“Snowflakes that stay on my nose and
my nose and my lashes.”

~Oscar Hammerstein Ii / Richard Rodgers from The Sound of Music 

Waking up to a fresh snowfall is a beautiful site, delighting children and teachers alike! Ha-Ha!  As we approach the winter solstice, enjoy this free little “ditty” that celebrates this time of year.

Objectives

This song with instrumental accompaniment emphasizes:

• Low sol
• Compound meter
• Body percussion
• Level bordun
• Ensemble

Process

Begin the class by pointing out to students that you have added low sol to the solfege ladder and provide whatever explanation you see fit for how solfege syllables repeat in various octaves. 

Warm-up routine consists of the following:

• Rhythmic echos in compound meter ( tom= dotted quarter; ta- ti = quarter followed by eighth note; trip-le-ti= 3 eighth notes)
• Echo-solfege, being sure to incorporate low sol in a compound meter
• “Piano Story” is an activity I use to build movement vocabulary.  Learning this from Roger Sams, I improvise on the piano while telling a story, encouraging different motions and movements.  Today’s will be in a compound meter and explore floating, twirling, whirling, and anything my imagination conjures up when telling the story of a snowy winter day.

Singing the Melody

• Decide if rote teaching the song or literacy best suits your students’ learning at this beginning stage.  If choosing to teach by rote, display the lyrics on the board.
• Sing the song to students using a slight sway in your presentation.
• Ask students how many phrases there are (4).  
• Sing the song again, asking which are the same and which are different.
• Together with the students, identify the pattern, which is A A’ B A.
• Ask students to sing the A phrases, followed by the A’ phrase, while the teacher sings the B phrase. Trade jobs. Sing the whole song together!

Body Percussion to Ensemble

• Demonstrate the body percussion pattern by asking students to watch you for at least 3 cycles before they join. Have a slight sway in your movement to reflect the nature of the compound meter.
• * MODEL being choicefully musical (gentle) when you present the stomp/pat/clap to students and encourage them to do the same.  I know, the stomp isn’t quite a motion of gentility, but you can do it artistically in a dance-like fashion!

• Allow students to maintain the B.P. pattern while you sing the song.
• Divide the class into two.  Half sings the song.  Half performs the B.P. pattern—trade parts.
• Transfer the B.P. to level bordun on barred instruments. 
  • Bass metallophone (BM) = stomp
  • Alto metallophone (AM) = pat
  • Glockenspiel(GL.) = clap
• Ask students to identify the rhyming words. 
• Add a snap on the rhyming words.
• Transfer the snap to the triangle.
• Add the wind chime part, which only takes place at the beginning of the first and third lines.
• Put it all together!

Additional 2nd verse: 

Snow blankets the earth in white,

Sparkling quilt in morning light.

Footsteps crunch and sleds glide fast,

Winter’s magic is here at last!