Kindergarten is a time where students are deeply immersed in early reading and decoding strategies. This can be supported by reading and writing music. Students in Kindergarten place quarter notes above the words of a song. There is no staff on the paper, just empty space above the lyrics. This gets them used to reading left to write, exposure to notes relating to words and seeing both music and lyrics together. During this process, I use color coded music alphabet notes to helps kids remember the music alphabet and also to make it easier to find that note on the xylophones. Students choose which music alphabet note/color they want to play and draw the quarter notes in groups of 4 above the lyrics.
Students then go to the instruments to sing and play their song as a solo after they have added their notes to the lyrics. At first, I have them stick to one note and then eventually they will compose their own music using colored quarter notes. See students playing their song here
Blake Siskavich 