time structure of a kindergarten and pre-K classroom

Time Structure of a Pre Kindergarten and Kindergarten Music Class

(And the beginning of the year for 1st Grade)

By

Carol Roskos

2/20/2009

I have 40 minute classes, but this can be adapted to 30 minutes or 20 minutes by taking away some activities and/or shortening the length of your main lesson.

5-10 minutes: review and build song repertoire (some suggestions in parenthesis)

· Greeting song
· Finger game 1 (I do The Finger Band)
· Finger game 2 (Mr. Wiggles and Mr. Waggles)
· Song 1 (Open Them, Shut Them)
· Song 2 (some type of action/movement song)
· Song 3 (optional, any type of children’s song)

5 minutes (optional): Movement. If you have a lesson that does not involve much movement, insert a movement activity here. I sing “If you’re wearing (call a color like red) stand up. If you’re wearing (color name) stand up”. And then I ask them to tap their toes, or head, or skip, or hop, etc… while I play a steady beat on the drum.

20-25 Minutes: Main Lesson

· Movement
· Singing
· Playing instruments

5 Minutes: Cool down. Either a slow mirroring activity with music, a quiet story, line up according to colors, or a time to reflect and share about today’s lesson (what did you like about…?).