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.