Preschool-age littles make a fantastic beginning KidMin choir for so many reasons. Check out my article HERE for a few of them.
But it also comes with some challenges: they don’t read, they like to wiggle, short attention span, and small vocal range to name a few.
I like to teach KidMin choir as part of one-hour class that includes Bible stories and crafts (see my curriculum HERE). This helps littles to actually understand what they are singing about which I believe is crucial to their spiritual development. But, if I were to teach just a 15 minute choir class for preschoolers, my first lesson would go like this:
- Have chairs set up for them to sit in. Before singing, ask them a question. Littles want to talk. If you let them share something — favorite color, whatever — they are better able to listen.
2. Next, Get them up for an action-song warmup. Warm up their bodies and get some wiggles out while also warming up their voices for singing. I like to use a song like Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes. We sing it different ways, maybe slow then fast, maybe high then low, maybe loud then quiet. Preschoolers are learning about antonyms, so these opposites are perfect for them.
3. Have them sit back down and sing the first part of the song you will be teaching. Then sing just the melody of that same section on la (or another preferred syllable). Next, sing it again and have them echo it back. Repeat.
4. Do call-and-response with the lyrics of the same section. Explain the lyrics. Repeat and echo the lyrics. Sing the melody and lyrics together and have them stand up and echo back. Now sing it all together. Repeat.
5. Sing it again using a body expression and/or instruments that represents the tempo/dynamics of the song – marching, waving scarves, drumming, etc.
Your 15 minutes is up!
In subsequent classes, keep the same schedule but change things up within that schedule. I like to have six weeks per song. The first three weeks we concentrate on learning the song. Introduce half of the song the first week, the second half the second week, and put them together the third week. During week four, check progress. Do they need better understanding of the lyrics? Do they properly sing the melody? Have they memorized the lyrics? Are they comfortable with the accompaniment (or are they singing a capella)? Work on what’s needed most. Week five is presentation prep. Show them how to stand and how to line up. Practice walking on/off a pretend stage (masking tape on the floor works great). Talk about smiling and not touching microphones. Send a note home with parents (see mine HERE) about when and where to be next week and what the littles should be wearing. Week six is touchups and presentation.
Leave a Reply