3 Songs in Spanish for Kindergarten Music Lessons

I love using songs in Spanish in my elementary music lessons. I have a high percentage of Spanish-speaking students in my school, and the students who don't speak Spanish are still usually familiar enough with the language that it's easy for them to learn the lyrics and a fun way to learn some new vocabulary while practicing musical skills and concepts. Here are 3 Spanish language songs I use with my Kindergarten classes year-round (not just during Hispanic Heritage Month!) to teach specific musical concepts.

1. Ambos a Dos 

I use this song to practice identifying call and response songs. After they've learned echo songs and call and response songs and the definition of each, I have them listen to a recording of the song and hold up one finger when they hear one person singing alone, and hold up all their fingers when they hear a group singing. Then I ask them to figure out if the song is echo or call and response and have them listen and show their fingers again to pay attention to whether the 2 parts are the same or different, and they identify it as call and response. I show them how to walk and kick in a line to play the accompanying game and I move with the solo part while they move with the group part along with the recording. By the time they've done all of that they've heard the recording enough times to easily learn the first verse, so we sing it in call and response form by having the students sing the call (because the words are easier) and I sing the response. You can see links to the recordings I use, the video of the game, and more information on the song in this blog post.

2. De Colores

When I first did this lesson a few years ago with Kindergarten it was mostly just a quick bonus activity to incorporate a bit more Spanish language into my Hispanic Heritage Month lessons with Kindergarten without much curricular purpose, but I have come back to it every year since as a way to incorporate experience with triple meter and introduce the concept of echoing, and I could never have predicted how enchanted all of my students are with this little activity! It's also a great way to give my youngest students some familiarity with a very well-known song in many Spanish speaking countries- most years there is at least one Spanish speaking student who recognizes the song from learning it at home and is so excited to hear it at school. I show students this video (starting when the song begins) and tell students to sway with the music, then echo when they hear the color names. They are always so excited when they hear it switch to Spanish halfway through! I review the Spanish words for the colors after they do it the first time, then I hand out scarves to each student so we have all 6 of the mentioned colors, and I tell them to do it again but this time when we echo the name of their scarf color they should wave it in the air, and sway their scarf back and forth in the first part as well.

Some students will naturally start singing along the second time through as well because the words are on the screen in the video, but I don't spend any time teaching the song because the main purpose of the lesson activity is experiencing the triple meter feel with the swaying and introducing the term and practicing the skill of echoing with the color names.

3. Caminando Va

I love this song so much. You can head to this blog post for all of the recordings and lesson ideas I've done with different grade levels using this song, but for Kindergarten I use it to practice performing and identifying quarter and paired eighth notes. I teach them a fingerplay that includes clapping with the phrase "el caracolito" with 2 paired eighth notes followed by 2 quarter notes (see the full demonstration of the fingerplay with the clapping starting at minute 3 of this video), first by having them just follow my hands while I sing, then teaching them the singing as well. Once they've learned it, I break down the phrase we clapped one beat at a time and have them identify how many claps they did for each beat and notate it with paired eighth and quarter notes using rhythm cards like these DIY ones I made (and use all the time with multiple grades!). Because it's such a simple phrase it is a great introduction to rhythm dictation and an easy way for students to aurally identify rhythms after they've just been introduced. 

Once we've done that, I always finish by playing them the full recording by Marta Gomez that includes the fingerplay song at the beginning and then launches into a full-length song. We sing along with the opening fingerplay and then I tell them to grab a scarf and dance "like a snail enjoying the sunshine". The looks on their faces are priceless!

I hope this gives you some new ideas to incorporate more Spanish language into your Kindergarten music lessons! There are plenty more that I've done but these are definitely my favorites to come back to every year. If you want to see all of the lesson ideas, choir songs, and performance ideas using Spanish (and many other languages) I've shared over the years, you can see them all listed by language here.

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Pre-Composition Writing Practice

I don't know if this will feel revolutionary to anyone but me, but this year I tried something new that has made a tremendous difference for my students: before my students did their first composition activity in class where they were actually writing music notes with a pencil on paper, I had them practice just writing the notes the class period beforehand. I have noticed a huge improvement in my students' ability to get right into the task of composition in the grade levels that I've done this with so far!

Handwriting compositions is a very complicated task for a lot of reasons, and one of them that has become increasingly difficult because of changes in technology is that students are more used to seeing computer generated notation than they are handwritten notation. When they try to write notes, they will try to copy the way the computer shows it rather than the way it would normally look handwritten in pencil, adding extra thickness to different parts of the quarter rest for example. I've always taken time to point this out and demonstrate how to handwrite each one before they start writing, but they still didn't seem to get it.

I think the problem was it was too much information to process at once: I was asking them not just to think about how to write each note but also think about what they want their composition to sound like, and keep track of the specific elements they're practicing (how many beats they need in each measure, making sure they use at least one whole note, incorporating pentatonic solfege, etc). With everything else they were trying to think about at the same time, how to handwrite the notes became a low priority.

So this year I took some time to have students focus exclusively on just handwriting the different notes and rests that they had learned and would be using in composition. It was very simple and took 5-10 minutes with each class: I cut some regular computer paper in half, and gave each student a half sheet and pencil. I turned off slides so they were not looking at computer generated versions of the notation, and demonstrated how to draw each note or rest, one at a time, and told them to draw it on their own papers after each one.

By focusing on just the writing I was able to go around and fix those common mistakes like putting the stems on the outside of the noteheads for paired eighth notes, or weird squigglies for quarter rests, without having to think about anything else besides how to draw them. And the students actually really loved it, which I wasn't expecting! The 1st-3rd graders especially got so excited when I told them they could take their papers home, and asked if they could add more music notes at home- of course! They were thrilled with the idea that they could practice writing more music notes, which was an even bigger win for me!

It was incredibly simple to prep, took less time than I expected, and was more engaging and more effective than I expected as well- the next class period when I handed out composition worksheets students were able to focus on the considerations for the composition, like which types of notes to use and how many beats they need, rather than the mechanics of writing, so their composition process was much quicker as well!

Have you ever had students practice just handwriting notes? I've done this with treble and bass clefs before, but never done it deliberately with all the different notes they need as a precursor to a composition task, and I'm so glad I did it! As handwriting becomes more and more of a "lost art" it's so important for us to take the time to make sure students are able to do it well in our elementary music classes. If you want to see the composition worksheets I use that make it easy for students to focus on the elements they're studying, you can see my music composition worksheet set here.

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What To Do with an Idea

There are so many fantastic music teachers out there that share wonderful lesson ideas through publications, presentations, social media, blogs, and more, but what do you do with those great ideas when you learn about them? I remember going to music teacher conferences as a new teacher and coming back so inspired by the sessions I attended, my hands full of session notes and materials, and then setting that stack of papers on my desk to go through later and never touching them again. Or if I did actually try an idea, somehow it often didn't work nearly as well in my classroom as I envisioned it when I saw someone else do it. Here's how I think through whether a lesson idea is actually worth saving, and then what I do with the idea to make sure I actually end up using it in a way that is most likely to be effective when I apply it to my own setting.

1. Identify the purpose

There must be thousands, maybe even millions, of great lesson ideas out there that were engaging and effective for the person who shared the idea, but that doesn't mean it's going to be effective for me and my students in my setting. The first thought I automatically have when I see an idea is, "what concept or skill could this teach?". 

If I can't identify what skill or concept the lesson activity would teach, I think about whether it serves any other purposes: maybe it's a good attention-getter or time-filler I should add to my list of "keep it in my back pocket for when I need it on the fly" activities. Maybe it's a really fun way for a certain age group to explore music that I should plan to use for a reward day, at the very end or beginning of the school year, or on a weird schedule day when I need to do something different with one class in a grade level. Otherwise, I set it aside. There are plenty of other great lesson ideas out there that can serve a specific purpose that my students need!

2. Identify the conditions for success

If I can identify the skill or concept the lesson activity would teach, I also think about what the teacher or author did to make the lesson activity successful. What materials, instruments, classroom setup, lesson length, and other conditions were in place for this teacher, and if mine are different, will that impact the success of the lesson activity? What kinds of backgrounds are represented by the students and the teacher in the lesson, and who is in my classroom? Sometimes a lesson that was magic for one teacher won't work for me. Other times I may see a lesson modeled by someone with very different circumstances from my own and think, "that will never work for me", but when I stop and think through what made the lesson successful, I realize those differences probably won't affect the outcome, or I'm able to find ways I can adapt it to make it work for me.

3. Find its place

If I think through all of that and decide the lesson idea is worth keeping and using in my teaching, the next step is to find where in the school year, and with which grade level, I teach those skills and concepts. For me that part is easy because I already have the whole year outlined by skills and concepts for each month for every grade (if you want to see how I wrote all of that myself read this post, or get all of my K-6 yearly outlines in this set). If you don't have that all written out anywhere, start now! Make (or copy from someone else) a quick list of the major skills and concepts you're going to teach in each grade, and think through when in the school year you might teach the specific ones the new lesson idea would address. 

This is where I think having a place to "brain dump" ideas to cover a specific skill or concept in a specific month with a specific grade level is so useful. I keep a google doc for each month by grade and just jot down (or link if it's online) the lesson ideas as I come across them in the corresponding document. That way when I'm lesson planning for that month, I remember all the ideas I have for teaching what I want to teach! I suppose you could do it offline as well by setting up folders for each month/ grade and accomplish the same thing. The point is you need a method for organizing lesson ideas by month/ grade based on your yearly outline of the skills and concepts you're going to teach that month with that grade. You can see a free sample of what my monthly documents look like in this September set for 5th grade.

Just like concrete objects that you want to keep organized, you have to make sure you have a place for everything, and put everything in its place! If you find a new lesson idea you want to use and use effectively, take the time to find the best place for it in your curriculum and save it there so you'll remember it when you need it.

4. Choose Wisely

Once I save my lesson ideas in the right place in my curriculum, I have it exactly where I need it to use it in the most effective way possible when the time comes. But I always keep in mind, as I start collecting more and more great lesson ideas, that I have very limited class time to teach what I want to teach. As I'm planning my lessons each week, I weigh all of the options for how I can teach the skill or concept I'm working on and choose the one that I think will work best for the specific students I have that year with the specific circumstances I am working with that year (time constraints, changes in available materials, scheduling, etc). Every decision to add a new lesson activity is a decision to take something else out, so I'm always making sure, whenever I make changes, that I'm not losing something else important in the big picture of student learning by adding a new lesson in. Sometimes I have too many ideas and that's ok, that's when I need to step back and look at the big picture of what students need to know and be able to do by the end of the year, and make sure students have enough time with each of those things to accomplish that.

I know it can be overwhelming sometimes seeing so many great ideas being shared and not knowing how to use them in a way that actually makes sense- I hope this helps give you a framework for how to sift through everything and actually use the ones that will add value to your curriculum! If you don't have an organized, sequenced curriculum that will allow you to adjust and add ideas as you go like this, I highly recommend checking out the Organized Chaos K-6 Music Curriculum that includes everything I use in my own teaching.

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"Tutuca" Upper Elementary Hand Clapping Game

I recently came across a Spanish language hand clapping game that I can't wait to add to my lessons on improvisation with my middle and upper elementary grade students! It can often be much more difficult to get older students to improvise because they are so much more self-conscious, and games like this make it so much easier to get students improvising, and with this age group challenging games of concentration are always a hit! This could be a great activity to get everyone focused, or as a sort of team-building activity to get everyone listening attentively for a choir rehearsal etc as well!

The game is from an Argentinian group called Pim Pau, and it's called "Tutuca". Here's their demonstration video:

Essentially there are 4 words that each have an assigned motion to go with them. Players take turns saying a series of one or more of those 4 words, and then everyone has to repeat the phrase back with the correct motions while staying on the beat. If you mess up you're out!

The 4 words are all Argentinian foods, which I think my older students will enjoy learning about: tutuca is a puffed corn snack (learn more about it in this video), chipá is a cheesy bread (here's a quick recipe video), pororó is popcorn, and mate is a traditional tea made from mate leaves ("con" means "with").

For my purposes, I would make one small adjustment to say when students are making up their patterns, they should always do 4 beats, even if one of those beats is a rest, so the group is always counting 4 beats to know when to echo.

I will be using this game as a lead-in to my lessons on improvisation as part of the unit I teach on jazz in 6th grade. I plan to start by introducing students to the 4 different snacks by showing them pictures/ videos, then having them learn the motions associated with each word by saying the word and having them do the motion as quickly as they can. Once they can do that, I'll have them pat the beat on their legs and practice copying the patterns I make with motions. Once they can do that, I'll have students take turns making up the patterns for the class to echo, while still patting the beat on their legs. If there's time the final step would be to get in a circle and add the hand clapping on the beat, but honestly that may be a layer of complication that's not worth adding for the purpose of focusing on improvising patterns using the words.

Depending on how much time you can devote to these lessons, this could be transferred to instruments in a couple of ways: if students are working towards pitched improvisation like my 6th graders, each word could be assigned to chord tone on the xylophone for the group to echo back patterns students improvise, or if not, each word could be assigned to a percussion instrument, you can split up the class into 4 groups and give each student one of those instruments, and then students echo the patterns on those instruments.

I'm always looking for ways to get my older students focused and working together, and playfully improvising without feeling self-conscious, so I'm excited to add this to my repertoire! Have you ever heard of this game before? What other hand clapping games do you use with your older students? I have seen my students playing a game called "Tarzan the Monkey Man" that makes me cringe a little every time I hear it, so I'm also secretly hoping this one will catch on enough to replace that!

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