Teaching Notes, 20131212

We’re getting close to the end of the calendar year, and so it was definitely time to continue with holiday or cold weather songs. However, one cannot simply sing holiday songs all day, and I wanted to get in some more rhythm theory. For today’s class, I wanted to build on songs that we covered as backpocket items so that both classes would be a little more equal. I also wanted to spend time with music from the Nutcracker, as the students had just seen a live production of the ballet the day before. It was also getting cold, and so if there was the opportunity to sing about something involving snow, I’ll take it.

Down By The Sea	Teach movements, and immerse into the activity
At first I was thinking of reviewing Fine Friends are Here, but I wanted to do something a little more involved, and so I figured Down By The Sea would be interesting enough while being nearly 100% new to everyone. I had the students first mimic me (with no words) the actions found in the song, which of course led to a few giggles along the way. Then, I simply started singing the song - much more slowly compared to the original - and the students followed me as I performed the movements. The only movement that I didn’t pre-practice was “fall into bed”, and when I put my hands clasped to the side of my head, a few kids took that as the chance to flop on the ground and snore. Picking up with the song strongly helped get them up. The song ends with the same phrase, and so we ended with a few kids on the ground.
Rhythm Time	Review stomps, introduce high and low headed notes, introduce half note
Last time we did rhythms, the students ended with a pattern of four stomps followed by any number (1-4) of claps while keeping beat. This time, I wrote out four lines for stomps, but a little low on the board in blue, followed by three lines for claps (and one squiggle for a rest) to the right and higher on the board, also in blue. I told the kids that the lower lines were stomps and the higher ones were claps. There are several students who are clearly taking music (piano) lessons outside of school, and many said that the squiggle was a thing called a “rest”, and so while I acknowledged the term, I didn’t dwell on it much, other than to confirm with the students that they knew to do nothing during that squiggle. After practicing the pattern once, I noted that with lines, it’s not super-easy to tell which ones were stomps and which were claps, so I added heads to the lines to make notes - ones at the top of the lines for the stomps (like a lower voice), and ones at the bottom of the clap lines (like an upper voice). Again, there were chimes from the kids that I was writing piano notes. At this point, I wrote out in red, eight more beats’ worth of notes: three more claps and a rest, and then two large notes that were basically half note claps. I made the open head really exaggerated as a way to illustrate that these notes were “bigger” and therefore should take more time - in fact, double - compared to the ordinary notes. A few students noted that they knew that they were called “half” notes. I also had them hold their hands together when clapping so that they could show me that the clap was taking extra time. Anyhow, we practiced this red pattern for a bit.
Up On The Housetop	With students clapping the patterns, sing the song
I instructed the students to play either blue or red, depending on what I was pointing to. We practiced going back and forth for a bit, and then, with the students about to play the blue part, I started to sing the song. Only a few students knew the song well enough to sing it with me as they stomped and clapped. As for the patterns, I kept the first half of the song on blue, the 3rd quarter on red, and the last quarter on blue. Afterwards, we did the song this way one more time. I think the kids had a good time with this; most still weren’t singing at the end, but many were concentrating hard to make sure they were playing the right pattern.
Snowman Scale	Review and Sing!
We covered this last time, and so as a nice easy review, I went ahead and did the snowman scale again. And again. The kids seemed to like it just like the first time, and I think the kids sang along reasonably well. Just like last time, we used body solfege for the scale down at the end of the song.
Star Light Star Bright	Get students to recognize beat, sing song
I started pulsing my hands like they were stars, and while I did that, I asked the students if my hands were going at the same speed. I then started to sing this…. but I totally flubbed the second half of the lyrics. Oops - I didn’t spend the time to write them down just in case, even though most kids know the song… except these kids. After faking the rest of the song, I continued with the pulsing, and I asked the students if the pulsing changed. Of course they didn’t, and I told them that the pulsing was just like a beat that never changes and is always going. We then tried singing the song one more time, and again I had to fake the ending. I did this only with the second class, as for the first class, I did…
Deep And Wide	Teach motions and immerse into song
For the first class, I wanted to get the students some exposure to this song, since the second class had already sung this as a backpocket item. However, I didn’t have a lot of time, so I simply had the students practice the signs; afterwards, we sang the song twice. That was probably enough so that the next time that I do this (which I will), it shouldn’t be too difficult for the students to recall.
Pony Macaroni	Review, and zipper in different motions
To get the students ready to walk in a circle, I had the students raise their right hand, and then point that hand/arm to the right. Then, I had the students turn their bodies in the direction of their hands. This is surprisingly difficult to get right in Kindergarten, as students still don’t all know the difference between right and left. The other parent-teacher during a previous week covered Pony Macaroni, and so I knew that this wasn’t going to be foreign to the students, and indeed, once I started singing the first part of the song, the kids sang as well. After we finished the song, I had the students practice marching in a circle. We spent a little bit of time to make sure that no one was crashing by practicing taking steps without really moving. And finally, it was time to sing and march with the song. I wanted the students to get used to listening while singing, and so I extended the “trots and trots” line so that the horses kept trotting until the students were told to “stop”. I asked the students how they knew when to stop, and eventually I got the students to realize that they had to listen in order to know when to stop. We then practiced the song with sidesteps, going backwards, and tiptoeing.
Small World	Teach motions, sing
Like in past weeks, I had a little time with the second class, and so I wanted to try out this song with them. I had the students do motions first, and before we starting singing the song, a few students sort of figured out what song had the signs. We sang through once, and then one of the students noted that they had already been taught the song in Mandarin, and so naturally the students started singing the song in Mandarin. After that song was over, they noted that they also knew other sings in Mandarin, and so they kept on singing. This was a great way to end the music class with them.

I might be teaching next week as well, which should also be a lot of fun as it would be the last week before the holiday break. I also want to continue to bring the first class on par with the second class, in terms of back pocketed items. I would like the students to use instruments again for a bit, and perhaps we can also go outside for a bit.

Teaching Notes, 20131219

This was the last music class for break, and I wanted to get in some instrument time - something that I haven’t really been able to do with the classes, partially out of fear of the chaos that instruments tend to bring in a small area like we have in the classrooms. However, today I also wanted to take advantage of an unusually dry late fall, as it was sunny outside - perfect for an environment that might involve a lot of racket. There was a large circle that was large enough to have every child on the circumference without being in contact with any other child. Similar to the last time I held class outside, I started inside for the first class and then later moved outside, while for the second class, we started outside and then moved inside.

Fine Friends Are Here	Review song and hand motions
I started both classes with this, and I definitely got a better response with the first class, where the students could hear me more effectively. Outside, with the students in the circle, at best only half of the students could hear me (making it really important to have a second helper parent, which I did have that day), and sound really dissipates outside. While many students in the first class sang and followed my hand motions, most students in the second class did not. Either way, this was supposed to be a quick warm-up, and so I kept this one short.
Mail Myself To You	Talk about presents, act out the song motions and sing entirely in echo
We first started talking about the upcoming vacation, and of course presents. I asked the kids if they had ever given someone else a present, and how grown ups tend to mail presents. I then fabricated a story about how my grandparents’ only wish was to have their grandkids over as a present, and so I asked the students what it would take to send themselves as a present. We simply walked through steps that mirrored the song - wrapping a present in paper, using glue to seal the present, etc. I worked through two stanzas’ worth of steps just by asking the students how to make a reasonable present. I started singing the song one line at a time, asking the students to mirror my singing and motions, and they totally had fun doing this. I use the first stanza as the chorus, and after the second stanza, I had the students repeat the first stanza with me. Originally, I was planning on stopping right there, but the students were having so much fun that I went ahead and completed the song, interleaving the chorus after each stanza.
Instruments Outside	Have students walk around a circle of instruments, get students used to playing a variety
I had placed instruments in the middle of the circle outside before class started, and I led them out the front door to the circle. I already had some students from the first class reach in a grab the instruments, so I had to constantly remind them to stay on the outside. Once the students were on the outside of the circle, I had the students point to an instrument. If there were students without an instrument, or if there were two students pointing to the same instrument, I had students shuffle around the outside of the circle so that every child had an instrument. I then had them pick it up. At some point, I asked students to raise up their hands if they had an instrument with metal, or if they had an all-wood instrument. Students love playing instruments once they get their hands on them, and it’s hard to get them to stop if they are all playing them randomly (as opposed to following you). For the second class, I had the students raise their instruments above their heads which makes it harder for them to play the instruments randomly - that seemed to help reduce the chaos and keep the kids focused with less random noise. I then had the students practice the old 4 stomp, 3 clap pattern, except that the students were to play their instruments three times instead of clapping three times. After a few times, I had them continue the pattern while I sang Bongo Joe. Next, I had the students place their instruments back in the interior of the circle, and I told them to start walking towards the right (not straightforward to kinders, so I had to show them), as I played When The Saints Are Marching In. This arguably was similar to musical chairs except this time when the music stopped, the students were to stop walking and point to the instrument closest to them. Similar to before, I made corrections by moving kids around to ensure that everyone got an instrument, and I told the students that it didn’t matter if they got the same one. For this activity, it was important to have more instruments than kids; usually after all of the kids picked up an instrument, I picked up one that wasn’t chosen, and I used it to demonstrate whatever pattern I wanted them to try. This time around, I had the students practice the same pattern to Up On The Housetop (first stanza+chorus). We did the “musical instruments” cycle on more time, to which I sang the second stanza and chorus of Up On The Housetop. For the last class, I had the students practice a quarter-quarter-half pattern with the instruments (no stomping), which allowed me to suggest to the students that each instrument could be played for longer periods of time (e.g. a continuous shake). With the quarter-quarter-half pattern, I sang Jingle Bells, to which the students joined in while continuing to play their instruments. I was very happy with how this turned out. It could have been total chaos, but after the first “musical instruments” cycle, the students seemed to pay attention very well, and I didn’t have a lot of kids trying to play out of line as the day went on.

As this was the last music class for the calendar year, and since the students were only a day away from the holiday break, I kept the class shorter than usual, especially for the second class, and I didn’t reach into the backpocket this time around. I did have Highway Number One and Boanopstekker (Shenanigans) ready for the outside in case I ended up with a lot of extra time.

The outside circle turned out to be wonderful. It was close to the classroom, and yet still far away from the kinder playground, so I wasn’t worried about losing students to the jungle gym. So long as it is dry outside, I’ll be sure to use that area plenty of times in the new year.

Teaching Notes, 20131120

This week was the only week in November that I was scheduled to teach, and so I wanted to include some references to Thanksgiving. At the same time, I also wanted to try a new approach to teaching rhythm.

Fanfare for the Common Man	Have students listen and move to the music
I had yet to have the students listen to famous pieces of music, and so it was time to have them hear a piece of significance. Originally this was going to be the Flight of the Bumblebee, but since the first class' students were slowly making their way over to the carpeted area and forming a circle under the direction of the teacher, I decided to go with Fanfare, which starts slowly and works well when the students are still gathering together. I sat in the middle of the circle and made motions with the music - hands going up with the higher pitched trumpets, and tapping the ground when the drums were booming. The students got the idea mid-way through the song, which was what I was hoping for. When the song was nearly done, I had the students slowly stand up. When the song was over, I asked the students what they heard - some described highs, lows, and booms, while some named some of the instruments (or added their own instruments) featured in the recording. I also asked them when I was raising my hands or tapping the ground, and the students were able to provide good answers - they were really following me and making the connection.
5 Fat Turkeys	Teach motions and words in echo
I started with holding my hands up and waiting for students to copy me. I then slowly turned or contorted my hands to make a two-handed turkey, and then I started to sing the song. The song has hand/arm motions for every line, and I made the gestures with enthusiasm so that the students knew that they should follow my motions. I then proceeded to teach the song with motions in echo, one line at a time. We did this twice through, and then we tried singing through all at once. I decided I'd surprise the students later with this song…
The Turkey Ran Away	Sing the song and zipper in other foods
We first talked a little bit about different foods from Thanksgiving (apple pie, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, etc.). I then pointed out that 5 Fat Turkeys was a song about turkeys running way from the dinner table. That allowed me to sing The Turkey Ran Away as a natural segue. I had the students echo me one more time through, after which I started substituting the other foods. I thought the students got the hang of the song pretty quickly. It's a short song, and each new stanza substitutes two different terms, which was manageable even for the kindergarteners.
Keep The Kettle Boiling	Teach song, get students to respond partially to each line
I usually do this song early in the year so that I can learn the students' names, but with all of the songs regarding food, I felt that this was a good thing to try now. I had to remind the students to remain on the outside of the carpet ("pot"), and that even though it's a big pot, only one person could be in the pot at the same time, since adding more could splash the soup everywhere. It took a little bit of reminding the students about the one-person limit, but the limit also made it easy to explain that someone had to jump out before someone else could jump in. This activity takes a lot of time, and so we had to speed things up as we went along. However, since this isn't week 1, the students seemed comfortable enough to go at a pace faster than had we been doing this during the early part of the school year.
Fall Song	Teach song (1st half), zipper in a few different reasons why it was a good day
Once we were all outside, we started marching around the circular outline formed by the outer edge of one of the play areas, and I started singing the song. We didn't cover this song with the first class, so I sang it in entirety one time through. I managed to get the students to gesture with their arms "Why?", and I had them do the gesture on cue as I sang the song again. It was time to modify the song, and so I changed it to "running through the wind", "jumping in the rain", and "flying through the clouds". We ended back with the original "playing in the sun", since after all it was a sunny day that day. Unfortunately, not too far away, the preschool was having their Halloween parade, and that meant a lot of distraction and noise for my students (and probably for the preschoolers too). As such, I quickly led them back into the classroom after just this song; I used Marching Marching to get them back inside.
5 Little Pumpkins	Sing story
I talked to the students about Halloween again (which is very easy), and then I had them count with me with a hand from 1 to 5. With all 5 fingers and hand extended, and with all the students copying me, I started singing the song and continued with the associated motions. In both classes, there were students who were very eager to point out that they had sung the song before, and so I encouraged them to sing along. I actually never remembered exactly what the hand movements are for the last line of the first part (i.e. "ready for some fun"), and so I instead use ASL signs for "ready" and "fun", and so I took the time to teach the students those two signs.
Fall Song	Review and introduce a new line
I started singing the first line ("red and yellow"), and the students remembered the song before I finished, and so I moved on to a new line: "the air is crisp and colder…". This was pretty easy to teach; we sang it twice, and ended with the first stanza. I didn't want to take all that long, but it served as a nice distraction for…
5 Fat Turkeys	Jump right into the song
After we finished the Fall Song, I simply held my hands out again, similar to what I did for 5 Fat Turkeys the first time around, and then after forming the two hand turkey, we sang the song together. Most of the students remembered the song enough to sing with me, and nearly all followed the hand motions.
Rhythm Time	Have students follow me with various combinations of quarter notes and quarter rests
Before I get into this part of the class, I wanted to note that I ended up borrowing a technique from my own child's piano teacher for reaching basic rhythms. I had the students count to four, and then after they repeated my count in the same tempo, I stamped my feet while counting to four. The kids copied me as well pretty easily. I then followed up with four claps after the four counted stamps, which the students copied me just as easily. I then wrote out for vertical lines on the board, and I repeated the stamp-clap 4 count pairs - which the students echoed again. After reconfirming with the students that there were four stamps, four claps, and four lines on the board, I proceeded to erase the last line. I then still did the four count stamp, but I followed up with only three claps, and when the students echoed me this time, about half of them clapped that fourth clap (which I did not do). Some students gleefully noted that they could still see the line (the dry erase mark sort of smeared), and so I ended up drawing a squiggle, serendipitously looking like a quarter rest. I instructed the students to clap on the straight lines. We proceeded with different patterns: CCrC, CrCC, CrCr, CrrC, rCCC. That last one is always one of the more difficult patterns since the first clap/beat is a rest. In order to help the students do nothing during the rest, I had the students put their hands out during the squiggles. I didn't talk about quarter notes, or rests for that matter; we just were clapping on the straight lines. If I feel the students are ready for it, I might talk about the rhythms using more music-like terms, but in the meantime, it's just a clapping game to the students.
Deep And Wide	Have students learn songs and delete words
I had a little bit of time at the end of the 2nd class, and so I pulled this from the backpocket stash. At first I would just do the hand motions - no words, no singing - and I just had the kids follow the motions. I then started singing the song with the motions. Only a few students noted that they knew the song from before, but it's such a short and easy song to learn that the kids really didn't have a problem learning the song. This was important, since I then asked them to not sing a particular word ("wide"); as we sang through it, I think a little less than half the class remembered to avoid singing the song. We continued with deleting river, and deep. I didn't want to have the kids try to work with multiple deleted words quite yet. But, it seemed like the students handled the challenge pretty well, as at the last iteration, perhaps only one or two students continued to sing the deleted word, particularly near the end of the song.

This class was a lot of fun, and I think the students fared well despite having zero chances of going outside due to inclement weather. I also used the backpocket again today; in the next few classes, I'll want to cover the songs and other material that only the 2nd class saw.

Teaching Notes, 20131204

For today’s class, I wanted to build on songs that we covered as backpocket items so that both classes would be a little more equal. I also wanted to spend time with music from the Nutcracker, as the students had just seen a live production of the ballet the day before. It was also getting cold, and so if there was the opportunity to sing about something involving snow, I’ll take it.

March of the Toy Soldiers	Have students listen to the music as they gathered
I turned on the song in the background as the students gathered onto the carpet. Plenty of students knew where the song was from, and particularly with the second class, the students wanted to keep moving to the music. And so, I started marching to the music, which also got the students following my lead happily. I didn’t really plan on diving into the music just yet, but I wanted to seed the music in their minds for later…
Let’s All Travel Down the Music Road	Teach song with hand solfege
Similar to Fine Friends Are Here, I wanted to get the students to do more hand solfege, even though I have yet to really introduce why the students are making the motions, nor connect the motions with specific pitches. I started singing and signing through twice, and then I instructed the students to follow my hand signals and not to worry so much about the words yet. After going through the song much more slowly, the students started singing with me (it’s an easy song). We did this two more times through.
March of the Toy Soldiers	Listen to the three different patterns and recognize them
I asked the students if they recognized the song that they heard when they gathered around the carpet, and plenty of the students knew that the song was from the Nutcracker. I then told the students to listen to the first of three different “forms” found in the song. After playing that snippet, I asked the students how they felt as they listened - I got a really wide range of answers, but there was convergence around “happy”, or “marching” or “walking”. I did the same thing with the other two distinct snippets of the march, and again I asked them how they felt; for the second snippet, the students offered “mad”, or “fighting”, and for the third snippet, students offered “running”, “scared”. I then asked three students to come up, and I assigned each student to a one of the three students. Then, I asked the students to listen to the whole march, but also indicate which student’s snippet was being played. As the song progressed, I put a check mark next to the student’s name after verifying with the class. In past years, I’d write the student’s name or initial, and so if you end up doing something along those lines, it helps to have three children with three different first initials. Students eventually realized that the third pattern wasn’t played anywhere as often as the first pattern. They also noticed that the song went from 1st pattern to 2nd pattern to 1st pattern during the early and late parts of the song. I’ve done something similar with older kids in past years, and it was really refreshing to see the kindergarteners have so much fun with this.
Highway Number One	Introduce movements, then execute song
Highway Number One was a backpocket item that I did with the second class, and it sort of led to a bit of bedlam, as I didn’t really prep the students with the activities. This time, I deliberately spent a lot of time providing background on the song (where is Australia? what is highway number one? how long is it?, etc.). We also talked about what parents need to do when they drive (e.g. pay attention, watch for others), and the problems that arise when one crashes. I think I mentioned to the students not to crash several times using different encouraging words each time. I then had the students practice different movements that the song mentions. When it came to running, naturally some of the students gleefully took that as license to run and crash, and thus I had to remind the students again about not crashing, and how crashing meant that you no longer had a car and had to sit out. That seemed to strike a nerve in some, but what seemed to help the most is that I had the students practice jumping and running in place. Running in place for kindergarteners isn’t exactly natural, and so we practiced this a bit (e.g. “look down at your space, and then make sure you end up there”). When it was time to start the song, I told the students that they had to keep listening for instructions, just as if they were driving a real car (not exactly typical, but it still made sense to the kinders). As we started moving, students got a bit rowdy, but fortunately HNO has breaks frequent enough that I was able to get the students to freeze and listen for instructions. Having practiced the movements in advance helped, and by the time we were done, the students all were asking to do it again. Of course, you have to keep them wanting more for next time…’
Things I am Thankful For	Teach song, zipper in things
During the first class, there was a planned lockdown drill, which means that students had to sit quietly on the carpet, the lights were turned down, the doors were locked, and we had to be relatively quiet. This actually took place before HNO for that class, and so I inserted Things for the lockdown. With the students already hushed, I started singing the song quietly, and when it came to the 2nd half of the song, I made gestures with my hands and arms for the students to follow. This fit perfectly as a good lockdown drill song! I had the students practice the gestures with me and we went over the four things mentioned during that 2nd half of the song. I then sang the song one more time through, and a few students followed me either singing or moving (or both). Originally I wasn’t planning on zippering into the song, but with the lockdown practice, I figured I might as well try, and the students did a good job. Thanksgiving wasn’t all that long ago, and so it was easy to ask the students what they were thankful for during the holidays. We were able to come up with either ASL signs or simple signs for each of the ideas that the students came up with, and we then sang along. I didn’t want to get too carried away with the ideas, so we did the zippering for only one iteration of the song (three items).
Snowman Scale	Sing scale with signs and body solfege
It was cold, and so we talked about snow, building snowmen, what snowmen had (carrot nose, etc.), and then I sang the song with some motions. While the students didn’t sing with me, they tried to mimic my motions, which was all fine for me. The end of the song features a downward scale, and for that I showed the students body-solfege, which some also tried to follow. I didn’t have a lot of time left, and so I simply sang slowly through the song one more time, although this time the kids echoed me after each line.

The students I thought did really well this time around, especially with an activity like Highway Number One on the schedule. I was sort of thinking of doing more rhythm steps and claps, but I’ll do that next time.