Seasons Song

My students and I have been celebrating winter this past week with a delightful song I learned years ago in my first Kodaly certification course. I teach this tune to K-2 children (fall verse) in late September and revisit it as the seasons change, moving from a singing game and rhythm exploration to iconic notation and composition activities, depending on students' readiness. This is a great piece for discovering or reinforcing 'la.'

The children enjoy creating new lyrics for this simple but lovely melody as the seasons change. As an extension, older children enjoy switching up the solfege/rhythm cards and creating something new. 

You can click on these PNG files and print them. I will also post the full packet in PDF format in my store as a freebie. Enjoy! : ) 

 Winter Icon Cards

First-graders map the rhythm of the song.

 Second-graders map the pitch and rhythm.

Singing and signing (solfa) for real-time assessment.

 Spring Icon Cards

 Summer Icon Cards

Autumn Icon Cards

As an extension in second grade, we list words that match our rhythm building blocks and select four to create a new song as a class. Then students work in pairs to compose original (very simple) four-phrase melodies based on rhythmic text. The kids get quite excited and pleased with their creations. It's delightful to see my youngest students so engaged in meaningful music exploration!  (If you're interested, here's a link to my Rhythm Building Blocks printables, which are available in my Musical Magic TPT Store.)