Vocal Exploration Ideas

Vocal exploration is a great way to help primary students find their head voices. For me, it’s been an important step to help students feel comfortable singing. Here are some ways I use it in my classroom.

The Squiggle, by Carole Lexa Schaefer

This is a cute book about a girl who finds a string and uses it to create all kinds of interesting shapes. We take strings (you could also use a jump rope) and use them to create the pathway we will follow with our voices. As an extension, you can turn this into a partner game. One student sets up the string and the other student performs it. I also use cards to have students practice with a certain dynamic or tempo.

Moldable Flower

Man, do I love the Dollar Tree. I picked up this genius toy and it made my day! The flower stem has flexible metal inside, so we start at the flower’s face and use the stem as our pathway. If you have enough, this could also be a partner activity like the string.

Teachers Pay Teachers

There are plenty of vocal explorations PDFs for sale at Teachers Pay Teachers, though there are some great free ones too. I like this free PDF with an alien theme from Mrs. Ford’s Melodies.

Here is an example of a SMART presentation I've made, using clip art from Creative Clips.

SMARTboard Ideas

I like to create my own vocal exploration activities. It’s actually very easy to do! I start with two pieces of clip art that go together (candy and a bag, bookworm and a book, guitar and a case, etc.) and use the pen to create a line between the two. I lock the image on the left and the line, and leave the image on the right alone so it can travel on the pathway as students perform it. You can also leave the space blank so students have space to create their own pathway with the pens.

Here are some of my favorite options for clip art, all from Teachers Pay Teachers:

·         Artifex, which has some great music clip art

·         Dancing Crayon has a wide variety of instrument clip art

·         Educlips is a huge store with lots of variety

·         Creative Clips has a wide range of clips and awesome freebies

·         LovinLit is a good source of backgrounds and frames, if you want it to be fancy.

Happy exploring!