Teaching Notes, 20160316

It was, for a brief few days, finally dry outside!  That meant of course I had to get the students outside.  I've been in fact meaning to have the kids try some line-oriented dancing, and with the previous class' success with dancing, I wanted to spend a good chunk of time trying out the dancing.

1. Intro: Everybody Oughta Know.  This time I motioned to have the students sing with me during the 3rd line - and it worked!
2. Plant A Little Seed.  I talked about how it was nearly springtime, and we then spent a few minutes (probably 1-2 too many) talking about gardens, and what it took to grow their favorite plants.  I walked the students through the motions of the song, and eventually, I had the students echo in song each line of the song while doing a small motion that fit with the line.  I did this twice through, although both times I didn't do the scale down at the end.  I'll do that next time.  :)
3. It's a Very Good Day.  I had the students stand and try marching in a circle, and we marched to this song.  I had them practice as if it was rainy, and that gave me one more iteration of the song.  I then had the students keep marching (back to the original line of the song), while breaking the line and having some of the students follow me.  I intended the student circle to unroll into a single file line, but that broke down pretty quickly.  And so, we went outside.
4. Syncopated Cyril (Shenanigans).  I had pre-positioned two rows of cones outside, and I had the students (who had followed me outside to "My Bonnie"), line up behind either row of cones.  The cone rows were meant to symbolize the edge of the sidewalks on either side of the street, and that helped keep the students to either side.  (It did not, however, prevent kids from nudging the cones closer to the opposite side of the street.)  I had the students first practice crossing the street (directly across - not diagonal!), and then I had the tops of each row travel down the middle of the street, with one student copying the other.
   I found that the students mostly didn't know how to do something that would grab a lot of attention when walking down the middle, and so I had to applaud dramatically when someone did try some sort of motion that was out of their comfort zone.  After one iteration with the recording, most of the students went down the middle, so I repeated the exercise, while prioritizing those students who didn't go down the middle to do so during the second iteration.  The students by the second attempt really started to understand the dance, even though they were slowly deforming the sidewalk cone lines, and sometimes cross the street without taking the shortest path.
5. Exit: Goodbye My Friends, Goodbye.  It was easier to have the students return back to their classroom with the simpler, well-known goodbye song.

Believe it or not, that was it!  The dance took upwards of 15 minutes, and maybe more, but the kids seemed like they really enjoyed the dance, and so I didn't feel bad eating up so much class time with that single dance.  I may try to do another outdoor exercise next week, as next week is the last week before Spring break.