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.