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.