Teaching Notes, 2nd grade, 20121220

Today was one of the few times when I had the opportunity to teach the same class in back to back weeks. Since today was the last day before the winter break, and just about all classes (including my two classes) were holding holiday parties during the last half hour of school, the other docent and I decided to teach one class apiece during the first half hour (for about 20 minutes), and then we'd combine the two classes for a big 50-student sing-a-long. My class for the first half hour was the class I typically taught first.

Everybody Oughta Know	Warm up students with the song
As the students gathered onto the carpet, I started singing this song, and only a few students sang along with me. Thus, I turned this into a warmup-review, and we methodically covered how the song was sung. We ended up singing this all the way through three times.
Winter Fantasy	Review song w/ staff music
Last week, the students very briefly saw the lyrics and music to Winter Fantasy, and so I wanted to spend the majority of the time that I had with them to teach the song properly. With the sheet music for the entire song now on display, I walked through the song with the students one line at a time via echo. We then sang the song together two lines at a time, although I had to spend a little more time focusing on the faster parts of the song (e.g. "everybody rushing 'round"). This also allowed me to review the different kinds of notes - half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes; nearly every part of the song involving eighth notes was sung quickly. I discovered today that music displayed via the projector works well for quarters, half, and whole notes, but the projection resolution isn't great for thin stems, particularly for the eighth notes. As a result, I had to draw with a dry erase marker the same notes so that the students could see the rhythm. We practiced this a few times before declaring us ready for the sing-a-long.
Introduction to Ukulele	Introduce instrument, allow students to strum
A few students before class started noticed that I brought a ukulele, and I was planning to use it during the sing-a-long. Thus, with the time that I had left before the other classroom students arrived, I broke out the uke and started showing it to the students. I've done this with my classes each year, and this time was no different - we talked about its similarities/differences when compared to a guitar. I also walked around the students, allowing each to do a single-finger strum so that they could feel what it was like to strum the strings. Finally, I talked about how sounds meant vibrations (they could see it in the strings when I plucked them), and when I moved a finger up the fingerboard, the sound pitch went up. I then talked about how small things typically meant high pitches, while large things typically meant lower pitches. It was at this point when the students from the other class came in…
Jingle Bells + Winter Fantasy	Have both classes sing both songs together
When the other class came in, I now had both classes side by side. I asked the other class if they had a song to sing; they nodded in affirmation. At this point, I started strumming a C-chord and sometimes an open G, to suggest a starting pitch, as I wanted to keep the two classes singing in C. I then had the other docent lead this group of students to sing Jingle Bells. After they had completed, I also announced that my class had a song to sing, and I led my group through Winter Fantasy, also in C. At this point, I told the students that our songs could sing their songs together! Taking the tempo somewhat more slowly, I gave the students a count to 4, and we were off! Having the ukulele was I think very helpful, since I was able to enforce some sort of regular beat with the strum. The second class (singing Jingle Bells) were singing rather loudly, almost shouting, and while I let both groups finish (and finish together they did), I noted to the second class that they didn't have to shout, as they couldn't hear what the first class was singing. We sang through the song again, and this time, the first(!) class was overpowering the students. I wanted to get one more good attempt down, and so I told both classes to sing softly, and I gave them an example using the first ilnes of each song. The third time was indeed a charm, and we were able to get both classes to sing together quite nicely! During this activity, I had the overhead display both sets of lyrics, split so that the second class's seated position was in line with their lyrics, and vice versa. The lyrics were also printed so that simultaneously sung lyrics were on the same vertical position on the paper.
12 Days of Christmas	Sing together, change lyrics
I had a little treat for the students - I had printed out the 12 different stanza lines in descending order (as if it were the 12th day), and I had covered up all but the lines that were relevant to the current iteration, i.e. starting with the very last line. Each iteration, I'd reveal the line above, and we would continue singing. But, I wanted this to be more than just your standard holiday fare - instead, I told the students after the 3rd iteration that they clearly knew the song. For that reason, I changed the lyrics to the 8 days of Hannkukah, and starting with the 4th line from the bottom, we continued to sing. After completing the 6th iteration, I changed the lyrics again to the 12 days of vacation, and again started, this time from the 7th day. After we hit the 8th day, I switched to the 12 days in Hawaii (a mishmash of some benign lyrics I found on the web mixed in with some lyrics from "Numbah One Day of Christmas"). By the time we finished the 11th song, I told the students that since there were parents next door finishing preparations for the party that we'd be better off singing the traditional lyrics, so we sang the 12th iteration using the original lyrics. This was a ton of fun, in every sense of the word. The students started with a familiar tune, but they were captivated by what was the next line, especially after the 3rd when we were no longer singing the standard words. I found the lyrics to the 12 days of vacation online, and in retrospect, since I knew I wasn't going to sing all 12, I could have eliminated some lines (e.g. "don't hit your sister') with something more benign, but the kids sang them gleefully anyway.

And so, we were able to hold court with 50 students for two songs. With a group so large, it's difficult to spend time answering questions, and just as if I had a standard size class of 1st or Kinders, you have to steer the class to the next activity with little downtime and with little options for the students. But it was clearly doable, and I suspect in the new year we'll try something like this again. Have a happy and healthy holiday, everyone. We'll return to the blog (and to more classes) in January.