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.