Teaching Notes, 20090306

This week, I added something new - homemade nametags! I didn't want teachers to burn through labels in case they didn't have nametags handy, and this way, I could bring them back and for as needed. However, I realized as the day went on that the tags were as valuable as individual cards - I could shuffle through them, and they were just as helpful as tags on a string.

Well I'm On My Way	Opener, get kids singing as they got seated
It seems like it's near impossible to get the students to march into class and continue to march in a circle. And so, it was easier to have them sit while I sang (and they responded) the song. I only needed to go through the song once until everyone was seated.
Bonanopstekker (Shenanigans CD)	Teach them each dance transition without the music. Then play music and see if they follow me and the music.
I spent a decent amount of time explaining rules and what each phase of the dance was. Using the circle of mats as the barrier between inside and outside, I had to make sure the circle was small enough so that everyone could hold hands and be outside the mats, while the circle had to be big enough so that when the students walked inside, it wasn't mass chaos and collisions. Other rules included making sure that everyone held hands while outside the circle., and not colliding into others. The CD insert appears to have a counting error inside with regards to the beats when the kids went in and out of the circle, so I basically had the following plan: 16 beats to the right 16 beats to the left 4 beats going inside 4 beats waving hello 4 beats clapping 4 beats stomping 4 beats going outside 4 beats going inside 4 beats waving hello 4 beats going outside Now, going inside or outside takes a bit of time - especially going outside, so by the end of the whole cycle, we were a little behind. That cut into the 2x16 beat procession, and oftentimes I simply deleted the direction change and continued to go to the right. The few times that I did do a direction change, the students bunched up and collided a bit, but they did a good job trying to stay connected. The students were completely amused by the waving hello portions of the dance.
Tuwe Tuwe	Review the song sung twice in a row without stopping, with clapping. Then record the song, then play back the recording while recording the song again, starting 8 bars after the recording.
The review went quickly, and the students were very intrigued at the prospect of being recorded. I used an iSight camera to pick up the audio from about 5 feet away from the edge of the circle. I played the first recording back to them before using it to do the round; they loved it, and the second class actually clapped to it. Recording the second iteration wasn't too bad, although it was hard to make sure that we kept up properly with the speed of the first recording. Students really enjoyed hearing themselves. I had them count instances of "Tuwe Tuwe" when listening to the combined recording.
Cookie Jar Chant	Teach phrase by phrase, focusing on the call-response. Don't worry about beat.
About 2/3rds of both classes were familiar with the cookie jar chant, but when I tried to make them keep a beat, it didn't work at all, and students weren't all that quick to pick names. So, instead, I was always the speaker for the first two phrases (students eventually joined in). The chosen student responded with "who me" and "couldn't be" with varying degrees of chutzpah; full class responses of "yes you" and "then who" were generally strong. I used the nametags to go through everyone in random order, and even when my cards were missing a student or two, some students in the circle were keenly aware of my attempt to get everyone a turn, and they ended up pointing to those who hadn't gone yet. I made myself the last person in both classes, and admitted to taking the cookie..
Sarasponda	Review quickly, and try introducing boonda as a ostinato for the first half of the song.
I only did this for the first class, as for the first time, the second class took longer (particularly Tuwe Tuwe) than the first. Students didn't seem all that jazzed with Sarasponda again, but when given the new part of boonda, they were into it. I selected a group of 8 students to be my boondas, and I inadvertently also had them tap their thighs (they were all seated) on the beat (the 'b' of boonda), which provided them a nice beat for them. As the boondas were singing something very different, it wasn't hard to get them started, then turn my back mostly away from them while conducting (blindly) with one hand behind me. Getting everyone to come in at "A do rey o" wasn't hard either, and it was a nice way to bring the two sections back together.
I Am A Pizza (Charlotte Diamond)	Teach by echo, note non-echoing next-to-last line i each stanza.
About 3/4 of each class already knew this song, but I tried to teach it as if few knew it in advance. This is a remarkably easy song to teach in general, as nearly everything is echoed. Of the 3/4, only about 1/4 of those knew the song beyond the first stanza, which gave me a nice feeling that they were learning something new. I don't know if there are a lot of hand motions until the end (out of the oven, into the box, etc.), but the song was moving so quickly that the students didn't need much motion. (Plus, they were all getting prompted by virtue of the echo anyway.) I went through the first stanza twice, then moved onto the 2nd and 3rd stanzas (and the 4th mini-stanza). One student noted that she could sing part of the song in French, which is exactly what Charlotte Diamond does in her own recording. I noted that we'd do that (French) another day.
Nature Song (Sweet Honey In the Rock)	Teach signs for rain, sun, wind, sand, sea, and stars, and then just play the music on the boombox, and see if students could follow the songs and do he appropriate sign.
Students seemed ok with learning the signs. Each section of the song is a little on the long side, and I could see that students were a little bored (how long can one keep signing "rain" ?), and I quickly realized that the amount of time spent on one section changes way too dramatically for the 1st graders (i.e. rain the 2nd time is one measure, while rain the 1st time is 8 bars.) For the first class, because of time constraints, I had the students line up by the door in order for the song to be the very last thing that they did; I had the second class moving to the song while standing in the circle. The students were a little unsure of the long times for each stage, but when the song hit rain for the 2nd time, the students became amused by the quick changing. The song ends in chaos, which was a good way to end the day.

I had the second class pick up the mats in a circle with a song whose title I forgot. Oops.

Backpocket items included My Bonnie (with bouncing on 'B' words), and Each of Us Is A Flower.