Do you and your students put together a Spring program or an end-of-the-year concert or presentation? I’m definitely not an expert, but in working with preschool and kindergarten students, I’ve learned a thing or two about putting together pre-k and kindergarten end of year programs and presentations. What I’m going to share with you here are just a compilation of some ideas and lessons I learned along the way and at the end of this post, I will be sharing one of my favorite children’s songs I’ve used for a preschool graduation that will also work for a preschool or kindergarten end of the year slideshow.
There are four specific elements we need to take into consideration when choosing the songs for a successful pre-k or kindergarten presentation:
Choose songs that the kids like: The music has to be really dialed in and they also had to like it. Especially the older the were, the more they cared about how cool the song was.
Choose songs that are easy for kids to sing: Avoid too much syncopation and large melodic leaps. Choose simple lyrics.
Choose songs that are repetitive: Not just lyrically, but also musically because in the moment, all of the chaos of the time of the performance where they have a lot of distractions, some of them are having nerves or anxiety. The more repetitive the song is, the less likely they will get lost in the song form. It's not just about getting lost in the lyrics, it's about getting lost in the actual song form (you'll get greater participation in the moment with nerves and distractions -- they won't get lost!)
Songs that work well with props and/or gestures or choreography: This adds to the presentation and it just makes it cuter and sweeter! It also makes it more fun for the kids too because they get the opportunity to show their personality. Some of the kids have gestures that are really little, and some of the kids have gestures that are really, really big and I like that individuality is part of a school program or presentation.
Another helpful tip:
Get teacher buy-in: the songs often need to be reinforced during non-musical times. I often saw my students only one time a week, so I needed to get teacher approval and help in order to make it successful. Also on concert day, I generally needed the teachers to work with me to have the songs go well. There were about 175 preschoolers! So, I got the teachers very involved and they would bring the class up on stage, they would stand in front, mouth song lyrics and help kids with the gestures while I was taking care of other things on stage. Teacher participation was so important because it helped things go smoothly.
In need of some song recommendations for your pre-k or kindergarten program, presentation or slideshow? We compiled 10 songs for end-of-the-year presentations or graduations in this post.
Here’s one of my favorite children’s songs for community and friendship that is perfect for an end of the year presentation or graduation. This also can also be used for a preschool or kindergarten slideshow featuring pictures of special classroom memories and what they’ve done throughout the school year & share it with the kids and their grown ups. Do you need more spring, end-of-year or graduation song ideas? You might like to read this post.
