Call and Response Songs

One of the first things I teach in Kindergarten is call and response singing. After working on singing voice and echo singing, it's so fun when students are able to sing their own part independently with call and response songs! There are lots of great ones out there, but today I'm sharing my current top favorite call and response songs, as well as my process for teaching call and response.

I introduce call and response after students have been introduced to echo songs and have consciously identified that in echo songs, someone sings something and then someone else sings the same thing after (here's my blog post on echo songs if you want to see the songs and teaching process I use for that). Once they're comfortable with echo songs, I introduce the first call and response song, "John the Rabbit" (more on the song below), by having them practice singing "oh yes" on la (in la-based minor) and then telling them to sing "oh yes" every time I point to them. First I just sit there silently and point out to them at random intervals to sing "oh yes". Once they can do that, I start singing (on la/ do/ mi) things like, "no matter what I sing when I point to you you sing..." then point to them for them to sing "oh yes". I go back and forth, recitative-style, until they are all consistently able to sing "oh yes" instead of copying me, then launch straight into the song. 

After we've learned the song and sung it a few times we discuss that our parts were different, not the same, and I compare it to if I called someone on the phone and they answered by copying what I say: that would be rude! Instead of copying, people answer, or "respond", when you call them. That is what a call and response song is. I put my hands in a traditional phone signal with thumb and pinky and have them practice saying "call" with one phone hand up to their face, and "and response" with the other hand. I've found having different motions connected to echo and call and response really aids with memory, and even if they can't remember the vocabulary right away (especially multilanguage learners), they can show they remember the concept with the hand signs.

1. John the Rabbit

There are a few versions of this song but I prefer the minor key version like the recording linked above, mostly because it's what I was introduced to first, honestly, but also because I like to throw in minor tonality with my youngest grades whenever I can! After introducing the song like I described above, I pull out my rabbit puppet and tell them this time, only the student John the Rabbit looks at is going to sing the response, and I have students sing it individually. Besides having an incredibly simple response part, I like using this as my first call and response song because I can quickly assess their ability to hear and produce the tonal center and sing on pitch independently with this activity, plus the students love doing it with the rabbit!

2. Who Fed the Chickens

This Ella Jenkins song is a great song to use as a 2nd call and response song because it also has a very simple response part, it ties into the farm theme that many Kindergarten classes do in the fall in other subjects, and it's another great way to involve individual students again. After introducing the song and singing it together a few times, I've done it a couple of different ways: by having individual students sing "I did" when my chicken puppet looks at them, and by pointing to specific students while I sing the call and having all the students respond with the name of the student (e.g. "Jaden did"). 

After learning the song and doing it a few times, I ask students to identify whether the song is echo or call and response by silently showing the motion for the one they think it is, which allows every student to answer rather than calling on 1 student to verbally identify it.

3. Ambos a Dos

I introduce this song from Puerto Rico by playing the beginning of the recording linked above and telling students to hold up one finger if they hear one person singing alone, and all ten fingers if they hear a group singing together. After they listen to it once this way, I tell them to do it again, but this time pay attention to whether the solo and group parts are the same or different so they can decide if it's an echo or call and response song. Once we have labeled it as call and response, I teach students the move that is used with the song in the children's game, where you walk forward 3 steps and kick, then take 5 steps back (like in this video). I have the whole class get in a line facing me and I move with the solo part and they move with the group part. Once they can do that, I have everyone sing the words "matarile" and "matarile, rile, ron" with the response parts (if they haven't already spontaneously started singing it while practicing the moves). I have a whole blog post on this song, and different ways I've used the song, here.

Introducing echo and call and response singing is foundational for teaching part singing later on, so these are really important skills to teach in early childhood. I hope this gives you some fresh ideas to use in your classroom, and I'd love to hear about other call and response songs you love using with this age group in the comments (there are plenty more great ones)! If you want to see the full lesson plans with visuals, sheet music, and more for teaching call and response, you can find them in my Kindergarten music curriculum here.

Current Musicians for Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States. As someone who did not grow up in North America and does not have any Native American heritage in my family, I have been on a constant learning journey for the last two decades since moving to the United States to learn more about North American Indigenous music, and appropriate ways for me, as an outsider, to share it with my students. One way to do so is by sharing current musicians with my students- here are a few contemporary Native American musicians to explore.

First it's important to note that there is a lot of variation in language preferences within the Indigenous people of the North American continent. I refer to the heritage month by the official name, and try to use a mix of the preferred language I have heard from various culture bearers in my descriptions. When you are referring to specific people or musicians, it's important to do the research to see how they refer to themselves before describing them to your students. For each of the musicians I've compiled here I've listed their name and their tribe if they identify with a specific one(s), and included an example of a song you may want to share with your students.

Elisapie (Inuk)

Quinn Christopherson (Athabascan/ Inupiaq)

Martha Redbone 

Mumu Fresh (Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee)

Raye Zaragoza (O'odham)

Rhiannon Giddens

Supaman (Apsáalooke)

*song below contains heavy themes- prayer loop song could be an alternative

This list only begins to scratch the surface of amazing, multifaceted musicians actively making excellent music in a broad range of genres with North American Indigenous heritage! Please share other artists and/or songs you've found in the comments below.

Sharing songs and musicians is just one piece of giving students the opportunity to interact with and learn from Native American music, and it's important for us to do so in appropriate, respectful, and authentic ways, especially as non-native music teachers. I've compiled in this post some of my favorite resources for learning from culture bearers:

To find more strategies, resources, and ideas for incorporating other heritage months in elementary music, check out these posts: