One of the first units I do in kindergarten is teaching voices in elementary music. Yes, I said 5… But I thought there were only 4 voices I needed to teach! Well, I teach speaking, singing, shouting, and whispering, but I also teach our thinking voice. That voice inside our heads that nobody else hears.
Have you ever looked at a scope and sequence or curriculum map and thought, “Wait, I have to teach 4 voices to students??” I definitely have. Like, isn’t this something that students should come in knowing?
Maybe they should, but they don’t always! Think about it- how often do you ask students to use their whisper voices to work with a partner on something, but you can hear them across the room? Or, have you ever asked your class to think about an answer, only to have a couple of students say it out loud? (This is why I teach thinking voice as a 5th voice. Plus it helps them learn how to audiate music later!)
In this post, I’m going to walk you through ways that I explore different voices, a poem that I use to present the concept of different voices, and ways we can practice our 5 voices.
Songs with More Than One Voice
Although we practice and review the different voices throughout the year, I do focus on the 5 voices as a unit in the first couple of months of school. I teach a few songs during this unit that have more than one type of voice within the song. Here are a few options:
Baby Bumblebee (Singing/Speaking)- This is such a cute song that some of your students may already recognize.
Boom Chicka Boom (Any!)- This song is a ton of fun! It’s a great echo song that can incorporate any type of voice, although thinking voice would be hard to do with this length of a song.
We Are Dancing (Singing/Speaking)- So the song itself is all singing, but after my class sings the song they say, “Where are you wolf?” Now, usually to play the game a student would say “I’m right here!” and start chasing other students, but I don’t play this game with kindergarten until possibly the end of the year (and that’s if they’ve been able to show self-awareness!) so during this unit we just use it as a silly, creative sharing opportunity.
Peanut Butter (Singing/Speaking/Whispering)- I always struggled to find songs that practice whispering voices until I found this version of Peanut Butter!
Hey Diddle Diddle (Singing/Speaking)- Don’t forget about nursery rhymes! A lot of kids don’t come into kindergarten having learned many nursery rhymes. These are great because they may be familiar to students, which is always a plus, but they are also so easy to add a melody to. You could even have students create their own melody for them!
5 Voices Poem
I love using this poem for teaching voices in elementary music. I introduce this after we’ve explored the voices with various songs and activities. It’s helpful to hear the voices together so that students can hear the difference between and practice the voices. Because I teach 5 voices rather than 4, I adapted my poem a bit from what you may have heard before.
Here’s how it goes:
“This is my speaking voice I use it every day
This is my shouting voice I use out to play!
This is my whisper voice it’s quiet anyway
This thinking voice it’s silent that’s okay
This is my singing voice it’s pretty don’t you say?”
Check out this Instagram post to listen!
Practicing with a Partner
Another way we practice our 4 (or 5 voices) is with partner work. I usually do this as a quick brain break. I’ll have students partner up, usually by just turning and talking to the person next to them. Then, we practice our voices by answering questions. We usually practice our shouting voice first so we can do it all together. I usually ask them something that can be answered very quickly, like their name or favorite color. Then we face our partners and answer various questions in our other voices.
“Use your speaking voice to tell your partner your favorite activity at recess.”
“Use your singing voice to tell your partner what you had for lunch today.”
“Use your whisper voice to tell your partner what your favorite show or movie is.”
Now comes the fun part: “Use your thinking voice to tell your partner what your favorite breakfast food is.” Think about it really hard, because after they both try to tell each other with their minds, they have to guess their partner’s answer!
The possibilities they can share are endless: one thing you did over the weekend, favorite dinner, ice cream flavor, dessert, book, part about school, song, or what they want to be when they grow up. Just be mindful, as some questions may not be ones that everyone can answer. For example, if you ask “Where did you go over summer break?”, you may have a couple of students who went somewhere overseas, but you may also have kids who couldn’t go anywhere “fun” because of money, work schedules, family emergencies, etc.
Conclusion
I also came across this blog post with David Row over at Make Moments Matter. It’s a cute puppet activity that practices both names and voice timbres!
Taking the time for teaching voices in elementary music will only benefit you in the long run. With these song choices, the voice poem, and working with a partner, students will be able to differentiate between voice timbres easier. How do you teach the voice timbres? Do you include the fifth voice? DM me on Instagram (@caffeinated.j) and let’s chat!
