| Fanfare for the Common Man | Arrange mats in advance in a large circle. Start music as kids are walking in, and lead them to the circle. Then, start moving body (stretching, etc.) to the music. |
| Having the mats out certainly made the procession in very fast - in fact, a bit too fast, as it seemed like we were stretching and moving (in place) a bit too long. There were some giggles as we kept moving to the music, but many were entertained. I would consistently tap on the floor when the timpani would boom. At the end, we talked a bit about the instruments that they heard. I ended up downloading the song off of the internet and burning it on a CD. (At some point, I should try inputting the song in itunes or an iPod and attaching the device to the component sound-in port of the music player in the music room.) The internet is an awesome source for music, and I've found it to be a lot more convenient when finding songs that we've covered in class than going to the resource room and checking things out there. | |
| I Can Sing Up High | Same as before, but faster |
| This was simply a voice warmup, and I tried to go a lot faster this time than I did in the first class. Transition was easy; "now that you warmed up your bodies, let's warm up your voices." | |
| It's A Very Good Day for Playing In the Sun | Use only the first half of the song. Teach piecemeal by echo, and then quickly immerse them into the song. March to the song in a circle |
| The first class seemed to enjoy it, but not universally. Some children seemed bored. The second class seemed to enjoy it a little more, especially when I exaggerated the shrugging of the shoulders during "why?". I was hoping to add a second verse, but I didn't, and decided to save it when it wasn't so sunny outside (e.g. "playing in the rain..."). | |
| Rhythm Sticks | Arrange class in rows. Pass out sticks to a known song quickly. Have class follow me a bit with sticking, including pauses in bewteen sticking. Then, have them follow me while I played a song in the background. |
| I decided on the fly to arrange the class in 3 rows, but I didn't really have a quick way to do it. The first class probably burned about 90 seconds during the rearrangement; the second class was just a little faster. Before passing out the sticks, I instructed the students to take 2 (any two) quickly, and I sang Sally Go Round The Sun (or Fall Song for the second class, doing the obligatory pause at "apple") while passing the sticks out. I also discovered that I didn't have sticks for everyone (apparently, there were additional sticks in a bag somewhere else hidden in the room), and so before the song, I had the children in the first row give sticks to children in the back. The children loved this activity. Even those without sticks ended up clapping, which was perfectly fine for me. I used "Raisins" by the Barenaked Ladies, a song that I chose on the way down to my office. (I was fortunate to have a stash of kid-oriented songs on a CD that I made for my children in my car.) When reclaiming the sticks, I sang Sally to the first class again, and It's A Very Good Day to the second class, again quickly. Some children tried to keep up. | |
| Fall Song (1st class only) | As planned the previous week, have selected children hold onto red, yellow leaves, or an apple. Teach the 2nd ("air is crisp") verse if the class seems up for it. |
| I wanted to do this for the 1st class, since they didn't get a chance to do it during the previous week. Unlike the 2nd class's experience, I hand-selected (before the class) three names, and had those students come up to the front of the circle; having them up front rather than interspersed in the circle unified the rest of the students' attention, and also put the 3 selected students a bit more on notice to react during the singing of the song. I still felt that I directed the song a bit too fast, as the 3 selected students were still lagging behind the sung verses. I did end up teaching them the second verse, which turned out to be pretty easy. | |
| The Turkey Ran Away | Teach at least turkey/apple/pumpkin, and then solicit students for suggestions |
| I was able to do this only with the 2nd class. The students really enjoyed the song, and gleefully added their own suggestions when asked (vegetable/soup, potato/mash). Doing a review of all 5 items was also easy, although I ended up only remembering 4 of them and needed help from the teacher. Anyhow, this was a hit. | |
| 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. |
| This was originally planned for the previous week, and I did indeed finally get to this for both classes. Both classes picked up the song easily, and the hand signs were very easily learned. | |
| Rig a Jig Jig | Review the song while marching, and then try to do concentric circles, first in the same direction and then in opposite directions. Finish with "goodbye goodbye goodbye" at the end. |
| For the first class, there wasn't a lot of time, and so we only got to review the song. (I actually tried to get two circles set up, but there was too much clamoring among the children, and given the lack of time, I aborted it.) Unlike the previous week, I didn't have the students put the mats back, and I just had them sing "Goodbye" and line up by the door. The second class had a bit more time, and I was able to get both circles going, and in opposite directions. I had the inner circle hold hands, while the outer circle just walked without any handholding, as I wanted to preserve the original mat circle; having the mats as a separator between the circles also was a definite bonus. | |
Again, I didn't ask students what they learned; there wasn't much time for any sort of discussion. Backpocket (and unused) items included Sarasponda, Deep and Wide, and Tony Chestnut.
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