Had a Little Rooster for the PreK Music Classroom

It’s rare that I feature a song for PreK, but I couldn’t resist exploring the song, “Had a Little Rooster” for the PreK music classroom. I’m a strong proponent of starting improvisation early and often. Not only should we model it for our students every day, but we should create spaces where they can feel safe doing the same.

Of course improvisation will look different depending on the age group and method. Perhaps your students spend a lot of time in Arioso Land as shown in the Feierabend pedagogy. Or maybe your students are encouraged to explore improv with Orff instruments in a call and response. Today’s lesson will look a lot like a call and response, but one that involves the sounds of animals (a PreK staple).

Listening and Responding and Puppets

• Tell students that you’ll be singing them a song about animals.
• Their job is to listen for the name of each animal and think about what kind of sound it makes.
• When the music stops, they should make the sound of that animal.

If you have more puppets than you care to admit, now’s the time to bring them out! You can pass out puppets (corresponding with the animals in the song), and have the students hold up their puppet when they hear its name.

If you don’t have puppets, print out images of each animal on cardstock and glue them to the end of popsicle sticks. Pass them out to the students, and tell them to only make the sound of the animal they’re holding. Of course you can repeat the song and have students exchange animals for added variety.

Notation with Ukulele Chords

This song would work best with a simple guitar, uke, or piano accompaniment. The guitar or uke is great because you can immediately dampen the strings and lean forward to help cue the students when it’s time to respond.

If you’re new to the ukulele and a little nervous about playing in front of your class, this song would be a great start! There are only three chords (C, G, and F), and minimal changes between them. Click the button below the notation to download the song sheet with chords.

If you’re looking for more listening lessons, be sure to check out the movement category in my shop. The lessons are full of movement and feature composers such as Florence Price, Beethoven, and Joseph Bologne. I plan to continue to add to these resources in the future to create a larger library of movement-focused listening lessons.