SEL Music Lesson "I Got a Letter This Morning"

I used a new lesson with my 3rd graders at the beginning of the year this year to help build and re-establish their relationships with each other, and it was a huge success! I highly recommend this for any time of year as a great way to introduce and practice whole notes, the "syncopa" rhythm pattern, and same and different phrases, but most importantly to build community in your classroom. This is a great lesson to tie in with social-emotional learning on spreading kindness and positivity, friendship, and giving compliments.

I dug up the song "I Got a Letter This Morning" from the recesses of my mind this summer when I was looking for a new song to use to introduce whole notes to my students at the beginning of the year. I used to use this song years ago but had not taught it in many years, and coming back to it I suddenly saw so much potential for ways to use this song in fun, community-building ways that would be perfect to kick off the year on the right foot!

If you aren't familiar, this video demonstrates the version that I learned and used in this lesson. Because it is a US American folk song there are many variations on the tune, but the basic idea is the same. If you watch the full video they show an example of how you can analyze and identify the rhythms with students in this song as well:

Here's the notation of the version I used:

I start off by having students sing the "oh yes" phrases as a response, while I sing the "I got a letter" phrases as the call, and sing it in call and response form (this is a great opportunity to review call and response!). Then we talked about how exciting it is when you get something in the mail. I typed the names of each student in the class on a sheet of paper, spread out with 6 names on each sheet, and cut the paper into 6 individual sheets before class and put them all in an envelope. Then I told them we are going to send happy mail to our friends! We talked through some examples of what would make someone smile to read, including thinking about things that person likes, or telling them something you like about them. We also discussed that even if you don't know the person that well (like the new students), it's easy to come up with something that will make them smile, whether that's a happy message like "I hope you have a great day", or even drawing them a fun picture. 

I wasn't sure how well the 3rd graders would get it, but they definitely did. I randomly handed a paper to each student and had them secretly draw or write something on the side without the name, then fold it up and put it in the envelope when they finished. I kept them in the envelope for the next lesson, which also gave me time to take a quick look and make sure they were all good. The notes were all so sweet! The ones who got a close friend drew pictures of their friend's favorite things like basketballs or computers, some of them wrote incredibly detailed notes listing all the great things about the person, and some drew lots of smiley faces and kitty cats and stars. 

The next lesson, I announced that it was time for everyone to get their mail, but they would have to sing for their card! We practiced singing the song as a call and response again, and then I told them to switch parts: the students sang "I got a letter", and I sang "oh yes". Then I explained the game: while they are all singing "oh yes", I pull a card out of the envelope, look at the name, and hand it to the person. The person that gets their letter is the only one who sings "oh yes". Then we continue singing until everyone has their letter. Everyone was thrilled with the card they got, and it gave me a chance to make sure everyone was actually singing the full 4-beat whole notes on "oh yes" as they each sang by themselves. The students took the notes home with them.

The other great thing about this game is it gets the students to sing the song over and over. By the time we finished the game they had sung it several times and had it in their ears, so it was easy to have them then think about the rhythm and discover that the notes at the end have 4 beats, and introduce the whole note! You could use the same process to introduce the "syncopa" pattern in the first part of the song as well if you want to use it to teach that rhythm, and you could also have students think about each phrase of the song and identify the same and different phrases.

This lesson was a huge hit and it was the perfect way to start the year. The homeroom teachers were so excited when I explained why they were all leaving class with a piece of paper, and the students were all excitedly showing each other their notes. I even had one student who was so concerned that I did not receive a note myself that she spent her entire recess the next day making me a beautiful note and proudly brought it to class the next lesson and announced that we all needed to sing the song one more time, then handed me the note.

If you're looking for more ways to get students practicing giving sincere and thoughtful compliments, I highly recommend using classroom jobs and including compliments as one of them- you can read more about how I do that in this post. And if you'd like to see my full year of lesson plans with 3rd grade, you can find those in this 3rd grade curriculum set. Have you ever used this song in your classroom? I'd love to hear how you used the song in the comments below.