Teaching Notes, 3rd grade, 20110929 (2nd class)

This was the last class before the intersession break, and I wanted introduce at least one new song that I used multiple times last year - the Seasons song.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song, in different languages
We covered so far English, French, Swahili, and given that today was the last day before the break, I figured it was time to throw in Mandarin into the mix. I used "hello little friends" as it's a little shorter than "hello my friends" when translated into Chinese. The 3rd grade has had Mandarin since Kindergarten, and so this was an easy language to add. I also took the time to use the finish sign (closed fist in the air) and I had the students what is really the 2nd to last line in all of the languages in reverse order (Mandarin, Swahili, French, English), and ending in English. I had the words all written in the board in order which made the finish even easier. I do think that the students are really learning the song quite well.
Seasons	Introduce the song
I used Seasons last year quite extensively for teaching in a round, and as a pseudo zipper song, and it worked quite well. As I've done in past years, I had the lyrics pre-written on the board, which we read as a group. We then sang the song a few times. This went so well, that I decided to split the class into two, and I wanted to get the class to sing the two pieces separately in a mini-round, per se. I first practiced with the class the silent count (which would be critical for the half of the class that starts second), and then we tried practicing starts. I had the 2nd half start the song at the 3rd line (exactly after half of the song was completed), and the first few times resulted in a lot of mud. The teacher tried helping out to lead the first group, and students were a little more successful singing only their part, although it still wasn't clean enough to record (which I'd likely do the next time). We did try to have the first group repeat the song once, and during the first group's second iteration, we had a number of students from the second group finish the song with the first group. Whoops. This actually still went better than I had expected; I don't typically plan on splitting a class for a song during the same day I teach the song. We'll likely revisit this same song when we return in November.
Do Re Mi	Teach song by immersion and then by picture
Before I sang the song, I reviewed the notes up to La using the same jump-behind-the-chair technique that I used the last time. I then added Ti and the upper Do, and we talked a bit about the re-emergence of the other Do, and how it formed an octave. I also pointed out that the pitches were getting higher as I moved to my left (the students' right), just like a piano. After jumping up and down the scale (another introduced term), I then introduced the song by having the class repeat one line after me, in tune. After going through that sequence once, I then whipped out printed sheets for each of the notes each with a picture of the homonym of the note (e.g. a deer for Do, the sun for Re, etc.) I placed one sheet on each chair, in order. I then did the same echo singing with the students with the sheets one time through. After finishing with "and it brings us back to Do Do Do Do", I immediately had the students sing with me the song, with the visual cues. Success! I'm absolutely sure that some of the students knew the song, but enough definitely took advantage of the pictures. Note to self - use card stock next time; the paper was a bit flimsy and often fell off the chairs.
I Think You're Wonderful (Red Grammer)	Assess how well the students know the song
I knew for a while that during assemblies during the Wednesday minimum days, sometimes the student body sings this song. I've used this song as a tool to get a class to sing in split parts too, and so I figured I'd have the students sing the song to see how well they knew it. It turns out that the students had little interest to sing this particular song (song fatigue?), and they certainly weren't singing it in any particular tune, even though I started the class on a specific note. After we sang the chorus through, I told the class that one day I'd like to have the class lead the rest of the student body when singing this song.

With the extra time spent on Seasons, I actually found myself short on time! Students arrived right at 2:10pm, and so I might try to get the class to arrive just a little bit earlier so that I don't feel pressed to release the students before the 2:40 bell. I did actually have claves with me, and I do want to illustrate the purpose of the resonating chamber (with the hand holding the clave), which I'll do in a later week. I do see another round of sticks/beat echo in their future.

Teaching Notes, 3rd grade, 20110929 (1st class)

For a while, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to be teaching class for this week. Originally I had planned on teaching this class around 1:05pm, give or take a few minutes, but no children showed up until 1:30pm; apparently, the teacher thought that classes started at that time. Fortunately, I was still prepared to go through my original lesson plan with the students.

I'm still trying to catch this class up with the other 3rd grade class, and so a lot of the material here was similar to last week's material for the second 3rd grade class.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song, in different languages
The students this time were accompanied by the principal, who was filling in for the regular teacher. Now, this time, the students walked in in a pretty orderly fashion. I had the ropes laid out in a 3/4 circle, and while they were marching in, I sang Hello My Friends in English. I then moved to French (which we had covered during the previous class). I had the lyrics written pre-written on the board, and then I wrote "Jambo, Watoto", and asked the students what they thought it meant. We then tried singing Jambo Watoto, Jambo.
Ukulele Introduction	Introduce the ukulele
It was this class' turn to be introduced to the Uke. This time, I did allow each student to strum lightly the ukulele, and after I had gone around the classroom, we talked about how the instrument felt when it was played. We also spent a little bit of time talking about the function of the hole/resonating chamber, and how sound needs space.
Jambo (Red Grammer)	Sing/teach song via immersion
This song worked well with the second class last week, and save for a bit of a hiccup when I was hunting for the initial starting tones, I was able to lead the students to sing the song. Similar to the previous week's experience, I also took the time to teach them to look for a sign that the song was ending; at that time, the students were asked to sing "Jambo Sanna" three times, followed by "Jambo". The students did a pretty good job with the song. It helps that the song is entirely an echo song without long phrases for the students to copy.
Do Re Mi	Introduce the notes to the students
This was an activity that I had done with the other class two weeks ago; I had chairs laid out in a line, and standing behind the first one, I sang "Do" and showed them the sign. After many repetitions, I started working up the line, moving to my left (the students' right) as I went up the scale. The students sang, but struggled a little with the hand signs; they didn't quite make the association with sign and note, and in a few instances, I also had to recapture the students' pitch so that they sang with me. I went as high as La, although I didn't try to jump notes this time around. Eventually by the end of the exercise, I tried to jump around with only signing (no singing) each note, and I think I lost half the class pretty quickly.
The Longer The Faster	Play the exercise
I've now done this exercise with 5 or 6 different classes over the years, and it's always a fun one. I spent a decent amount of time explaining the rules and having the children practice, and the students had a very good time with it. The principal filling in for the teacher even jumped in and participated in the fun. Yay! After the exercise was complete, I was able to discuss with the class the nuances of the exercise, particularly what was making the exercise more and more difficult as it went on. The discussion provided a little bit of a downtime for the students, too.

I'm writing this blog a few weeks after the class happened, so my memory isn't so great about what happened next. I thought I had done something off the cuff, but I don't recall what that was, and I didn't exactly have a lot of time.

I of course eventually taught the other class afterwards, so this 3rd grade class continues to be about one session behind. But I'll try to accelerate the classes a bit when we resume after the intersession break; during those times, I also can extend the class beyond 30 minutes to about 45 if I have to.