Our Program

MATB Lesson - I Lost a Tooth

 

Introduction


Music/Concepts

  1. Arpeggios/triads/skips
  2. ¾ Time
  3. Rests – spaces of silence
  4. Intervals – 3rds and 5ths

 

Difficulties

  1. Playing the skip from 5 to 3
  2. Counting the rests
  3. Understanding the difference between skips and steps
  4. Holding the dotted half notes for their full value

Activities Away From the Piano

  1. Move around the classroom moving in “3, like a waltz.  Dip on 1 to emphasize the downbeat.
  2. Clap the entire song – be sure to hold the dotted half notes and let go of the rests.
  3. Use the Velcro board to demonstrate which notes are missing.  Have the kids identify/find those same missing notes on the poster.
  4. Sing the song with words, number and letters (letters are easier here because there are only the three notes).
  5. Have the children identify the “spaces” in the song (rests). 


Ear Training

  1. Play combinations of 1,3, and 5 and have the children tell you what you played.  If they can do it, you could also ask for the children to play back what you played to them.
  2. Work on the song in solfege and with Kodaly hand signals and have the children  do the song using both. Then play one of the three pitches and have them identify them as Do, Mi or Sol.   
  3. Play a sequence of notes (steps or skips).  Ask if they were steps or skips.


Activities at the Piano

  1. Exercise: Play 1-3-5-3-1  then try them together in a chord
  2. Exercise:  Play 1-5-1-5-1    1-3-1-3-1    1-1-1-1-3-3-3-3-5-5-5-5-3-3-3-3-1-1-1
  3. Play the entire song – have them remove hands, though not too high, on the rests and have them say the “shh –shh” to mark the time. Having the children sing while playing will help to reinforce the idea that when a number is skipped a finger is also skipped.
  4. Try playing this song in a round.


Extensions/Creativity/Exploration

  1. Make up a song using skips only. (Give some outline, like begin and end on 1.)
  2. Make up a song in ¾ time.
  3. Play music that is in ¾ and have the children dance to it
  4. Have the children think about loosing teeth (wiggling it, the tooth fairy, etc.) and have them make up a song about it. They could also draw pictures.
  5. Work on this song with other instruments.  Tone bells, glockenspiel, etc.


Questions

  1. What fingers are not used in this piece?
  2. How many beats does a dotted half-note get?
  3. How many beats are in each measure of this piece?
  4. Why are there two rests after you say “Here is the space”?
  5. Are 1, 3, and 5 line or space notes? 
  6. How many of you have lost a tooth?
  7. What does the dot do to the half-note? (Makes it longer or adds 1 beat)
  8. Is this a song of steps, or of skips and leaps?
  9. What other song that you learned had dotted half notes?

 

More Activities

  1. Pointing to the space of lost tooth, while saying “sh-sh,” for rests in measure 4
  2. Have all kids who have lost a tooth point to it and show it to the entire class.
  3. Practice low-middle-high using body position, as in lessons 1 and 2.  Use hand signals for do, mi, sol at the same time.
  4. Teach and drill the letter names C-E-G.  This is easy, whether or not you have been working on letter names, because these three notes just keep taking turns and are easily recognized.


Observations and Suggestions

  1. A big skip of 5th in measure 1-2 was still difficult.
  2. Since losing a tooth is such a rite of passage at this age, it is important to connect that this song is about them.
  3. Point out that the gap in the mouth is just like the skips in the music (and the 2 rests).
  4. Ear Training Idea: without using the poster board, Michelle sang the song and asked the children to identify where the dotted half notes were by ear (i.e. on which word). She then had them sing the song and clap on the dotted half note. This was a great exercise to do before bringing out the poster board music.
  5. For those children who have lost a tooth – have the class sing it with the child’s name substituted in.  “Brian lost a tooth/Brian lost three teeth.”