For this class, I really wanted to try to keep the students' attention, and several months into the class, I thought it was time to bring in some instruments, finally. And so, today we had sticks! As such, I had the mats arranged before the class in a U or 3/4-circle, so that the side closest to the chalkboard was open. I call this my "theater" setup.
| Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Iz) | Play a shortened version of the song, lead students into an informal hula. |
| One of my long term goals for the year is to get the students to sing this song reasonably well on their own, and in order to do that (it's about a 5 minute song!), I know I'm going to have to work in the song several times during the year. When I introduced the ukulele to the class, I briefly sang the introduction to Iz's version, but the students didn't sing along. This time, as the music started up (the vocals don't come in until the song is well underway), I had the students walk into the room and quickly find a spot. By the time the "oooo" part of the vocals had started, I had the students stand up, and follow my motions. My motions were all from the waist up, and a lot of times, I used flowing, exaggerated ASL signs ("rainbow", "dream", "birds fly", etc.), and sort of made up pseudo-hula for the kids. I didn't want the children to move from their mat location, so I didn't really move my legs in any sort of hula-like motion, although I did move around in the middle of the circle a bit just to emphasize the arm movements. I only used half of the song from Iz - before he gets into the "It's a Wonderful World" part, as without that part the song was already 2.5 minutes long. The students seemed pretty entertained by the song, and a few of them recognized that (1) it was Hawaiian, (2) the song was the same song as the one from the Wizard of Oz. | |
| Human Rhythms | Do an assortment of taps, claps, etc. |
| This really was something I wanted to do to ensure that I had the full attention of the class. I made no announcement, and issued no instructions; I just started some simple patterns of clapping and tapping. Eventually, I did some patterns such as clap-left tap (on floor)-clap-tap right, which would be relevant for the stick exercise later. In fact, just about everything that I did translated well into motions with the rhythm sticks. | |
| Rhythm Sticks | Repeat similar taps/claps but use rhythm sticks |
| I first passed out a single stick, and talked about the sticks, as well as some ground rules. The first stick was a smooth stick. I then had them follow me in a few different motions with the single stick, so that I still had their attention. Next, I passed out a grooved stick, and then asked the class to describe the stick. I then demoed rubbing the two sticks together, illustrating how the grooves are able to make a sound that the smooth sticks alone could not. The movements I had them do included some tapping in the air, followed by tapping on the ground. I also had them move the sticks around without any tapping at all; during those movements I told them that the "trick" was to ensure that the sticks never touch. Before I moved onto playing with a song, I had the students also move their arms to the sides to see if they might hit someone else. I emphasized the importance of not hitting someone, so I had people move around a little bit to give each other room. In the second class, one student, even with one stick was playing with the stick inappropriately (bouncing it on the ground, etc.), and so I removed the stick from the student. I still passed out the second stick to everyone including the stickless student, and the student felt silly enough to try to play with only one stick, and so I had that student's attention pretty well for the rest of the class. When the students were ready, we played the sticks to... | |
| Grumpy (David Weinstone) | Play sticks to the song |
| Grumpy is nothing terribly special other than being a fun song to listen to, and being a song with a relatively simple rhythm. There were enough breaks that allowed me to do things like drum rolls, air rolls, sudden stops, etc. The pickup to the start of each stanza also has a distinct tuba 3-eighth note sequence which led perfectly to 3 double-taps on the ground. The students seemed to have a lot of fun with this, and they followed me pretty reasonably. I started with a pretty basic pattern, but by the end of the song, I felt that I could change things up pretty quickly on the students without losing most of them. The second class had such a good time with this that they asked to do it again (something that I didn't do with the first class!), and during the second iteration, I added a few other wrinkles such as some sixteenth notes. The next time that I pull out the sticks, I'll likely write out Kodaly rhythms on the board so that the students know how to write out a rhythm. | |
| Oh My Goodness, Look At This Mess | Sing during stick cleanup |
| After we were done with the sticks, I had the students put the sticks in front of them. Then, I sang the chorus to "Oh My Goodness", but it was clear that few students in either class knew how to sing the song. I repeated the chorus, then sang a stanza. Then, I had the students try to follow me into the chorus, and they did an ok job. I then sang a second stanza, and the students were able to sing the chorus somewhat better. | |
| How Do You Do Todee (Sanna Longden) | Intro the chant to the second class, do the exercise |
| While this was a review for the first class, the second class never got a chance to do this exercise, so this was an attempt to get the two classes back to parity (while learning a fun activity). I used the same approach to introducing the activity to the second class that I did with the first class during the previous week. In all, I think both classes are close to each other in experience and familiarity with this. The one difference that I noticed was that the first class worked together a bit better to try to get a workable circle with hands crossed and linked. | |
| Wimoweh | Review, try to get to 3 parts |
| The students in the first class had significantly more time to do this than the second, but I still only did parts 1 and 3. During the first class, I had split the class such that about 1/3 of them sang part 3. I also asked both sections to come up with some motions, but the motions that they came up with weren't all that effective. I figured I'd try to provide them with something the next time I try this. Having the ukulele really helps with the song, as it provides a rhythm for the students and a melody at the same time. One student in the first class asked if we'd record the song, and I think I might try it. I will have to do the song earlier in the lesson, however, in order to get the students enough time. | |
I didn't really do a closing song in either class; Wimoweh provided that for me.
The rhythm sticks really provided a good change of pace for the class, and I might use them again for the next class. Backpocket items included Down By The Sea and Tuwe Tuwe.
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