I have to say, Montclaire has a fantastic music room, full of instruments, and in some cases, enough instruments for everyone in a class of 20. The room is large enough for plenty of movement, and it comes with its own set of carpet-sample-sized mats for the kids (which, if used correctly, can map out circle boundaries quite well).
I spent about 3-4 hours mulling over a lesson plan. Here's what I came up with:
| Come and Follow Me | Lead kids from the door to the mat cart. Have each child pick up a mat and walk in a circle. When everyone had a mat, place the mat down and sit. |
| This turned out to be a bit chaotic. The first few children followed me just fine, but the middle and later kids got bottled up by the mat cart. Some kids fought others for certain mats, for instance, and some kids didn't know to keep following after getting a mat. The circle was ok, but very uneven for both classes, and I (or the teacher) would spend a little time readjusting the circle during the class. I also felt a bit like a broken record, as Come and Follow Me doesn't last very long, and in order to get everyone in relatively quickly, I didn't have people freeze when I sang "we will go this way." Overall, this activity took longer than I expected. | |
| Stretching | Kids would just follow my lead; there would be no deliberate structure. |
| There wasn't a whole lot to this. I spent maybe about 30 seconds here. | |
| Keep The Kettle Boiling | Teach the activity using myself and 1 kid as an example. When the chant is going, vary tempo, pitch, body location (high/low). |
| This turned out to be an excellent way to hear each child's name spoken in the way they expected. The first class' kids wore nametags, and after I was berated by some kids for mispronouncing one child's name, I let the whole class say the name during "in jumps...". The second class wore no nametags, so I didn't have much of a choice there. :) This took a while - something like 6-8 minutes, but it was time well spent. After the chant, I asked the class what they saw changing, and they picked up on what was going on pretty well. | |
| What sounds did you hear today? | Just ask them while sitting. |
| This was kind of fun, a relaxing activity after the heavy motion of Kettle. I had the class repeat sounds offered by other children. I also pulled out a set of finger cymbals to illustrate high pitches, and a bass drum to illustrate a low pitch. I let the kids play them, which turned out to be just fine; no unstructured jamming on the drum, etc. | |
| I Can Sing Up High | Teach the song by echo, and then add body movement |
| This was a lot of fun. I had them stand up, and they seemed to enjoy the motions. I was thinking of speeding the song up near the end, but decided not to at the last minute. | |
| Star Light Star Bright | Have them sing the poem in sol-mi, and then sol-la-mi. Add hand motions to note the beat. Kids are seated. |
| I transitioned to this by asking the kids if it was light or dark outside when they woke up. I guess in retro it was a nonsequitor of a transition, but the kids didn't seem to mind. (Yay for short attention spans!) I did this similar to the Star Light 1st grade demo during the mfm.org class, and it seemed to go well. The children picked up on the beat quickly when I asked them what I was doing with my hands. Of course, most of the class knew the poem already. | |
| Sally Go Round The Sun | Teach song by rote, in pieces, and then add circle walking, hands together. Switch directions, change pitch, volume, and walking height. Add the jump at "boom." |
| This was a little chaotic, as the kids weren't uniform in either singing, walking evenly, walking in the right direction, etc. They did seem to enjoy the jump at the end. | |
| It's a Very Good Day | Teach only the 1st half of the song by rote. Maybe have the kids walk in the circle and stop at "why?" |
| I did not get to this. | |
| The Fall Song | Hand out red/yellow leaves for kids to raise during "red/yellow". Also had a prop apple for the apple phrase. |
| I didn't get to do this for the first class, but for the second class, I passed out the leaves and the apples, similar to what Chris Burke did in training. However, I didn't have quite a systematic way of passing the items out; I just passed them to both sides of me and expected the items to find their way around the circle. Of course, in doing so, there was an item collision at the opposite end of the circle, and the leaves and apples sort of stuck there. Getting the children holding the items to respond during the song resulted in partial success - the song had to be really slow for them to realize that "I have a red leaf, and we just sang red!". I did add the "air is crisp and colder" verse to the song, and added hand motion (ASL for wind, etc.) for the wind and cold. | |
| 5 Fat Turkeys | Teach by echo first, then quick immersion given the amount of time. Add hand signs (sign for 5, two-handed turkey, etc.) if possible. Kids are seated |
| I didn't get to this in the first class, but in the second class, I was able to get through the song with the 3 kinds of hand signs (open hand for '5', two handed turkey facing left, two handed turkey facing right). The kids liked it. Many had clearly heard the song before, which shortened the musical teaching portion of it. | |
| Rig a Jig Jig | Teach song by echo, then sing, then walk in circle+sing, then do two circles moving the same dir, then two circles in opposite directions. Cap it off by having children pick up their mats and drop them back into the mat cart while singing |
| I have to admit that this was a little ambitious. During the first class, we didn't have a whole lot of time, so we just sang, walked in a circle, and did the mats. The second class was pretty much the same. The mat deposit worked at first, but then the line between the mat cart and the door filled up before all of the children were able to drop off their mats, creating a bit of a traffic jam. I changed the very last words to "good bye good bye good bye" and waved, which was a nice way to end the day. I ended up messing up the lyrics to the 2nd verse a lot - ouch. The kids picked up on it, but they didn't seem to mind so much. Children in both classes knew the song in advance - some noted that they learned it in nursery school! | |
In retrospect, I didn't really ask the students about what they had learned. I wasn't sure if they'd really be able to recite what happened, and I still had a lot of material that I wanted to cover. That said, I think they had a good time and at least picked up on some new musical tidbits.
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