Preschool Music Program
Do you ever have one of those programs that you’re so excited about? I did this past week, Preschool Music! The program was going to be a great mix of recorded music and rhymes that I was going to do myself. I even double-checked to make sure that the music would be able to be heard over Zoom. Even with testing the music three different ways to make sure the sound was good.
And then two songs into my preschool music program, everything went sideways. The kids had no problem hearing me and even the first recorded song, but by the second song, they couldn’t hear a thing. I was so disappointed and scrambling on a virtual screen to try and re-create the 20-25 more minutes this program was supposed to last. Thankfully, at the very last minute, I had grabbed a few extra books and wrote down a couple of rhymes that I knew off the top of my head, in case things went haywire. Thank goodness!
That afternoon, I sent an email to all the attendees, apologizing for the technical difficulties and also giving them my entire lesson plan in case they were interested in doing some or all of it at home. Two of the families kindly responded to say their kids still had a wonderful time!
The moral of the story – always have at least one backup plan and maybe not use recorded music in Zoom programs! I still want to share this lesson plan because it was a lot of fun to pull together and might help you explore other preschool programming beyond storytime. You can also check out my preschool art program that we hosted last month.
Preschool Music Lesson Plan
- Opening & Closing – Bread and Butter – Jbrary
- Book – Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig
- Freeze Dance – Rock and Roll Freeze Dance – Hap Palmer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZvyR8whb00)
- Rhyme – Bananas Unite! – Jbrary
- Clapping Song – Happy by Pharrell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZSe6N_BXs)
- Rhyme – Mmm Ahh Went the Little Green Frog – Jbrary (phonological awareness)
- Marching Song – We Are the Dinosaurs – Laurie Berkner Band (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82ooOpJLzr8&list=PLrcfJyLiLpobHCqNWI-2YVQU2ZNdbqFGf&index=4)
- Alphabet Song with Different Tunes (https://www.youtzoom
ube.com/watch?v=9rwNra4sntI and http://melissa.depperfamily.net/docs/SingingABCs.pdf) - Create Shakers – water bottle and rice
We asked the families to come pick up an activity kit for this program. In the bag was an empty water bottle, some rice (some of which I colored with food coloring), stickers, and a half sheet of paper with book suggestions. We used the book list as a funnel to pour the rice into the water bottle to create a shaker at home! - Shaker Song – Shoo Fly with Egg Shakers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntdOtnXD1Zs)
Music-Themed Book List
- Banjo Granny by Sarah Martin Busse
- Brontorina by James Howe
- Dance! Dance! Underpants! by Bob Shea
- Dance Like Starlight by Kristy Dempsey
- Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig
- Dino Dancing by Lisa Wheeler
- Down by the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter
- Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle
- Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla
- Foxtrot by Becka Moor
- Giraffe Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
- Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson
- If You’re Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera
- Kat Writes a Song by Greg E. Foley
- Llama Glamarama by Simon James Green
- One Bear Extraordinaire by Jayme McGowan
- Play This Book by Jessica Young
- Salsa Lullaby by Jen Arena
- Saxophone Sam and his Snazzy Jazz Band by Christine M. Schneider
- The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort
- Tommy Can’t Stop by Tim Federle
