MELODY - FIVE LITTLE BELLS

Five Little Bells
Five little bells hanging in a row.
The first one said, "Ring me slow."
The second one said, "Ring me fast."
The third one said, "Ring me last."
The fourth one said, "I'm a chime."
The fifth one said, "Ring me at Christmas time."

Source: www.kinderthemes.com

I wanted to connect to last week's activity, so I am using the same poem.  I am also working with the inital stages of putting rhythm and melody together with my little ones -- they are "writing" their first holiday melodies this week.   Print the blackline master I created (the link is provided below). After printing 5 copies of the blackline, write a 4-beat melody pattern using the solfege syllables that are part of your current concept lesson on each bell. For example, at the primary level, you might only use s-m or s-m-l. For an intermediate lesson, you might want to consider including d and r, as well as d' and s, and l,. Consider making the bells without any solfege patterns, laminating them first, then using an erasable marker so that you can change patterns based on the grade level use of this activity.

Here is how I have adapted the poem to use it this month and support the melodic concepts in my lesson. Hope it is useful to you in your classrooms.

Five Little Bells
Five little bells hanging in a row. The first one said, "hang the first bell and read (say/play) the melody pattern on the bell"
The second one said, "hang the second bell and read (say/play) the melody pattern on the second bell"
The third one said, "hang the third bell and read (say/play) the melody on the third bell"
The fourth one said, "hang the fourth bell and read (say/play) the melody pattern on the fourth bell"
The fifth one said, "We're all hanging on the line.
Now sing the melody of our seasonal chimes.
     (hang the fifth bell pattern and read (say/play) all five patterns - ending the pattern by saying)
A melodic ringing time.