Now, for both classes, for some reason I didn't really do an entry song, mostly because the outside was threatening to rain and I wanted to maximize our time outside. The first class also happily started seated on the floor mat, so I got the kids starting right away with the first exercise.
| Seasons | Review song, try to get a 2-part "round" going |
We reviewed seasons, but with spring-oriented lyrics. I didn't bother singing in order to teach them the lyrics; I had the lyrics already printed out, and they simply starting singing along. After two iterations, I chose two people, each to lead half of the class. Getting the students to follow one of their own students is actually pretty hard; the students tend to want to follow either myself or whoever's the loudest, and since I wasn't really singing with them this time, it meant that the students of the 2nd group would oftentimes follow the first - or, students of the first group would migrate so that they followed the 2nd group when the 2nd group became super-loud. For the first class, I had the the two student leaders face their peers, but the lyrics were on the board to the right of them. With the laptop in between the two, I tried recording the students as they sang the "round", albeit in only two parts. Listened live, the students seemed reasonably even volume-wise, but the record recorded the students further away from the board more loudly, as their voices projected slightly towards the laptop rather than away from the laptop. For the second class, I had the student leaders face their peers again, but I had the lyrics behind the leaders; I had to make sure that the leaders had the lyrics memorized (and they did). That class's recording was more even in terms of volume. At some point, we're going to have try a round with 3 or four groups. I'm hoping it can be done before the year's end. | |
| Irish Jig | Review jig, try it one more time |
As it was drizzling outside, I had the students walk out quickly to the concrete area outside of their classrooms. I went through a slightly quick review of the motions of the jig, stressing the importance for each group to walk as if they were hands on a clock. This time, I started with two orbiting satellites, and then expanded to two sets of three. I also grew the group to a walking group of 18 students, which worked fine as there were some students who simply didn't want to participate. (The 2nd class teacher, who happened to be a substitute also participated in the dance.) In order to facilitate the lines and reduce squeamishness, I had students hold onto sticks rather than each others' hands, and that seemed to work very well. The students had a good time with the dance, and we were able to go through the dance twice per class. | |
I have a lot of cover for the remainder of the school year, when it resumes in about 3 weeks. I want to do more rhythm-on-paper exercises, and possibly work in a full round. I also want the students to get some more instrument time, which means having some classes back in the music room again. We'll see how much I can do for the remaining 6 or so classes.
