I love the Star Light Star Bright song for so many reasons. One, it’s just pretty. But also, sometimes it feels like simple songs are too simple. Like, what do I do with them? (PS- I wrote another post all about what you can do with simple songs!) This song is challenging enough that it takes them some time to learn but catchy enough that to remember.
In this post, we’re going to talk about my favorite ways to teach La and Quarter and Eighth notes with the Star Light Star Bright song. These strategies will give you a good jumping-off point for teaching the song!
Most of the images in this blog post are from my Star Light Star Bright song resource on Teachers Pay Teachers. You can definitely do these activities without the resource, but if you’re looking for something that is already done for you, that option is there.
Teaching the Song Star Light, Star Bright
First, let’s learn the song! I start singing this song in kindergarten and use it through second grade. While I sing the song the first couple of times, I would have kids keep a steady beat on their bodies. We’ll all pat our legs, then maybe I’ll have them switch it up and choose a different way to keep the beat. Maybe Johnny keeps a beat by tapping his head, while Suzy stomps her feet, and Annie jumps. Alex thinks keeping the beat on one body part is too easy, so he alternates between clapping and stomping. This helps the kids be creative, but it also gives some of them to get the wiggles out.
Once we have heard the song a few times, I’ll break the song down into smaller chunks that they’ll echo.
Adding Instruments
Now that we know the song, let’s add some instruments. You might have different instruments than I do, so let’s go through a few activities I might do.
We’re going to start on unpitched instruments. First, we’re going to keep the steady beat on metal instruments- triangles, bells, and tambourines. Once we can do that, let’s look at lines that sound the same or different. The first and last line (Star Light Star Bright) sound the same, so we’ll have the metal instruments play that line. Then, the two middle lines sound similar to each other even though they have different words, so I’m going to have some kids on wood instruments, like maracas and guiros, to play those lines.
We know the song really well now, so let’s improvise! I’ll first have the kids set up a pentatonic scale on their xylophones. I highly recommend having a picture on the board of what that should look like (and also what it should look like when it’s all put back together!) We’re going to practice playing the beat of the song while I sing. Then, I’m going to hum the song and students will play the rhythm of the song on any notes of the pentatonic scale. When they can successfully do that, I’ll make it into an ABA form where we sing, improvise/hum, and sing again.
Teaching La
Now that the students know the Star Light Star Bright song really well, let’s learn some melodic concepts with it! This song uses mi, sol, and la. Assuming your students know mi and sol already, we’re going to use this song to teach the higher note, la. First, review mi and sol using the words “star bright.” Then, point out that there’s a higher note that they haven’t learned yet. Sing the song using body movements. I’ll start with touching my knees for mi, shoulders for sol, and head for la. If your kids are using Curwen hand signs, they can learn the sign for la without knowing what it is quite yet. Once you’ve presented la, the kids will already know the hand sign and will associate it with the new note.
Another option is to play the song on boomwhackers! My students love boomwhackers, so I like to add this in whenever I can. I love boomwhackers because it allows the students to be in charge of just one note, but it also gives the students the pitches to sing so we can practice singing on pitch. Students might notice the word “la” on the higher-sounding boomwhacker and that’s okay- it just leads into the presenting phase nicely! You could also use the note C to keep a steady beat throughout the song (this is especially helpful when you start preparing Do.)
Once the students have practiced mi, sol, and high quite a bit, we can do a pitch activity with a big piece of yarn. Have the students stand in a circle, and each student is assigned a note. Student #1 will hold the string in the middle (sol) for the word “Star”. Student #2 is assigned the word “light”, which is high, so they’ll hold the yarn up to their head. The next student has the word “star”, which is again sol, so they’ll hold the yarn in the middle, and Student #4 will hold the yarn down low for the word “bright,” which is mi.
You can do the yarn activity in a couple of different ways. You can do this with the whole class in a big circle with one big piece of yarn. Students could work through the song as a class phrase by phrase. Or, you could have students grouped and assign each group a phrase of the song to figure out.
Teaching Quarter & Eighth Notes
To teach quarter and eighth notes using the Star Light Star Bright song, I would first start by reviewing the difference between beat and rhythm. Once students have been reminded of the difference, then you can focus on the rhythm.
I’ll have my students start by stomping the rhythm of the song. Are all of them the same? No, because that would be beat. Some are long and some are short. There are always two short ones together. We’ll call that short-short while we’re preparing eighth notes. I’ll write the song on the board and students will go word by word to tell me if it’s long or short-short. I’ll draw one long line or two short lines above the words to show the rhythm of the song.
When the rhythm of the song or phrase is done, we’ll stomp or clap the whole thing. Then, I’ll make it a little trickier! I’ll have them stomp the long sounds and clap the short sounds. This helps some of my distracted kids refocus! Once your students have a good handle on the difference between long and short sounds, you can present it as quarter and eighth notes.
Adding instruments can be a great way to reinforce the idea of long and short-short. I would start by passing out rhythm sticks and having students practice the long and short sounds by tapping on the ground. I would use this as an opportunity to practice mallet technique, too. We’d talk about bouncing the stick rather than hitting and leaving it on the ground.
Putting Star Light Star Bright All Together
Finally, let’s put melody and rhythm together to write out the song! To do this, we’re going to use manipulatives. You could use paper cutouts of stars, foam stars, printouts of quarter and eighth notes, legos, erasers…seriously, you can use pretty much anything. You could even have kids draw stars on a whiteboard if you have those! If you have more than one option, you can give students one manipulative for quarter notes and one for eighth notes, but it’s not necessary.
First, have the students put the rhythm of the first phrase in front of them. It should be four stars spread out to show four quarter notes. Then, have students adjust each star up or down depending on whether it’s mi, sol, or la. For eighth notes, they will have the stars close together. Students will go phrase by phrase to write out the melody and rhythm of the song.
You could also do this on a two-line staff paper! Students could first draw the dots on their paper, then you could show them how to add lines to create quarter or eighth notes. If you’re looking for paper to use, I have two-line staff paper in my free composition worksheet packet that you can get here. (PS- if you want to see more about how I use these composition worksheets in my classroom for K-2, check out this blog post!)
Conclusion
I hope you were able to get some ideas for Star Light Star Bright! If you read this post and decided you want to use my resource to help teach, here’s that link. I would love to hear about your favorite ways to teach la or quarter and eighth notes! Be sure to comment below or DM me on Instagram (@caffeinated.j) with your favorite activities or any questions you have about teaching these concepts.
