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.