| Wake Up You Lazybones | A opener, immerse the students, and then have them follow me in the circle as I marched and stopped. |
| Students are always kind of quiet at the start of class, so I wanted to do an opener that addressed their sluggishness. Originally, I was going to play "Energy" by Laurie Berkner, and have them do what the song tells them while marching in a circle, but with the GLC assemblies going on, I felt it was better to do something sung. By habit for both classes, I actually tried to teach them the first half by rote first rather than immersing them. I also didn't march until starting the second time through the song. The students followed me pretty well, even though many didn't sing until maybe the 3rd or 4th time through. I think I did the song only 4 times I believe. One thing to note - the words of the song talk about hunting cattle and cows; later that night, I came to the conclusion that it would be more enjoyable to sing about feeding cows than hunting them, and the song still works. | |
| My Bonnie | Review song, then do the b-movement game. |
| Students knew the song, but they didn't quite recall that we sang it in class. (Some noted that they knew it from preschool, or that they could play it on the piano.) The students however were able to sing the song easily in a quick review. Then, I had the students do the b-movement game (standing, toggle crouching and standing whenever a word starting with "b" was sung), which they did pretty well, especially the 2nd time through. While this had been in my backpocket for a while, this song was entirely planned; however, I intended originally to do it after the rhythm instruments, but I moved it earlier because of the assemblies. | |
| Rhythm Instruments | Split students in groups of 4, and have them beat a certain # of times based on a part drawn on the board. |
| I completely scrapped this for the first class thanks to the assemblies, but by the time we got to this stage of the lesson, the assemblies had stopped for the 2nd class, so I took the opportunity to bring the second class up to date with the rhythm instrument lesson that I did for the first class back on March 13th. I split the class into groups of 4, sprinkled instruments around the room (djembe, tambourines, drums on a stick (I don't really know the name for them), and triangles/guiro/finger cymbals), and had them try to play something on their beat. I used the same measures that I used with the 1st class back on March 13th: 1-1-1-1, 1-2-1-1, 1-2-1-2, 1-2-3-2. Then, I tried to have the 4th group play for the entire beat by changing their value to a scribble on the board (1-2-3-S), and fortunately it's easy to play a continuous note with the triangles, guiros, and cymbals. The students were oohed and ahhed by the continuous sound. Originally I had planned on doing 4 beats on 4 beats rest (and then adding solos during the rest); I'll do that in a later lesson. As I was passing out the instruments, I sang "It's a Very Good Day", and I sang about the wind. I sort of fumbled the 2nd verse ("I can feel the wind rushing over me..."), but the students didn't care. When putting the drums away, I sang the same song, but talking about the sun.... I think. | |
| Bate Bate Chocolate | Have students chant with alternating beats, and then alternating eighths. |
| Students seemed ok trying to tackle the alternating beats. Similar to before, the 2nd group (red for me) always chanted more tentatively than the first group; it's certainly easier to come in on the downbeat. They were amused when we tried to sing the alternating beats quickly. When presented the alternating eighths (I had it prewritten on a board underneath the original board), the students groaned a little bit. We tried it once through with each class, and both struggled, although the second class had a little more success. The one thing that was successful was that I was able to illustrate how the "uno, dos, tres" line didn't have notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th upbeats - I added green dots to illustrate the rest. In fact, this might have been the first time that I spoke more than anecdotally about rests. Anyhow, trying to alternating eighths was pretty ambitious, and I won't try that again with 1st graders. | |
| Old King Glory On The Mountain | Teach song quickly by rote, but more or less immerse them if there isn't enough time. Have the students walk CCW while I walked CW on the outside. Pull people to the door by the end of the song. |
| I tried this with the first class, but the students got a little rowdy, which I thought was understandable (the shrinking circle was something completely new to them), but the teacher (mis?)interpreted the giggling as deliberate disruption, and she ended the class right there. That surprised me a little bit, but perhaps it was also a way to emphasize the importance of attention conveniently, since they were on the verge of being late to their assembly in the GLC anyway. I didn't really have time to go through the whole dance with the 2nd class, so I had them sing to the song while they picked up their mats and redeposited their mats into the mat cart. | |
The shutdown of the 1st class was still a bit bothersome, and the next class, I might send a signal to tell the teacher it's ok for that particular song. Backpocket items including comparing bumblebee recordings (strings vs. Bobby McFerrin), Polly Wolly Doodle, Bushel and a Peck, and by virtue of its replacement as an opener, "Energy" by Laurie Berkner.
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