Teaching Notes, 20160608

A business trip eliminated my originally scheduled 6/1 class, and so today happened to be the final class for the year.  As such, I tried to make it a fantastic review of nearly everything that we did, with not too much new material.  It was sort of like the very first class where I switched quickly from song to song, except this time I was arguably switching even faster since the material was somewhat familiar.  Also, though, since this was the last class, I wanted to end the year with a story.

1. Intro: Choo'n Gum.  While I never really made this a focused song, the kids were indeed able to learn this during the course of the year, and knew how to respond.
2. Rhythms: I wrote out four vertical lines representing four beats, and I had the kids clap it.  I then introduced the rest, and a pair of eighth notes, and we proceeded to try out different rhythms made of a combination of quarter, eighths and rests.  Next, I added a second measure (I never covered "measure" - it was just another 4 beats to the class), and we then tried clapping patterns that were twice as long.   I then wrote out patterns representing different songs, and I asked students to first clap them and guess what songs they were; we tried Bee Bee Bumble Bee,  Oats Peas Beans, Bow Wow Wow, 2-4-6-8, Hey Betty Martin.  Each time a song was revealed, we sang it.
3. I Can Sing A Rainbow.  This was all review, particularly around the ASL of colors.  I didn't want to spend a huge amount of time here, so we ended up going through the song pretty quickly.
4. Jenny Jenkins.  Since I had the students already singing about colors, I switched over to singing this song one more time, and while the students still understandably struggled with the chorus, the still had a good time with it.  We covered 6 different colors before moving on.
5. Story Time: Abiyoyo.  As in past years, I have used a Bill Harley-esque version of this story, and the children always have a fun time with it.
6. The World Is Big and the World Is Small.  With the last few moments I had with the class, I wanted to cover this song one more time, since it's a simple song and hopefully one that the students can remember easily.
7. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  The students walked back to their desks, singing this for the final time.

It is always bittersweet for me to finish a year.  The students however, never seem to be weighed down on it being the last day, and it's rather refreshing to see the students go back to their normal routine, even if I won't be their music teacher any longer.  With that however, I do complete my sixth year at the school, and every so often, some of the older kids still remember that I taught them, and on the rare occasion, they'll let me know what song they remembered from that year.  That's a wonderful feeling that I will always cherish.

Teaching Notes, 20160525

Are you looking for 5/18?  Well, that turned out to be the dress rehearsal for the spring sing - for kinders as well as grades 1-4, which I and my fellow other kindergarten teacher led.  We ended up splitting the upper grades during the spring sing, which worked out fantastically, even though each upper class only sang one song apiece.

And so, today was the first class after the Spring Sing - and since the kids spent many weeks prior preparing for the Spring Sing, I decided to keep today's class simple, and mostly outside

1. Intro: Down By The Bay.  Yep, I decided to use this once again as a starter.  Kids still love the song, and it was quick way to warm the class up.
2. Sasha (inside).  Today was going to be the day when I tried to get the whole class to dance to Sasha.  To prepare them, though, I had them try the partner sequence, but without a partner - that included the claps, as well as the "spin" - for which I just had the students turn in place.  We did this pattern a few times, and then it was time to go outside (to "Paw Paw Patch").
3. Sasha (outside).  After the whole class was outside, I had the students practice the partner sequence without a pattern again, and they seemed to have a reasonable sense of the pattern.  Next, I had the students pair up and try the partner.  I always stress the important of thanking your partner.  Finally - I had nearly forgotten to introduce the song title, and so I took a minute or two to talk about "Sasha" and how it could apply to everyone.
   The dance went quite well - the kids took one or two iterations to get a feel for the pattern, but then they were able to follow it effectively.  It definitely became chaotic near the end of the song when it speeds up considerably, but that was ok.
4. Boanopstekker.  We had a few more minutes outside, so we ran through this dance one more time.

Believe it or not, that was pretty much the entire lesson.  Sasha practiced both inside and outside consumed a huge amount of time.  However, I would certainly think it was worth it, as the kids were really enjoying the pair dancing aspect of the activity.

I may not have the opportunity to do more dancing later, so I'm glad I was able to cover this.

Teaching Notes, 20160511

Although we could have done more dancing, I decided to keep the kids inside this time so that they didn't get too tired of dancing.  I also wanted to try yet another new introductory song while again reviewing at least one song for the spring sing.

1. Intro: Down By The Bay.  I first sang through this one time (using a random one liner), and then I had the students echo the song in parts.  A few students knew the song already, and it didn't take long to get the whole class comfortable with the song.  (It's not too complicated!)  We went through the song about six times before moving on
2. Right Hand Boogie.  Mostly review, but we went from the right hand to the left hand, followed by both hands, followed by the right leg boogie.  The MFM demo reel featured also the "belly boogie", but I didn't try that.
3. Body Solfege review.  I had the students quickly review the scale, both up and down, so that we could then do....
4. Little Tommy Tinker.  I sang this while doing the body solfege.  However, few students made the connection about the solfege notes and this particular song, even with the body solfege, and so I walked them through the song sung with solfege instead of the regular words (while still employing the body movements).  I did also make it a point to note that most songs that they knew ended in "Do" - I don't think that concept stuck very well.
5. Milky Way.  This was all review, and it seems like the students didn't have a lot of comfort with the last few stanzas of the song, so I doubled the last three lines just to give them a little more practice.
6. Jenny Jenkins.  I didn't have a lot of time left, so I simply took my ukulele out, and we sang Jenny Jenkins featuring various students' names.  The kids required one or two iterations to remind them of how the song, particularly the foldy-roldy part, went.
7. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  As usual, the students went back to their seats while singing.

This was arguably a pretty simple lesson plan, one that I fully admit took very little time to put together.  I had actually prepared Sasha (the dance), as well as Old King Glory, but there really wasn't a whole lot of time.  Next week's class is going to be shortened, and dedicated to having all of the kinders rehearse their two spring sing songs.

Teaching Notes, 20160504

The spring sing looms near, but today was a perfect day to go outside - it was overcast, but not raining (yet).  Going outside always seems to shorten the lesson a bit with the walk outside (and back in), but the benefit of the extra space is worth it.

1. Intro: Teaching Peace.  This time I really did want to have the students learn the song, as most of the student body knows the song from the weekly assemblies from past years.  The students are getting the chorus down pretty well, but they do need help with the verse.  I only went through this once since I found myself strangely unable to hit the higher notes.  Bummer!
2. First Tulip.  This is a pretty easy song, and I used it now because we were well into spring, and it made a nice segue into...
3. Body Solfege.  I reviewed the scale, and then had the students sing/motion the last line of First Tulip, which was basically the lower five notes of the scale.  I then had them echo me in various combinations, such as sol-mi, etc.
4. Paw Paw Patch.  I was able to teach the tune (it's pretty darn simple!) quickly, and during the second iteration of the second line ("let's go find her..."), I then led the students outside, where I had previously set up two lines of cones.  After some obligatory playing with cones, I then had the students line up, each set to the inside of the cone lines - this makes for two very close lines of students; the next time I must remember to keep the lines further apart.
   Today, I was fortunate to have a parent helper, who I assigned as the leader of one of the lines - that really made it easy to explain what each line was doing.  While Paw Paw typically has a single leader crossing over, I decided to have the helper run the second line, and simply have the second line mirror the first during the second stanza.  During the banana peel, this became very easy with a parent helper.  Yay!  I did feel like the students really had fun with this, even though we only did it three times - two one direction and one the other; during each time, we reset the leaders so that we had the lines in the same order each time.
5. Tony Chestnut.  This was an obligatory practice for the spring sing.  The students are slowly getting the 2nd half of the song, and we did that part twice.
6. Bonanopstekker.  Since we were outside, and I had the speaker set up, I wanted to have the kids dancing to some recording.  I covered this one back in the fall, and while I know I rushed the review, some students still remembered what was going on.
7. Back Inside.  I returned the students while singing Paw Paw Patch, and then released the students back to their seats.

Indeed, each dance takes a lot of time, but I feel that the students are generally doing a much better job following during activities that take a long time.

Teaching Notes, 20160427

It was actually a cold, cloudy day, so I decided to keep the students inside.  Here's what happened!

1. Intro: Teaching Peace.  Knowing that few students knew this the first time, I spent time having the students echo each line of the chorus.  We did this twice, but since it was supposed to be a warmup song, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it.
2. Body Solfege.  I deliberately wanted the students to practice this, and so we started with the first three notes, followed by myself randomly choosing one of the three.  I continued to expand this to include the first five notes, and then the whole scale.  I pointed out that the "scale" starts and ends with "Do" (although I don't think I used the term "scale").  I then tried to have them practice signing and singing Sol-Mi.  Few students recognized "Bee Bee Bumblebee" when I sang the solfege version, but eventually I got them to do Bee Bee while doing the body solfege.
3. Right Hand Boogie.  This was simply pure fun.  We tried the "other" hand boogie, followed by the right leg boogie.
4. Milky Way.  Time to review, and finally complete the song, which I hadn't done yet.  I did include "my house" and "that's me" into the song, which kept the last two (and new) lines fresh.  I think the students really know the chorus of the song like the back of their hand.
5. Popcorn Tree: I told the students that even though it was cold, trees were blooming.  I didn't expect the students to really learn the song after I sang it through for them, but I did tell them to listen and try to count the number of times "pop" showed up in the song (either as a solitary word or part of "popcorn").  The students were a little all over the map after the first singing, and I tried to help them with hand signs every time I said "pop" in any form.  It took three times through the song before a majority of children converged on the right answer (7).
6. Pony Macaroni.  The kids wanted to revisit one of the past dances, and so while I was connecting the iPod, I taught the students this song, having them simply gallop around in a circle until I said "stop" - it was more an exercise to have the students try to listen to commands, and it was a nice way to continue to have the kids do something new until the iPod was ready.
7. Seven Jumps.  The class really wanted to do this, and so I went ahead and let them try.  Now, this time we were inside, and it turns out that the students routinely tried to creep into the middle every time, which made the "dance" very crowded and cluttered.  After the dance was over, I chatted briefly with the students about how the dance went very differently compared to the previous attempts.  Although the kids had fun, I'll have to try a different dance next time.
8. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  The children returned to their seats as we sang.

I didn't actually get around to using instruments again, and I know that the students are overdue.  With the dances that they seem to be consistently interested in, and with the concentration of time on the spring sing songs, I realize I may not have a lot of time for the instruments for a while.   I hope to be able to sneak them in however before May ends.

Teaching Notes, 20160420

Today was a beautiful day - blue skies, perhaps a little on the warm side - perfect for going outside and doing a dance.  I also wanted to cover at least one old favorite with the kids as well as review at least one of the songs for the Spring Sing.

1. Intro: Teaching Peace.  I started singing this song with my ukulele, expecting the kids to follow along.  However, few did, and I was told by the teacher that this song was no longer featured as a Wednesday assembly song.  And so, I then had the students echo the chorus with me, line by line.  They did that, but I didn't try to sing without echoing this time around.  This was meant to be an intro; I'll try to teach them formally later.
2. Bow Wow Wow: I first taught the kids what amounted to a chant with the kids inside, and unpaired.  We practiced this a few times, and with that, I decided to take the kids outside while singing "My Bonnie".
3. Bow Wow Wow (outside): With the students in a large circle, I had them practice once, and then I demonstrated with one student what the dance/chant looked like with a partner.  I quickly then paired up the students, and then had them try it out.  Arguably, I didn't spend a lot of time, and I realized that with the children spaced out widely, explanations would have been more challenging than I had liked.  Instead, I wanted the students to try it, and they did the first time, with mixed results.  I quickly re-paired the students, tried it again, and it was a lot more effective, with most of the students understanding - and more importantly, the students were helping each other with the dance.  We then did the activity three more times until I asked them if they remembered where in the circle they started.
4. Seven Jumps.  I had the students, already in a circle, point to the right, and we decided to step to the right for 8 steps (with counting).  We also practiced the three claps and turnaround (twice).  I then turned on the music, and we were off.  The students remembered this dance from several weeks ago, and they loved it just the same.  I thought that being outside was going to be problematic when they kneeled on the floor, but the students were fine.
5. The Longer The Faster.  I had been playing the music through a bluetooth speaker connected wirelessly to my iPod, and with the iPod in hand, I decided to do The Longer The Faster on the fly.  I discovered that with the circle so large, it was actually very challenging for the students to make it to the other side of the circle in 8 counts, especially during the latter stages of the song.  Many students near the end had to take 16 counts in order to find someone on the circle. When we were done, we went back into the classroom to "It's a Very Good Day"
6. Tony Chestnut.  This was review, but I did the middle of the song twice since that was the least familiar part of the song.  The students are slowly getting it, but they still need more repetitions.
7. Jenny Jenkins.  This was one of the songs from last year's Spring Sing, and it's always a fun one to sing.  I used my same story of a kid who didn't know what to wear, and I easily introduced the song to them.  I used two colors (white and blue, which happens to be the school uniform) as examples, and then I had the students pretend they were the kid - I had the students respond with "no I won't wear..."  I then picked out two colors - red, green, and two students who happened to have a little bit of those colors in their clothing.  We then sang as if they were the kids, using their names, which they seemed to enjoy.
8. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  The students returned to their seats.

I didn't practice The Milky Way this time, and so I'll want to do that for the next class.  It has also been a while since I had instruments in the class, so I'll have to reintroduce them.

Teaching Notes, 20160413

We're back from spring break, and the children seemed very excited to resume music again.  I was thrilled that students were also asking for activities that we covered several weeks ago (such as the Seven Jumps dance).  Alas, I did want to spend a lot of time on the two songs for the Spring Sing, and that consumed a lot of my time.

1. Intro: Choo'in Gum.  With the students mostly seated, I just decided to break into this song, and the students followed quite well with the response (chorus).  I didn't sing the bridge, and got through only two verses before moving on.
2. Tony Chestnut.  This is one of the two songs for the Spring Sing, and while students knew the first half, I had only covered the second half once in the past.  And so, I spent a decent amount of time doing the second half, and having the students understand each motion.  I personally am not the biggest fan of the second half of the song (and it feels like it slows down compared to the first half), but the students seemed to have a a good time with it.  We covered the second half twice, before finishing with the first half.
3. 2-4-6-8 Meet Me At The Garden Gate.  Before teaching the chant, I had the students practice a simple beat pattern: tap on the ground, tap on knees, clap, and waving hands in the air.  I then quickly taught the chant, and talked about any interesting commonality between the numbers.  We chanted while doing the beat pattern one more time.  Then, I took a egg toy from the classroom (I had forgotten to bring something that would be less distracting!), and I tried to have the students pass the object but only on beat #1 (the tap on the ground).  Students didn't really do this consistently, but at least we were, for the most part, able to get the object passed at some point in each measure.  After having the object go around the room (and strangely end up back with me), I then asked the class to guess where the object would land if we passed while chanting once through the poem.  Most students guessed right, and we did 2 more iterations of this before it was clear I had to move on due to the chatter in the room.
4. Milky Way.  This is the other song for the Spring Sing.  I had observed one of the other kinder classes singing this song, and I wanted to make sure my signs were consistent with the other group.  I did a very quick review of the first few signs, and then I just started singing and signing to the song.  This turns out to be quite a long song, but again the students were getting the hang of it.
5. Head, Shoulders, Baby: I simply started signing this, seeing if the kids would follow.  I then just sang away with the motions, and the kids started to giggle as they mimicked me.  After singing and moving together once, I then asked the students to guess what I was doing - I changed the motions to one where I was picking an apple.  The students failed to guess correctly, but we then sang it anyway.  I changed the motion one more time, but as of this writing I couldn't forget what the new motion was; I do remember that the kids were able to guess that one.
6. Close: Make New Friends.

For the previous quarters, I noticed that I focused on roughly one consistent intro song - and this time I'm going to try vary it a little more, considering that I have only ~10 classes left!

It's clear that the students, for whatever reason, seem a wee bit more mature now than before the break.  Kids at this age do change very quickly, and so perhaps by being a bit older they don't have as many attention challenges as I had earlier in the year.

Teaching Notes, 20160323

Today was the last class before a two week spring break, and since it was also the start of spring I decided to try a few songs relevant to spring.  The class also recently have done well with the dances, so I couldn't deny them another dance for today.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  I debated about doing something else, but since I wasn't going to see the students for another three weeks, I used this yet again.  What worked really well, however, was that the students were slow to move from their desks to the carpet, so I used this as a rallying song, which worked well.  The students also responded pretty well in unison for the 3rd line, although I still gestured to them to sing together.
2. I'm A Tall Tall Tree.  Since it was spring, this was a great time to do this song, as it also allowed me to review the four seasons in order with the students.  We eventually did the song via echo for every line.  This took a little longer than I expected so I didn't try to do this song another time.  We'll come back to it after the break.
3. Razzama Tazzama.  This is always a big winner with the students, and this year was no exception.  However, I remembered from past years where students would really flop around on the ground on the "wally-woo-hoo", and so this time I kept the rhythm pattern through the entire chorus the first few times.  We made it through 5 different variations, and the kids were able to follow the pattern well after the 2nd time through.
4. Plant A Little Seed.  This was my chance to go back to springtime, and we spent a little time reviewing the song before jumping in, first by echo, and then all together.  I did include the cascade at the end, and one student noted quickly that it resembled the cascade from the Snowman song.
5. Seven Jumps (Shenanigans).  I first had the students start marching to the right (aka counter clockwise), which still isn't the easiest thing to do with kindergarteners, and when they could figure out which way to go and how to maintain a reasonable circle around the carpet, I then had them practice taking 8 steps, followed by the three-clap pattern (and twirl) that came at the end of each chorus.  I told the students that I'd at times walk into the middle, and they'd have to mimic me, but in place.  At first, the students didn't know what to make of the first "movement", but then as the song went on, they really seemed to have a lot of fun with the dance, and they were eager to see what was to come in the next iteration.
6. One Seed (Laurie Berkner).  This is an absolutely great song for spring for kinders, and since it was just the first time that they had sung (or heard) the song, I just taught them the chorus.  I told them that they'd get to sing that a few times in the song, and so I simply started the song and prompted them when it was time to sing the chorus.  The students did great here, and they didn't have to sing via echo (even though the original recording does that).  There were a few hand signs that I had the students do which may have helped.
7. Exit: Make New Friends.  The students sang it, but they simply went back to a circle on the carpet as the teacher wanted to continue class from there.

I had planned exactly these activities, and behold - I covered them all!  The dance always takes a little more time than the typical song, and so I only had really five items today, but it fit perfectly in the allotted time.  I also noticed that I had fewer distractions from the children this time (especially with One Seed), and it was great way to end the winter term.

Teaching Notes, 20160316

It was, for a brief few days, finally dry outside!  That meant of course I had to get the students outside.  I've been in fact meaning to have the kids try some line-oriented dancing, and with the previous class' success with dancing, I wanted to spend a good chunk of time trying out the dancing.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  This time I motioned to have the students sing with me during the 3rd line - and it worked!
2. Plant A Little Seed.  I talked about how it was nearly springtime, and we then spent a few minutes (probably 1-2 too many) talking about gardens, and what it took to grow their favorite plants.  I walked the students through the motions of the song, and eventually, I had the students echo in song each line of the song while doing a small motion that fit with the line.  I did this twice through, although both times I didn't do the scale down at the end.  I'll do that next time.  :)
3. It's a Very Good Day.  I had the students stand and try marching in a circle, and we marched to this song.  I had them practice as if it was rainy, and that gave me one more iteration of the song.  I then had the students keep marching (back to the original line of the song), while breaking the line and having some of the students follow me.  I intended the student circle to unroll into a single file line, but that broke down pretty quickly.  And so, we went outside.
4. Syncopated Cyril (Shenanigans).  I had pre-positioned two rows of cones outside, and I had the students (who had followed me outside to "My Bonnie"), line up behind either row of cones.  The cone rows were meant to symbolize the edge of the sidewalks on either side of the street, and that helped keep the students to either side.  (It did not, however, prevent kids from nudging the cones closer to the opposite side of the street.)  I had the students first practice crossing the street (directly across - not diagonal!), and then I had the tops of each row travel down the middle of the street, with one student copying the other.
   I found that the students mostly didn't know how to do something that would grab a lot of attention when walking down the middle, and so I had to applaud dramatically when someone did try some sort of motion that was out of their comfort zone.  After one iteration with the recording, most of the students went down the middle, so I repeated the exercise, while prioritizing those students who didn't go down the middle to do so during the second iteration.  The students by the second attempt really started to understand the dance, even though they were slowly deforming the sidewalk cone lines, and sometimes cross the street without taking the shortest path.
5. Exit: Goodbye My Friends, Goodbye.  It was easier to have the students return back to their classroom with the simpler, well-known goodbye song.

Believe it or not, that was it!  The dance took upwards of 15 minutes, and maybe more, but the kids seemed like they really enjoyed the dance, and so I didn't feel bad eating up so much class time with that single dance.  I may try to do another outdoor exercise next week, as next week is the last week before Spring break.

Teaching Notes, 20160309

It was rainy again today, and so while I wanted to do more dancing and movement which I didn't quite get to do last week, I had to stay indoors.  This time, however, I did remember to bring my equipment, although I discovered later that I didn't need all of it.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  This time, I started singing as the students were gathering on the carpet.  The students still don't know to sing in unison on the third line.  I helped them through the second incantation of the song, and moved on.
2. Simi Yadech.  I quickly arranged the students into a standing circle, and I reviewed some of the steps that we took the last time we did this dance.  However, instead of stepping into and out of the circle, I had the students shuffle to their right.  It's amusing to see the students on the far end of the circle try to mirror instead of shuffle in a circle, and I had to periodically remind them to go clockwise instead of mirroring me; I also made it a point to note that I was going around a corner when it happened.  Anyhow, this was a quick review, and we did the dance.  Halfway through the song, I broke away from the circle, and positioned myself inside the circle - that meant that when it was time to do the 2nd half of the dance sequence (stomp four times in place + tap/clap), I ended up high-fiving one of the students.  Some students noticed this, which was what I wanted to happen...
3. Simi Yadech II.  I had the students do an alternating "1" and "2" count-off, which for kinders is more difficult than I expected.  I then had the 1's move off the carpet while I had the 2's move to an edge square on the carpet.  The goal was to have the students paired up in partners with one inner "circle" and one outer "circle" - and this actually seemed to work pretty well.  I instructed the 2s to always be on their designated square, and while some students invariably wandered off a bit, I did get some help from the teacher's aide in the room.  I then had the students practice the 2nd part of the dance, and the students realized that they also got to do the high-fiving that I did earlier.  I also had the students practice shuffling, but only the 1's got to move - I had to remind the 2's to stay with their square, and that at least provided a stable reference point for the students.
   I then had the students dance to the music.  One thing I realized is that there are actually two opportunities to shuffle, meaning that the students potentially would skip a student each iteration, and so I had the students shuffle only once - that was actually a bit non-intuitive and caused some confusion.  However, the students got the hang of moving and finding a new partner, and they loved it!  I did have one shy student not want to participate, and that was fine, but some other students for a brief period said that they also wanted to sit out - but eventually they changed their minds.
4. Milky Way.  I started singing the chorus without the ukulele, and the kids were able to follow it mostly.  I then reviewed many of the ASL signs, including galaxy, star, planet, land, sea, and I also introduced sun, and home.  I found myself simply singing each line and then stopping to allow the students to try each sign during the stanzas.  During each chorus, we sang them all together reasonably well.  What was good here was that without the ukulele (even though I had brought it), I was able to focus the children on the ASL signs, which seemed to be more useful in teaching the song.
5. This Land Is Your Land.  I again reviewed the motions for the first stanza, and we jumped right in.  I then slowly taught the motions for the second stanza, and we did those first in echo and then together.  We ended with the first stanza.  This seems like a song the students are really remembering well.
6. I Can Sing A Rainbow.  With the children keying on ASL signs and motions well, I decided to review the first half of this song, including all of the signs.  The students took a bit of time to remember all of the colors, but they eventually picked them up well.  They didn't quite remember the tune all that well, however, and so I only covered this in echo the first time, followed by a slow iteration together.
7. Exit: Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.  Normal stuff here - we simply sang this to get the students back to their seats.

Today I did get multiple requests for past activities, including Highway Number One and The Longer The Faster.  It seems like the students are really having fun with the activities with a recorded song in the background.  If the skies permit, I'll try to do more larger-scale dances.  I really was surprised how well the students did with the double circle today, even though one circle was pretty much static - I'll continue with some more partner dancers again soon.

Teaching Notes, 20160302

So what happens when you forget your laptop, your iPod, and your ukulele?  You end up playing games!  That's exactly what happened today.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  The students are still echoing the 3rd line, and so I had to have them follow me through that third line a few times again.  We sang this three times, with the third line referencing the Ocean
2. My Bonnie.  Before starting, I had the students mirror me with a tap-clap-clap pattern, and after getting the students to follow me, I started singing while continuing the rhythm.  Students typically turn "Bonnie" into "Body", and so after singing through once, I had the students practice saying "Bonnie" with an "N".  We then talked about how Bonnie was on a boat in the water, so rather than have the students wear out their hands clapping and tapping, I had them mimic rowing a boat - after each line, we switched rowing from one side to the other.
3. Who Stole The Cookie From the Cookie Jar?  I morphed the three-beat pattern to a four-beat pattern (tap, clap, shoulder, shoulder), and the students followed pretty easily.  When I asked the students "who stole the cookie form the cookie jar," a bunch of the students said that they knew this, but I discovered quickly that they didn't know the responses.  Writing the responses in two different colors really helps here, and I was quickly off having students recite the poem while choosing the next student.  We probably got through about 2/3rds of the class before exhausting the supply of willing students, and we ended with choosing the teacher.  (It's always good to choose the teacher to end this.)
4. Tony Chestnut.  This might still be a spring sing song, and so we hadn't visited this in a while - it was time to try it again.  We only did the first half (twice), but it was still a lot of fun.
5. This Land Is Your Land.  With the students following me, I had them follow my signs, and during that time a lot of the students thought I was going to break into The Milky Way.  But instead, I re-taught the students This Land.  I didn't really take the same amount of time I normally do to explain the signs, and so I have to remember to do that in the future.  I did get through the second stanza, although that mostly involved the kids following my signs.
6. Deep And Wide.  I introduced this song many weeks ago, but the students mostly did not remember this.  Fortunately, it's a very simple song to re-teach, and the students were able to sing and sign to the song quickly.  I then proceeded to remove first "wide" and then "river" before I ran out of time.
7. Exit: Make New Friends.  The kids expected Goodbye My Friends Goodbye, but I had them sing Make New Friends one more time.

It's neat to see the students start to anticipate songs and form their own favorite songs or activities.  The next week appears to be another rainy one, and so I anticipate that we'll end up doing more indoor activities and games.

Teaching Notes, 20160224

I had been out of town during the week of the 10th, and during the following week (after the holiday), I fell ill, so I had not taught class for three weeks until now.  That was an unexpectedly long layoff, and so I wanted to try to get the students playing with instruments - specifically, rhythm sticks - again.  However, I found myself scrapping a lot of my original plan and improvising a bit, which didn't quite go quite as well, especially when my recovering voice decided to give out very early into the lesson.

1. Intro: Everybody Gather 'Round.  I started the song with my ukulele, and the kids responded quickly.  However, I noticed quickly that I couldn't maintain high notes very well, and rather than move into the first bridge and second stanza, I kept this one short.
2. Austrian Yodeler.  The last time I tried this, the students tried to shoot themselves across the carpet when making the "avalanche" sound.  I tried this again, and again the students did the same thing.  I was hoping to get through a lot of different animals - I introduced the grizzly bear again - but the activity became way too disruptive - and so I cut this one short as well.
3. Rhythm Animals.  I used the bear reference to talk more about the rhythm bears and bunnies from past classes.  I could not locate the printouts of bears and bunnies, so I had to improvise, simply writing lines on the board to represent the number of syllables for the animal names.  I then connected the two lines for "bunny" noting that they were really part of the same animal.  We tried a few combinations of bears and bunny lines before breaking out the sticks.
4. Rhythm sticks.  The goal here was to have the class stick to various preprinted rhythms.  However, it was challenging to keep the students focused; I suppose the long layoff from having instruments made the sticks remarkably distracting.  I was able to get through a few slides, and I introduced the concept of the (quarter) rest, but I don't think I was able to get the class to focus evenly through this exercise.  Normally I have the students stick to a song, but because of the chaos, I collected the sticks early.
5. Milky Way.  Breaking out the ukulele again, I tried singing this, but again found that my voice wasn't doing me any favors.  I was able to get through a few lines, up to the sea and the land, but it seemed like only half of the class could follow me.  I simply didn't have enough of a voice to keep their attention.  I think in the future also the ukulele seems to also not necessarily be helping much especially since I do want the students to try to use ASL signs in the song, so I'll likely revisit this without the instrument.
6. This Land Is Your Land.  I started signing without words, hoping that the students would follow, and they did - far more effectively than the other exercises.  Then, I started singing - the voice still wasn't cooperating, but the students at least knew most of the words, so they also were able to sing along with me.  We were able to cover the first stanza twice.
7. Exit: Make New Friends.  I had the students sing this once with me, and then we repeated with the students returning to their seats.

My original plan actually didn't involve rhythm sticks at all, but when my voice couldn't keep up with the lesson, I tried changing things around.  Unfortunately, I think a solid voice from the teacher is critical to the lesson, and the lack of a healthy voicebox really put me at a significant disadvantage.  The good thing is that I still have the majority of my originally planned lesson that I can use for next week.

Teaching Notes, 20160203

Today it turned out was going to be my only chance to have the children do anything related to Valentine's Day, as I will be out the following week thanks to a business trip.  Because of the rainy season, I also hadn't brought the students outside yet this calendar year.  It was clear today, so I took the opportunity to address both issues.

1. Intro: I'm in the Mood for Singing.  While I was able to start this as the students were finding their seats on the carpet, and the students were able to respond initially, they still continue to sing the 1st response as the 3rd response, and so I reminded them what they should be singing. I changed the song to clapping and rowing (arm motions), and even then the students didn't remember what to do with the 3rd response.  They did however, require no help for the 4th and 5th responses, so that's progress.
2. Austrian Yodeler.  I had not planned to do this, but as I was reviewing my lesson plan in the parking lot, I realized that it would be apropos to talk about snow (it was sunny but still cold outside), and Austria (next to Germany, see below).  And so, I talked about snow, taught the kids what it meant to yodel, and how yodeling around mountains could lead to echoes... and avalanches.  What I didn't anticipate was that when I had the students mimic an avalanche, many of them launched themselves from a seated position into the center of the carpet, diving at each other.  That made the song a bit challenging.
   I ended up covering avalanches and the grizzly bear, but I didn't want to go any further since it was quite challenging to keep the kids focused when they were strewn over the carpet.
3. If You've Got One (Justin Roberts).  This is a quick and easy exercise that I've done many times with kinders.  I simply started having students mimic my motions, followed by asking them what each number meant, followed by having them follow me while I sang.  I didn't expect any kids to sing with me, and that allowed them to concentrate on following my motions.  I then told them that I wanted to test them to see who was paying attention (it was already challenging today in that department), so I started the recording of Justin Roberts, while I had them do the motions with me.
   The song ends with 1, 2, 3 in French, and I asked the students if they knew what "un", "deux", and "trois" meant - none did, and then I told them it was in French.  This was important since the next song involved other languages.
4. Heel Toe, Down The Line.  I verbally took the students back to Austria, where people speak German, and after reminding the students how wonderful it was that they were learning so many languages (which I do every year), I taught them "yes" and "no" in German.  I then told them it was going to be Valentine's Day soon, which meant that they should be prepared on how to answer the question "Would you be my valentine?"... in German, of course!
   I wanted to teach the children this activity inside before trying this outside, and so I covered heel, toe, stepping three times, and turning around.  They also weren't partnered yet, which was a deliberate choice on my part, after seeing time and time again classes devolve a bit when partners are involved.  I then had the students go outside (while I sang "My Bonnie") where there was a painted circle, had the students stand on any part of the line, where we practiced again without partners.
   It was time.  I demonstrated using the teacher how to substitute a switcheroo for the turnaround, and I had the students practice it twice.  Next, it was time to add the second half of the song, with the jump at "nein" - and the kids absolutely loved it.  The kids caught on quickly that they were suddenly paired with someone else, and we performed five more iterations.  Before moving onto the next activity, I had the students point to where they started, and it was all over the map.
5. Highway Number One.  With the students already outside, I had the students practice movements from the song - heel and toe and stamp, for instance, which was a nice connection to the previous activity.  The students were then set free to drive their vehicles to the song, and even though they started getting a bit crazy, they more or less stopped in their tracks in order to hear each set of instructions.  It was a nice way to end the day - after the song was over, I marched them back (singing "My Bonnie" again) into the classroom where they went back to their desks.

And so, I thought it went pretty well, and it was so far the most successful day featuring a partnered activity.  Even though my next class will be after Valentine's Day, I'll probably revisit this if it's dry outside.

Teaching Notes, 20160127

Today went a little strangely.  I did have a decent amount prepared, but in the morning before class, I decided to add more theory - in particular, solfege theory.  That, plus adding a game early in the day, really turned class into something I hadn't quite intended.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  I tried having the students echo, and only a few sang out strong the first time.  Thinking I started it too low, I took it higher, and the kids perhaps sang with a bit more enthusiasm.  I did try to get them to sing together the 3rd line, and for the last iteration I sang very softly to see if they'd follow - they did.
2. Solfege.  This was the curveball I mailed myself this morning - I hadn't covered a lot of solfege this year (outside of hand symbols for Everybody Gather 'Round and the Snowman song), I decided to cover Do through Sol - many students knew the Solfege names already, and some clearly knew the rest of the scale, but I wanted to limit the class to just those tones.  I used my ukulele to set Do at C, and I had the students sing the five notes.  I then changed Do to various pitches - D, A (under C - which was quite low for the class), and E.  I wanted to bring home the point that Do can move, and I think the students adjusted to the moving Do quite well.
   
   Next, I tried to see if the students could jump from Do to other notes, particularly Sol and Mi - that was much harder, and I realize that I should be revisiting this every week in order to get the kids familiar with the interval.  I ended up using the ukulele again (with Do centered at C) to get the kids singing Sol and Mi without help from their neighboring notes, and then I played them Bee Bee Bumblebee in Sol-Mi without words - I wanted the students to guess what song it was.  None were able to guess correctly, and so eventually I revealed it to them, and the students sang along.
3. Hey Betty Martin.  I couldn't remember if I had done this before, and it turned out that I had - which made things a little easier.  I had the students tip toe to the song in a circle.  Then, I used the parent volunteer as an example, sent her in the opposite direction inside the circle (and of course asking the class how she was different from the rest of the class), and then eventually having her do the swing with the closest student.  I then had that student do the same thing with the entire song, eventually swapping places with another student.  Knowing that other students wanted to try this, I then added three other students, and I challenged them to try to end up in front of another classmate who hadn't gone into the middle.
   This is where things broke down - just like last week, two circles in kindergarten isn't easy to pull off, and to add to the chaos, the outer circle kept collapsing in.  The students had a hard time keeping to the outside, and eventually I allowed students to simply pair up for the last iteration.
4. Mail Myself To You.  I hadn't covered this song last week, and it was time to teach the students the last stanza.  I walked the students through all of the motions without words (they followed!), and then we sang through the first three stanzas.  I then talked them through the last stanza (they were very happy about the thought of ice cream sodas), and then we practiced the last song.  I then asked the child of the parent volunteer if she had ever sang the song to the parent - and since she said "no", I now had a very easy excuse to have the class demonstrate the entire song to her.  Yay for parent volunteers.
5. Milky Way.  At this point, I was determined to get through this song since we had just started it, but I do feel like I ended up rushing through.  We reviewed the few signs that we had covered during the previous week, and after singing through the first three lines, I then talked about the seas and land for lines 4 and 5.  We covered those two lines, and then called it a day - I had the students sing the chorus as they walked back to their seats.

I did encounter a bit of a delay after Mail Myself To You when one student started to get upset with his neighbors on the mat, and despite me trying to redirect attention away from him, a lot of the students kept huddling around him wondering what was going on.  I ended up waiting quietly until the students realized nothing was happening, and I took about a half minute to talk to the students about how sometimes we all get upset, but ultimately things turn all right.  Well, for me, even though class went in a totally different direction (I had four other songs planned), the class ended up all right.  And, in retrospect, I knew that I wanted to have the kids try another partner-ish dance, and I wanted to cover more theory.  We'll try both again next time.

Teaching Notes, 20160120

I had been listening to some old Bill Harley songs, and I came across one that I thought would work well: Milky Way.  It's a variant of the Rattlin' Bog (or Can if you're a Key Wilde/Mr. Clarke fan) that I thought might work well with the kindergarteners, and would be easier to learn than Everybody Gather Round for the spring sing.  I also figured it was time to try a new intro song.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  I have used this in past years, and I sang this through twice before teaching the students how to respond.  This took more time than the typical intro, but I plan on using it as a quick warmup in subsequent weeks
2. Milky Way (Bill Harley).  I prefaced this by talking about how I went to a place where I could see a lot of stars.  I took the opportunity to teach a few ASL signs for star, galaxy, and planet, which allowed me to cover the chorus and the first two stanzas.  The students were able to pick up on both the signs and the song pretty well, and so this could be a promising candidate for the spring sing after all.
3. I Can Sing A Rainbow.  This song also featured plenty of ASL signs, and so it was easy to transition to this song after the Milky Way.  I didn't introduce any new parts of the song - this was purely review.
4. Get On Board.  I had the class sing this once for review, but the real goal today was to have the students do a simple partner dance.  At first, I had the kids practice without partners, and then I tried making two concentric circles.  However, in retrospect this is quite difficult for kinders to pull off, and after a few minutes trying, it was clear that it was going to be nearly impossible to do so.  And so, instead, I had the students simply find partners for each iteration of the dance.  We managed a few different iterations before moving on.
5. Somebody's Knocking.  I reviewed this and then I asked the students to try singing the 3rd line as a solo.  It took a little while to coax some volunteers.  However, when I turned this into a game where someone had to close their eyes and guess who sang the solo, it was remarkably easy to get kids to volunteer.  We did this a few more times before it was time to go...
6. Exit: Make New Friends.  I wanted to finish with a pseudo-review of this song, which we hadn't sung in many weeks.  Some remembered, which was a good sign, and then the students retreated back to their seats.

The partner dance is something I'm going to have to revisit again with other songs.  This winter is turning out to be a wet and cold one, and so I won't be able to go outside for dances anytime soon.

Teaching Notes, 20160113

Ever have a lesson plan that goes exactly as planned?  It doesn't happen very often for me, but this time it actually happened!

1. Intro: Everybody Gather 'Round.  The students pretty much have the first stanza down pat.  I then had them try the first bridge ("Sing it like a thunderstorm...") in echo, which was ok (some had remembered at least the tune), but I don't think the students really retained the words.  I moved onto the second stanza, and I was able to add some motions to it, which helped the class remember some of the words.
2. Mail Myself To You.  I asked the students if they remembered how to mail themselves, and we ended up reviewing the first two stanzas, while adding a third.  I then had the students repeat the first stanza after the third
3. Get On Board.  I had the students sing along with me once, and then I had the students start marching counterclockwise to the song.  I continued to have the students do all of the hand motions, which seemed to go well with the marching.
4. I Can Sing A Rainbow.  This song was a success last year, and it allowed me to introduce more ASL into the classroom.  I covered the colors in the first half of the song, along with "rainbow".  We were able to sing through that first half with the help of the signs
5. Highway Number One.  I had meant to revisit this many times in the past, but I never got around to it.  This was a bit of a non sequitur, but the students really enjoyed this, especially since it was raining outside and it had been a while since I had the students perform in a large movement piece.
6. Somebody's Knocking.  I wanted to introduce this very quick song to them, since I wanted to do something significant with the song during the next class.  We spent maybe only 2 minutes total.
7. The World Is Big and the World Is Small.  We had covered two forms of transportation again today, so I wanted to review this song one more time.  This might be a good song for the spring sing this year.
8. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  The students returned to their seats while singing.

So yep - I had planned for these, and I did exactly that!  This really happens only rarely - usually I have to change something in the middle of the lesson.  Tt was refreshing to pull this off.

Teaching Notes, 20160106

We're back from winter break, and today I was torn with trying to cover a lot of different songs quickly vs. getting students more instrument time.  I ended up focusing more on the instruments today, which I thought turned out to be a great idea.

1. Intro: I'm In The Mood for Singing.  The students remembered the first two and the last lines, but they still sang a regular response during that fateful 3rd line.  We practiced the third line a few times before singing through it one more time.
2. Mail Myself To You.  It is always easy to get students to talk about presents after the holiday break, and then I asked the students if they got anything for their parents.  Some students said that they did, while others realized that they had not, but I reminded them that the best "present" that they gave to their parents was themselves.  Then, I asked the students what they'd do if they wanted to send themselves as a present.  I've used this schtick to introduce this song countless times, and it always works like a charm.  We covered only the first two stanzas this week, but that was plenty.
3. Chubby Little Snowman.  After talking about snow and travel, I then had the students review this song one time through.  Then, I brought out a set of tone bells - one whole octave (in C), and I took 8 students at one edge of the circle and gave each a bell in order.  I had the students play their bell in order, and then we talked in class about how it was a "scale" going up (or down, which we then did).  Next, I had the students sing the song, but using each bell as a reference for each line.  I thought it was going to be difficult to try to do the scale down, but it actually worked ok.  The only tricky part is that I found myself with my back to most of the students when addressing the bell players.
4. Here We Go A-Riding.  I collected the bells while saying "ding" for each one - coincidentally there were 8 bells to collect, matching the 8 "dings".  None of the students remembered the significance of the dings, and so then I sort of treated this song as new - which was fine at first, but then the students eventually caught on; I reprised the song one more time and that went very quickly.
   It was time to introduce more instruments, and I brought out a triangle for the class to see.  After demonstrating it and noting the importance of holding it with a dangling handle (i.e. not the metal triangle itself), I then gave it to one student (not a former bell player from before), to demonstrate to the group; I had the students chant "ding", while the student played.  Next up was a sand block pair, which was to be played during the "choo choo" - I demonstrated it first, and then gave it to another student (on the opposite side of the room).  Finally, I brought out a pair of rhythm sticks for the "clickety-clack", and after demonstrating its purpose in the context of this song, I gave it to another student.  With the three leaders in place, I then passed out two more triangles, five more sand block pairs, and then more rhythm sticks so that everyone who didn't play a bell got an instrument.  We then performed the song twice with the instruments; I still had to cue each section, but the students seemed to oblige.  Everyone got to play their instrument during the ending "whoohooo", and I had those without instruments simply pat their hands on the carpet.
5. Get On Board Little Children.  I've used this song a few times around MLK Day for kindergarteners, and since we just did a train exercise, this was a great song for them.  It's short, and has a few arm movements, and the students were able to follow me pretty quickly.  We went through this a few times, but as I was already out of time, I then had the students sing this song as they returned to their seats.

Instruments take up a lot of time!  However, I think it was probably the most satisfying instrument day for the class this school year.  I had a lot of students asking if they could play bells during Chubby Little Snowman, but after the others got to play something during Here We Go A-Riding, the complaints stopped.

Teaching Notes, 20151216

Today was the last day before the break, and so I wanted to cram in as much as I could, while also including a little bit of holiday cheer.  Given that students were going to likely go on a trip or two during the break, I themed the class on planes, trains and automobiles.

1. Intro: Hello Ev'rybody.  This is turning into a very easy secondary warm-up song, and I had the students do a few different movements, while also introducing a "plane" motion where students had their arms out.
2. Here We Go A-Riding.  I asked the students about other ways to travel other than an airplane, and while none actually talked about trains, I asked them to guess what made a "dinging" sound.  Still, there were no guesses about trains, so I then shouted "All Aboard!", which then drew out the correct guess.  I walked them through each step of the song, as well as movements for each part.  We sang through the song twice via echo.
3. It's a Very Good Day.  This was mostly review, but I steered the students towards ending with "dancing through the snow" since it allowed me to segue to the next song...
4. Chubby Little Snowman.  We did this last week also, but the students didn't seem to remember it that well.  Great for me!  :)
5. Down By The Sea.  I asked where students were going for break.  Once a few students talked about the beach, I was able to review each of the activities in this song.  We sang through in a guided fashion (like the recording).
6. Deep And Wide.  With the students seated, I first had the class mirror my hand motions, and then I applied the song, immersing the students.  The students picked up on the song so quickly that I removed "Deep" and "Wide".  I don't know if I'll revisit this during the next class since we got so far, but I'll keep it in my back pocket in case I need to fill time.
7. The World Is Big.  With the students all about to go, I wanted to introduce this song, as it also referenced many ways to go from one place to another.
8. Close: Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.  As usual, I had the students sing while they returned to their desks.

You might be wondering where the automobiles went.  I was supposed to have the students dance/move to Highway Number One, but I had errantly left my iPod in the car.  It didn't really matter much however; I was able to fill the time nicely.