I teach this in Preschool, Kindergarten and 1st grade.

It’s important for them to feel, hear, and see visual representations of long and short. So, I over-exaggerate examples on the keyboard when I play one or the other. When students listen, they either make a long movement (usually with their hands starting at their bodies and moving toward the center of the circle) or a short movement (which could be a clap or a patsch)

Activities

• Make long and short sounds with your body
  • long = say “ooooooooo,” “shhhhhhhh,” etc.
  • short = pat, clap, say “t,” “k,” etc.
• Make long and short sounds with instruments
  • long = triangle, finger cymbals, glockenspiel, etc.
  • short = wood block, claves, etc.
  • long or short = guiro, ratchet, etc.
• Make long and short locomotor movements with your body
  • long = sway, move arms slowly in big arcs around your body, etc.
  • short = march, skip, etc.

Songs

• Across the Rocky Mountain
• All Through the Night (long sounds)
• Camptown Races
• Captain Go Sidetrack Your Train
• Doggie, Doggie
• Every Night When the Sun Goes In
• Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
• Freight Train Blues
• Good News
• Goodbye Julie
• Leavin’ Old Texas
• Little Bunny Foo Foo
• My Father’s House
• Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
• Oh Freedom
• Old Blue
• Shenandoah
• Water is Wide
• When the Saints Go Marching In

Visuals are Available on These Pages

• Doggie, Doggie
• Old Blue

See also

• songs with long sounds = songs with whole notes
• rhythm resources

Extras for Plus Members

• Long & Short Printable Visuals