Page 50 - Level 1 Ukulele Lesson Plans

Remind the children how to hold their ukuleles. See activity 5 ‘Tuning’ from lesson plan 1 for instructions.
Tell the children that the mischievous pixie is back and that this time, she has made some of their C strings out of tune! Explain that you will be conducting an investigation to find out whose strings are out of tune.
Play a G with your tuning fork and ask the children to hum the note they heard. Then pluck the G string on your ukulele and ask the children to hum the note they heard. “Does my G string sound the same (yes)? We know that my G is in tune so we can sing ‘GCEA Green Children Eat Ants’ to find out if the other strings sound right.” Softly sing “GCEA Green Children Eat Ants” as you pluck the corresponding strings on your ukulele (make sure the children are not playing as they need to concentrate on listening to your ukulele). “Did the notes sound correct or a bit funny (they sound correct and so are in tune)? We know that my ukulele is in tune so we can use my C string to find out whose C string is out of tune!”
Play a C on your ukulele and ask the children to hum the note they heard. Then, one by one, ask each child to pluck the C string on their ukulele. After each turn ask the children if the note sounds the same. See if they can figure out whose C strings are out of tune! Once the group knows which strings are out of tune, play the C string on your ukulele and then ask one of the children with an out of tune C string to play it again. Ask the children if it’s too high or too low. Show the child how to tell which peg to turn (the one that’s connected to the right string). Get them to turn the peg and pluck the string to figure out which way makes it higher and which way makes it lower. Then help them to get their string in tune. Repeat with the other child whose C string is out of tune.
Sing the whole of ‘Time to Tune the Ukulele’ twice, encouraging the children to join in singing the whole song and plucking “GCEA Green Children Eat Ants.” Remember to pluck a C as you say ‘Yum!’ at the end.
Time to tune the ukulele, time to tune the uke.
GCEA Green Children Eat Ants.
Listen to the strings you’re playing, listen to the strings you’re playing. GCEA Green Children Eat Ants.
Are the notes too high, are they too low?
GCEA Green Children Eat Ants.
Time to tune the ukulele, time to tune the uke.
GCEA Green Children Eat Ants. Yum!
6. Song/Game (6 mins): ‘See Saw Up and Down’ (traditional)
Everyone takes out their musical pencils and sings the song, drawing the shape of the tune in the air. Click here for video.
“Does the tune start with the higher pitch or the lower pitch (higher)?” Write the word ‘see’ on your whiteboard. “What happens to the tune next (it goes lower)”? Draw a line from ‘see’ downwards at an angle and write ‘saw’ (so that it is lower than ‘see’). Everyone sings the first two words to check that they are right! Follow this through until you have written in the whole song (making sure to check the tune each time). Make sure to write the words in two lines, with four beats in each.
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