Preschool Powol Packets

Today I'm sharing my dinosaur lesson plan for our preschool music class.  I'm teaching a preschool class this year that combines music and movement to teach basic music concepts like pitch and listening skills while letting our preschoolers sing, run, and play!  You can also use a lot of these ideas and activities with toddlers or kindergarteners...just adapt them for your kid's abilities! I'm sharing my lesson plans here in case anyone else wants some ideas for Music Time! You can see more music lessons here ! This lesson is already tested--we had a great time! This is a 40-minute class, and includes transition and movement time. :)  Theme : Dinosaurs (1) Gathering Activity : Play with musical instrument toys. Hello Song : Hello Song:    Hello * kid's name * Hello * kid's name *  Hello * kid's name * We're glad you're here today! to the tune of "Goodnight, Ladies." Warm-up Song :  When I Sing La, La, La  by Janeen Brady with sock puppets. ...

For our Preschool Music & Active Movement class this week, we focused on Firefighter songs! Here is the outline I used to teach our 45-minute class for 3-4 year olds. In addition to our preschoolers, we usually have a couple younger and older brothers and sisters join in too.  ;)  1- Gathering time:  play with musical instruments bin. This week I also brought out a set of boomwhackers for the kids to play with. 2- Welcome Song. 3- When I Sing LaLaLa by Janeen Brady.  We do this and the welcome song with puppets: 4-  I introduced the theme  and we talked about firetrucks we've seen.   I like to start with a song that gets the kids moving a lot because it helps everyone relax and focus at the same time.  I don't have any favorite firetruck action songs (feel free to recommend some!), and some fire stations have cars, so we used Drive My car from Laurie Bergner: 5- We talked about how firefighters ...

Last year I started teaching a preschool Music and Active Movement class in our community, mostly so my preschoolers could make some new friends and get the benefits of an organized music class . I decided to share the lesson plans here, partly to help anyone else who is planning preschool music lessons (whether it's in a preschool class, a homeschool co-op, a library, or just in your community!) and partly so I could find them again easily! I like to have a theme each week and consistent routines within the class. The kids enjoy the variety of themes and the routines help young children adjust to a structured class. These lessons are designed for 3-4 year old kids, but we have had siblings from 2-6 join in and have a great time too! Each lesson takes about 40 minutes. It is worth pointing out that in the first lesson (Moon & Space) , I share more details about our Welcome Song, Good-bye Song, and a little more background about some of my inspiration fo...

For our Preschool Music & Active Movement class this week, we focused on penguin songs! Here is the outline I used to teach our 45-minute class for 3-4 year olds. In addition to our preschoolers, we usually have a couple younger and older brothers and sisters join in too.  ;)  1- Gathering time: play with musical instruments bin. This week I also brought out a set of handbells for the kids to play with. 2- Welcome Song. 3- When I Sing LaLaLa by Janeen Brady. We do this and the welcome song with puppets: 4-  I introduced the theme, we talked about other animals that live in cold places, and we started with the Penguin Dance song. I like to start with a song that gets the kids moving a lot because it helps everyone relax and focus at the same time. For the Penguin Dance song, we listened to the words and acted out any actions we could hear: 5- We talked about how penguin moms lay eggs and penguin dads carry their eggs around on ...

This is my plan for our Snow-Themed Music Time for preschoolers! I'll add more details soon, but I needed to get a plan typed up! Last semester I taught a Preschool Music & Active Movement class for 3-4 year olds in our community.  We had such a wonderful time that I decided to do it again this semester! I especially love teaching these classes because they are full of safe sensory exercises, group activities, pre-reading activities, and (of course) music information! This was our first week's plan: Gathering Activity : Playing with musical instruments. 1- Welcome Song! You can get more details about the welcome song I use HERE . 2- When I Sing La La La by Janeen Brady . Again, more details on this song are HERE . 3- Shake! Your Shaker Eggs! by We Kids Rock.   I wanted to encourage the kids to shake their "snow clouds" to make it snow! 4- Snowflakes, Snowflakes by Songs for Kids.   We clapped rhythm sticks on beat du...

Last week our preschool music class theme was Spiders. It's one of my favorite October themes every year!  Our music class combines songs and movement to teach basic music concepts like pitch and listening skills while letting our preschoolers sing, run, and play!  We also have toddlers or older kids join us too...just adapt the activities for your group's abilities! I'm sharing my lesson plans here in case anyone else wants some ideas for Music Time! Themes we've already done for our music class are  Moon & Space , Dinosaurs, Ocean , and Leaves! This lesson is already tested--we had a great time! This is a 40-minute class, and includes transition and movement time. :)  Theme : Spiders Gathering Activity : Play with musical instrument toys. Hello Song : Hello Song:    Hello * kid's name * Hello * kid's name *  Hello * kid's name * We're glad you're here today! to the tune of "Goodnight, Ladies." W...

Rhythm sticks are one of of our favorite instruments during our Preschool Music Time class, so I always try to find a way to make one song work with them every week. This week we did a Spider Theme, and I saw a short list of spider songs at The Perpetual Preschool . I changed one of them just a little to use with our rhythm sticks! Here's how we sang: Use the tune of the song "If You're Happy and You Know It," but instead of "clapping your hands" (or stomping your feet or whatever else you like to do,) "clack" your rhythm sticks together twice! Sing: I Wish I Were an Eensy Weensy Spider Oh I wish I were an eensy weensy spider! (clack! clack!) Oh I wish I were an eensy weensy spider! (clack! clack!) I'd wiggle and I'd crawl up the wall and down the hall, Oh I wish I were an eensy weensy spider! (clack! clack!) We sang it twice because the first time through everyone was just figuring out the instructi...