| Down by the Sea (Red Grammer) | Entrance song - have students follow me in motions around the room to the song |
| It was a cold day, and Down By The Sea is all about being on the beach, so I had the students, before entering the classroom from the outdoors, pretend and/or wish that they were on a warm beach. I then had them do the first few motions (in retrospect, it's much more effective to have practiced at least up to "Hot, Hot") outside before running in, starting the music, then re-greeting them at the door and leading them in. Similar to previous classes, I picked a volunteer student to hold the door so that I could do the leading, and that appears to be working out very well. Down By The Sea was a song that I thought would be a little to simple for 2nd graders, but they still appeared to enjoy it. I know that I don't add as much motion as I'd like to, and so perhaps this was simply the students liking a motion activity. | |
| I Think You're Wonderful (Red Grammer) | Review song, teach the chorus |
| I quickly reviewed the chorus of the song, and had the students sing it twice. This was a pretty simple exercise, which then led easily to the next exercise... | |
| Musical Staff, La | Use pieces of I Think You're Wonderful to introduce "La" and review the use/features of the staff |
| With Wonderful still fresh in the students' minds, I quickly pointed to the lines and asked what they were. Without a clef marker, they were just lines, and the first class identified that correctly. After adding the clef, I then fast forwarded to the last note - where we marked 'Do' right at C on the staff (upper). I then jumped back to the the start of the song (I asked the students to immediately sing the first part of the song again), and noted how we didn't start on Do - but instead we started on 'Mi'. I had a bit of fun splitting the class where half sang the last word ("Too" on Do), and the other half sang the first word ("I" on Mi); we were a bit of a doorbell for a bit. I then jumped again to the 3rd line, which goes up then down. (Amusingly, "Me" was not 'Mi', but instead it was "Fa" on the staff.) I then noted how some students were singing "Me" higher instead of lower than the preceding word ("To"), and so I tried to show how that note was off the staff. I then introduced "La". How convenient! I then split the class again with half of the class singing "To" on Fa, and the other half on La - it sort of worked, and when I pointed one hand up, one hand down, I think the students understood what was going on. This whole exercise had me repeat pieces of the song starting at various points in the chorus, as if I was a tape player with a rewind button. I think it was surprisingly effective as a tool to teach elements of the staff, as well as getting the students maximum exposure to the song, as most sang along with me with each snippet, however short. When I was done, I had the class sing the song again one last time. It sounded pretty good. | |
| There's a Hole In the Bottom of the Sea (Red Grammer) | Immerse students into song, build as the song goes on. |
| This is a really good aggregation song. I started with the first line on a board "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea", and I had the students read it. (Only a few knew right away what the song was.) Before the class, however, I had written on a board to the left of the board with the line a concatenation of all of the other items that the song referred to, with each item (e.g. "log", "bump", etc.) written in a different color. This other board was to the left of the first board and initially obscured by the board with the staff. And so, when it was time to introduce a new part of the aggregation, I simply moved the staff board to the left a few inches. Students love revealing surprises beneath boards, and so the excitement grew after each stanza singing. By the time we had finished the regular part of the song, I took suggestions on how to extend the song, and we added two more items for each class. This song provided a nice time to remind students to manage their air (sit up, take a deep breath, etc.) in order to say the whole line in one breath. I did not do what Red Grammer does at the end of the song ("break the branch..."), and I just ended with the hole in the sea. I originally thought about using the guitar for this song, but stopped short of doing so. It probably would have been too much of a distraction. | |
| Teaching Peace (Red Grammer) | Teach song by rote in lines, then have the students march to the song. |
| Teaching Peace was a song that I knew students would be asked to sing alongside Red Grammer, so I tried to squeeze this one in, although I was arguably running out of time for both classes. I taught the song quickly, and then had the students march in a circle whenever the chorus was being sung. During the stanzas, I had the students walk in and out of the center of the circle (some students tried to collide, reminiscent of the Zemer Atik dance), just so that they weren't just standing around. Around the sound off, I had the students reverse course and then line up to the front of the classroom. | |
| Hello World (Red Grammer) | Sing as a goodbye song |
| Originally, I was going to sing this as the entry song before I settled on using Down By The Sea, but Hello World works just as well as an exit song with a few minor modifications (e.g. "hope to see you again" or "so have a good day"). I had time for this song only in the second class, which was a bit of a bummer, since I was sure that Red Grammer would sing Hello World (in its original form) during his concert. | |
This was a lot more successful than the previous class that was Red Grammer heavy. I felt pretty good that I was able to pull off 5 different songs from RG in the second class, and even with only 4, both classes felt like they were appropriately paced. If I had more time, I even had Wimoweh (another RG classic) ready to go.
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