Teaching Notes, 20091207

Yay! It's a class one week after the previous class. With only two more classes before the break, I really wanted to get into some more holiday songs while building on things from the last few classes.

Originally, I wanted to open with "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", but it turns out that 2nd graders aren't losing their first teeth, let alone their two front top teeth. (For the record, I lost my first tooth in 3rd grade, and it took someone hitting me in the mouth for that to happen.) And so, I had to change things around on the fly, and that, for better or worse, set the tone for the whole class.

Everybody Oughta Know	Use as an entrance song.
Again, I found myself holding the door for both classes, so students were already milling around and fighting for mats. If there's a system that the students have in determining the "best" mat (irrespective of the location of their friends), I sure haven't figured it out. Anyhow, I ended up singing Everybody with people half-seated, half standing, which wasn't the best-organized start. While students remembered the song, their energy was best described as distracted. I had to remind students that at the end of the song everyone was to sing, and so we iterated over the song about 2-3 times.
Let It Snow	Teach the song from scratch, by rote
I transitioned to this song mostly by remarking about how cold it was (it was close to freezing, and there was a big rainstorm the other night), and how I was hoping for snow. Many students chimed in on how there was indeed snow on the ground where they lived or where they were over the weekend. I sang the song went through, and then started to have them repeat each line individually. I goofed up one of the lines ("and since we've got no place to go") by giving "and" and "since" eighth notes, which threw off the meter of the song. For the first class, I couldn't come up with a good substitute, and so I fumbled through that line each time. :( Students seemed to know the song once I sang "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow". The students seemed comfortable enough such that I sang the second stanza, but I didn't teach them it; instead, after 3 lines of the second stanza, I motioned to the students to sing "Let it Snow" with me, which they did.
Sleigh Bells	Pass out bells, have students sing and play bells at the same time
I asked the class what instrument they associated with snow, and a few suggested bells, fortunately, as I had a bin of wrist-sized sleigh bell bands handy. I passed them out while singing the first stanza of Let It Snow again. Montclaire's music room is still amazingly well-stocked (especially for a school that relies on MFM for music instructors) and there were enough sleigh bells for everyone. With the bells in hand, I had students shake them for a bit, and then I had them try to cover up the metal balls as much as they could, and then give them another shake. I then had the students characterize the difference that they observed, and we discussed the importance of letting them ring unabated, unheld. I tried to make the point that sound needed space, and I then tried to tie in how people, in order to sing, also needed space, and that meant sitting up when singing, not slouching down. I then had the students sing Let It Snow one more time, while shaking the bells during the 4th line of each stanza. I pretty much sang the first three lines of the second stanza solo.
Austrian Yodeler	Sing, with instruments!
I asked the students what song regarding snow (and lots of it) was sung during the last class, and only a few made the connection to the Austrian Yodeler (avalanche -> snow, etc.). Anyhow, I went ahead and had the students sing the song, with sleigh bells as the sound that interrupted the yodeler. After singing the song with bells once through, I had about 1/3rd of the class give up their sleigh bells for tambourines, and then we added tambourines to the song. After another time through, we replaced 1/2 of the remaining sleigh bells with shakers, and then we sang the song with all 3 instruments. Then, we proceeded to add back the original three interruptors from last week (avalanche, grizzly bear, Santa Claus), and the kids really had a blast. I kept one set of sleigh bells which I always used to kick off the rash of instruments, and that seemed to help each time.
Zemer Atik	Review song, dance it one time through, and then add the hand connections
Students mostly remembered the steps from the previous class, and so going through the song with the music was pretty good. This week, however, the students seemed a little more rowdy that the previous week, and students started to crash into each other or slip on the mats during the dance. I tried to use the hand connections to keep the circle mostly sane on the outside. (Plus, it's really part of the dance.) The first class was able to use the hand motions somewhat successfully, but the second class mostly broke down after a while. I think I was trying to also rush in the hand connections for the second class, thinking that I wouldn't have time to do anything else, and I really wanted to give it a shot, even though the class attention span wasn't at its greatest.
Tuwe Tuwe	Teach song
I asked the students what language they thought Zemer Atik was sung in - after several guesses, the first class correctly guessed Hebrew, while the second class was unable to guess an answer at all. I talked very briefly about Hebrew, Israel, and Hannukah, and then I quickly moved onto Kwanzaa, which I used to introduce Tuwe Tuwe, admittedly not really a Kwanzaa song, but yet something that worked well last year and is African. Teaching the song this year, however, did not seem as successful. I don't know if the students already knew it and were bored, or if again I was rushing things. But it certainly didn't seem like students were picking up the song as well as I had hoped, and they seemed somewhat disinterested. I plan on trying it again the following week, and ultimately I was hoping to use this as a round later in the year.

I used Let It Snow as a very brief exit song, but in both classes I was distracted and only sang the song once through.

I really need to have the students march in to song from the very beginning, and so I need to remember to ask a student to hold the door open for the rest of the class. That way, I can stay in front of the students as they enter. It's probably a good idea also to tell the students that (1) we are marching in, and (2) whatever mat you end up with is yours, not the one across the room.

Again, there were a lot of things that I had planned but did not get to, including the 12 Days of Christmas, Fish/Chips/Vinegar, Rudolph, and Up on the Housetop. I'm really hoping that Tuwe Tuwe will work out better the next week.

Teaching Notes, 20091130

We had another off week thanks to Thanksgiving, and so we had classes after another two week break. I wanted to build on many of the songs and topics we covered during the last class.

Over the River and Through the Wood	Use as an entrance song. Quickly review, add the 2nd verse.
Students remembered the song from two weeks ago very easily. However, the 2nd stanza didn't go as well as I had hoped. I couldn't tell if the students were just bored of the song or if I was rushing the instruction. I did try to include some illustrative motion for the 2nd verse, but I don't think certain parts (marching in 1/2 time for "we seem to go extremely slow") came as easily as the 1st verse did. I also had an interruption of momentum to start the class; the first class sat down while I was singing the song, and I had to stop to tell them to keep marching, and the second class sat down before any song started as I had to hold the door. I'll use this song again perhaps as an exit song during the last class before the holidays.
Austrian Yodeler	Teach the song from scratch, include 3 verses.
One some of the students knew the song (mostly from my classes last year), and so I taught the song from scratch, using avalanche and grizzly bear as the first two items. Then, I threw in Santa for good measure, which gave the kids a nice chuckle. "How many Ho's should we say for Santa," asked one student. This was a nice exercise to get the students still moving a little bit. And, it also set me up nicely for the next exercise...
Do Re Mi Fa Sol	Have students find Do from "Austrian Yodeler", and walk them up the scale
With the song ending in a yodel on Do, it was easy to jump (literally) back into the Do Re Mi exercise that we did two weeks ago. This time, I put out triplets of three differently colored stools at different locations in the classroom, and I had the students jump at Do, Re, Mi. I placed a different stool at Mi, and then I went up two more steps to Sol. Sol got a stool as well, and as I jumped around the notes, students sang the notes. Probably about half of the students (maybe a little less) were also trying to follow pitch upwards/downwards depending on which direction I was moving. I also took the time to introduce a jump by jumping the arpeggio (Do-Mi-Sol), although I didn't tell them what an arpeggio was. Instead, I mentioned that these notes are more important than the others, but I did not explain why. I'm hoping the alternating stools are going to also pay off when we do notes on a staff.
Zemer Atik	Teach steps of dance, then apply to music
Yay - this was the first time I had the students engage in significant motion in the middle of the class. I spent a decent amount of time walking the students through the initial steps, although for the first class, I flubbed the introduction a little by having the students take 4 steps instead of 5 (and then a 6th). No matter, students were able to figure out the pattern. I didn't bother trying to get the students to put one hand in front and one hand in back while they marched in a circle - I figured that that would have been too difficult. The students were able to learn the motions leading into the middle of the circle very easily as well. About half of the students knew how to snap, and the others either just motioned the arms, or clapped. There were a few students who took very large steps into the middle in an effort to crash, and so I had to remind people not to overextend themselves. There were also some students who were slipping on the mats, as we had to cross them to get in/out of the middle, and so I had to caution the students about slipping as well. Zemer Atik was pretty successful. Students seemed to enjoy the song/dance greatly. I used a recording from David and the High Spirit which I downloaded off of iTunes, but it was slower than the one that was used to teach me the song. I actually prepared faster versions (about 5% faster and 10% faster) versions of the same song, but I didn't get to use them. Teaching the dance and going through the song twice (a 2:06 recording) took about 8 minutes of class time.
Victor Vito	Exit Song - sing first stanza, and get the class marching to line up to leave
Victor Vito is a great exit song; heck, it's a great song in general. I had the 2nd class march in the wrong way (oops) while doing the mat return. I still need a good system for that for exiting the class through the back door. In both classes, I was really short on time, so I only went through 3 verses, and shortcutted to "youuuuuuu!"

I was really happy that I was finally able to get a motion activity into the middle of class. However, there were a ton of things that I wanted to do, including teach Tuwe Tuwe (round, sort of a lead into Kwanzaa), and I didn't even have to use any 5 fat turkey interjections for a minute or two. I also had Fish/Chips/Vinegar in my back pocket, which I was going to record and play back. I even had upon the housetop if we really needed it ready.