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.