Teaching Notes, K, 20150121

As promised, I managed to use some material from the previous week pretty well, allowing for, in my opinion, proper extensions of activities. I know I’ve noted in the past the importance of keeping each activity of the class short, and although it’s already the end of January, I think I’m finally hitting that quickness groove for this year.

Today’s theme was around movement; just about every activity had the kids moving around in some fashion.
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Down By The Sea(Red Grammer)	Immerse immediately
After saying good morning, I had the students stand up. I then started a beat with snapping (mostly because that’s what Red Grammer does), and I simply started the song off. Most of the students remembered what to do when jumping in the waves, and by the raft, all of the students were following. This turned out to be a great way to warm them up.
I Can Sing Up High	Review, sing, and speed up
I told the class that I wanted to do a lot of moving around, and so we had a “second” warm-up with this song. We hadn’t covered this song since the start of the school year, so it was a nice review. The students followed pretty readily, and that allowed me to speed up the song after every iteration. For the second class, I also reviewed staccato and legato, and I had the students sing the song in those fashions.
Get On Board	Review, teach partner dance
I had the students arrange themselves in a circle, and then I started singing the chorus of the song. Students followed me (as well as the arm motions). Next, I reviewed the stanza of the song as well as the motions, and since I was in the middle of the circle, I started choo-chooing around in the inside of the circle. In the first class, they naturally started marching around in a circle, while the second class followed my motions but stayed in place. (I didn’t really tell them what to do.) I then chose a student to come into the circle, and choo-chooed around the inside. Next, I had the student face me, and we covered the stanza motions. I demonstrated this again, and automatically about a third of the class found a partner and did the motions. (That was really wonderful!) I then had the whole class try to find a partner, which turned out to be easier than I thought, and we did the whole song together. For the second class, I had the class try to find a new partner during the “Get on Board” part, and that too worked out better than expected; most of the class was able to find someone else, and I was able to pair up the remaining students in about 10 seconds. The success of this activity gives me a lot of hope for future partner dances.
Deep and Wide	Reteach song, delete words
While I covered this song with the second class as a backpocket item, I retaught this song to both classes, and they were able to pick it up quickly - first with just motions, then with the song. I told the class that they were so good at picking up the song, that they could probably sing it without certain words. I had the students take out “wide”, and then “river”, singing the song in between each time. The first class started purposely singing the deleted word extra loudly, so I moved on, but for the second class, I finally had the students delete “deep”, and that was quite the challenge (yet still fun) for the students.
Somebody’s Knocking	Teach song, play the game
The kids are starting to collect a few musical games that they want to play, and this is another one of them. I first sang through the song, and I asked the students when would be a good time to clap (i.e. during the knocking). We went through the song together twice, and then I asked for a volunteer. I then gained the permission of the volunteer to use their name in the song - and, I modified the 3rd line of the song to “Oh, [name], why won’t you answer”. I then had the whole class do this modified version of the song. Next, it was time to play the game. I had the volunteer cover their eyes, and then I pointed to someone while we all sang the song to sing the one modified line. I found that it works better to ask the students whether or not they could sing the modified line as a solo. The soloist became the next chooser, and we proceeded to do this about five times.
Head Shoulders Baby	Teach motions, song, and then add funny motions
I started simply doing the motions, and while some students thought at first I was mimicking “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes”, it was quickly apparent to the class that it was something else. I did the motions a few times, and then I did them along with the song. The students found the lyrics to be pretty silly (which they are). I then had the students do the same thing with “knees” and “ankles” - which elicited more laughter. It was at this point when I had the students pair up again, and they did both “Head Shoulders” and “Knees Ankles”. Next, I then took a page out of the MfM sample videos - I asked the students to do a motion as if they were picking an apple - and so we sang “pick the apple, baby”. The students had a total ball.

Today’s class I felt had fantastic results. The students were more or less captivated by the game or the motions, and they did well with both partner dances. Color me impressed with them. I’m sure that future classes would be as successful, but I’ll relish this for the week at least. It also definitely makes me more optimistic that I’ll be able to have more dances in the future.

Teaching Notes, 20150114

We’re back from break, and when preparing for today’s lesson, I really felt that I was able to take advantage of last year’s lesson plans for January as well as the sample lesson plans from MfM; it took me less than an hour to prepare and practice the lesson plan.

Today’s lesson had a vacation/travel theme to it, which was deliberate since most of the class traveled somewhere during the break. I did want to do something related to MLK Day (which is next Monday), but I didn’t want to get too deep into the history of the holiday.
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I’m in the Mood for Singing	Review song
I used this as an opener again. Few students remembered how to sing the response, so I sang this once through, and then I prompted the students as to how to respond. I didn’t want to get too deep into this song since it was meant to be just an opener, so I moved on.
Down By The Sea(Red Grammar)	Review with body solfege
I asked the students if they had gone somewhere during the break. I received a large variety of answers, some near and some very far. I then told them that I had gone to a place where there was a beach. I talked about jumping in the waves, and I had the students do the wave motion. We proceeded to cover each stage of the song, and then I started keeping a beat while snapping my fingers. I asked the students to snap with me, and those who couldn’t snap could clap lightly instead. I then started singing the song, and at each point when we covered a movement that we had reviewed, I prompted the students to do the motion. The rest of the song followed predictably, and I’m pretty sure the students had a good time with this.
Mail Myself To You	Teach song, sing!
I didn’t cover this with the first class, and so I got to teach this from scratch to those students. Similar to last week with the second class, I talked about presents, and I had the students mimic movements for parts of the first two stanzas. This time, however, I was able to cover the entire song, as I had more time compared to last week and the second class. The second class this time might have gone a bit faster, but not appreciably so, and we were able to cover the song in A-B-A-C-A-D-A fashion.
Here We Go A Riding On A Train	Teach song, sing!
I had the students return to the subject of travel, and I asked if any had been on various modes of transportation over the break: car, bus, plane, train. I didn’t expect many to choose the train, and indeed no one raised their hand for the train. I then asked them things about the train, in the order of the song, e.g. “what sound to you hear when the train is ready to leave”. I then had the students echo the entire song with me, starting with the dings (“not 1, not 2, but 8!”), followed by “all aboard”. I then had the students keep a beat at “choo”, starting slowly but then accelerating moderately. With the beat established, I had the students echo me with the line “Here we go…”. The clickety-clacks were also taught through echo, and it seemed like the kids awoke a bit more at that part of the song. I covered this only one time, as this is something I want to expand on for next week, with instruments.
Get On Board	Immerse students, have them focus on movements
I told the students that I once saw a train just for kids, and without explaining much more, I simply dove right into the song. While moving my arms like the wheels of the train, I asked the students to simply mimic my movements. We did the first half of the song twice, and then I had the students continue to mimic my movements while I sang slowly the second part of the song. The second part is of course more complex, and I had to walk them through the motions a few times before we could get it to near full speed. There is a dance that goes along with this song, and I wanted to cover that next week. As such, I didn’t spend all that much time on this song.
The World Is Big	Teach by echo
It was about a year since Pete Seeger passed away, and one year ago during last year’s MLK class, I taught this song. After the chaos of Get On Board, this song was a good way to calm the class back down. I brought out my ukulele and we sang the song echoing large parts of the chorus and echoing each individual line of the stanza. The regular song naturally has an echoed stanza, which made the resulting product very similar to the way the song was meant to be sung.

Class ended with the familiar tune of “Goodbye My Friends Goodbye”. I have a few items that I definitely want to revisit for next week, which means that my plan for next week is already half complete!

Teaching Notes, 20141217

Today was the last class before break, and I wanted to treat the kids to some holiday fun that also involved playing lots of instruments. In the past I had students play to Jingle Bells, and each time I get different results. This time I got two very dramatically different results, right from the very beginning and so I’ll talk about what happened with the first class first.

Let’s Travel Down the Music Road (first class	Teach song and body solfege
I did this song with the second class during the previous week, but not with the first class, so I decided to teach this as an opener. It’s a very short song, and the students were able to follow the tune and words quickly. The body solfege took a few more repetitions, but the students sort of followed it. To keep things fresh, I varied the volume or timbre (e.g. staccato).
Pony Macaroni (first class)	Review with body solfege
I asked the students if they remembered what the name of my pony was, and once they shouted out the name, I started singing the song once through. However, before I got to “he trots”… I then had the students follow me in body solfege while singing. The students followed ok - I did have to slow down the song significantly so that they could keep up. The song sped up when we did the “trot” (I had the students trot around the room when we got to this point), but we slowed back down for the end of the song. We did this one more time, allowing the pony to “walk” around. But it was time to move on.
Jingle Bells with Instruments (first class)	Have students play to the song
So, before I get into this part, I do want to note that my takeaway from this part is that I learned how not to get students to play to the song. My goal was to have the students all playing instruments; I had asset of tone bells (three chords for the song, a total of nine bells), some jingling bells, some tambourines, and some tone blocks, and I started passing out instruments, one kind at a time. For instance, I would pass out the tambourines, get the students to try playing them (e.g. play four beats in unison), and then I’d repeat the process with another set of instruments. However, each time the room would get noisier and noisier, and it became tremendously difficult to get the students to focus; many just wanted to keep playing their instruments and making sounds. This became significantly more challenging when I brought out the tone bells. They are loud, and I brought them out three at a time, making the volume acceleration hard to manage. Eventually the whole room was filled with 25 students hammering away at their instruments. Today was really the last day before break, and I didn’t want to come down hard on them, and so I let them have their fun for a minute, and then I started collecting the instruments while singing Jingle Bells. Some students followed my singing, but most were focused on their instruments until they put it in the bags. Obviously I didn’t achieve what I wanted to do, but the students definitely had a lot of fun.

And so, that’s basically how that first class went - it started ok, but degraded rapidly once the instruments came out. I know that I rushed the instruments in too quickly, and so I was determined to try something different with the second class. It just so happened that I was forced to start the class differently due to circumstances I could not control…

Mail Myself To You (second class)	Teach song in echo, and try to get to at least the second stanza
I had this song planned for the first class in case I had extra time left over after Jingle Bells. However, when I entered the second classroom, there was work being done to the projector right above the carpeted area. As a result, the students had to stay at their desks temporarily. I figured I’d give this song a shot, as it involves a fair amount of movement, and with the students all scattered around, they had plenty of space. I started with asking the students how they would mail a present to someone, since it was the time for presents. Amongst other ideas, we talked about wrapping up a present, gluing or taping the paper down, putting stamps on, and then putting it in the mailbox. I then told the students that my mother would say that the best present that she ever got was me - I asked the students if their parents ever said something similar, and fortunately some nodded while others were really confused or surprised at the idea. And so, I walked the students through the same steps again. It was time to sing. I had the students echo my words and movements, and we covered the first stanza. I then asked the students about adding more to the present, in particular, ribbons and bows, and climbing into the mailbox. We then echoed the 2nd stanza, followed by the first stanza.
Jingle Bells (second class)	Try getting the class playing instruments to the song
So, this time, I had the students regather on the carpet (the maintenance had finished), and I had one student come up. I gave that student an ‘E’ tone bell (from the C-chord group), and we practiced very quickly playing on the first of every beat. I encouraged the students to clap the beat, which allowed me to do a quick review of beat vs. rhythm with the students. Next, I then had another student come up, and I gave her the “F” of the ‘F’ chord, and then I gave the another student a ‘D’ bell for the ‘G’ chord group. Finally, I reviewed with the students how songs had patterns, and then I wrote out a pattern the board, which was the equivalent of E-E-E-E-F-E-D-D, but using the first names of the students. But, before we could play the instruments, I then passed out a set of tone blocks for some of the students. It was time to play, and so I first had the tone block students (as well as any willing clappers) start a beat, and then I pointed to each tone bell student when it was time to play. It actually worked pretty well; the tone bells were together, while the rest of the students kept a reasonable beat. I proceeded to add the second half of the pattern: E-E-E-E-F-E-D-E, which was almost the same. I had the students explore how different the two halves of the song were different, which didn’t take long. But again, before we played the patterns together, I passed out tambourines out, followed by jingle bells. At this point, the students had an inkling of what the song was. We went through it one more time, and then I had conveniently six students left without instruments, whom I called up to fill out the chords with additional tone bells. Everyone had an instrument, and so we proceeded to sing and play the song! This worked out remarkably well - the students played together reasonably well, everyone had an instrument, and the students were most importantly having a good time. The recess bell rang in the middle of the song, but we still finished strong.

And so, this was a bit of a learning lesson for myself. I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about giving out instruments, and while the first class ended poorly, my experience with the second class gives me hope. I may try to do something similar with the first class so that I can have them playing together. However, it does take a long time to achieve this, and so I’ll have to squeeze this in carefully, as I still have a lot of material to cover when we return.