Melodic dictation in 1st grade

In 1st grade general music, one of the biggest priorities is to teach a solid foundation in rhythmic and melodic literacy.  However, as many elementary music educators may agree, rhythm often holds a higher priority than melody when teaching students how to read music.  There are many reasons why rhythm should hold a higher priority: it's the frame work from which we hang melodies from; music needs rhythm, but not all music needs a melody; and, frankly, it is more concrete and therefore easier to teach to young minds!

With that being said, I have a plethora of rhythmic games and strategies that I use with the students and I try to make sure we do some rhythmic sight reading and other rhythmic work in every music class.  I also try to have some melodic work as well, but I've noticed that I have less games and strategies for teaching melody.  I'm trying to push myself to include more melodic decoding and dictation activities into my lessons so students become just as comfortable with their melodic literacy as they are with their rhythmic literacy.

  When we first labeled melodic sounds, we started with the terms "high" and "low."  The students became comfortable with distinguishing between high and low sounds by comparing the two different sounds and labeling what they heard.  Later we renamed the sounds sol (high) and mi (low) and discussed how it was important to rename them, because in music we don't just have one high sound and one low sound.

One way that we decode and dictate melody is by using a staff and bingo chips as the tones.  1st grade is currently working with a two line staff (one line for sol and one line for mi).  Here are a few pictures of the 1st graders dictating some familiar melodies:

"Teddy Bear Teddy Bear" -- from the song Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn around

"Have the wish I wish tonight"--from the song Star Light Star Bright

 

We used "scaffolding" by first doing this activity as a class, then in pairs, before trying it individually.

One strategy for decoding the melody was to clap the phrase using high clapping for sol and a low clapping for mi.

The students took turns pointing to the dots as they sang the song to check their answer.

This week we will follow up this activity with a melody recognition and matching game on our interactive board.  Students will be assessed on their ability to hear sol and mi melodies with a formal assessment in 2 weeks by telling me if the melody they see matches the melody they hear.