
Each lesson is 30 minutes long.
Lesson 1
- Opening Song
- Introduce the word “melody” as the same as “tune.”
- Sing up the scale with Solfege syllables and Curwen hand signs.
- Play the Solami Game.
- Early to Bed – adapted version in C
- Review the tones mi, so and la (learned last year). The first 4 measures of the song use these tones. Sing them and move hands up and down to reflect the melodic contour. Then use Curwen hand signs.
- Sing the (adapted version) of the last 4 measures. Tell students the melody goes up, then back down the pentatonic scale. Point to the tones of the major scale and see how the pentatonic scale only uses 5 of them. Show how the pentatonic scale uses steps and skips (over fa and ti). Move hands up and down (and then use Curwen hand signs) for the last 4 measures of the song.
- Add a simple bordun on the song on the strong beats (C/G) (beats 1 of each measure). If students have already learned about meter in 3, have them guess which meter the songs is in. (3)
- Git On Board – Refrain only
- Teach the song (figure out the meter = 4). Students pat the beat.
- Listen for the pattern “mi mi re re do.”
- If time, add drums on the strong beats (beat 1 of each measure) and maracas on each beat (see Orff arrangement 1 in the PDF).
Lesson 2
- Opening Song
- Ask students if they remember the word we are learning about (it means the same as tune) = Melody.
- Sing up the scale with Solfege syllables and Curwen hand signs.
- Play the Solami Game.
- Early to Bed
- Review the melodic contour of the song by pointing to the melody and adding Curwen hand signs.
- Give more students a chance to play the bordun on xylophones while students sing with Curwen hand signs.
- Git on Board – Refrain only
- Pat the beat and sing.
- Review where they hear “mi mi re re do.” Point to where that would be on the xylophone. (This is in a different key than Early to Bed. Help students understand that they can sing the pentatonic scale starting on any pitch.)
- (You can also review dotted half note since it occurs a few times in this song.)
- Teach the xylophone part of Orff arrangement 1. Students sing along.
- Bought Me a Cat
- Teach the song briefly.
More lessons available below.
- 3rd grade melody lessons (#1-9) below


2 thoughts on “3rd Grade Melody Lessons”
The link for Early to Bed is not for the adapted version in C, and I am unable to locate that version within the site.
It’s on the Early to Bed PDF. 🙂