I'm always looking for ways to include vocal exploration in my lessons--especially with my younger students. Vocal exploration is a great way to help students find their head voices. One of my favorite vocal exploration activities is ghost melodies. For this, you can draw a ghost on the board, and then draw the sound the ghost makes, by drawing a small hill and a big hill, loops, or whatever you'd like. Then you have the students explore their voices by going from low to high for each hill, getting higher as the hills get higher. (If this is confusing, see the pictures below...hopefully it will make sense!)

I have uploaded my ghost melody file for the SMART board to the SMART board download section of my website: kodalycorner.weebly.com. You don't have to have a SMART board though--simply draw a ghost on the board and then the ghost's melody. You can change the activity depending on the time of year--leaf melodies for fall, snowflake melodies for winter, etc. After you've drawn a few melodies, students can come up and draw their own melody.

This year, I decided to extend this activity. EVERY kid wants a turn to draw their own melody, and sometimes there is just not enough time! So last week, I handed all of the students their own dry erase board, marker, and sock eraser, and had them draw their own ghosts, and then their own melodies. Then, on the count of 3, we all did our melodies together. It sounds chaotic but in a really wonderful way! Kids are exploring, creating, and having so much fun! Here are a few pics from one of my Kindergarten classes:

Check out the bats! So cute!

Love the ghost's stitches...looks very spooky! And his melody was fun to listen to as well! And one more...

This is a great activity for Halloween, but can be done any time of the year. The latest Ohio music standards for Kindergarten include "Create a visual representation of sound," and this is a great way to do just that!

Looking for more vocal exploration activities? Check out these sets:

   

What are your favorite ways to do vocal exploration? Feel free to comment below!