Lets Go Fishing- A song to practice s-m-l

When observing my own Elementary Teacher (Mrs. Nary) during college I re-discovered a favorite song from those years.  It is now a game I play all the time with my students called "Let's Go Fishing"

Let's Go Fishing,                               I  I  I  I
  s       l     s    m

Try To Catch A Fish                         II II I z
  s     s    l        l     s

If you Catch a So then                      II II I I
 s   s      l      l   s     m

You Can Make a Wish                     II II I z
   s     s      l       l     s


To learn the song, I had the students read this on the staff on the SMARTboard (See page 1 of dropbox file)
Once the song was known, students sit in a circle and I tap heads of students to the beat.  Whomever is tapped on the last word of the song gets to "go fishing" and choose a fish from the middle.  I have about 8 fish, 3 with la, 3 with mi, and 2 with so.    The fisherman picks a fish and sings to the class his catch (I caught a so [s-ss-s], I caught a mi [s-ss-m], or I caught a la [s-ss-l].)  and the class gets to respond according to the fish caught.  If the catch is a la or mi, the class responds with "AWE SHUCKS", if it is a so we silent cheer and the fisherman gets to make a wish before becoming the next head-tapper.   I add in DO fish once we learn that pitch as well.

I currently use tag-board fish, but have recently made a SMARTboard file (see dropbox file) where the solfa is hidden under fish- so the students touch a fish and the fish disappears to reveal the solfa to sing (page 2).  You also use dice and have the students role to find their solfa (3rd page of file).  To practice aural skills, you could even just have a note attached to each fish, rather than the name so students have to identify using their ears (this one is not made yet, but I hope to have an update soon with this new file).

Click on the link below to get the SMARTboard file.  Please let me know if it does not work, I was having trouble saving for some reason. http://emilyjencson.wix.com/emilyskodalymusic#!forcollegues/c24vq


Note: I changed the special fish to SO from LA because I thought it might be confusing to sing the word LA on the pitch so.