Teaching Notes, 20140402

Today was the last week before break, and I was hoping to do a bit of review. And, this time, I also tried my best to keep the two classes doing roughly the same lesson plan. I also on a very last minute decided to show finally the ukulele to the students, which led to some interesting results.

Fine Friends Are Here	Review song and hand signs as students gathered around the carpet
This has turned out to be a nice warmup for the students. Many remembered the response, but not so much the hand signs, so I spent some time having the students focus on the hand signs rather than singing, especially since for some the singing comes automatically. We went through this twice, and even though I sang incorrectly the same 2nd half of the stanza both times, the students didn’t seem to notice.
Ukulele introduction	Show instrument, introduce term
I had my ukulele, and I figured I might as well introduce it to the students, since I hadn’t really done much with toned instruments with them. (The other parent-docent had during other weeks.) We talked a bit of the origin of the work “ukulele”, and how that the instrument had 4 plastic strings. Normally I also have the students strum the instrument, but with the students were sitting scattered on the ground (as opposed to in a nice circle), I instead had the students simply echo me in the next song…
Eia Makou	Teach song in echo with ukulele
Having taught a little bit of Hawaiian (“uku” and “lele”), I then had the students echo me in this song. Initially, I had them get used to saying the words, “Eia makou”, and then we were off singing. During the first class, we sang the Hawaiian words through, but during the second class, I had temporarily forgotten some of the lyrics, which led to some awkward pauses and giggles from the students. No matter - we then eventually moved tot he English stanza; during that time, I had the kids sing “the kids of College Park” during the first line, even though it didn’t really lead to a rhyming stanza. The children seemed to have a fun time with the song, and I’ll be sure to use it again.
Cookie Jar	Replay game
I was betting that the students would mostly remember the Cookie Jar chant, and so I wanted to try keeping them in rhythm during the game. Before starting the chant, I had the students echo-clap me a few times, and eventually I got the students into a slow pat-clap-shoulder-shoulder pattern, and with most of the students following (not echoing at this point), I then started the chant. With the other parent in the room, I immediately said that she was the one who stole the cookie, which delighted the students, but also kept the rhythm going pretty regularly. Each time, I tried to emphasize the knee-pat on the 1st beat of each measure, and probably half of the students caught on. We were able to keep the rhythm going mostly uninterrupted for about 5 students; after that, the chosen student start taking longer and longer to choose the next one. At some point, the students picked their teacher, which was entertaining, but unfortunately the teacher also didn’t quite keep the rhythm going correctly. Oh well! Eventually the students were taking longer and longer, and I had them redirect the choice back to me, at which time I ended the chant again by admitting that indeed I ate the cookie. Not all of the students were picked during this exercise unfortunately, but no one was really clamoring that they weren’t picked; those who wanted to get picked found a way to encourage their peers to choose them at some point. For the second class I actually did this after the next exercise…
Rhythm Sticks	Have students follow me in stick patterns and song
With the help of the teacher and the other parent-helper, I started passing out sticks, to the tune Bongo Joe. However, this time I decided to pass out one stick to each student initially; fortunately, the sticks that I had featured red smooth sticks and blue ridged sticks, so I passed out only the red sticks. (I should have pre-sorted them to save time; for the second class, I did exactly that during the break in between classes.) Students always have an inclination to make noise with sticks; even with one they’ll hit them on the ground, or sometimes with their neighbor’s stick. And so, I had the students mirror my movements, and repeatedly emphasized a “ready” position, which simply meant a stick (or sticks, when they eventually got a second) on their shoulder. I then had the students move the stick to the song “put you stick on your head”, which has the students also tap the stick on their hand, or on the ground, etc. The song is to the tune “If you’re happy and you know it”, and several students knew it. No matter - the students kept up and were entertained; they also realized that hitting too hard also sometimes hurt, and that kept the energy of the taps limited. Eventually, we passed out a second stick (also to Bongo Joe), and after all of the students had a full pair of sticks, I had them practice making the sliding sounds properly so that they were rubbing the red stick against the grain of the blue sticks. I then showed them that they could tap the sticks together when they were parallel. (I didn’t have a name for this, other than a “light tap.) But I did have the students tap their sticks three times to the end of each line of Bongo Joe - light taps, regular taps, and slides. After the songs, I played a rhythm which was basically the first line of “Bee Bee Bumblebee”, and I had the students echo me. I had a set of preprinted slides of various rhythms (similar to what I’ve used in past weeks), and, pulling out a sheet of 4 quarter notes, I asked the students if the rhythm I just had them play was the one printed on the sheet. I got some mixed answers, and so we talked about how the four quarters were all the same; thus, they all had to be pretty evenly played. I had a few other sheets to show the students, including some with quarter rests, and one with 8 eighth notes, but none (yet) that matched the pattern. Eventually I showed them the matching pattern on a sheet - few students recognized that it was the matching pattern, and so I walked them through it. Voila - the students gleefully noted the match! I then had the students play the pattern together, and after two times, I started chanting Bee Bee Bumblebee; we finished tapping the sticks to the rhythm of the chant, and we were done!

And so, that ends the 2nd quarter, as the following three weeks are now spring break. Like previous years, there is going to be a spring sing, but this year I am going to be out of town, and I’ll rely on the other docents to lead the kinders in song. However, I do plan on reviewing the songs that the other docents choose, and so to an extent some of the material when I return will be already decided. However, I do want to retry Eia Makou, and the break is going to allow me to repeat other activities without the worry of over repeating. There should be no threat of rain for the rest of the year, so hopefully I can take them outside several times when we return for the remainder of the school year. I was happy that I was able to break up arguably one item (echo clapping) into pieces sprinkled around the lesson, and that seems to be an effective way to cover one activity requiring a fair amount of time without boring the kids. I also had roughly the same activities for both classes which certainly made things easy, although I had prepared to bring back the cookie jar for the second class, and introduce Penguins Attention to the first class. But, there’s always next next week!