It’s hard to believe that I’ve had this blog for over 10 years now, and I still haven’t dedicated a post solely to Hot Cross Buns. *Cue elementary music teachers everywhere gasping in shock. So I’m going to fix that now. Today’s post will be all about how to use Hot Cross Buns in your elementary music class to teach do-re-mi and quarter and barred eighth notes.
Orff Instruments
Hot Cross Buns has endured all these years in elementary music classes for good reason; it’s an excellent piece to teach both do-re-mi and quarter and barred eighth notes. Two concepts in one song and a fantastic option for followers of the Feierabend Method. When it comes to playing songs on an instrument, I think it’s vital that students can comfortably sing the song on their own with accurate rhythms before transferring the tune to an Orff instrument. This way, they can apply what they already know to playing the instrument. Students can learn the song easily via the clapping game featured a bit later in this post.
The following is how I would choose to sequence that lesson (and a formula I often follow for my TPT resources):
- Vocal Warm-ups
- Vocal explorations are an easy and fun way for students to warm up their voices in preparation for singing and playing.
- Use a hot cross bun as the object to follow to easily segue into what hot cross buns look like and their historical significance.
- Rhythm Practice
- Get students used to moving their hands to the rhythm in preparation for using mallets.
- Again, you can use hot cross buns as iconic notation to represent the quarter and barred eighth notes.
- Have students tap out the rhythm as they sing the song.
- Mallet Technique
- Now that students have had practice tapping out the song while singing it, you can introduce mallets without instruments.
- They can practice bouncing the mallets on the floor or on chairs.
- Some of my older hardback textbooks had xylophones printed on the back, so I would sometimes have students practice using that. It helped them to hone in on the correct bars without any consequence of a wrong note.
- Bringing Out the Instruments
- Students should be familiar with the basics of Orff instruments before attempting an entire song like Hot Cross Buns.
- Basics would include how to add/remove bars, exploring high/low, mallet technique, etc.
- If students already know the basics, it will be one less barrier to them playing a song successfully.
- I use color-coded notation a lot in my resources as an additional aid.
- Students should be familiar with the basics of Orff instruments before attempting an entire song like Hot Cross Buns.
If you like the sequence I’ve laid out so far, you can grab the ready-made presentation in my TPT store. See more HERE.
Clapping Game
The Kodály Center’s collection of American Folk Songs is a priceless resource for elementary music teachers, and I was surprised that I’d overlooked a clapping game they shared for Hot Cross Buns. It even includes variations for different grade levels! You can see the original along with the analysis and historical context HERE.