THE LEAVES ARE FALLING ON THE GROUND, THEY’RE FALLING ALL AROUND
There is something so cozy and comforting about the leaves changing colours in the fall and our Music & Language Arts Lesson, The Leaves Are Falling, offers so much opportunity for enjoying this fall theme with music, movement, and through expressive words using poetry and riddles.
Today, I am so excited to be sharing these super playful activities for kids from PreK right up to Grade 2, depending on the interest levels of the students and their abilities to follow along.
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The Leaves Are Falling Music Lesson is now available to download at our new Teachers Pay Teachers Store!
This lesson includes Easy Play sheet music for the xylophone and 3 easy chords for the ukulele, making this song super easy for any teacher to play – and even for your more advanced students to attempt on their own on the xylophone – or maybe with the teacher’s help using the hand-over-hand method.
This lesson has many components to it to offer to both teachers and their students – from fun music games to a strong Language Arts Activities and even some fun science about why trees lose their leaves in the fall.
Within this package, children will learn:
- THE LYRICS TO THE LEAVES ARE FALLING SONG
- THE RHYTHM OF THIS SONG THROUGH FUN GAMES & ACTIVITIES
- VERY SIMPLE MUSIC NOTATION FROM THIS SONG
- TO SORT & MATCH UP POPULAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES
- TO ENJOY OUR FALL POEM AND RIDDLES
- TO ATTEMPT TO PLAY THIS SIMPLE MELODY ON THE XYLOPHONE
- TO SING ALONG TO THE UKULELE CHORDS WHILE THE TEACHER PLAYS THEM
1. LEARNING THE LYRICS
When introducing new song lyrics to younger children, I usually start by singing it through the first time and then reading the lyrics line by line, and then singing it to them in the same order. The Leave Are Falling song lyrics read like couplets so I would read two rhyming lines at a time and have the children repeat them back to me. Then I would sing the lines to them and have them sing them back to me. Writing out the lyrics on a white board or large format lined paper is also very helpful for pointing to and following along and are a great way to get started. You can also add the AABB and ABAB rhyme schemes if this works as an age appropriate progression for your kids.
2. LEARNING THE RHYTHM
In my experience, the easiest way to teach the rhythm of this song to young children is to break it down into these 4 steps. This progression will take time to practice with the children and you can start off with reading and clapping the first week and then moving onto singing and clapping the second week, and so forth.
Here are the steps I would take for this activity.
a. I read the song as I clap out each line and have the children follow along.
b. I now advance to singing and clapping as the children follow along.
c. I sing as the children clap along.
d. I clap as the children sing by themselves.
3. LEARNING SIMPLE MUSIC NOTATION
Once the children learn how to clap out and sing to the song, we can introduce them to very simple music notation that they can cut & paste and learn how to play or in the very least follow along as their teacher plays.
4. ENJOY MUSIC & MOVEMENT
As the leaves fall off the trees in these song lyrics, the children can have fun acting this out using scarves or leaf props and even just their hands if they prefer.
5. USING ACTIVE LISTENING TO POETRY AND RIDDLES
Children practice using Active Listening as their teacher reads the poem, Why Trees Lose Their Leaves along with fun riddles to help them guess which leaves belong to which trees.
6. SINGING ALONG TO THE XYLOPHONE MELODY
This is always such an exciting experience for the children. Firstly, they love the colourful xylophone keys and most children seem to be really fascinated by the sounds that are produced when my pink mallet hits these colourful keys! You can always start with one of their favourite songs that they are used to singing along to – such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – and then next, you can introduce the new song you are teaching them, such as The Leaves Are Falling. This way, the kids are reoriented to the activity of singing along to the xylophone and they will relax faster and be able to focus on the task at hand.
7. PLAYING THE XYLOPHONE NOTES
When playing the xylophone notes, I often have the magnetic notes displayed line by line on my music staff so children can see the coloured notes and hit the proper keys as they associate the matching colour to the key. We can practice this step by step, and hand over hand, if needed, and I always ask the child first if they would like to try this. Most say yes, and I’m totally fine with those who would prefer to just watch and take this all in. These children will sometimes approach me afterwards when there is not an audience and ask to practice with me during free play as I often set out the xylophone music card with the instrument as a table top activity on music day.
I would recommend picking up a xylophone that has the removable keys so you can add the sharps and flats and even take out any keys that are not being played in the song you are working on.
8. SINGING ALONG TO THE UKULELE
This is such a fun exercise for the children! They just love the sound of the ukulele. When I introduce a new song to them, of course, I start with a warm up song they are used to to singing with the ukulele.
Be sure to check out my story here on what activities I include in all my preschool music classes! You can also view my very first song with xylophone and ukulele chords, I Love Me/I Love You – the perfect song to teach self love to both toddlers & preschoolers!
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