Christmas Train
Click here to purchase.
Christmas Train was one of the most time consuming activities I have made. I wanted to design and draw a seasonal composing activity to use with very young beginning students. Musically, I probably should have not used 3/4 time, but my mind was stuck on these words.
Here is how I will use it. Tap the rhythm out while saying the words in a 3 meter, accenting the first beat slightly so they feel the meter.  Tap the first line with the RH and the second line with the LH. I call it the green and red hands to match the train engines. Once they start to compose the melody they can use any 5-finger position but be sure you have them start and end on the tonic. (You can tell them that the first note is home and the trains start and end at home. The bass line can be exactly the same notes as the treble line, but they will discover the finger numbers are different. This activity will also give them some more finger number practice.   If young children have trouble playing with finger numbers, you know they are not ready for notes.
I designed this for pre-school and kindergarten children, but you can probably use it with first grader, too. This week, I hope to post another paper to put this melody on the staff.
Susan,
When you do have time to revise the train worksheet, perhaps you could just add OR, “Write note names in the trains to compose yourown piece. ” That way you would not have to create a separate worksheet.
Roxane
Good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.
-Susan
Roxane, that is an excellent suggestion, but I just don’t have time to revise and re-post it right now. I’ll work on that as soon as possible.
In the meantime, maybe we can just tell the more advanced students that they’re special and can use notes instead of fingers. The next one I do I’ll try hard to make it more general in use.
Thanks for the feed back. Sometimes I miss the forest for the trees.
Susan,
Would you consider modifying the directions to “Write note names, instead of finger numbers? ” This way a more advanced student could also use the worksheet.
Roxane
Thank you Susan. I will use this worksheet tomorrow with my preschool group clases.
Roxane