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.