Valentine, Valentine

"Valentine, Valentine" is a song that I use with both 1st and 2nd graders in February.  With first graders, it reinforces the rhythmic concepts that we've already covered but also prepares/practices so-mi (some years we've presented and are practicing so-mi by February and sometimes we're not.  This depends on many things: how often I saw them in kindergarten (strong foundation laid?); how often I see them in first grade (right now I'm on a 4-day rotation so they basically get music once a week); and the overall skills of the kids.  Some classes "just get it" earlier.  So, while I have a yearly plan, the kids and their skills sometimes make me "tweak" my plans to their needs).  With second grade, this is great for the so-do interval at the end.  

Here's the song:

And here's a simple Orff accompaniment that I teach my kiddos to play with the song:

This fall I found some fun table scatters at Target that I bought to use as manipulatives.  One of my parents helped me sort these and bought some of these for me when she found them at The Dollar Tree:

Needless to say, I ran back and quickly bought them out so I had enough for all my students (sorry Tanya!)

She also bought me these cute bags from the Dollar Tree (we'll see how long they last, but the sure look cute!):

So, with the bags and table scatter hearts I made sets that contain 16 hearts- this enables me to use them with my 3rd graders with the song "Love Somebody" (post coming soon on this one).

A few years ago (in the pre-technology-freak-Amy-days) I made these charts for my first graders:

I made these as a result of my students having a hard time writing note heads correctly on the staff.  They always wanted to put notes under each other (like you would for a chord) instead of in successive order to show the melody.  With these charts, we talk about how they can only put a note head in one box: either the top box or the bottom box.  This seems to help with the problem.  You can also use this as so-mi preparation (they sing the words "high" and "low" instead of so and mi).

Here's an example of how they would notate the first phrase of "Valentine, Valentine":

They then transfer it to the staff to look like this (I LOVE that these Table Scatters fit so nicely in that FREE staff paper you can pick up at your state conferences!!!):

Here's the second phrase.  It's kind of hard to see, but you can see through the heart that's on the line to see the line go through it (nice reinforcement of "line" vs. "space" notes):

And with my second graders, here's how they would notate the last phrase:

I do have a PowerPoint that I use to teach towards this individual writing.  I wanted to explain something about my PowerPoints.  I make them all with the same format: teaching/reinforcing the known rhythmic concepts and then teaching/reinforcing the known melodic concepts.  I do NOT always use the entire PowerPoint.  This is what I love about PowerPoints: you can easily change the order of the slides to meet your needs. In other words, I have two versions of this PowerPoint: one to meet the needs of my first graders (that has the beat/rhythm slides and the melodic pattern of the first phrase) and my second graders (that practices the rhythms and has the do preparation slides. . . with us transitioning into using the do practice slides after we present do  and are practicing reading do in known songs.)  

So, here's the PowerPoint:

Lyric slide:

Beat slide:

Rhythm preparation slide:

Ta & ti-ti practice slide with ta rest preparation slide:

Ta rest practice slide:

Ta rest practice with note heads:

These slides are for preparing do:

Text without the staff:

Solfége without the staff:

Text on the staff:

Solfége on the staff:

And then there are the do  practice slides.  These are presented in the same manner as the preparation slides.

Solfa without the staff:

Solfa on the staff:

And then finally reading the "real notes" on the staff with rhythms:

If you have a Dollar Tree in your neighborhood, run out and buy some table scatter hearts!!!  There are many more used for them then just this song!  And if you'd like my PowerPoint, it's available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.