Here we are in my class singing The Beatles song – All my loving.
View the other things we do in the classroom by visiting Learning with ZEAL.
ukulele 4 kids
All posts tagged ukulele 4 kids
Ukulele 4 Kids is beginning school lessons again. I’m looking forward to starting next week with a new bunch of enthusiastic ukulele players. Below is the poster I made using PosterMyWall. Go and see what else happens in my classroom at Learning with ZEAL.
It’s the time of year again that Santa and Rudolph (Santa’s reindeer) visit the houses of all the good kids while they’re asleep. They’ll be dropping off the ukuleles that the kids have asked for as Christmas presents. No doubt Santa’s elves will be listening on Christmas Day to make sure all kids are playing songs on their new ukuleles. So why not learn to play a couple of easy songs about Santa and Rudolph below.
Find the lyrics and chords to Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer here. It is easy to play, and uses the chords C, D7, F & G7.
To get an idea of how the song sounds take a look at the video in this post.
Find the chords & lyrics for ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ here There are a few chords, but with a little practise it is easy to play. The chords are C, F, G7, Am, C7, G & D7.
To get an idea of how the song sounds take a look at the video in this post.
Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy playing them.
In my everyday job as a school teacher I enjoy using technology to support kids learning. The technology is much better when it’s free too! I like to use Wordle to produce some interesting word art. Below is an example, using words from ukulele 4 kids.
Find the chords & lyrics for ‘Octopus’s Garden’ here. There are four chords, but with a little practise it is easy to play. The chords are C, Am, F & G7.
To get an idea of how the song sounds take a look at the video in this post.
To view our other videos visit our YouTube channel ukulele 4 kids.
View our other song chords page.
Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy playing it.
From early in 2011 I decided to form two ukulele groups at the school that I teach at. The junior group has members aged 5-8 years of age; and the senior group has members aged 9-13 years of age. A key motivator for kids is being able to watch themselves perform. Watching themselves allows kids to see where they’ve played well, and where they could improve. Another motivating factor for kids is having an audience beyond their classroom mates to perform to. As a result we have performed to our local community and hosted performance videos on Youtube to share our playing with a world wide audience.
Please take the time to have a look at the videos, and leave a positive comment. Everybody I know thrives on praise and acknowledgement, so click on the like buttons too. While you’re visiting our Youtube Channel take the time to look at the other videos. Also, look around the ukulele4kids.com website. We look forward to uploading more videos to share with you when the school year begins again in New Zealand.
I recently came across a super resource called ‘Uncle Rod’s, Ukulele Boot Camp,’ that I feel would improve the skills of all kids playing the ukulele, whatever their level of playing. The resource’s focus is for ukulele players to learn the basic skills required to allow you to use the ukulele to make music. This method does NOT require you to read music or to learn Music Theory. The resource focuses on learning chords by name & forming them accurately then moving from chord to chord smoothly while strumming the strings in time with the music.
There are two main parts to the resource.
- Learning about Chord Diagrams and
- Using Practice Sheets
The section on learning about chord diagrams and using the practice sheets is clear and easy to understand. The five practice sheets in the key of C, F, G, A & D are clearly laid out and easy to follow.
Uncle Rod (Rod Higuchi) has kindly given permission to ukulele 4 kids to use his wonderful resource, and host a copy for you to download and use.
In summary, the Ukulele Boot Camp is a simple, challenging idea that will definitely improve your ukulele playing no matter what your level of experience. I’ll be using it to help me teach kids to play the ukulele.
Haere Mai (welcome) to 2012 from Ukulele 4 Kids from New Zealand. Find the chords & lyrics for ‘Haere Mai’ here. There are a five chords, but it is easy to play. The chords are A, C, D, D7, G.
To get an idea of how the song sounds take a look at the video in this post.
To view our other videos visit our YouTube channel ukulele 4 kids.
View our other song chords page.
I hope you enjoy playing it and have a successful 2012 for strumming your ukulele!
What do you get a ukulele player for Christmas that isn’t a ukulele? Answer – a download of ‘Song-sheet Generator’. It’s closely related to the program Chord Pro. I recently came across this super FREE little program that allows you to write down your songs, add chord diagrams, and produce songbooks. It’s available for download for both PC and Mac computers, and makes use of programs like notepad (PC) and TextEdit (Mac) both programs usually come free with your computer.
Song-sheet Generator’s main focus is the guitar but it also offers the facility to add chords for the ukulele too. It has a lot of chord shapes for the guitar already formatted, but for the ukulele you have to custom create your own. It’s not difficult to do, allowing you to create alternative fingering diagrams too. There is a online help guide, but I found it more helpful to copy it into a Word document to print. You can highlight the chorus in songs, and add the chord diagrams to a song-sheet. You can produce your song-sheet in a variety of ways, for instance, plain text or HTML files.
Here are a couple of examples of song sheets made using song-sheet generator:
‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ & ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’.
In summary:
- Is it worth downloading? – YES
- Is it easy to use? – YES
- Can kids use it? – YES
- Is it free? – YES (But consider paying a small donation)
- Where do I find out more about it? – By clicking here.
Enjoy your Christmas and may Santa and Rudolph bring you the new ukulele you have on your list.
Why aren’t you on Facebook? When will you be on Facebook? I get asked these questions regularly, not just by kids but mums and dads too. So I’ve heeded the questions and done something about it. Ukulele 4 Kids is now on Facebook! If you wish to follow us on Facebook you can click the like button in the sidebar on the right of the screen You can click on the image in this post to go straight to the Facebook page. If you are already in logged into Facebook you can search for us using ‘Ukulele 4 Kids’ as your search term. Be the first to like and follow Ukulele 4 Kids on Facebook, become a friend, share the Facebook page with family and friends, leave comments and any suggestions that you may have. If you have a Twitter account why not link that too!
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