Lynn Kleiner's Music Box
A teacher asked for easy Orff activities. Here's one we've been enjoying lately since we are planning a Farm theme for all our preschool-grade 1 concerts this year. This is from the book/CD Farm Songs and the Sounds of Moo-sic, "I Plant a Little Seed."
The Children should learn the poem with movement first. For solo singing (so the teacher can assess their singing and assist), they can each sing what kind of plant they grew - flower, plant, fruit or vegetable.
Preset the instruments in C pentatonic. Everyone plays all parts together (that makes it easy!).
Tremelo on lowest bars for line one: I plant a little seed...."
Slowly play one note at a time from low to high for "Up comes the yellow sun...."
Slowly play one note at a time from high to low for "Down comes the cool rain...."
Play two hands together, two notes at a time low to high on "Grow, grow, grow....."
Once the plant has grown, do a little free play dancing music for the plant, playing on any notes they'd like while the teacher plays the sopranino in C pentatonic.
Here's a Baby Birdie is another one in this collection thats fun for playing the octave low to high, a note for each phrase of the song.
From the same book, All Around the Gardener's Bench can also be played in C pentatonic. Play the beat on big C and G while singing the song. On "POP!", play any two notes. Great opportunity to introduce the vocabulary word "accent!"
See www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com for "The Young at the Bars" and more ideas for an introduction to Orff that is musical but gives the opportunity for lots of playing time from all players and makes music FUN!
