MELODY - BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP

Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Three bags full.
One for my master, one for the dame,
One for the little boy who lives down the lane.

This week, my first grade students are starting to sing and create sol-mi melodies.  In a whole-class activity, I drew a line (fence) on the white board and then placed all of the sheep above the fence.  After saying the poem, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," we sang a 3-sol melody after reciting the poem.  As we said the poem again, I moved the sheep to create a sol-sol-mi melody.  When we finished the poem, we sang the new melody.  After a few more times, I was ready for the kids to create their own melody.  So we decided that the sol-sol-mi melody was the "class song" and that you had to create something different.  (Yes, I know there are only so many patterns you can create -- but they don't care -- to them, if they make it, then it's new!)

I put a piece of masking tape down on the carpet for each child (about 6-8 inches) and gave each child 3 sheep pattern pieces.  I kept the "class melody" on the board.  I then shared with the class that we would create a 4 melody (4 phrase) song each time we said the poem.  So we said the poem, then sang the three of the student melodies and ended with the "class melody" the fourth time.  They LOVED the activity!

To complete the lesson, I gave each child a 3x5 card and 3 stickers that I have previously cut apart into little groups of 3 (that I purchased at a local teacher store).  On each of the 3x5 cards, I had drawn a black line across the middle to represent the fence.  I asked the children to "write" or copy their melody using the stickers onto the index cards so that they could take the song home to sing to their family.  I reminded them to say the poem first before singing the poem.  They walked out of class as if they were carrying the Gutenberg Bible!!!

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