Teaching Notes, 20151208

Today was... more bell day!  That's right - I wanted to revisit the tone bells, and this time, get everyone a chance to play them.  I definitely still wanted to throw in some theory while we were at it, so here's what happened.

1. Intro: Down By The Sea.  I originally was going to do this second, but it has always been a great starter activity that I promoted it to be the opener.  I first asked the students about what life on the beach would be like, and in doing so I had them unwittingly practice a lot of the moves.  Anyhow, I then dove right into the song, and the kids followed
2. Everybody Gather 'Round.  I wanted to review this song for a bit since it may end up being a Spring Sing - we covered the first stanza, and then I had the students echo me the first bridge.  Next, I told the students to pretend that we were singing the beginning of the song again, and I started singing the second stanza - to responses of "Fine Friends Are Here".  It was great!  I did bring my ukulele with me for this one.  Note - I did change "battered cases" to "colored cases" for a slightly softer phrase.
3. Forte/Piano review.  I wrote p, mp, mf, and f on the board, and we quickly reviewed forte and piano.  I then asked the students about mp and mf, and what it might mean (especially in the ordering that I wrote them), and we talked about the middle volumes.  I then had one of the teacher aides point to one of them as I sang Everybody Gather 'Round; the students responded in the volume that the aide pointed to.
4. Tone Bells!  I had the students arrange themselves in three rows, and I had two students from each row come up, holding either a C or G bell.  I spent a little bit of time covering how to hold it, and then I had the six students practice playing together.  However, I knew that I didn't have a lot of time since I wanted to get all of the students a turn, so the practicing was limited to about 8-12 beats before I started singing various songs, such as "Row Row Row", "Bee Bee Bumblebee", "Round and Round the Garden", and "Oats Peas Beans".  I ended with "Tony Chestnut" which led to...
5. Tony Chestnut.  I covered only the first half of the song, with all of the movements; about half of the students remembered.  I then repeated this a bit faster, which the kids seemed to enjoy.
6. Chubby Little Snowman.  It's getting cold outside, so I talked with the students about snow - that of course led to this song, which I had the students copy with me as I sang.
7. Closing: Make New Friends.  I tried this before, and few students were able to sing along with it, and this time, only a few more remembered.  We sang in echo, and then I had the students go to their desks as I sang it.

The Tone Bells really took up a lot of time, leaving me with only 7 items today.  The students were however still captivated by the opportunity to play the bells.  The next week is going to be the last class before the winter break, so I'll be sure to throw in a jingling bell here or there...

Teaching Notes, K, 20151203

I wanted to change things up a bit, so for today, I decided to change a few standard songs around, while also reintroducing both sticks and tone bells.

1. Intro: Hello, Ev'rybody.  I wanted to try a different introduction song, and this is one in particular that allows for a lot of different movement possibilities.  The students seemed to enjoy the movements, and some were able to pick up the pattern of the song.  I covered four different movements (clap, jump, skip, turn around) before moving on.
2. Bears and BunniesRabbits.  I moved directly to re-introducing the animals, and the students seemed to collectively decide that the two-beat animal was a rabbit, not a bunny.  This is actually fortunate, since I can now also refer to the animals by their first letters.  I had the students practice clapping to a few simple patterns.
3. Round and Round the Garden.  I took a bear picture and moved it around while singing, and the students quickly focused on the moving bear.  It is a pretty easy song to teach; the students learned it pretty quickly.  However, then I took the song, line by line, and tried to have the students sing the animal rhythm (e.g. "rabbit rabbit bear bear" for the first line), and the students seemed to understand what I was asking for, even if I didn't really explain it like I would to an adult.  I tried the same with Oats Peas Beans as well as Bee Bee Bumble Bee.
4. Rhythm Sticks.  I passed out the rhythm sticks, and with the sticks, we practiced a few different rhythms.  I did have them try rubbing the sticks together to make use of the channeled stick.  I introduced the "alligator" as the next animal, and after trying to stick to alligator (it's hard for kinders!), I allowed them to beat "alligator" on the ground; that seemed a lot easier.  I also introduced "butterfly", but I didn't spend a lot of time on it, since I wasn't about to embark on triplets quite yet.
5. Old Joe Clark.  I had the students listen to the song (performed by Dan Zanes and Friends) and I would call out stick patterns, and the students tried their best to follow.  This song is particularly long so we covered only about two minutes' worth of the tune.  I collected the socks while singing Choo'n Gum.
6. Tone Bells.  This time, I properly introduced the tone bells, and covered proper usage.  I then had students come up, two at a time, to attempt to play the bells on the beat.  Each time, I asked the students to play four beats and then I had the rest of the class sing a short song...
7. The Turkey Ran Away.  With a pair of students ready with their tone bells, I had the class sing this song (and its variants).  We covered three iterations of the song.
8. Closing: Make New Friends - indeed, I had a new song here, but the students didn't really pick this one up as easily as the other songs from today.  We sang it once through in echo, but then I simply fell back to using "Goodbye My Friends" - which also made the students instinctually return to their seats.

While I had the sticks out, I did try to get the students to think about sticks at rest, whether they'd be on shoulders, or with the blue stick out steady, ready to be tapped.

Teaching Notes, 20151125

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and so I was prepared to do another round of Thanksgiving-oriented activities.  But, just like last week, I wanted to start introducing more theory and perhaps a tiny bit of Orff.

1. Intro: Fine Friends Are Here.  I did the same thing as last week - I encouraged the students to sing along, and we sang together the entire first chorus.  I then sang through the stanza, followed by the chorus with the students again.  I then tried walking the students through the stanza by echo, but I've realized that I may need something else - perhaps some hand motions - to go along with the words, as it may be a lot to memorize if I'm to have the students sing this in the spring.
2. Tony Chestnut.  I didn't expect the students to remember much of Tony Chestnut from last week, so I reprised the entire first half, mirrored and all, as if it was new.  However, after singing it through with the motions, I then introduced the words/names and motions for the second half of the song.  The second half to me doesn't have quite the active tune that the first half does, and plus it has "how it ends" - a phrase that left me wondering what to do (without having the students point to their bottoms).  I ended with singing the first half of the song one more time, a bit faster.
3. Rhythms.  I printed out pictures of a bear (four total), and four pictures of a rabbit/bunny, and I had the students speak (and then clap) the combination of bears and bunnies that I had attached via magnet to the whiteboard.  I typically also have a butterfly and an alligator picture, but for now, bears and bunnies were enough.
4. Rhythm Sticks.  With the students keyed onto a few simple rhythms, I then passed out rhythm sticks, and I had them practice sticking to bears and bunny combinations, still limited to four beats at a time.  I then played "Town Town" (by Dean Jones) and I had the students follow me and play with the sticks to the song.
5. Turkey Ran Away.  This was surprisingly the only Thanksgiving song I managed to get to, but after singing one iteration (with the turkey), I then took out two tone bells (a low C and a high C), and I had students try to keep a beat with the tone bells (including giving the rest of the class four beats to establish a tempo).  I was able to have three sets of two kids come up.
6. Exit: Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.  I have been meaning to replace this with a different song.  I'll do that next week.

The tone bells were something I decided at the last minute to use, and typically when I introduce tone bells, I take a more deliberate amount of time to talk about holding them, and how the lengths of the bells affect the pitch.  I didn't quite do that this time, and I'll be sure to cover that properly next week.

Teaching Notes, 20151118

There was no school on 11/11, so I had a miniature break from teaching.  That said, Thanksgiving really can sneak up on you, even in the context of music class, so I wanted to insert some Thanksgiving-themed songs.  I also felt I hadn't covered enough theory at this point in the school year, so it was time to do something along those lines.

1. Intro: When The Saints Go Marching In.  I started playing this song (from the Kings of Dixieland - no words) in the background and asked the children if they recognized any instruments.  Just about every instrument they picked out was really in the song, which was great.  Next, I had the students echo me in song; we sang two different verses before moving on.
2. Fine Friends Are Here.  I'm thinking that for the Spring Sing (yes, I'm already planning for it), I would have the students try to sing the whole song, so this time, we sang through the chorus stanza, and with the ukulele, I sang through the first real verse.  I then had the students sing the chorus one more time.  The students are no longer just responding in the chorus - they are singing the whole chorus now.
3. I'm In the Mood for Singing.  This was a bit of a nonsequitor, but I wanted to review this song a bit before introducing the next phase.  Plus, the students still don't quite remember what to do with the 3rd response, and so it was a worthwhile review
4. Piano vs Forte.  I had printed out signs for piano, forte, pianissimo, and fortissimo, and I introduced the terms to the students.  Much of the class already knew piano and forte, but not many knew how to pronounce the more extreme levels.  After having the students practice piano and forte (in piano and forte, of course), I then had them sing I'm In The Mood For Singing, based on whatever dynamic I was holding at the time.
5. Vivaldi's Spring.  I decided to play this for the students, which features a lot of changes in dynamics, and I asked the students if they felt that they were listening to something in piano or forte.  We continued with the song until the part where it sounded like two birds singing to each other; I asked the students if they knew what animal the composer was thinking of, and the students guessed correctly that there were not one but two birds.
6. 5 Fat Turkeys.  I had the students be my mirror this time, and eventually I had them make the turkey sign.  I told them to echo me, and so we sang through once.  I should have tried this a second time later, but I did it a second time right there.
7. Tony Chestnut.  This is another song that might appear during the Spring Sing.  I actually know the first half of the song well, so that's what I covered.
8. The Turkey Ran Away.  I didn't have a really good way to introduce this, so I just talked very briefly about the turkeys, how a moment ago they ran away from the cooks, and so I had the students simply echo me as I sang this song.  We did cover other foods as well (apple, pumpkin, potato).
9. John The Rabbit.  Speaking of foods and vegetables, I readied my ukulele again, and we sang through two of the three verses.  This was entirely review, and the students remembered the song very well.
10. Closing: Goodbye My Friends.  We did the usual walk back to the tables while singing.

Teaching Notes, 20151104

Last week, I didn't really have the students move around much, although I did try for the first time to have them march in a circle, with mixed results.  This time, I wanted to get them moving more, and even though it was brisk outside this morning, I planned on having the students spend a significant part of class outside.

1. Intro: Fine Friends Are Here.  I started singing, and students responded, many with hand signs, which was great!  Today's twist was that I was going to sing to the students the mini-bridge, while strumming my ukulele.  However, I forgot it, so I just sang hoping the students would follow when I revisited the chorus.  A few students responded in the middle of the bridge with "Fine Friends", but I just kept singing, and the singing kids realized something was different.  When I returned to the chorus, they responded as usual.
2. I'm In The Mood for Singing.  I sang the first line, and only one student remembered the response.  As such, I had to do a little more review of the responses for the song.  However, I had the students sing only twice through, and I moved on.
3. Halloween Surprise.  Halloween was still fresh on the kids' minds, and I asked them what kind of jack-o-lanterns (or pumpkins) they saw.  This made it very easy to review this song, although surprising a lot of students didn't remember all of the song, so it was a combo review and re-introduction for them.
4. It's a Very Good Day.  I then had the students get up and start marching towards the right to this song.  It was indeed sunny outside, so I had the students follow me outside while singing this song.
5. Little Bird, Fly Through My Window.  With the students mostly in a circle, I had the students echo me with this song.  Enough students remembered the song such that they knew that there was a chance for someone to be a "bird".  I had one parent be the example bird for the rest of the class, and the students were all very excited to be that flying bird.  We ended up trying to "catch" three different student birds before moving on.
6. Boanopstekker.  To prepare the students, I had the students practice marching to the right, amongst the other movements and then we tried the activity.  As I have in past classes, it was easier to do the claps and steps in half time the first times through before going full speed.  We actually managed to do this a second time before I led the students back inside.
7. Victor Vito.  This was again review, but again it seemed like the break limited the number of students who remembered the song.  I slowed and sped up the song just like I did the previous class.
8. Closing: Goodbye My Friends.  As we've done in most of the classes, the students walked to their desks while singing.

I actually intended to revisit John the Rabbit and change the outgoing song, but with the ukulele forgotten at home, I decided on the fly to repeat Boanopstekker.  With that, the students haven't played either rhythm or tone instruments yet, and I'll be doing that for the next class.

Teaching Notes, 20151028

The students are back, and it's also the class before Halloween - this of course meant that I was able to pull out my tried-and-tested Halloween lesson for kinders that I've used for a few years now.

1. Introduction: Fine Friends Are Here.  It's been three weeks since the previous class, so the students didn't all remember the hand signs, but I sang through this once through, reminded them about the hand signs, and had them sing one more time through.
2. Singing Costumes.  I asked the students what they were going to be for Halloween, and after the 3rd response, I then had the students sing their response in sol-mi; e.g. "I am _____".  Not all of the students sang loudly, but they mostly were able to respond in sol-mi.  This exercise can take a long time and so I did have to remind other students to remain quiet as their cohorts sang.
3. Halloween Surprise.  I asked the students what they would be seeing during Halloween, and it wasn't long before someone suggested pumpkins.  Following the lyrics of the song, I verbally walked the students through steps required to make a "pumpkin surprise" (aka a Jack-O-Lantern).  I reviewed this one time, and then I had the students echo me in song, while doing the hand motions.  After going through this one time, I taught the students the ASL sign for "surprise", and I had them shout "surprise" loudly as if one were, indeed, trying to surprise someone.  This is always a blast.
4. Bongo Joe.  I wanted to review at least one song that was only covered once before the break, and Bongo Joe was it.  I segued right into the song, having the students clap three times at the end of the each line.  Next, I had the students try to fill in the last word for each line, and just like past years, they got all but "grand".
5. 5 Little Pumpkins.  This is always a fun one, and before starting off, I reviewed 1 through 5 in ASL, emphasizing the sign for 3.  I then dropped the kids into the song.  A few students already knew the song, and so we did it one more time for additional fun.
6. It's A Very Good Day.  I had the students stand up, and then practice marching to the right.  The students had a little struggle trying to put it together (e.g. which way is "right"), but I found it simply easier to point each student (quickly) in the correct direction, and then have them take little steps.  I tried my best to get them stepping in a beat, and I then started to sing the song.  I stopped at "why" - and I got the students to use their arms and hands to ask "why?" - followed by the end of the song.  I noted that outside was wet a slightly rainy, so we sang about a rainy day - jumping instead of stepping as if we were jumping into puddles.  I then changed the song to "running through the wind", although instead of running I had the students take lots of tiny steps.
7. Leaves Are Red and Yellow.  With the students seated again, I then reviewed this song, with the second stanza where the air was crisp and colder.  It was now time to introduce "noisy crows" and the scarecrow that says "beware!"  I had the students practice their lowest, creepiest voice when saying "beware", and they seemed to enjoy it.
8. Victor Vito.  This wasn't really Halloween-related, but I had a few minutes left, and so I simply had the students clap at "rice" and "beans" while echoing the chorus.  To my mild surprise, no students knew this song, but no matter - we sang it anyway.
9. Exit: Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.  As I have been doing for the past few classes, I had the students walk back to their desks while singing this ending song.

There wasn't a big dance this time around, but I got to cover the usual holiday material, which the students always enjoy.  I might still review some of these even though next week is after Halloween.

Teaching Notes, 20151007

Today was the last day before the intersession break, and so I wanted to squeeze in one more time with the rhythm sticks.

1. Intro: Fine Friends Are Here.  This is indeed becoming a great introductory song, and while I had to remind the students to try to do hand solfege, the students were getting more comfortable with the song.
2. Sticks: review.  This was basically a review of some common practices I wanted the students to do, including having the sticks at rest, above their heads, behind their backs, etc.  Basically I varied how the students could hold their sticks without making sound.  We also reviewed a few different ways to make sounds, including hammer, rub, drumming (on the ground), all with three taps each.
3. Sticks: Bongo Joe.  I told the students to try to hit the sticks in a series of three, and to watch when to do the tapping.  I went through the song one extra time, with the students hammering the sticks.
4. Sticks: Written Rhythms.  I had the students stick rhythms based on what I wrote on the board; I reviewed single (quarter note) hits, and rests.  I then added a pair of eighth notes, and that turned out to be more challenging than I expected; we didn't really dive into the handling of the eighth notes, and I moved on.
5. Stick to song.  I played the old classic Choo'n Gum (Teresa Brewer), and I had the students copy my sticking to the song.
6. Cleanup: Hello World.  The cleanup was a lot faster this time around for some reason - perhaps the students are indeed also getting used to this.  I had the students do a simple echo of the chorus of the song, and I only needed one time through to get all of the sticks.
7. Choo'n Gum.  I reviewed the song with them, having them echo me.
8. Little Bird, Fly Through My Window.  I had the students review this song with me, and I chose a student to fly through the windows formed by the students in a circle with their arms extended.  The students were instructed to "close the window" at the end of each stanza when the tune also ended in a descent.
9. The Longer The Faster.  We revisited this, and I more carefully walked (no pun intended) the students through the rules of the game.  The students were able to follow for a bit, but near the end of the song the students seemed to lose focus a bit, especially with the tempo accelerated.
10. Closing: Goodbye My Friends.  Just like last time, I had the students sing to their seats as the closing of the class.

When class resumes, it will be the single class before Halloween, and so I'll be able to re-use a lot of material from past years.  It should be fun!

Teaching Notes, 20150930

Today was the first (slightly) rainy day, and so I couldn't take the class outside.  And so, I figured I'd try to introduce more solfege hand signage whenever possible.  I also was hoping to redo The Longer The Faster, but I didn't have enough time.  No matter - I'll be sure to use it next week!

1. Introduction: Fine Friends Are Here.  Even before the students were fully migrated to the carpet, I started singing the song - and about half of the students responded.  I had them practice-hum the two responses with hand-solfege, and I was able to get most of the students to follow.  I then had the students respond with the song one more time with the solfege.
2. I'm In The Mood For Singing.  I sang through this once, and then I had the students echo their response.  It's always tricky to get the students to sing a slightly higher response for the second response, but I didn't have them try to get that perfectly accurately.
3. Ukulele introduction.  I tend to use the ukulele a lot, and so it was time for me to introduce it to the students.  I taught them the etymology (uku + lele) and I played it a few times.
4. Little Bird.  Next, I wanted to ask the students about the sounds that they heard recently, mostly focusing on birds.  I had the students make various bird songs, and then with the ukulele in hand, I had the students echo each line of this song with me.  I didn't have them sing it all the way through on their own; echoing was just fine.
5. In The Fall.  I sang through the fall song once and many of the kids followed.  The students are really having a lot of fun with the "apple", and so we took an extra long time with taking a bite out of the imaginary fruit.  We then talked about how the fall was becoming colder, windier, and rainier.  I then had the students echo with me the second stanza about the air becoming crisp and colder.  The students didn't quite sing with the same authority, and so after the echoing, I had the students sing the first stanza with me.
6. Oats Peas Beans.  I first had the students keep a beat while standing (knee tap, clap, shoulder tap, shoulder tap), and then I started to sing the song - the students followed pretty easily.  I stopped after the first stanza, and then I asked the students if they remembered how one would grow oats, peas, beans, and barley.  Few remembered, and so I walked them through the steps and the essentially the second stanza.  We then sang through the second stanza, followed by the first stanza.
7. Old MacDonald.  I asked the students if they knew another song that was about a farmer, and eventually one student suggested Old MacDonald.  A few students immediately noted that it was a "baby" song, but I acknowledged the suggestion, and we started singing.  After one time through, I asked them about the E-I-E-I-O part of the song, and if they had heard it before.  No one said that they did, and eventually I had to sing the second response of Fine Friends to them.  I then had the students echo E-I-E-I-O with hand solfege.  I don't know if a lot of the students made the connection, but we moved on.
8. John The Rabbit.  With the students still a bit focused on a farm, I made up a story about how Mrs. MacDonald had a garden that was under constant siege by a rabbit named "John".  I then had the students respond with "yes ma'am" as I sang each line of the song.  I like to use the Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke version, which ends with a long "noooooooo, ma'am" at the end of each stanza.  I used that a way to force the students to watch me before singing "ma'am" in that final response.  We went through all three Key Wilde stanzas.
9. Closing: Goodbye My Friends.  We sang this one time through.  However, similar to what we did with the opener, I had the students try singing the song while walking back to their seats.

Teaching Notes, 20150923

Today's goal was to introduce hand solfege, and reintroduce a few other songs that I used before.  However, after I was done I noticed that I had covered far less than I had expected.

1. Intro: Hello World.  The students simply echoed me line by line.  Pretty simple introduction.
2. Fine Friends Are Here.  I first had the students echo the tune of their response, and then I added hand solfege for sol-mi-re/ mi-re-do (but without mentioning the names of the signs).  After the students got the hang of the tunes, I then added the words.  I then sang my intro, and like last time, the students echoed me rather than responding, and so it took a bit more practice to get them to sing their part.
3. Bee Bee Bumble Bee.  I started tapping a beat, and the students immediately started chanting Bee Bee Bumble Bee.  And so, why fight it?  I started chanting with them.  I then had them sing it in Sol-Mi, and the students followed pretty well.  I then had them sing it while doing the solfege signs, and they also continued to follow.
   We proceeded to play the same game we played before, using a small object as the bee.  I asked the students this time to try passing the bee whenever we changed our hand signs - in retrospect I should have asked them to pass on Sol only since it was a lot of (missed) handoffs - and when someone ended with the "bee", they went into the middle.  However, this time, after the second round, I had the bee student change places with the previous winner.  We did this two more times before moving on.
4. Five Fat Sausages.  I didn't anticipate doing this, but the students also started chanting this, and so I steered them to sing this in Sol-Mi with the same hand signs.  How convenient!
5. Leaves Are Red And Yellow.  I asked the students what season it was, and they correctly noted that it was now fall.  We talked about the colors and sounds that fall brings, and I also told the students how there were lots of apples in the fall.  I then had the students sing this song in echo, one line at a time.  We of course stopped to take a big bite of the make-believe "apple" in the middle of the song.
   Next, I asked who in the class was wearing either red or yellow.  The students have a blue-and-white uniform policy, and so not many were wearing a red or yellow variant (such as red shoelaces or a yellow bracelet).  However, when we sang "red" or "yellow", I had those wearing the colors wave their hands.  Everyone of course got to take a bite out of that apple.
6. The Longer The Faster.  I had the students practice counting to 8, and then I found myself taking a lot longer than I had in the past explaining how to the challenge of finding another space in the circle in 8 counts.  We did play the game, but it took a lot more prompting, especially when I asked students to find another student in the circle who hadn't had a chance to walk through the circle.  When it was all over, we talked about the activity, and how it sped up as the song progressed.
7. Closing: Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.

Both Bee Bee and Leaves came with extra activities that I arguably could have left for next week.

Teaching Notes, 20150916

Today I wanted to introduce rhythm sticks for the first time, and although they tend to introduce a great deal of chaos, I planned on trying a few different things to keep their focus.  I still wanted to keep changing topics, and so here's what happened.

1. Introduction: Fine Friends Are Here.  I had the students hum the first response (sol-mi-re) a few times, seeing if they could match my pitch.  (They mostly did.)  And then I added the words to the response.  Although I instructed the students to sing "Fine Friends Are Here" as a response to my line, the kids kept echoing me.  I then tried the same thing with the second response (mi-re-do), and that wasn't any more successful.  I wasn't too worried here - this was the first song where I wanted the students to respond rather than echo, and so I'll be sure to retry it tomorrow.
2. Five Fat Sausages.  I tapped a beat on my knees and started chanting.  No echoing this time - the students followed up and chanted with me.  It was a nice review!
3. Rhythm sticks.  With help with a parent, I passed out a smooth stick to each student, but I asked the student to keep their hands behind their backs.  That didn't last very long, and so there were many kids who were banging the sticks on the ground.  I did pass out the second stick to those who were quiet, which seemed to help convince more students to also be quiet.  I had the students then keep a beat with me on the sticks.  We also chanted through "Row Row Row" and "Oats Peas Beans" while keeping the beat with sticks.
   
   It's always a bit of a challenge to keep the students attention when they have sticks in hand, and so at times I had them mimic me putting the sticks in the air, on my head, or on my shoulders - those seem pretty effective.  Having the students put the sticks on the ground was definitely not effective.  I did have the students also explore making the scratching sound while rubbing the sticks together.
4. Quarters and Rests.  I wrote a vertical line that resembled a "stick", and I had the students play reasonably together one hit.  I then wrote a second line, and had the students play two "sticks".  I then wrote four more - followed by four more "sticks".  However, then, I erased the 3rd line and replaced it with a squiggle.  A few students knew what I was doing (which was a good measurement of who had some experience reading music), and then I asked the student to not hit their sticks on the squiggle, since it didn't look like a stick.  We tried a few times, and while I never achieved silence on beat three, I think most of the students had fun with this.
5. Raisins.  I have always liked using this song (from the Barenaked Ladies) to have the students follow me in various stick patterns.  I kept the movements pretty tame, and the students had a good time with it.
6. Hello World.  I had the students echo me while I cleaned up the sticks.  I was able to cover most of the class with one stanza, which was all I really wanted to cover.
7. Simi Yadech.  This was a repeat of the dance from a few weeks ago.  Not a lot of students really remembered, which was great for me!  I tried to emphasize small steps and finding your home space; in fact, I preceded this activity with "Show Me" that ended with "Show me your space".
8. Slippery Fish.  This was the standard song from Charlotte Diamond, and I tried to use ASL signs whenever possible for the creatures.  Good fun.
9. Closing: Goodbye My Friends.  This time, to make this different, we sang this first in English, and then in Mandarin!

In retrospect, 9 different activities is a pretty good amount of variation, even if some of the activities involved sticks.

Teaching Notes, 20150909

While last week we were able to pull off a very simple circle dance, I wanted to try to take the kids outside for an old favorite.  It was going to be a scorcher outside, but since my class starts at 8:30, I was hoping that I would be able to get in a decent activity before it got too hot.  The outside is something that I also want to use a lot this year while I can, since the space is wonderful.

Again, I wanted to keep things quick, and so I tried to minimize time on any one activity.  Sounds a little ADD-ish, but I think it works for them.

1. Opener: Hello My Friends.  This is now becoming a song that the kids are recognizing and singing away.  They still giggle a bit at my falsetto, but at least they are singing and giggling.  As a little twist, I also sang it in Mandarin, and the kids definitely followed.
2. I Like You.  I had the kids stand, and we tried a few variations of this, using clap, heel, turn, and jump.  I even through in a slide (which would be relevant later).  The kids do get a little bit chaotic with each different movement, and so I quickly had them sit down when we were done.
3. Criss Cross Applesauce.  This turned out to be a little challenging since the students were still nutty from I Like You, but eventually I had them follow my hand motions, and rhythm - no words yet.  Once they were mostly following, I had them echo me.  We then changed the pitch, speed, and volume.
4. Favorite Foods.  Without much of a segue, I asked the students what their favorite foods were.  After the first response, I repeated the answer in sol-mi and had the students echo me similarly. Eventually someone said "hot dog", and I told the students (to some quizzical looks) that to grown ups, hot dogs are called "sausages" - and that sometimes they're cooked in a frying pan.  (Actually who does that these days?)  Anyhow, that led to...
5. Five Fat Sausages.  This is an easy chant, which I had the students echo for all five lines.  I didn't repeat this - I'll use it again next week for sure.
6. Flight of the Bumblebee.  Next, I had the students listen to Bobby McFerrin's rendition (with Yo-Yo Ma) of this song.  I asked the students to see if they could identify what instruments they heard, and while I got a good variety of answers, many did converge around some sort of stringed instrument.  (I explained that a cello was simply a big version of a violin played on the ground.)  It took a while before a student correctly guessed that someone's voice was in the song, and when I pointed it out, a lot of students were happily amazed by the finding.
7. Bee Bee BumbleBee.  I got the students to tap a slow beat on their knees, and we started chanting this chant.  We did this only once (I probably should have done it twice), and then I had the students try to pass an object (a small ball) every time they tapped the beat.  This turned out to be very difficult - many students weren't really paying attention, not expecting the ball, and some just held onto it, causing some infighting among the kids.  We did this a few different times, each time with the student getting "out" joining me in the middle of the circle.
8. Come And Follow Me.  It was time to go outside, and so I had the students follow me outside. I had the students follow me out of the circle (which wasn't terribly clean), and we went outside.  I have to leave the vision of many of my students, so I didn't change the movement after each stanza.
9. Highway Number One.  This is an old favorite of mine, but before I had the students listen to the music, I had them practice a few moves.  I then told them about a faraway place called "Australia", and then I had them get into their cars, ready to drive.  Like past years, the kids mostly followed well, had fun, and fortunately didn't crash a whole lot (I guess it's less fun to crash on concrete than it is on carpet).  After we were done, I led them back into the classroom, as it was really really hot already.
10. Closing: Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.  Before singing the song, we talked a bit about what country we just "visited" (as a measurement to see how many kids were listening), and where it might be.  We also talked about how in Australia people speak English, but a little differently, so it was important to listen carefully.  And then, it was time to sing.

Teaching Notes, 20150903

Last week, I tried to get through as many activities as I could without going very deep on any of them, and it seemed to work pretty well.  I tried to do the same this week, although I did have a dance that I wanted to try with the students.  The teacher this time immediately arranged the students in a circle for me, and that helped me get the class started.

1. Opener: Hello My Friends Hello - yep, this was the same as last time, but I wanted to re-use it again since the students will be singing it a lot.  I didn't think the students would remember me singing it from last week, and so I sang through this once.
2. What's My Name? - This was pretty simple - I asked the students if they remembered my name, and probably half did.  :)  I had a parent also help me, so I took the opportunity to introduce the parent to the class.
3. Johnny Johnny Up - Again this was something that I did, and to spice things up after doing this once, I asked to "borrow" someone's name from the class.  The kids instantly focused their attention, hoping that they could use their name - I borrowed three total names before moving on.
4. I Can Sing Up High - More review!  But this time after going through once in echo, I had the students repeat, each time a little faster.  I probably could have ordered this a bit better - i.e. not right after Johnny Johnny Up, but the kids still had fun.
5. What's In My Garden? - Instead of asking the students what was in their garden, I asked if they remembered what was in my garden.  The students offered some guesses (strawberries, etc.), but eventually they remembered that I had oats, peas, and beans.  I really didn't think they'd remember "barley".  I started patting a beat on my knees, which the students followed, and I had the students echo my chant one time through, followed by an echo of me singing one time through.
6. Beat Practice - With the class tapping a beat on their knees, I had them stop, count to 8, and tap 8 times.  I then had them not tap on a certain number, first "6", then "3".  I then had them combine the two before moving on.
7. Oats Peas Beans II - I asked the students how farmers grow things like oats, peas, and barley, and while the students knew to plant seeds, water them, and provide sun, I asked them what the farmer would do after that.  Eventually one student said that the farmer had to wait, and that allowed me to walk the students through the second stanza.  We echoed (speaking) the stanza with movement, followed by an echoing of the song.
8. Simi Yadech - I quickly had the students stand up, and practice heel and toe.  I then had the students practice taking very small steps towards the middle - one step, followed by feet together, then the other foot, then feet together.  This helped limit the number of students wandering too far.  I then had the students do the reverse, and check if they were at the same starting spot before the walk.  With that, I then turned on the music, and I cued them at each step through the song.  It worked pretty well, with the students asking for another try - but of course, we had to move on.
9. Sounds of Animals - I asked the students what animal sounds they heard, and there was a lot of variation and non-animal suggestions.  Eventually I steered the conversation to be about bees, allowing me to chant Bee Bee Bumblebee.  I had the students echo me, and then it was time to go
10. Closer - Goodbye My Friends Goodbye - A few more students sang with me by the end of this song.

I ended up scrapping "Come and Follow Me" since the students were already in a circle.  That said, staying in a circle is a continuous challenge for the kids; there's always someone trying to change spots, or moving into the middle to be closer to me.  I did use "Show Me" to recapture the focus once, using alternate lyrics (face/ceiling/space).

Next week is going to be pretty warm, and so I may try to take them outside while it is still cool, again for another dance.  We'll see what happens.  :)

Teaching Notes, 20150826

And, we're back!  It's another great school year, and for the third year in the row, I'll be teaching kindergarten.  I also only have one section of K this year, and that hopefully will make things a little easier as my work schedule has become a bit more complicated this year.

I'm also going to scale back this blog a bit more, since at this point I'm mostly going to be repeating a lot of the same material, with a minor adjustment here and there.

1. Opener: Hello My Friends, Hello.  I first started to sing this song, and then I decided to sing "My name is Mr. Chen, what's your name" in sol-mi(-la).  After the first few answers, I asked the students to respond also in sol-mi, and about a third of the kids were able to do this.  During this time, I discovered that the kids are a very bright, active, and observant bunch, and they even tried changing their names on me when it was their time to respond.
2. Johnny Johnny Up.  I did this first by chant, and then singing (C-E-F-G / G-F-E-C), having the students stand up or sit down when "up" or "down" was spoken.  This was a blast.
3. I Like You.  I wanted to get the students into a circle, and so I told the students to try to follow me as I tapped their shoulders.  I ended up getting the kids in a pretty good circle around the carpeted area, and then I had the students sit down.
4. Show Me.  This is an attention-reset short song, but so that the students would know in the future what to do, I had the students echo me on this activity twice.
5. Voice Exploration.  I asked the students if they brought their instrument, and while they mostly said "no",  I then had them try to make low and high sounds while keeping their hands on the front of their necks, or on top of their nose.
6. I Can Sing Up High.  After talking about high and low, I asked them what was in-between.  Most kids knew that the answer was "middle", and that allowed me to segue into the song.
7. Oats Peas Beans and Barley.  I had the students talk about the items in their garden, and we ended up practicing sol-mi for a few more times.  Eventually I talked about oats, peas, beans and barley growing in my garden.  I then had the students create a beat by patting their knees, while I chanted.  I had the students then echo this for me once through.
8. Itsy Bitsy Spider.  In retrospect I could have saved this for next week, as I had originally planned to have the students explore different animals and their sounds.  However, I went right into this, having the students (who all knew the song) follow me.  I then had the class pretend that the spiders were really small or really big - we repeated the song with voices to match the sizes.  I then asked the students if spiders were quiet or noisy, and we finished off by whispering the song.
9. Goodbye My Friends, Goodbye.  I'll use this as a regular goodbye song, and I simply sang this to them.  A few students caught on, but I didn't want to present this as something for the kids to practice immediately.

This year's class definitely seemed to want to fiddle more than last year, and so I probably have to make it a point to change the activity constantly.

Teaching Notes, 1st grade, 20150513

So something weird happened the last time I was writing this blog; I had a whole lesson plan constructed, and then it went poof! So much for modern technology. However, that lesson plan on the 13th was nothing more than review for the show. The show itself went quite well; we were able to herd 75 kindergarteners on three risers, and we provided four wonderful songs to a multitude of camera-snapping parents. To help with the music, I brought out my guitar, and we had huge colored sheets of oaktag so that the students knew which colors to sing for Jenny Jenkins.

At the same time, I also ended up moonlighting as the 1st grade music teacher for a week, for two sections of 1st graders. That's probably more interesting then talking about reviewing material, and so I'll blog about that lesson. I ended up borrowing from past 1st grade classes and I constructed a 'round-the-world theme, where we started in Austria and ended up back in California, so to speak.

Everybody Oughta Know	Lead students into the room with the song
For these classes, I had a dedicated room (yay!), and so students lined up outside to come in. I led the students into a circle while singing this, and with the circle established, I had the students echo me twice through, line by line. This wasn't really meant to be a true exercise, so I moved on.
Austrian Yodeler	Teach song by echo
At first, with the students seated, I had them practice a tap-clap-clap pattern - first in 3, and then in 6. But then I stopped and talked about Austria, its mountaintops, and yodeling. I had the students practice yodeling, and then we talked about the snowcapped mountains, and what might befell a yodeler when there was a lot of snow. This sort of discussion of course led to the song, and I started singing the song. We got to the point where I had the students practice the motion and sounds of an avalanche, and I had them simply follow me with the motions as I sang. I followed the standard second verse, but this time I started the tap-clap-clap pattern through the song, which the students were able to follow well. The second verse featured a grizzly bear, and we were able to go through, adding the bear response to the avalanche response, which the students absolutely loved. We continued adding creatures suggested by the class - mountain goats, mountain lions, etc.
Tuwe Tuwe	Teach by echo
I then told the class that we were departing Austria and flying to Ghana, where people clearly spoke something other than English. I had the students echo me as I spoke (not sang) the words to Tuwe Tuwe, and the students, albeit a bit giggling, obliged. I then had the students echo me as I sang the song, with each line broken into two repeatable parts. After one time through, I had the students piece the lines together, and then I had them sing along with me. The students didn't really have a great command for the song, but I did then have the students try clapping to each time "Tuwe" was sung, while I sang it. We went through it once and we almost got through the song unscathed - the students caught onto this, and so we tried a second time, and again, there were only a few missed claps. But, it was time to move on.
Sasha	Teach movements
And now, for the capper - I wanted to try teaching Sasha, a wonderful dance that I simplified a bit for the students. First I had them get used to saying the name, twice, followed by "1, 2, 3". Next, I had the students mimic the clapping, but without a partner - three taps on the knees, three claps, three "air" claps (to no-one), and three claps. Next, I had them practice singing the part of the song when the students would be dancing in the circle - I had them sing this first, since I wanted them to try to dance only when that part was being sung. In my opinion, it helps limit the craziness that can ensue in an activity like this. I demonstrated the dance with a student, or with the teacher (for the second class). We shook hands, and then we turned around in a circle while the students sang. And then, I showed the students turning around in the opposite direction, while the students sang once more. I then very quickly paired up the students (who were still in a circle), and then I had them practice turning around while I sang - followed by a loud "freeze!" - and most students followed. I then had them go the opposite direction, again followed by a loud "freeze!". It was time to have the students then thank their partner, and I had them quickly find another partner. Now, I had previously taken Sasha and slowed it down by about 20%, and that turned out to be very helpful, since the students ended up taking their time going from one stage to another. I did have to voice prompt them at each phase, over the loud music, and my voice started getting rough from it. However, the students definitely got the hang of it, and they universally had a great time with the dance. The last iteration of the recording that I have goes a bit faster, and when we were finished, I asked the students if they had noticed - one class did, and one class did not.
This Land Is Your Land	Review
I knew that the 1st graders knew this song, and since I had spent so much time teaching this to the kinders - I figured this would be a pretty easy song to end the day of travel - back in the USA. I had the students be my mirror (just like I had done many times with the kinders), and after signing through the first stanza, I then started singing the song with the movements, which the students mostly followed. I covered the second stanza, and in doing so, I lost nearly half the class, and so I returned back to the first stanza and ended the song, and the lesson.

In all, this actually went quite well, even though I covered only five different activities. The students seem to have had a good time with it, and the travel theme certainly helped. My work is getting unusually busy now, and I don't know how often I'll be doing this 1st grade moonlighting, but I did enjoy it this time around.

Teaching Notes, 20150429

Three more weeks before the show, and that means more review! I did want to try keeping things fresh, and I definitely wanted to retry the rainbow song, since I didn't feel like the students really had the song well understood at this point.

Teaching Peace	Warmup
Teaching Peace is well known to the entire school since just about every student sings it during weekly assemblies. With a ukulele in hand, I figured this was an easy way to get the students singing quickly. We went through the chorus, a stanza, and a chorus, and that was it; the students all sang through pretty well. I did have the students end with a "hey!" shout, which amused them and added just a little color to the song.
Sing A Rainbow	Review signs, sing, and reteach 2nd half
I followed the same process that I used for This Land for the previous week - first the students were asked to mirror me in silence, and I did a few random signs, eventually converging on signs relevant to the song. Students naturally started to sing that first part, which they knew pretty well, and I let them go ahead and sing along. But then, I had them become silent mirror again, and I had the students mirror the signs for the 2nd half of the song. Most did not remember these, and so I treated this as if I were teaching the students for the first time. I had the students echo me as I sang and signed the 2nd half; afterwards, I asked them what certain signs were. We then echoed the 2nd half again, and I had the students sing the 1st half with me only signing for them. I definitely will want to revisit this next week to reinforce the 2nd half of the song.
Razzama Tazzama	Immerse
Razzama Tazzama is always a fan favorite with the kindergarteners, and with only a few more classes left, I wanted to find a time to let the students enjoy this activity. It started a bit slowly - I usually just start clapping and then singing along - but as each stanza went on, the students got more and more into the activity. It ends with the kids laughing through the last stanza, and I could tell they had a great time with this.
Cookie Jar (spontaneous)	Well, I didn't really plan this
Now with the act of clapping steadily, some of the students started to chant the cookie jar chant, and who am I to stop that kind of momentum? And so, for the first class, I let them take a detour from the scheduled activities and do the cookie jar chant. We managed to involve one of the teacher aides into the activity, which the students loved. There was a very small amount of coaching needed to get the students to respond quickly at each stage, but the kids after only two iterations seemed to know what to do. I didn't want to spend a lot of time with this, and so we were able to cover about 6 students' worth with this activity.
Tritsch Tratsch Polka	Move to the music
I know that I don't have the students listen to clips of music as much as other teachers do, and so this was a bit of a treat for the students. I started playing the music, and then moving around (including stepping, tiptoeing, clapping, etc.) to the music. I tried my best to imitate the style of the music being played (e.g. tiptoeing when it was soft, pretending to march when the music sounded grand, etc.). After the song was over, I asked what the song sounded like when we did specific movements (e.g. marching, rolling arms, clapping quickly).
Jenny Jenkins	Review
This was basically a review of the song, with an emphasis on the tongue twister as well as the rhymes to color. I did ask the students to provide the color ideas, and the 2nd class took this even farther - they asked about colors like "turquoise" and "silver". I promised the students that I'd come up with appropriate lines for those colors.

I did manage to change the starting pitches a few times for Teaching Peace and Jenny Jenkins, as I had a side goal of getting the students used to changing a song to fit their own voices. Next week I do plan on reviewing again for the show, and I'm really hoping to get through the Rainbow Song all the way through one more time.

Teaching Notes, 20150422

Now that spring break has passed, I only have 8 more classes left with the kindergarteners. Four of those classes, including today's, lead up to the spring sing, which is now part of the school's International Day celebration, and so I knew I had to cover material for the show. At the same time I wanted to keep the class moving, so my goal was to limit the number of repetitions we had on the songs.

This Land Is Your Land	Review motions
The classes were both pretty chatty when I arrived, and so I had the students simply mirror my movements until they were mostly following me. I then started doing motions related to the song, and eventually some students figured out what I was doing - they starting singing the song. And so, I then had the students turn on theif voices, and we sang (and moved) to the first stanza of the song. I didn't expect the students to remember the 2nd and 3rd stanzas very well. For the 2nd stanza, I simply had the students echo my voice and motions, and after we did it once through via echo, we sang the entire stanza with motions together. For the 3rd stanza, I had the students go back to mirror mode, where I had them copy all of my motions for that stanza. I then had the students turn their voices back on, and we echoed through that 3rd stanza, followed by singing through one time through. The echo on/off modes seem to be pretty effective at getting the kids to pay attention - it's a game to some, but when students see that they're simply trying to copy me, they really seem to enjoy it. I had the students end this exercise by having them reprise the first stanza, but when they started to sing it, I stopped singing myself (although I kept doing the motions), and the students kept going on. It was great to see them sing without needing my voice to guide them.
Mail Myself To You	More Review of song
I followed the same process that I used for This Land, starting in silence with movement, then adding volcals, followed by singing all the way through together. The reaction was also almost the same, although only about 3 students per class remembered the song enough to name it. We got through all 4 stanzas, and similar to This Land, I had the students sing in unison the first stanza one last time, with me being mostly silent.
Come And Follow Me	Review, form circle
Both classes, particularly the second class, have been notorious for being less successful forming a circle, and so I had the students follow me around the room. However, I had the students focus on the color of carpet they were standing over, and I called groups of students by carpet color to come and join me. Students found this to be again a fun challenge - to be the best imitator of me - and we worked all around the room, weaving around desks. I kept reminding the students to try to follow my path, and they did a pretty good job, particularly when we returned back to the carpet.
Jenny Jenkins	Review and examine rhymes
I picked up my ukulele and started to sing this song, only to find that a lot of students had forgotten the lyrics. (They remembered the melody.) And so, I ended up re-teaching the song and words, including recapping the story about Jenny Jenkins and how she couldn't decide what color to wear. We started working through the colors, and for each color, I wrote both the color and the rhyming word or phrase next to it. By the time we had 4 or 5 colors on the board, I had the students recite the color along with the complementary words, and I asked the students if they noticed any pattern. After acknowledging that the words rhymed, I then asked the students about orange. For the first class, we had enough time to sing that "nothing rhymes with orange", but for the second class, I asked them to try to think of something that rhymes with orange for next week.

So, that was the class - only 5 items, but even without repeating it was a full class, and I thought the students did a good job staying focused. I'm going to have to keep reviewing show material for the next few weeks, but I'll try to keep adding new items to keep the students' experiences fresh.

Teaching Notes, 20150325

One of the dangers of going on break is that sometimes I slack off and forget to blog about the previous class. I did exactly that; we had a class on March 25th, and I don't have a lot of notes about it. I do recall that I was trying to review a lot of material for the upcoming show, but fortunately for the kids the better half of me convinced me that it was better to keep trying out new materials.

It's A Very Good Day	Warmup kids with the first stanza
This was pretty straightforward; get the kids singing the first stanza and move on. They sang without too much trouble, and indeed, I moved straight onto the next activity.
Plant A Little Seed	Teach song and movement
This was the first class in spring for the children, and I wanted to repeat some material that I had used in the previous year for spring. This was one of them, which is essentially a scale song for the spring. I talked about spring with the class, and I asked them about how one goes about growing something in the garden. This is an easy exercise in steering the conversation to fit the words of the song; with the steps covered, I had the kids recite them one more time, and then I had them echo me singing each line. The kids I think were able to pick up on the song pretty well, but this was a very time consuming activity, and by the end I could tell that the class was ready for another topic.
Tree Song	More teaching
I guess in retrospect I probably shouldn't have tried this (after all, there's more spring to be had later in the year), but I did anyway, since it's an easy segue after Plant A Little Seed. This was unexpectedly challenging however; the kids were starting to get restless. It probably didn't help that in the second class the regular teacher was mysteriously missing (leaving us with only one teacher's aide and no official substitute). We also spent a lot of time discussing the seasons. Anyhow, I think, knowing that I was running out of time, I rushed this a bit, and I don't think the kids learned the song as well as I had hoped. I'll be sure to re-use this later in the year.
Sing A Rainbow	Review, add 2nd stanza
I wanted to review this song since last week I wasn't able to get through the second stanza. However, with the class already in a bit of disarray, this was quite the challenge, especially in the second class. I reviewed the first stanza, and the students seemed to remember the song fine. I was able to add "can" to the signs, although I think only a few students retained that new word. The second stanza was basically passable for the first class; we covered it, added a few new signs (listen, eyes, everything, see, along), and while the students were able to cover the song, there wasn't a lot of energy. The second class however, had a difficult time trying to focus, and I found myself fighting a lot of side chatter. Usually when the regular teacher was there, this doesn't happen, but this time, again, there was no teacher.
This Land Is Your Land	Review
For the remaining time, I had the students since This Land, and we got through the first two stanzas before running out of time. This was fortuitous since I had forgotten the 3rd stanza.

Maybe it was fatigue, but I had hoped to have more effective classes. I think the students were still having fun, but I don't think they got the usual amount of educational value this time around. When we return after spring break (in three weeks), I'll have to a lot of review, and I'm hoping it doesn't become too tedious for them.

Teaching Notes, 20150318

Today, I wanted to bring back and old favorite - Who Stole The Cookie - which I had been hanging onto for many weeks, waiting for the right time to introduce it. Today, I thought, was going to be the day. Here's what happened.

Somebody's Knocking	Immerse-review, add stomping
I didn't really originally have a good opener for this day, so I decided to use a past successful activity in Somebody's Knocking to get the class started. The kids followed easily, and after the first round, I then changed the song to "somebody's stomping on the floor". That was pretty easy for the kids to follow, and I switched back to the original line. This activity also automatically got the kids standing, which made the next activity interesting.
Who Stole The Cookie	Teach activity
I started this by simply having the students echo me chanting and clapping to the first line - one clap at the start of every measure. This led to four claps, and I asked the students in the first class which words were being spoken when a clap took place. This turned out to be a very difficult exercise for the kids, even after practicing several times, and so for the second class, instead I wrote out the four lines (with "jar" as the solitary word on the last line). This made it a lot easier for the kids to "see" the clapped words, and I rewrote those first words in a different color. We repeated the first line, and then I chose a student for the second line, making it clear that I was only guessing. That first student in each class took it well, being chosen without their permission, and I immediately followed up by asking the student if they really took the cookie. I then worked with the student, along with the rest of the class to finish the rest of the chant. We all said the first line once more, and then once I gave that student the chance to pick the next person, the entire class got pretty excited. It took about 4 iterations before the chosen student didn't need to be prompted, but since the students were standing, I noticed that the class would slowly migrate towards the chosen person, something I didn't anticipate. In the second class, the chosen student ran to the other side of the class, with other kids in pursuit, which pretty much ended the activity.
Animal Rhythms	Explore various rhythms of familiar songs
I asked the students if they remembered the animals that we had worked with from the previous week, and when they acknowledged that they did, I asked them what animals were featured in that first line of Who Stole The Cookie. Doing this works better with the words already on the board, and we were able to recite that first line in animal. I then asked them how they would represent the animal rhythms in Oats Peas Beans (with an obligatory singing of the first phrase). Then, I asked them about the first two lines of Sing A Rainbow. Of course, that was deliberate...
Sing A Rainbow	Review, add 2nd stanza
I wanted to introduce the second stanza, and so after doing a quick review of the signs and the first stanza, I then tried to teach them new signs, such as "sing" and "listen". However, when I sang "listen to your eyes", I quickly lost the class; they were confused and wondering how one could listen with their eyes and not their ears. For the first class I was able to get through the second stanza, but that was it; I returned the students to the first stanza and moved on. For the second class, the class was pretty much paying attention to something other than myself that I also moved on without completing the second stanza.
The Longer The Faster (1st class)	Review and Dance
The last time I tried to do a dance with the 1st class, we didn't get very far, so this time I decided to try The Longer The Faster with the first class. I made sure I had enough time to explain how the dance worked, and I deliberately had the class practice both counting to 8 and tapping the next student at the 8th count. There isn't a whole lot else one can do to prep the class for this song, and so we went off and tried it. Even though I've used this song countless times, I keep relearning tricks about this. First off, the original song, for kinders, definitely speeds up way too quickly near the end, and I really should be carrying a slower version. Plus, students have a habit of picking their friends, and so I continually had to remind students to pick someone who hadn't gone before; near the end of the song when havoc is high and the music is blaring, this is difficult to do. Anyhow, after the song was over, we got to talk about what worked and what didn't, as well as how the song was changing. It's always nice to have the time to have a little chat about what the students experienced.
Old King Glory (2nd class)	Teach, attempt dance
Just like I usually do with this song, I had the students echo the song with me, and then I arranged the children into a circle. While getting them to march, however, the students had a surprisingly difficult time trying to march evenly space-wise, and I realize that I didn't have my usual talk about taking tiny steps when there wasn't much space. Perhaps this was because I was trying to squeeze this in at the end of the day. We started and stopped the marching a few times, and unfortunately it didn't seem like the kids were going to be able to do this, and so we stopped. Even though the recess bell rang, I held onto the kids for a minute longer to talk about the crashing that was going on, and whether or not it was a good thing. Fortunately most admitted that they would rather not be bumping into each other, and so perhaps I'll try this again next time, with proper time and spacing.

I have one more class before break, and I think I'm going to wan to try the Rainbow song once more. I do want to get the kids to dance one more time, but I'm not sure if I'm really going to have the time to pull that off, considering that I'm still trying to cover all of the material for the upcoming sing. The next class will be the first class of Spring, and there is plenty of Spring material that is waiting to be covered, too.

Teaching Notes, 20150311

Usually during the year I have the kids listen to different kinds of music. However, this year I strangely hadn't done much of that and so I decided (last minute) to have an opener where the students listened and analyzed a piece of music. It also had been a while since we last danced, so I wanted to have the kids try dancing for a bit. Everything in the middle I had hoped to be review or extension in one form or another.

The Flight of the Bumblebee (Yo Yo Ma + Bobby McFerrin)	Listen, describe music, identify "instruments"
I asked the students to listen to the song as they were gathering around the carpet, and mid-way through the song I asked them if they could think of a creature that the original composer had in mind. It wasn't long before many students converged on a flying insect of some sort, and then someone said a "bee". After the song ended, I then asked the students about the instruments that they heard. Most knew that there was some sort of stringed instrument, and we talked about the cello for a bit. But, then, I asked the students to find another special "instrument", and to listen carefully for it. That other instrument of course is Bobby McFerrin's voice, and it was easier for the students to hear him near the middle of the song. The students were amused by the prospect of a voice moving that quickly.
This Land Is Your Land	Review, add 3rd stanza
This was pretty simple - I had the students stand up, and I simply started singing the song. Most of the students followed, and I had them follow my motions. I slowed the song down a bit for the 2nd stanza, but the kids were able to follow it for the most part. After that, I then instructed the students to go into mirror mode (no sounds!), and I then had them follow my movements for the 3rd stanza. The 3rd stanza for us is actually later in from the original song; I chose "When the sun was shining..." - and after practicing the motions, I then had the students move-echo each part of this third stanza. We did the echoing once more (I took a bit of time explaining each motion), and then we did this all together. I then had the students sing through the 1st stanza one more time, and we moved on. This turned out to be pretty easy; the kids followed well - I think they're getting used to the echo-motion - and they also are singing the 1st stanza very readily.
Animal Claps	Have students explore simple rhythms
I had signs for Bear, Bunny (or Rabbit), Butterfly and Alligator printed out. I took a picture of a bear, attached it to the board, and said "bear" while clapping. For the first class I introduced the other animals one at a time, but in retrospect, what I did for the second class was better, where I started with four bears, and then changed them one at a time. With four animals on the board, I had the students repeat the rhythm, and I tried pretty hard to keep the beats steady. Next, I asked students to come up and change one of the animals. I always kept the first animal at "bear", and so we ended up changing around the 2nd, 3rd and 4th animal. The students seemed to get the hang of this pretty well! I then chanted "2-4-6-8", and we worked through the chant, line by line, creating the animal list for each line. In retrospect, I think I probably should have chosen animals with different starting letters. Also, once the alligator shows up, I had to slow the beat down; the children cannot clap all that quickly compared to older children, and I still wanted to keep everyone in sync. I'll definitely be re-using the animal technique to come up with rhythms of songs that the children know.
Longer The Faster	Review and Dance
At this point, the 1st class became more and more rowdy with the animals that they really didn't have the focus to pull this off; we were just about out of time anyway. The second class, however, was able to get through this. Initially I tried to make two lines, but the students eventually migrated back to a circle - and a circle works just fine for this song. We had actually covered this activity only for the 1st class originally, so it was good that I was able to do this for the second class. I had the students practice this a bit, and then we were off "dancing" to the tune. The bell rang around three quarters' of the way through the song and at that point I stopped the music. I did ask the students if they noticed what happened to the tempo of the song, and they knew. Kudos to them for sticking around a little longer to discover that.

I have noticed that my lesson plans are condensing a bit - fewer activities during the 30 minutes. The kids are getting more comfortable with me, and while attention span is always going to be a challenge, I do think that they can follow longer on the same activity than they could before. Next week I'll cover more songs related to the spring show.

Teaching Notes, K, 20150304

Every year, there is a "Spring Sing" where students led by MfM volunteers sing for the parents. There was talk about moving the Sing away from June and to May during another school event, but no matter what, planning for the event had to start. I do have a few songs that could work, and I coordinated with the other MfM docent to come up with a docket of potential songs that all 80 kindergarteners could sing. Today's lesson was mostly geared towards those potential songs.

The World Is Big	Review and warm up
Few kids remembered this song when I started singing it, and so I had to encourage them to echo. I had to break each of the first two lines into four parts for the first class, and so this became a pretty involved warmup. However, the kids eventually got through this - the entire song is echoed anyway, so they were able to follow well. I tried singing this for the first class in F (spanning C to C) which turned out to be way too high for a warmup song for me; I dropped it down to D (A to A) which was much better, and still within a reasonable range for most of the students. I sang this song with my ukulele, and took the time also to talk a little bit about how the length of the string, modified using the fingerboard, can change the pitch. It was a nice little distraction before we moved onto the main part of the lesson.
I Can Sing A Rainboe	Teach signs, first half of song
I Can Sing A Rainbow happens to be one of the first songs I ever learned when going through MfM training, and I have yet to use it in a class until today. This could very well be one of the spring sing songs, and it comes with a lot of sign language. I really do believe that ASL is a fantastic way of adding relevant motions to songs, and it also exposes the children to another form of communication. I had the students sign the first four colors, and then I had them echo me in pitch while signing. We did the same with the last three signs. I then followed with having them sing with me and sign the first half of this first half (e.g. the colors). I then sang the 2nd line, while signing "rainbow". After taking a short period of time to teach them how to sign "rainbow", I taught them one last sign: "too". We then practiced this first half of the song twice, both with signs.
This Land Is Your Land	Review, teach 2nd stanza
Simliar to last week, I had the students mirror my motions - I started with the first stanza, and then we sang it together. Next, I asked the students to go back into mirror mode, and I had the mirror my motions that fit the 2nd stanza of the song. After doing that twice through, I then had the students echo each line with motions with me. We did this twice through, then once altogether, finishing it off with the first stanza. I think the students were able to follow pretty reasonably well - the motions definitely help!
Jenny Jenkins	Teach the tongue twister, sing along
Since I had the ukulele, and since we had spent a lot of time singing about colors, I figured I'd bring out this song, which involves colors and is just plain fun to sing. At first, I asked the students if they knew what a tongue twister was, and then I gave them the example: "she sells seashells by the seashore". Of course the children had a tough time singing that, and so I then told them the story of a girl named Jenny Jenkins, who liked two things - tongue twisters, and colors. However (as the story goes) Jenny never could figure out what to wear, and she always had an excuse for not wearing certain things. I seem to really be able to captivate the students when telling stories, and this was no exception. I said the tongue twister from the song, and then I had the students speak (not sing) the parts of the tongue twister by echo, followed by echo-singing the parts. I didn't have the students try singing it all at once; I figured they'd pick it up a little bit at a time just by singing along. And so, I started singing the song, starting with white, then pink, blue, and green. For the second class I ran out of time here, but for the first class, I moved onto orange, red, and gray. I think the kids enjoyed this a bit, although they did struggle with the tongue twister, even if I slowed it down for them.

All three final songs are songs we are considering for the show. I have plenty of work to do in order to get the students ready, but I also have several classes left before the performance; I think they'll do quite well. There might be a fourth song, "I'm Gonna Mail Myself To You" that we might do; we did cover that song earlier in the year, but I'll be sure to review it. Since this week was a heavy singing class, I'll be sure next week to do something that involves something else, like dancing or instruments.

Teaching Notes, 20150225

Yet another illness knocked out last week's class, and so it's been two weeks since my last entry. I had a lot to cover for this week, including possibly going back outside (although I chose at the last minute not to do this). However, I did want to try doing some rhythm theory, even if I didn't market it as such to the students.

It's A Very Good Day	Review and warm up
This really is becoming an easy warmup for the kids. Almost exactly as I had done a few weeks ago, I had the students sing once through, then once remarking that it was a windy day, and finally once more acknowledging that kids on the east coast are finding that they are enjoying a snowy day. I did want to get the kids thinking about the other side of the country while we covered the next item...
This Land Is Your Land	Teach motions and song to the first stanza
This Land is a song that happens to be easily signable with ASL signs, and so I definitely wanted the students to try signing along. However, before I even started covering that song, I had the students mirror all of my motions. I had them follow me for about a minute, varying what I was doing and trying to trick them (e.g. almost clapping). I then had them mirror the signs for the stanza without telling them about the signs' significance. Then, I started to sing the song with the signs going on; some students sang along, but most continued to mirror me. We repeated this one more time, and then I reviewed with the students where to move in order to get into a circle. Just like I had done a few weeks ago, I asked the students to try to form a circle in the duration of a single song - they were able to do it, with only 2 students per class unable to find a good place on the perimeter.
2, 4, 6, 8	Teach chant, then explore rhythm
I first wrote the numbers 1-8 on the board, had the students count off, and then I erased the even numbers. I ask the students explore the pattern of the even numbers, and then I had them echo the entire chant. One variation that I like to do here is that for the third line I typically say "If I'm late, don't you wait" instead of "If I'm late, don't wait" so that the two halves of that line have the same rhythm. With the chant in the kids' minds (and it's not a difficult chant), I then had them clap to every quarter note, and tap their knees on every eighth note. Then, I went back to the board, picked up a dry-erase marker, and marked down four vertical lines representing the claps. I did the same with rest of the song, using another color for the knee taps. Next, with the students in a circle, I had the students try passing a ball such that the ball would change owners once every two beats of the the chant. We tried this a few times, and then i had the student who ended up with the ball hide the ball behind his back. I then asked in sol-mi "who has the tennis ball", and I had the holder respond, also in sol-mi, "I have the tennis ball". Finally, I had one of the students come to the middle, and we made a game out of this, with the center student needing to guess (with eyes closed) who had the tennis ball after the sol-mi exchange. The kids seemed to enjoy the game and also get the hang of it - it was pretty enjoyable to watch them play.
Bow Wow Wow	Teach chant/motion, play game
Here's where things went south for a bit. The students, fresh of the game, no longer were really following me very well when I started teaching this - instead they were chattering away. At this point, I knew that this particular song was going to be a challenge in a small space, and I really didn't have enough time to lead the kids outside, so I punted on this; for the second class, I skipped this entirely.
Old King Glory	Teach song, immerse in dance
In order to recapture the students' attention, I simply had the students echo me - that worked pretty well, although I had to sing a bit louder than I wanted to. Next, I then got the students to start marching towards their right (counter-clockwise). At this point, I unfortunately started losing the focus of the second class, and I ended up punting this as well as it seemed like they really weren't in the mood for marching. The first class however was marching along, and with the kids marching in one direction, I snuck outside the circle, started marching in the opposite direction, and started the song. Once you get the activity going, the kids follow really well; we ended with two students in the middle, and I had the class on the outside bow to them.
My Bonnie	Review song and activity
And about that second class... I simply repeated the My Bonnie activity from two weeks ago - clapping in 3s and 6s, followed by the song. While we sang the song, some students remembered about going up and down with the song, and so we followed up with moving to "Bonnie". I ran out of time before I could revisit moving with all of the "b" words, but that didn't matter - I managed to recapture the focus of the class, even for just a few minutes at the end.

Despite losing one activity per class, the students seemed to enjoy a good mixture of new and old material. I did actually have the Cookie Jar ready to go, which I may introduce next week.

Teaching Notes, 20150211

Today was the class closest to Valentine's Day, and I always plan something special for the kids. This time, I wanted to have the children try "Hey Betty Martin" outside, as it could be somewhat related to the holiday. I also wanted to try squeezing in another dance that has been successful in the past. Fortunately, the weather was cooperating for the dance (not necessarily for the drought) and so why not dance?

I'm in the Mood for Singing	Review and warm up
The students are slowly remembering more of this song; I was able to have a few of them respond correctly particularly on the 3rd and 4th responses, which always provide the most confusion. After going through one iteration of the song, I reviewed it again to emphasize those 3rd and 4th responses. Next, I wanted to get the students used to forming a circle, and so using the colors of the carpet where they sat as their guide, I instructed the students based on those carpet colors to move to one of the sides of the carpet, forming a circle (really a rectangle). Before they started to move, however, I challenged them to try to find their space by the time we finished the song. And so, I started singing the song, and the children migrated quickly over to their spots.
My Bonnie	Teach, get students clapping in 3
I wanted the students to get used to clapping to this song, and so first I had them echo a pat-clap-clap pattern. I then had them do it in 6, and then I had them echo me again in 3; this mostly eliminated the phantom 4th beat that showed up during the first echo. Next, I had the students do the pattern continuously, and then I started singing the song, one time through. One gets the usual questions "who is Bonnie", "my bunny lies over the ocean?" What I did notice, however, is that clapping every beat is actually a lot for the kindergarteners, unless you were to slow down the song to a crawl. Anyhow, this song is pretty easy to teach, although I had the students sing the entire song one more time. Next, I had them play a game where they stood up (or sat down, toggling their position) whenever they heard "Bonnie". The kids absolutely loved that. Since the students seemed to master that game easily, I next had the students toggle their position whenever they heard a word that started with the letter "b". That was total fun - I did have to slow down the song ("bring back my Bonnie"), but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hey Betty Martin (inside)	Teach movements, practice the dance
I had the students, still in a circle, to tiptoe as I sang the song. When we reached the 2nd half of the song, I had the students sway their arms from side to side to the song; when we reached the end, I changed the last line to "turn around and say goodbye" so that the students had a chance to turn around (and wave goodbye). We covered the first half one more time (with tiptoeing), and then I asked a volunteer student to join me in middle of the circle. I still had the students wave their hands, but during the last line of the 2nd half, I switched positions with the volunteer. At this point, a lot of the students caught on, and they decided to pair up; I had the students practice just the 2nd half one more time, and the students had a good time turning around. At this point, I wanted to take the class outside, and so I had the students line up in front of the door. I reminded the students that the song talked about tiptoeing, so as I sang the song, I had the students follow me out to the circle in the play area outside.
Hey Betty Martin (outside)	Have students try to dance around the circle
With the students outside, I then had the students try doing the Betty Martin dance; I had this time four students in the middle tiptoe with me, while the rest of the students were tiptoeing around the outside. The directions for the inside students didn't really matter to me, but at the end of the 1st half, I asked those students to find a partner on the outside of the circle. Students without partners still swung their arms, but the hope was to have the inside students swap positions with the outside kids. Typically about half of the students did the swap correctly; some swung a full circle so that they returned to their original positions, and I had to help those students swap. We did this a few more times until there were only fewer than 8 students on the outside who weren't chosen; for the last group, I had those students go in the middle and finish the song. The students seemed to have a good time with this, but it was pretty chaotic, more than I had hoped.
Heel Toe Down The Line	Teach, dance!
This is another dance I've used in past Valentine's Day classes, but I knew I didn't have quite the amount of time that would ensure success. However, I tried to do it anyway, including teaching the students "Ya" and "Nein". I had the students practice jumping and turning a few times on the outside, and quickly tried to put the students into pairs on the outside of the circle. I realized that there was now confusion where some students thought that one of the partners had to be on the inside of the circle, similar to Betty Martin. The first few iterations only had partial success, but after each iteration, more of the students got the idea. The first class, not having a strict end time, was able to find good success, but the second class ran out of time before the students really understood the activity.

And so, that was sort of ok. I really did want to have more success with Heel Toe since it is such a fun activity, but I think I'll try Bow Wow Wow the next time, which is similar.

Teaching Notes, K, 20150204

I was determined to recapture the first class, as last week was overly chaotic. I also want to start getting the students used to a formula for making a circle, and so I tried to keep the kids all in a circle for the entire time. I’ve found that if I sit in on the outside with the students, some students see me really well, while some do not, and so during the class I found myself moving into the middle of the circle just for visibility. It also meant that I was spinning around a lot so that I could see everyone (and everyone could see me), and I was also on my knees. I guess I’ll have to buy another pair of jeans if I keep this up, all in the name of music.

Hello World	Formally teach-echo chorus, immerse stanza
I immediately asked the students to be my echo, and I started singing the song. For the first class, I sang it in the same key as Red Grammer, but the class was trying to match pitch instead of going an octave higher. As such, I moved up my voice an octave, discovered that I wasn’t well warmed up, and the class noticed a bit. For the second class, I sang in the key of A (G probably would have worked too), with myself higher but not too high so that the kids could follow. I went through the song only once through - echo chorus, solo stanza, echo chorus. A few students said they liked the song, and so I guess we’ll have to do it again next week. :)
Keep The Kettle Boiling	Teach and Play the Game
I actually tried this song for a very short amount of time with one of the classes, and one of the students in the first class had been asking for this, so I figured it was time to cover this properly. I talked about how it was cold outside, and when it was cold, it was a great time to have soup. I asked the students about what they'd put in the soup, and we talked about the various ingredients (including chocolate!) that they would add. I then asked them how soup was prepared, and eventually we converged on the fact that one needed a pot, there needed to be water, and there needed to be a heat source. With that, I had the students pretend to turn up the heat under the pot full of water and vegetables, and I instructed the students to stir the pot. This made for a very easy segue into saying the chant, and I had the students echo me. I then told the students that their pot was a very special pot - it could hold only one person inside, and so that I could jump in, I had the students chant "in jumps Mr. Chen!". (It was also a great time to re-ask the students what my name was, as many didn't remember what my name was, even in February.) I asked the students what had to happen in order to put someone else in the pot, and they responded correctly that I had to get out. That allowed me to teach the remainder of the chant, and I had the students beckon a student to jump into the pot. This worked really well - the students echoed every step of the way for another two students' worth of chanting, and then I had the students chant with me instead of echoing. There were about 25 students per class, and so I had plenty of opportunity to change things - I had the students pretend the pot was really big (e.g. low sounds) or really small (high sounds). I then had the students pretend the boiling was really fast (staccato) or really slow (legato). Finally, when we had about 4 students left, I had the students chant faster and faster until we finished back to me. This worked out really well; the students had a good time, and they learned the activity well enough to repeat it without me.
If You've Got One (Justin Roberts)	Teach movements
I use this every year at some point, and this seemed like a good time to use it. As in past years, I took the time to teach 1-2-3-4-5 in ASL, and with that, I simply walked the students through the movements of the song. After going through the song one time, I sang the song and gave the students enough time to do each movement. There is a recording that goes with this, and my intention is to use that recording for next week.
I Am A Pizza	Teach by echo
This song is typically one that many students already knew coming in, and indeed, many did once I started singing. Once I acknowledged the handful who recognized the song, I had the students echo. We completed the first stanza, and then I asked the students to try to repeat the last line ("I am a pizza ready to go") together, which is how the recording works. We then repeated the first stanza similar to the recording - echoing all except that last line. Knowing that I didn't have a lot of time, I simply moved onto the rest of the song. for the last line, I did pause and prompt the students with what they should sing; many did not catch on, but that was ok for me. We eventually finished the song, and at the end, some students in the second class, to my surprise, gave me a round of applause.
Hey Betty Martin	Teach song
I only had time to do this with the first class - with the students already in the circle, I started singing the song. When it came to "tip toe tip toe", I started tiptoeing around the circle, which the students followed. When it came to the second half of the song, I had the students follow me, swinging away - we were still echoing - and when it was time to say goodbye, I simply turned around. We did the two halves of the song one more time until we ran out of time. Clearly, I intend on using Hey Betty Martin next week, as I think it would be a great dance for Valentine's Day. The first class students seemed to have fun with the little bit of the song, which bodes well.

Next week is indeed Valentine's Day, and I already have a few activities that should be fun. If it is a dry day, I may try to take them outside, since it is helpful to have the extra room.