If you’re an elementary music teacher looking for fun call and response songs to teach your elementary music students, check out these 2 examples of call and response songs by PBS Kids celebrity SteveSongs. For this lesson plan in music elementary, SteveSongs will teach your students about the history of call and response songs along with two of his original call and response songs. Elementary music teachers or classroom teachers looking for music integration activities can get the whole lesson plan with music activities kids will love through our free elementary music membership!
I asked our teaching artist, SteveSongs, why he likes to use call and response songs when he performs. This is what he said (and I couldn’t agree more!).
“I love to use call and response songs when I perform because it’s a great way to teach the audience the lyrics to a song and is a fun way to connect with my audience.”
SteveSongs has a number of call and response songs for kids. One is called Kindness, and the other is called Brush, Brush, Brush. (You can find the lyrics in this post!!!) When he performs this song, he uses call and response to teach the chorus, and he always uses call and response in the bridge when he sings through the whole song.
Meet the Teaching Artist: PBS Kids celebrity SteveSongs
Steve Roslonek of SteveSongs has been writing and performing his award-winning music for kids and families for more than fifteen years. Steve blends participatory songs, clever stories, and great melodies. They are what the Boston Globe called “not just a musical journey but an entertaining, interactive and educational one.”
In May 2008, Steve took on the exciting new role of “Mr. Steve,” co-host of the PBS KIDS preschool destination. PBS Kids features his music on popular shows like Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Super Why, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That and Peg + Cat. Steve performs original interactive songs that reinforce the day’s curriculum theme. Watch this video to find out about how Steve has partnered with World Upside Down to create music units for elementary teachers!
Definition of call and response in music
Have you ever heard someone refer to a song and call it a “call and response” and not know what that means? In music, the term call and response is a technique songwriters use to create a song that kind of feels like a musical conversation. A “phrase” of music serves as the “call,” and is “answered” by a different phrase of music. The term “call and response” is rooted in traditional African music and is used often in gospel music where the pastor or song leader will call or sing out a line and the congregation responds.
I asked our teaching artist, SteveSongs, why he likes to use call and response songs when he performs. This is what he said (and I couldn’t agree more!).
I love to use call and response songs when I perform because it’s a great way to teach the audience the lyrics to a song and is a fun way to connect with my audience.
SteveSongs has a number of call and response songs for kids. One is called Kindness, and the other is called Brush, Brush, Brush. (You can find the lyrics in this post!!!) When he performs this song, he uses call and response to teach the chorus, and he always uses call and response in the bridge when he sings through the whole song.
Four reasons to use call and response songs in the elementary music classroom
1. Call and response songs are an easy way to learn the song lyrics.
Maybe you’re teaching your students a song or maybe your choir is teaching the audience a song, the repetition in Call and Response songs just makes it super easy. The song will stick in your students’ heads, and they will sing it over and over and over and over again – even when they wish they could shut it off. 🙂
2. Call and response songs are a fantastic way for performers to engage with their audience.
Audience engagement is one of SteveSong’s superpowers. Seriously. When you watch him perform live for the very first time, he’s so mesmerizing that you just get taken up with the whole performance experience. Before you know it, you’ll be dancing up and down and moving all around right along with the kids. And while Steve is definitely just a magical performer, he uses the call and response as a performance technique. It’s one of the best tools in his tool kit, and he teaches students how to use it in his Call and Response lesson.
3. Call and response songs create a collective musical experience.
The conversational cadence of a choir singing and responding back and forth or a choir or singer and audience singing back and forth makes the whole performance experience feel united. It helps young singers to get out of the “I’m performing for them” mentality and makes it feel like a “we’re performing together” experience.
4. Call and response songs make it really easy for young singers to feel confident about performing.
When a collective music experience has been created, young singers forget how nervous they feel or how self-conscious they are. The experience is so much fun and fills them with such joy that they can forget about themselves and just enjoy the moment.
Examples of call and response songs: Brush, Brush, Brush
SteveSongs shares two original call and response songs in his Brush, Brush, Brush music unit which teachers can get for free through our elementary music membership. Watch how he teaches call and response in the video below!
https://youtu.be/SVs6rRToMPM
Brush, Brush, Brush Unit Resource Kit
Don’t just watch the video. Get access to the entire resource kit through our elementary music membership. The resource kit includes the following:
- lesson plan
- digital tool kit with SeeSaw, Kahoot, and FlipGrid activities
- lyrics to the song Brush, Brush, Brush
- national and common core standards
- additional fire prevention resources
Editable Google Slides include:
- Meet the Artist video – a greeting from SteveSongs
- Instructional video on call and response songs
- Quick Review with questions to assess learning
- Editable and self-grading Google quizzes for assessment
Examples of call and response songs: Kindness
The second example of a call and response song that we include in the Brush, Brush, Brush unit is Kindness. Watch the video of Steve’s live performance!
How can I get these amazing music activities with examples of call and response songs?
Elementary music and elementary classroom teachers can get the entire Brush, Brush, Brush unit which has two examples of call and response songs for free. Sign up today to get the instructional videos, lesson plans, and resource kits. Join our free elementary music membership today to get the whole kit for free!
Call and response songs: lyrics to Kindness by SteveSongs
What’s the difference between sharing and keeping? Kindness
What’s the difference between causing laughter or causing weeping? Kindness
What’s the difference between making peace and making war? Kindness
What makes this life one worth living for? Kindness
Kindness is the difference for this house we’ve built.
Every brick of kindness laid, the easier this home, our heart, is to build.
What’s the difference between helping and hurting? Kindness
And how can you say “benevolent humanity”? By using simpler wording…Kindness
What’s so very easy but can always use lots of practice?
And what sends this heart spinning on its axis? Kindness
Kindness is the difference for this life we live.
We work so hard and search so long for lots of things and sometimes a little kindness is always need.
Kindness is the difference for this house we’ve built.
Every brick of kindness laid, the easier this home, our heart, is to build.
Call and response songs: lyrics to Brush, Brush, Brush by SteveSongs
Wake up in the morning and I brush, brush, brush
Comb my hair and eat my mush
Blow a kiss and I’m on my way
I get to go to school today
And I know, know, know (audience repeats)
When I go, go, go (audience repeats)
That I (audience repeats) am going (audience repeats) to play (together)
And also learn about dinosaurs (audience repeats)
Numbers letters and more (audience repeats)
And I (audience repeats) am glad (audience repeats) to say (together)
That I get to go to school…
More examples of call and response songs
50+ Call and Response Echo Songs Songsheets by Beth Mengel Thompson
25-year music teacher Beth Mengel Thompson has a very robust list of 50+ Call and Response & Echo songs she uses for teaching music, and she can provide you with sheet music for each song. Click here to access the list.
40 Call and Response songs and Games for Children’s Choir by Ashley Danyew
Ashley Danyew is a musician, educator, writer, and creative entrepreneur, and she thinks “call and response can be a useful teaching tool, as it gives young children an opportunity to listen, imitate, explore the voice, and gain confidence in their singing.”
If you’ve never taught a call and response to children before, these are some of the pointers Ashley gives:
- Have everyone sit or stand in a circle and keep a steady beat as you go. Begin by singing a simple phrase and having the children echo you as a group.
- Once the children seem comfortable singing together, give them opportunities to sing their name or favorite color or name of a toy they’re holding as a solo.
- Consider passing a bean bag, ball, or microphone (prop—not to amplify their sound) around the circle so that children know when it’s their turn. Move around the circle in time—avoid stopping in between each child.
Ashley also provides teachers with a list of 40 Call and Response songs and games – yes, clickable links to YouTube videos that you can use at any time. Click here to access the list.
