MELODY - LOW LA GRAPES

Thanks for Thanksgiving
Written by Julie Markes
Illustrated by Doris Barrette
ISBN: 978-0-06-051098-5

While most of my children know that Thanksgiving time is a wonderful time for eating and playing with relatives, many of them have trouble thinking of what to be thankful for.  In this activity, I wanted to work with my intermediate children on low la - and yet still take time to remember something that they are thankful that they have.

The story provides a great beginning of listing things that we can be grateful for; however, invite the children to "jump off the page" by singing about things they are thankful for in their home.

The manipulative that I created is a large bunch of grapes that can be removed from the bunch.  Each grapes has a solfege letter to represent s, - l, or d.  When you make your grape bunch, be sure to print the outline 2 times - then laminate.  Cut out the outline of the first laminated bunch.  Cut out each grape from the second laminated bunch.  Cut out each individual grape from the second laminated bunch.  Be sure to keep up with your individual solfege grapes - placing a piece of velcro on the back of each solfege grape.  Place the corresponding velcro pieces on the other sheet (the outline of the bunch) so that the individual grapes can be attached and removed.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE GRAPE BLACKLINE.

Every page in the story begins with the line, "Thank you for ..."  I used these three syllables to reinforce so, - la, - do.  I start by singing, "Thank you for" on s, - l, - d and then stop and speak one thing that I am thankful for in my life - I use grapes since most of my students know that I LOVE grapes.  :)  I put the manipulative "low-la grapes" on the board.  After singing the pattern a few times, I pull 3 grapes from the bunch - I'm careful to pull a s, - l, - d mix from the bunch to reinforce what I have been singing and place them on the staff to show them what the notated pattern would look like.  Invite students to sing the same pattern finishing the line with a spoken response of something they are thankful for having.  Be sure to reinforce by showing the notation of the melodic pattern and/or touching the grapes as you sing the pattern.

To reinforce the other optional patterns by mixing the notation on the board - I chose to use d - l. - s, next as it was easier for the children to see that it was simply going "down" instead of "up."  After having another group of 4-8 children respond and speak, change the pattern again - this time considering harder patterns (i.e. d - s, - l, or l, - s, - d).  Add more grapes to create a challenge.