Page 8 - Level 1 Ukulele Lesson Plans

This part of the lesson is to give the children the aesthetic experience of listening to you play the ukulele whilst they sing along. It should serve as a cool down, but also as a way of inspiring the children to keep learning to play by showing what is possible if they practise.
Choose a fun song that is either a timeless classic, popular/trendy today or any song with lyrics that the children can relate to. It needs to be something that they ENJOY singing (and that you enjoy singing too!). However, it must also be SINGABLE. Make sure the song has a range of no more than an octave (from about middle C up). Change the key if necessary. Make sure the song is in a key that best suits the children’s voices (rather than your voice). Otherwise you will be encouraging them to sing out of tune (or worse not at all) as their voices simply can’t produce the notes required. Lastly, make sure that the lyrics are AGE APPROPRIATE. Once you’ve chosen your singalong song for the term, check with your Head Sparkle for approval.
Sing the same song at the end of each lesson for a full term. There is no need to teach the song as the children should pick up on it through repetition. If there is extra time at the end of the lesson you can sing the song twice.
Make sure to change the song each term as some children will need to complete level one more than once.
Here are some suggestions:
- ‘A Million Dreams’ from The Greatest Showman – take it down two tones and sing the verse up the octave (but not the chorus as it’s already higher) to make all the notes achievable.
- ‘Here Comes the Sun’ written by George Harrison
- ‘Mr. Clicketty Cane (wash your face in orange juice)’ written by Peter Combe
- ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ from The Lion King – you may choose to change some of the spoken parts into sung parts.
- ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ from Mary Poppins
- ‘Count on Me’ by Bruno Mars
- ‘Washing Machine’ by Steve Grocott (https://stevegrocott.bandcamp.com/album/more- sparks)
- ‘Touch the Sky’ from Brave
- ‘Summer Holiday’ written by Brian Bennett and Bruce Welch
- ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ written by Journey
- ‘On Top of Spaghetti’ to the tune of ‘On Top of Old Smokey’ (traditional folk song)
- ‘The Duck Song’ written by Bryant Oden
- ‘Lava’ from the movie Lava
Make sure to hand a homework booklet to each child before they leave. Tell the children’s parents about them too!
© 2019 Lucy Sparkles LTD