, and then after re has been presented, this song provides lots opportunity to practice re. On the slide below we would sing from icons on the staff.

Click on the pictures above to check it out if you are looking for  complete ready-made visuals for this song or to re-download and get the updates for free if you had purchased the older version!

Grab a FREE sample of this song file here. 

Do you have any other ideas, games, books, or visuals you use with "Let Us Chase the Squirrel"? Collaborate by sharing below in the comments!

Frog in the Meadow

Since this is only my second year at my school and solfege was a brand new thing for my kids, I started with Feierabend's Coversational Solfege approach which starts out older beginners with d-r-m instead of s-m-l.

I was on the lookout for songs that are just d-r-m for my older beginners. Frog in the Meadow is a fun song for them. I have created the slides for this song and have included slides where "re" is the unknown/new concept so that I can use in the future with  my kids who will follow the traditional Kodaly sequence or for others who would like them.

Slides and flashcards are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store

Steady beat:

Rhythm icons:

 Rhythm- stick notation:

Pitch icons

Then I repeat these slides with the solfege underneith with a ? for re.

Then we put them on the staff:

After re is introduced, we re it with icons:

Then I take away the solfege:

After we are pretty successful, they become "real" notes". We read in both f do and g do:

Take the solfege out of the notes and we are reading like real musicians!

 I also made these flashcards that can be laminated and cut on the line. You can use these to practice reading the pitches, put the song in order, etc.

This version of Frog in the Meadow is taken from "Sail Away". I have seen other versions of it that use ti-tiri.

There is a leap frog game that goes with this song.


Lindsay

Closet Key

My students could play the game for this song OVER AND OVER. My fifth graders still ask for it. We play the game in a seated circle with a "detective" in the middle. Someone goes around the circle "garden" and drops a key in someone's hands behind their backs. The detective tries to guess who has the key.

 Lyric slide:

 Steady beat slide:

 Rhythm Icons:

 Stick noation:

 Solfa with stick notation- new pitch!

 Iconic pitch notation:

 Icons to show pitch with solfege and new mystery note:

 A new note has moved in!

 Introducing "re"!

 Practice reading on the staff

 Staff and solfege:

 Standard notation with solfege syllables inside:

My kids love to play this easy song on the Orff instruments too. There are also slides at the end that show the whole song in iconic notation.

These slides are available for download on my teachers pay teachers page, either as a Mimio lesson, or as a PDF. Please make sure you select the right one for you, as I know not everyone has access to Mimio software.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment or email me at LindsayJervis@hotmail.com

Lindsay