| It's a Very Good Day | Opener, sing while seated, introduce middle verse. |
| I primarily wanted to teach the middle verse to the song ("I can feel the sun..."), but the middle verse was a bit sun-oriented, and I was making contingency plans with regards to the opening verse in case it was still cloudy/foggy when the students rolled in. Fortunately, there was just enough sun for us to sing about a sunny day. | |
| Each Of Us Is A Flower (Charlotte Diamond) | Teach song (both parts), with hand motions. |
| I continued to talk about springtime (sun, warmth, changing time, etc.) in order to introduce this song, and when I sang it once, about half of the students said they knew it... from preschool! Anyhow, I went long and taught the song, going over the first half, then adding signs, then teaching by rote the second half with signs immediately. Some students noted that in other songs, we signed moon with the hands above our heads, similar to how Charlotte Diamond tries to sign sun. Anyhow, the students seemed to pick up the song without much of a problem, although I don't know if they were terribly interested in it. Perhaps it was too easy? I'll plan on trying to overlay the two halves together as a future challenge. | |
| Tritsch Tratsch Polka | Have students dance/march around in the a circle, watching me. Ask them about what they observed with the music and the dance that went along with it. |
| I think the most students seemed to get out of this was the opportunity to let loose and get their jitters out. The students were mostly giggling through the march, and fortunately most followed my directive to not crash into the person in front of them. I totally forgot to ask the first class about their observations. When I asked the second class, few really noticed that I was tiptoeing during the softer parts of the song, while taking larger, more pronounced steps during louder parts of the song. It is possible that the students were merely preoccupied with moving around in general, or perhaps the dynamics of the song (and the recording that I chose) didn't have enough range and change during the song. | |
| Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar | Review the game quickly, and then have students pick their target. Try keeping a beat during the game with hands/thighs. |
| Students were eager to play this again. In fact, when I asked "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" plenty of students volunteered to be the thief; I thanked them for their honesty. I unrolled a few modifications as we played - first students were to pick their own target (as opposed to last time). After two names, I then added the fact that you could not repeat a name; the first class was able to do this perfectly (and they also ended the game by choosing the teacher - an easy out), while the second class near the end needed help to cover everyone. Later, I had to remind the students that when they picked a name, they were to continue the entire phrase (e.g. "...stole the cookie from the cookie jar") rather than just blurting out the name. I also had to remind the rest of the class that after "then who", we all had to chime in with "Who stole..."; I oftentimes signed "who" (asl) in order to get students to jump in and keep the beat. This was the first time I had a student who was ill and obviously uncomfortable. When someone picked her to be the cookie thief, she started to cry. I had to quickly ask the class to help her with the chant, and then I went ahead and picked the next thief. The student recovered enough to do the later tasks. | |
| Razzama Tazzama (Orff) | Immerse the students into the chant while seated |
| This was maybe a top-10 moment. The students were still sort of chatting after the Cookie Jar chant, and this chant not only caught their attention, but they loved it! I modified the movements slightly - clapping on Bim, and then waving hands on each of Razzama and Tazzama. I purposely paused after each Wally-Woo-hoo and the end of each middle verse (e.g. "put your hands in the air"); the students needed the catch-up time, even if it were just for a second or two. Anyhow, this was so well received, and after each Wally-woo-hoo, more and more students threw their arms in the air on "hoo" such that they rolled backwards onto their backs. This was fun, plain and simple. I have to be careful not to re-use it; perhaps I'll invent my own middle verses to keep it fresh. | |
| Sarasponda | Review quickly, try out boonda ostinato again |
| This didn't seem to be all that successful. I tried to keep the boondas together, but it didn't seem like they blended well with the rest of the students. I used 8 boondas for the first class, and 5 for the second class. I tried having the boondas come back to the whole group at "A do rey o" to see if that would provide some unity, and it did to a small degree, but the boondas singing boonda never really morphed into a product I was hoping for. I actually recorded this for both classes, using both the iSight camera/firewire plus a tiny mic attached to my iPod to see what recorded better. I haven't gone back to see what the recordings sounded like, but I fear that the iPod recording may have been mostly me, since I was sitting right by it. | |
I also tried to squeeze in Polly Wolly Doodle in the first class, but it was so rushed that I don't think the students really got it at all, save for the handful who knew it before. For the second class, I ended with A Rig A Jig Jig and had the students pick up their mats and place them in the mat stand.
Other backpocket items were My Bonnie (with the 'b' movement), and Energy (by Laurie Berkner), and 4 Hugs A Day (Charlotte Diamond. It seems that the students are well versed in Charlotte Diamond songs, and so I have to balance learning new material and just singing for singing's sake (not a bad thing) with other Charlotte Diamond songs.
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