Sing for Joy! A Guide to Three Dozen Preschool Music Lesson Plans

Quick Take

Growing up I listened to the radio’s top forty count down often. While we’re not counting down, we are highlighting Bright Hub’s top forty preschool music lesson plans that will bring to you fresh songs, and creative music activities to use in the classroom or at home.

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Music Makes Learning Fun

Whether you’re a preschool classroom teacher or a general music teacher working with young learners, you fill find resources for your school day here. Even parents can benefit from the articles below because these resources are mostly written by authors that have experience working with preschoolers.

Seasonal songs, transition time tunes, general music lessons, instrument making, and concept songs are the five topics highlighted here. So, if you’re looking for a melody to sing for Thanksgiving, a circle time song, or a creative instrument to make with your class, you’ve come to the right place.

Seasonal Songs

In preschool, the calendar comes to life for little ones. Often in a classroom setting the calendar is a daily feature during circle time. Children are learning about the days, weeks and months of the year. These songs will help children capture the essence of each holiday in the passing seasons.

Transition Time Songs

I have fond memories of teaching pre-Kindergarten music at my first paid teaching position. In the beginning of the year many of the four year olds would often have trouble transitioning from one activity to the next. In a structured classroom environment changing gears by following the clock is necessary. One child may still be enjoying the activity he was on when it’s time to move to a new one. For other students the difficulty in transitioning can be the open time to move the body, which sometimes means talking to others or touching one another.

Using songs to signal transitions can be a great way to build structure in the classroom in a fun and creative way. Also, the repetition of singing, or playing, the same song can be comforting to children who like to know what comes next. Not only are transtion times covered in this set of articles, but also circle time songs are highlighted as well.

General Music Lesson Plans

Why is music so important in the preschool classroom? In the article The Importance of Singing in the Preschool Classroom Bright Hub Education author Cheryl Gabbert writes that music is an excellent way to use the art of repetition to enhance learning. Gabbert also reminds us that songs that teach concepts, like the ones listed later in this guide, are educational tools for preschool teachers.

If you’d like some creative ideas on props to use while singing in the classroom, new fingerplays to perform, or more reasons for utilizing music in a preschool setting the following articles are for you.

Instrument Making: Shake It Up Baby!

maracas

If you can gather the supplies for the following instrument activities, you can turn your class into a band, or put on a parade! The following lesson plans below utilize easy to find materials, and simple instructions for turning every day items into instruments for little hands.

Have you ever made a shoebox guitar or a comb kazoo? What about using bells in the preschool classroom? These hands-on lesson plans will have children shaking, rattling and rolling!

Songs That Teach Preschool Concepts

What concept are you teaching this week? If you need songs for colors, numbers, rhymes or opposites this guide has what you need. Gardners’ multiple intelligences show you eight different ways children are apt to learn. Music is its very own learning style, which means teaching concepts through song can be very beneficial to students that learn best this way. Whether you’re highlighting the five senses or needing songs for Spanish words, check out this list to see if we have what you need to match your lesson plan.

Joy in the Classroom

Exposure to music has proven to be, if nothing else, a mood enhancer. Music in the preschool classroom can quiet busy bodies or get moving lethargic ones. Using music to bring structure to your day, through transition songs, or highlight concepts, through tunes that teach educational skills, can be beneficial to the young learners in your care.

If you’ve found a certain article helpful, or if you have a tip to share when it comes to implementing music time in the classroom, please feel free to leave a comment. We really do learn from one another, and this is a great place to share knowledge!

References

Image: Children with instrument . Author: ABX. Wikimedia Commons.
GNU Free Documentation License.
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Image: Maracas. Author: Gerald G. Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication