Teaching Notes, 20120524

Today's class was pretty much a designed warmup for the open house. During the event, I was going to have both 3rd grade classes sing together. As a result, I wanted to devote some time to having all of the students sing together. After teaching the first class, I led them outside and eventually brought in the second class to join them. Afterwards, I planned on holding music class with the 2nd class.

You'll Sing A Song	Warmup, change pitch
I had the students sing the song in English. I then asked them what they would sing if I said "hum a tune" - and a few students started to sing the variation. I then had them hum the tune. I had all of the lyrics pre-printed, and so after the humming, I showed the students the lyrics in Spanish, and we sang through them. I then asked the students to sing (a whole step) higher, which they did. Like in past classes, I had the lyrics also in French, and we practiced that. Finally, I had the lyrics in Chinese, and while it required some deliberate review and practice, the students sang it pretty well, save for the last line. All this time, I was trying to accompany the students on my guitar, and I found it to be very difficult to sing and play at the same time. And so, I told the students that they'd have to sing for me, which they mostly did. I left the lyric sheets with the teachers, and I asked them to practice the chinese lines. I don't think that we'll be singing the French lines for the Spring Sing.
Rattlin' Can	Review song, add props
I'm pretty sold on having the students sing Rattlin' Can, and so I started them quickly on the song. But since I also wanted to play the guitar, I had students come up and hold each prop - first the can, then box, then bag, then bottle of juice. I also had pictures for air, atoms, quarks, and a Q. That left only one prop (the bottle) to represent the bottle, the juice, and the bubbles; those three students had to pass the bottle back and forth, which was amusing to watch. As we sang through the song, one more student would come up and hold a prop, eventually leading to a long line of 10 students. During the Spring Sing, I'll have 5 students from one class and 5 from the other.
Do-Re-Mi	Review song, and combine classes
Outside the classrooms, there is a nice semicircular set of steps, almost like a mini-theater, and so I led the first class so that they sat or stood on one side of the semicircle. We sang through Do Re Mi, and then I checked in with the 2nd class. The 2nd class was still finishing up, and so I took the time to review with the first class the "Sol Do La.." sequence, which they did well. I also taught them the worded sequence of the same melody: "When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything" (also from the movie), which they learned. The 1st class also didn't get to sing "Do Mi Mi…", and so I had just enough time to teach them that. When the 2nd class came out, I had them sit on the other half of the semicircle. Fortunately, there were handrails that allowed me to define a good separator between the two classes. I had the 2nd class quickly warm up with the Sol Do La sequence, followed by the worded version (which was new to them, but they handled it just fine). We then sang together the song. I had both classes also try the two sequences, plus the "Do Mi Mi" sequence all together, and it sounded good. We ended the joint session with the Team Chant, but with a shout of "College Park" near the end.

When I resumed class with the 2nd class, we also practiced singing the Do Mi Mi sequence twice as fast; while the class continued to repeat it quickly, I sang "When you know…" at half the speed, simulating what I hope to have the combined group sing. Next week, we may have a bit of a preview of what it's like to sing in public, as we'll have an opportunity to sing to some exchange students who are leaving the school. I hope it'll encourage some of the students who might be undecided about attending the Open House to come and sing during the event.