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.