Written and Illustrated by Eric Carle
ISBN: 978-0-399-23579-5
As are most of the Eric Carle children's books, this is a wonderfully simple story of a farmer and his 5 animals. I used this to reinforce the concept of pentatonic.
After sharing the story, invite students to set Orff instruments in C pentatonic. This is a great opportunity to remind students that penta-tonic means 5 tones.
At the beginning of the story, when Farmer takes care of "one, two, etc." invite students to play a simply pentatonic scale (do-re-mi-so-la) after the reader has said the numbers one through five.
As you continue the story, invite students to play any note one time for the first animal, 2 times for the second animal, etc. Though simplistic in form, the children LOVE the story and playing 1 sound, 2 sounds, etc. for each of the animals.
To add an additional element, ask students at the metals to play the pentatonic scale at any tempo (so that there is a variety of sounds) after the word "snowflakes." Invite students at the woods to play any pentatonic note based on the number they hear in the story - i.e. they only play any pentatonic tone after they hear "One with a white blanket;" "they play any two pentatonic tones after they hear "Two with a white blanket," and so on.
Throughout the story, the animals are called 1-2-3-4-5 -- which students can repeat the pentatonic scale on their instrument. Midway through the story, the snow clouds move away and the moon and stars sparkle in the wintry night sky. Add the familiar song, Bye-n-Bye, singing up to 5 stars.
Towards the end of the story, when the farmer begins to put on his warm coat,boots, hat and gloves, add these items to the song "Must Be Santa."
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A POWER POINT OF THE FARMER'S WINTER CLOTHES.
Since my children have already learned the song, it was very easy for them to make the changes. They LOVED singing this song with the words, "Must be Farmer, must be Farmer, must be Farmer, must be Farmer, our friend Farmer." That worked until after the first time when one of the children noticed that we can sing "Must be Santa." They LOVED that even more.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A POWER POINT OF THE FARMER'S WINTER CLOTHES.
Since my children have already learned the song, it was very easy for them to make the changes. They LOVED singing this song with the words, "Must be Farmer, must be Farmer, must be Farmer, must be Farmer, our friend Farmer." That worked until after the first time when one of the children noticed that we can sing "Must be Santa." They LOVED that even more.
Be sure to check out the last 2 week postings as well -- there are fun gingerbread man activities. There is a sing-along as well as a steady beat activity.
Enjoy these activities and have a great week.
Enjoy these activities and have a great week.
This is great! Thanks for sharing!
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