Music For Kiddos Podcast
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True or false: the way that you create a lesson plan is really different from the way that you actually use a lesson plan.
Recently, I shared with you how I generate ideas to write 10 to 12 new preschool and kindergarten songs a month that then live inside of the Music For Kiddos Community. All of those songs are also the ones I use to create a new preschool or kindergarten music lesson plan every month.
My complicated history with lesson planning for preschool music groups
When it comes to lesson planning for preschool and kindergarten music groups, I have to admit to having a little bit of a complicated history with them. I've shared before on this post that my training and my inclination as a music therapist is to improvise. Improvisation is where I tend to thrive as a music therapist, and it works wonderfully in one-on-one settings, like the hospital, where I can take a lot of input from the child to create a song in the moment based on what we're doing.
But when I started working in large early childhood music groups, my one-to-one tactics absolutely did not work. In fact, my first group of preschoolers schooled me. They destroyed me. They were so challenging.
Why? Because I was not prepared and I was planning to improvise a lot of what I was doing. So when I started working with large groups, I really had to change my tactics.
Throughout the years, I was able to develop a step-by-step system to facilitate early childhood music groups and I’ve also realized that, lesson plans not only give us flexibility, but they give us a lot of options.
How can lesson plans be flexible?
You can absolutely deliver a lesson plan in a flexible way. I go in depth on my preschool music groups lesson planning process on episode 22 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, so visit the podcast here to listen to my whole process. Here’s what that looks like:
When I build a lesson plan, it is often comprised of eight songs: I start with a hello song and then there's six different kind of thematic songs, and I end with a goodbye song.
When I show up with a new lesson, I am rarely introducing all of those songs on a theme: I may introduce all of those songs on that theme if my students are already familiar with a couple of songs, but never will I show up with six brand new songs and expect young kids to be able to participate in those six songs, stay engaged, and regulated.
If I’m introducing new songs (typically only two at a time), I do so right at the beginning of the lesson: this is when their minds are fresh and they're excited and ready to learn. I will expect them to not participate very much the first time I play them.
Then, I generally bring in repetitive or familiar songs that they have heard multiple times: Usually, after our two new songs, we'll do about two familiar movement songs.
We read a music book that they've seen once or twice: Here my 3 favorite singable books.
We sing a couple of familiar songs at the end: including transitional and cool-down movement songs.
We end with a goodbye song and we sign “goodbye”: You can grab a free song packet with 10 of my favorite hello and goodbye songs here.
I bring those new songs for the following 3 or 4 weeks: Even if a song felt like it “crashed and burned” the first time you presented it to the kids, chances are they are going to be excited and they are going to remember the songs the next time you play them again. Kids also thrive with repetition, so it takes me about three weeks to really get through a lesson plan.
During the lesson, I constantly assess the students, their arousal and energy level and I cater songs to their needs. I will play around with this concept of familiar music versus new music, and flexible music versus structured music to make sure that I'm meeting the kids right where they are and also meeting their sensory and emotional needs.
If you can imagine me taking a lesson plan into a school and knowing that I really only introduce two new songs at a time, how I bring in familiar and structured music and how I’m always assessing the needs of the kids, you can see how that keeps so much of the lesson of the day as flexible.
Have you listened to episode 22 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast yet? Listen here to my lesson planning process and to listen to the song about fireworks “Boom, Boom” ↓
Free Song Download: “Boom, Boom” (Firework Song)
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