Teaching Notes, K, 20141119

I decided again to try to follow the regular lesson plan again for this week, with a just the tiniest bit of review.

Fine Friends Are Here	Review song and add the bridge
I started singing the song, expecting the students to echo the 2nd half of each line, but instead, they started to sing along with me. About a third remembered the hand signs the first time around, and then by the end of the song most of the class was doing the signs. I then told them that it might rain, and that the next part of the song sang about a thunderstorm - and then, I proceeded to sing the bridge. I had the students then echo the bridge with me; after the bridge was completed, I asked them what part of the song should come next, and they simply fell back to singing the original song.
Bee Bee Bumblebee	Reprise chant with dynamics, and then play the game again
This exercise was pretty simple - once I had the students in a circle, I started chanting, and the students followed. I had them also clap the beat while chanting. Next, I asked them about how we chanted before, and we quickly reviewed what “staccato” meant. I then told them that I wanted to teach them more Italian, so I wrote the word “piano” at one end of the whiteboard. We covered what it meant, and I had the students do the chant in piano; even if they emphasized the last word, it was fine. Of course, I then had to teach them what “forte” meant, which was pretty easy. For the next part, I had the students chant while I pointed to piano or forte. The first time, I simply alternated line by line, changing the dynamics each time. However, the second time, I was a bit more random, and the students had a fun time trying to follow, even if there was a delay before they adjusted to where I was pointing. To cap this off, I had the students play the game with passing the tennis ball around again, but this time, I had the students concentrate on passing the ball when we would ordinarily have clapped. We played 4 rounds of the game this time around before moving on.
Snail, Snail	Teach song, then lead students in a trip around the room
I first hummed the Snail song, and had the students hum with me. Then, I had them guess what kind of animal it was, but to help them out, I asked them if the song was slow or fast, high or low, and soft or loud, characteristics that also matched the animal. There were only so many musical clues that one could give before I had to provide more obvious clues, such as the house, and the spiral. When the students guessed correctly, I then had them sing the words to the song. At this point, I was going to lead the students into a spiral. I first tried this with the first class, but it only led to chaos, and I quickly punted. For the second class, I decided to not go into a spiral immediately, as students wanted to take each step closer to me, rather than follow whomever was in front of them. And so, I had the students join hands, and while singing the song, I led the students away from the carpet, around the classroom, and then eventually back to the carpet where I then led them into the spiral that goes into itself and then leads out. It actually worked pretty well; while the students didn’t quite see we were walking in a spiral, they could tell we were somehow walking amongst ourselves and we seemed to magically make our way out of a knot without dropping hands. I originally was going to do hand signs for the songs but I forgot. Oops.
Identify animals in instruments	Play various classical pieces meant to represent animals
I told the students that they were good at identifying animals from songs, and so I asked them to think of what animal they were hearing when I played Vivaldi’s spring (first movement). It took a bit of time, but eventually I got a few good answers - birds (of various types), insects, and other things that were either small or could fly. This musical piece also has changing dynamics and so I had the students tell me when the volume changed and in which direction (piano or forte). I followed up with playing other pieces, this time from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals. This took a little bit of work for the first two pieces (Lion, Chickens), and I so ended with the Cuckoo, which was guessed correctly and also required the students to listen intently.
Goodbye My Friends	Sing in different volume or style
It was time to end already, but I wanted to change the song a bit, and so I had one class sing in piano, which worked fine. I had the other class chant in staccato, which the students also enjoyed.

I was hoping to have the students alternating chants and singing for songs that they previously covered, but I didn’t really have much time to do so. I’ll try to do some of that next week. However, next week is also the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so I’ll have to make sure I cover some of the holiday material that is always so much fun to teach.

Teaching Notes, 20141112

With Halloween now past, and a few weeks before Thanksgiving arrives, I could finally rely mainly on the suggested curricula from MfM. This day, I was going to bring the rhythm sticks back, while reviewing a few things from the past. I also wanted to introduce rhythm,.

Leaves Are Red And Yellow	Review song and add a third stanza
The students were already familiar with this song, and with a change in the weather coming very soon, I wanted to introduce the line where the air was “crisp and colder”. This was turned out to be a pretty easy exercise, now that this was the third time the students had sung this song. I started the first class with “red and yellow” before following up with “crisp and colder”, and it allowed me to talk with the class about how it was getting colder. I had the students wave their hands and make swishing sounds to represent the wind when they sang the new lines. Incidentally, for the second class, I inadvertently started by singing the new line, which meant that I was singing alone for that entire first time, but then I quickly switched to “red and yellow”.
I’m In the Mood for Singing	Start singing and teach by echo
I sang the whole song through once, and then had the students answer (e.g. “hey, how about you?”) each of the odd-numbered lines. I think this took a little getting used to, so I was deliberate about taking this slowly the first time through. I did have the students emphasize the very last word of the last response (“that!”), which added a little bit of excitement to the song. I tried this one more time through, although this time I quickly whispered their response; the last two responses are similar enough that they definitely still needed some help. Originally I was going to try to substitute another thing for “singing”, but I decided to move onto the next item.
Little Bird	Teach song and lead activity
We spent a little bit of time talking about birds that they saw or heard recently, and I certainly got a variety of them, some real, and some imaginary. I had the students mimic the sounds coming from the birds, such as blue jays, crows, and tweety birds. I then told them that I heard chickens, turkeys, and then even a hummingbird (which you can’t really hear). I then proceeded to tell them about a time when a bird flew into the room when I was teaching. This story is of course manufactured; it’s part of the suggested curriculum, but it does give a nice backstory to the song. I sang the first half of the song, then I had the students echo the song in parts to me. It then told the second half of the story, sang the second half of the song, and then had the students echo it back to me. After I mentioned that the bird actually flew out the window, I then had the students stand up and raise their arms as if they were the window shades; when they sang “and buy molasses candy”, I had them lower their arms and squat down as if the shades were closing. The game for this song is pretty simple; one student is the “bird”, and while the song is sung, the bird can fly in and out of the circle of student windows. When the window shades go down, we can see whether or not the bird escaped. The students of course loved this game. The challenge here, however, is that only one or two birds can really be flying in the circle at any time. I first had one student (twice), then I tried having two before moving onto the next activity.
Rhythm on Rhythm sticks	Review ways to play on the sticks, find rhythms
While humming “I’m in the Mood for Singing”, I stared passing out the rhythm sticks, but first with the smooth sticks only. After passing those out, I had the students put their stick on the ground, and when most did that, I started passing out the rippled sticks. I realized later on that I probably should have just passed out the rippled sticks to those who had put their stick on the ground first. I meant to have the students sing to “I’m in the mood for tapping”, but I simply forgot to do this. We spent a little bit of time reviewing ways to play the sticks - tapping, zipping them, clicking them.
Bongo Joe	Stick to song
I got the students quickly to form a continuous beat, and then I started to sing Bongo Joe to the song. Next, I had the students stick to just the last three beats of each phrase - that sort of worked ok, although it was a little difficult to have the whole class stick to just those three beats. Finally, I was hoping to have the students stick the rhythm of the song, but a combination of the fact that the students didn’t really remember the song very well from past weeks, and the fact that, well, they had sticks, made it difficult for them to really stick together (no pun intended - hah!). As such, I then went ahead and collected the sticks while having the students echo “Hello World”.
Name That Tune	Have students guess rhythms
This was a pretty straightforward activity, where I would click a rhythm, and they would guess. However, it wasn’t very effective initially. I tried Bee Bee Bumblebee, Oats Peas Beans, I’m in the Mood, and Old MacDonald, and the only song that the students were able to identify without a melody hint was Bee Bee Bumblebee. They still seemed intent on guessing and were paying attention well, but it’s going to take a bit more work to get the students familiar with the songs before they can pick them out just by a rhythm. We ended with Goodbye My Friends Goodbye, as I have been doing pretty much all year.

I did manage to get the sticks out, but in retrospect, the students didn’t have the sticks for very long. One thing that was notable - I had a substitute for the second class, and those students probably did the best out of any K class I’ve taught ever with a substitute. (Props go out to the sub, too!) For the first time, I didn’t use “show me” or “class” to recapture the focus of the class; instead, I simply did a few arm waves with the first class, and with the second class, I didn’t have to do anything! It was pretty refreshing!

Teaching Notes, 20141029

There are certain things that I always want to cover each year, and one of those things is Halloween. The latest version of the curriculum doesn’t have a lot of Halloween material, and so I have taken the liberty of adding some Halloween activities right around this time of the year. The year-round schedule typically allows me only one day to cover Halloween material, and so I do feel like I’m forcing the material onto the students, but typically they have a good time with it.

Fine Friends Are Here	Review song as well as hand motions
This is turning into a regular opening song. As this is the first class after the break, I wanted to review this again to see how well the students remembered the song; the first class had trouble remembering (or they weren’t in much of a singing mood), while the second class sang with a bit more energy. About half of the students did the hand motions with me, and with the second class, I decided to have them stand, and we did some body-solfege signs instead. I also asked (only) that class if they could tell the difference between the two “Fine friends are here” responses, and they noted the difference. With that, it was easy for them to make the connection with the body-solfege to the pitch of the two responses.
Halloween Surprise	Teach motions, song
Normally I ask the students what they are going to be for Halloween, but this time, I had them talk about things they were going to see during Halloween. It took longer than expected for a student to mention pumpkins (I suppose pumpkins are too commonplace in the fall to be associated strongly with Halloween versus, say, witches and black cats), and so I asked them how to make a jack-o-lantern from a pumpkin. That allowed me to then walk the students through the lines of the song, each time doing motions with it. Eventually, I had the students echo me, first in chant, then in song, the steps for a Halloween surprise. I then told the students the importance of being really quiet initially, and then shouting “surprise” to make the biggest surprise effect. The students gladly followed that!
It’s a Very Good Day	Teach song, two variations
It was sunny outside, and so I simply started having the students echo me. When it came to “why?”, I tried to get the students to ask in a very inquisitive fashion, hand/shoulder gestures and all, but only half of the students followed. I then tried changing the song to “running through the wind”, and then asked them what the end of the song should be. I think the students understood it (as they guessed the ending of the song correctly), but I could tell that they weren’t quite sure why they were just sitting around, singing a song. Originally I was going to bring the students outside with this song, but it was a little cold outside, so I decided against it. If it is warmer next week, I’ll do this outside (while I still can).
5 Little Pumpkins	Teach song and motions
5 Little Pumpkins is always fun, but it is just a little complex for Kindergarteners. I kept this entirely as an echo at first, and I made sure the kids mimicked my motions. As usual, I also made it a point to teach them “ready” and “fun” in ASL. We did this twice via echo, and then one time through all together. Normally if I had another week, I’d probably would have waited until the following week to do the song all together, but I probably won’t revisit this in November.
Highway Number One (Shenanigans)	Have kids follow directions
Highway Number One is an old favorite of mine, and isn’t part of the curriculum any longer, but it’s something I think the kids, particularly at this age, always enjoy. I talked with the kids about how Halloween was celebrated in other parts of the world, including this country called “Australia”. I then proceeded to mention that while Australians also speak English, they speak it a bit differently, so one had to pay extra attention to understand what was going on. I then had them practice some of the moves that I knew would appear in the song. This really is basically a song that tries to get the students used to stopping and listening. In between the breaks, there was a lot of chaos, and a lot of noise and I had to speak pretty loudly before each “stopped to see someone” in the song, but amazingly the students actually did quiet down enough to hear what the instructions were. The students, as expected, had a good time, and they wanted to do the activity again. Of course, I moved onto the next item.
Leaves are Red and Yellow	Teach song
I realize that I should have introduced this before the break, and because my back injury forced me to cancel the last class before break, I didn’t have a chance to get the students familiarized with this song. There is a Halloween variant of the song which I wanted to get to, and so I rushed a bit trying to teach the song. I was following Highway Number One, and so I also had the additional challenge of trying to keep a riled up class focused. That didn’t go so well, and while we got through the original stanza of the song (including biting into an apple), I only really had two-thirds of the kids’ attention, and we never really did get to the Halloween verse.

Like last year, we ended with Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.

I was a little surprised that it was so difficult to keep the kids’ attention, even though this was the first week back from break. I do have to remind myself that these are kindergarteners, and so I do have to keep changing the focus and not spend too much time on one activity. Also, I’ll probably schedule a naturally chaotic activity like Highway Number One for the end of the class.

Next week is obviously not Halloween, but maybe I’ll sneak in a review of one of the holiday activities from today for next week, particularly the Leaves are Red and Yellow.

Teaching Notes, 20141105

It was an extremely sunny day today, and the morning was significantly warmer than last week’s class thanks to the end of daylight savings time. And so, I absolutely had to get the students outside. But as promised, I did want to retry one of the Halloween songs from last week, which I did right from the very beginning.

Leaves Are Red And Yellow	Review song and add second stanza
Instead of the usual opening songs that I’ve (over)used, I simply started singing this song as the students gathered onto the carpet. During that time, I also reminded the students to pretend they had a big apple and to take a bite out of it at the end of the 3rd line. After one time through, I told the students to pretend their hands were slowly falling leaves, and we sang it all together, again repeating the dramatically large imaginary apple. I then sang the first line of the 2nd line that I wanted to use - the line with flapping crows and the scarecrow. Before proceeding with the other lines, I had the students flap their arms like crows. Then, when it came to the 3rd line, I asked the students if they knew what a scarecrow looked like, and how they would mimic it. Going from flapping wings to the still scarecrow was pretty easy for them (many stood up to make it even easier), and so we practiced that line. Next, I asked the students if scarecrows are happy or creepy, and when they came to a quick consensus, I had them make the scariest face they could when doing the scarecrow, and to say “beware” in an equally mortifying voice. The students definitely had fun with this! We sang the 2nd stanza one more time together before moving onto the next activity
Bee Bee Bumblebee	Review chant, sing in sol mi
Quickly, I started the chant, which the students of course remembered. I then reviewed the motions, which they more or less remembered as well. I then started singing it in sol mi, and the kids were able to follow me pretty quickly. Sometimes, based on how the students are faring, I’ll introduce something that I really didn’t plan on doing - this time, I followed up the sol mi rendition with the same but now in staccato. The students again followed my lead, and I asked them how that last bit of singing was different. I got a variety of answers, from softer or higher, which might have been true, but wasn’t what I was really looking for. Eventually I did get a student to say something along the lines of “there was space between the words”, or “it started and stopped”. I then introduced the term “staccato”, and how the word’s meaning is evident from how you say the word. We sang the song one more time in staccato. This was something that was completely unplanned, and I didn’t want to throw in “legato”, at least not today.
Tone Bells	Get students playing bells, drones to songs
Our school doesn’t have much in terms of orff instruments, particularly those where you can limit easily what tones are available. I do have a set of tone bells, and so I took out the lower G, C and middle G, C, and used those instead. Upon introducing the tone bell, I talked a bit about how to hold it, and how to play it. I also asked the students what would happen if I held the entire tone bell, including the metal. I got very good answers, and amusingly in both cases, multiple answers were true (including one where a student said that I’d hit myself if I tried playing it with my hand on the metal). I did spend just a little bit of time explaining how sound needs space and the ability to move, and holding the metal prevented this from happening. I didn’t want it to turn into a physics class for kinders, so I then asked a student to come up. Like past years, it was better to have the teachers choose the students to come up, and that seemed to trigger in some of the kids’ minds that being good meant the possibility of going up to play with the bells. With the one student, I tried to get the student used to playing on “1” of “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4,…”, of course, ignoring the first “1”. Over the years, I did try the countdown (e.g. “3, 2, 1, hit”), but the hit-2-3-4 method seemed more natural for the students, especially once you had to start singing along with the bells. Before having a second student come up, I held up the low G (the lowest of the bells that I had), and I asked the students to compare the two. I then asked them how it would sound compared to the first. Surprisingly most students thought it would sound higher, and when I played it, I got to remind the students about how we once compared the sound of birds to the sound of a passing train - bigger means lower usually. With the second student now available, I informed the class that I was challenging the two to play together - that brought a surprising hush to the group. I then had the students play on the first of the four counts, and then I simply started singing Bee Bee in sol-mi. The singing students sang with me, and the bell players kept up the simple drone pretty well (with my help via gesturing), and that seemed to captivate the students. I proceeded to swap out students, get them playing together, and sing Bee one more time. After swapping the students again, I then sang “Oats Peas Beans”, to which about half of the students followed. During the first class, I tried singing the stanza to Oats, and very few remembered it, so I stuck with just the chorus. After going through Oats once, I then added two more students, giving me four bell players. We sang through Oats again, and then I changed the song to Old MacDonald. I don’t use a lot of songs that are what I consider to be generic childhood songs, but I was pretty sure that Old MacDonald was a familiar tune, and I wanted the students to concentrate on either singing with a drone, or playing a drone. I did discover, however, that Old MacDonald led to the bell players playing when the cows mooed or when the ducks quacked, disrupting the regularity of the drone. Whoops. I wasn’t able to get to all of the students, and there was some grumblings, but I think also with the teachers choosing the well behaved students, most students got the message that being good meant playing instruments.
It’s A Very Good Day	Review, and bring kids outside
After the tone bell exercise - which required very little cleanup time since we only had four bells - I started singing this song, to which about half of the students joined in. I reminded them to ask a good “why?” near the end of the song. I then told them that it was sunny outside, and we ought to go outside. The students were very happy about this, and we proceeded to go outside while singing.
Simi Yadech	Review Dance
Outside, I led the students around a painted circle that was part of their playground. With all of the children standing on the circle itself, I had the students practice the chorus move that we had before - stamp, knee tap, clap, hands shaking in the air. The students were able to follow this just fine, and then I reviewed the other parts of the dance (heel, toe, moving in and out of the circle). I never quite told them that we were doing a dance from more than month ago, but I did tell them that they definitely were to try to find their way back to the circle by the end of the “stanza” portion of the song. I then had the students do the dance with the song. Mid-way through the song, I changed the “chorus” into a pair of stamps, knee taps, and claps (with a single wave of the hands), which the students followed without too much trouble. For the last “chorus”, I had the students try squeezing in a triplet of the moves, which of course turned into a bit of a fun mess. I’m very glad that I was able to revisit this dance, since for both classes I was really hoping to do it one more time. Doing it first inside (back in September) and then outside I think kept the activity fresh in their minds.
The Longer The Faster (Shenaningans)	Teach song
I had a little extra time left with the first class, so I decided to have the children try this activity, where a selected student walks to another part of the circle in 8 counts and chooses another student to do the same, all while the song gets gradually faster and faster. The students had a fun time with it, and with that first class, I asked the students if they noticed what was happening to the song. For the second class, I didn’t really have enough time, but I started it anyway, and we got through about half the song before the recess bell rang. They still also had fun with it, and so I know that I can use this as a backpocket activity in case I need it in the future.

For the first time, I didn’t use “show me” or “class” to recapture the focus of the class; instead, I simply did a few arm waves with the first class, and with the second class, I didn’t have to do anything! It was pretty refreshing!