An excellent way to learn and practice the Do Re Mi degrees of the scale is to use these little printable people. They can each be coloured to correspond with the colour of your chime bars. Using a staircase to illustrate each step or note is an engaging and visual way of teaching the spacial relationship between notes and intervals in a way that children find easy to understand. This is such valuable preparation for learning to play an instrument later on. I have found this game to be so popular and useful as a teaching tool that it is really worth including as a regular part of any preschool music lesson.
Making your Do Re Mi Steps
You can make a staircase by using our free printables below and mounting it on strong card. My Do Re Mi steps are cut out of wood which you could do if you are handy with a saw, or know someone who is. On the reverse side of the staircase you need to make little pockets out of duct tape on each step so that you can slot each character into the correct position.
Print off these characters and colour them in the same as your set of chime bars. Alternatively there are some chime bar steps available here which would be more durable. You could attach our little Do Re Mi characters to wooden bricks which would work very well and probably stand up to more use. Click on the images below to either use our coloured version of the Do Re Mi people, or a black and white version.
Do Re Mi Games
These little people are also great practice for learning colours. Once the children know which colour goes with which chime bar there are loads of different games you can play.
*Keep the chime bars hidden in a box or bag and use a puppet to ask the children to help put the chime bars in the correct order. Whilst you do this, place the paper children onto the corresponding stair on the staircase as the kids identify each chime bar.
*Take it in turns for the children to give the puppet clues about which chime bar comes next. This is perfect if you have a group of children with mixed abilities, as the puppet can either help or be helped by the child depending on their age and ability. Start with bottom Do and work your way up until every note is in place. Take a look at our Pussycat Do Re Mi game for a similar activity.
* Another very popular game is to hide the chime bars or little characters around the room and let the children hunt for them, identifying them and putting them in the correct order of the scale as they go.
Take a look at my Do Re Mi activities board on Pinterest for more Do Re Mi
Follow Sara @ Let’s Play Music’s board Do Re Mi Activities {Solfege} on Pinterest.
Have you seen our new How To Read Music Theory eBook ? It’s the fun & child friendly way to learn to read music!
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[…] Younger children love joining in with the actions, and it’s a simple way to teach the concept of low and high notes. Kids love learning with movement, and this song illustrates through their own movement, the idea of the music notes moving up the scale and down again. […]