Mountain Melody Map
“What do you see? What do you notice?”
The children look up at the board and give you their answers. Mountains. A motor cross trail. A snake. (Their imaginations can see lots of things! <grin>)
“What do these images have to do with this song?” Sing the second verse of The Holy Ghost. Receive the children’s answers. Ups and Downs. How loud it is. Where you take the breath. Receive all the answers without saying they are right or wrong.
Adding words to the melody map
“Look at words on the sides of the board. When I touch you on the shoulder, come up and put the word where it goes on this Mountain Melody map.”
Run your finger along the melody map as you sing. It helps the children orient where the phrasing of the melody is. Touch a child who has their hand raised to come up and tape a word on the map. Keep touching other children’s shoulders to come up until all the words are in place.
“Is this right? Let’s check it.” Sing the song and run your finger along the melody map. If there is a word out of place, ask a child to come up and fix it.
“Now, let’s sing ONLY the words that are on the board!” Sing, but only the words that are on the board.
The children love the challenge!
Note: I would NOT make this the only activity I use with the second verse of this song. I might get pictures of each of the classes and do a concentration matching game with both words from the song and those pictures. I might do a paper plate movement pattern with the second verse. I might do windwands using the second verse as we sing and do the patterns. I might do egg shaker pass (shake, shake, pass, pick up) as we sing the second verse. In this way, the brain has more than one way to cement the words with the melody, the beat, and the rhythm.