4 Turkey Songs and Games

Why are singing games important?

Singing games are a foundational part of elementary music classroom activities. Singing games have a variety of purposes:

• Provide the opportunity for students to learn through play-based learning. This is one of their primary, inherent learning methods.
• Prepare music elements that will be identified and presented in later classes (sometimes in the next school year!).
• Provide examples of music elements to be identified and labelled.
• Review and practice music elements that have been labelled.
• Provide students the opportunity to make physical responses, assisting in internalizing the concepts in the song.
• Provide physical movement “brain breaks” within a lesson. 

A well-planned music class will include one or two singing games. Use a singing game early in the lesson to prepare concepts. Close to the end of a class, a singing game can be used to review something the students already know and to practice those elements in a fun, musical context. In a music class that requires concentration and focus, a fun singing game is a great way for students to relax.

Singing games are best used unaccompanied. This allows students to hear vocal modelling from the teacher without obscuring pitches with an instrument. Singing games include the expectation that students are singing. Unaccompanied singing allows them to hear their own voices as they learn to make vocal changes and match pitch/sing in tune with others.