Teaching Notes, 20160511

Although we could have done more dancing, I decided to keep the kids inside this time so that they didn't get too tired of dancing.  I also wanted to try yet another new introductory song while again reviewing at least one song for the spring sing.

1. Intro: Down By The Bay.  I first sang through this one time (using a random one liner), and then I had the students echo the song in parts.  A few students knew the song already, and it didn't take long to get the whole class comfortable with the song.  (It's not too complicated!)  We went through the song about six times before moving on
2. Right Hand Boogie.  Mostly review, but we went from the right hand to the left hand, followed by both hands, followed by the right leg boogie.  The MFM demo reel featured also the "belly boogie", but I didn't try that.
3. Body Solfege review.  I had the students quickly review the scale, both up and down, so that we could then do....
4. Little Tommy Tinker.  I sang this while doing the body solfege.  However, few students made the connection about the solfege notes and this particular song, even with the body solfege, and so I walked them through the song sung with solfege instead of the regular words (while still employing the body movements).  I did also make it a point to note that most songs that they knew ended in "Do" - I don't think that concept stuck very well.
5. Milky Way.  This was all review, and it seems like the students didn't have a lot of comfort with the last few stanzas of the song, so I doubled the last three lines just to give them a little more practice.
6. Jenny Jenkins.  I didn't have a lot of time left, so I simply took my ukulele out, and we sang Jenny Jenkins featuring various students' names.  The kids required one or two iterations to remind them of how the song, particularly the foldy-roldy part, went.
7. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  As usual, the students went back to their seats while singing.

This was arguably a pretty simple lesson plan, one that I fully admit took very little time to put together.  I had actually prepared Sasha (the dance), as well as Old King Glory, but there really wasn't a whole lot of time.  Next week's class is going to be shortened, and dedicated to having all of the kinders rehearse their two spring sing songs.

Teaching Notes, 20160504

The spring sing looms near, but today was a perfect day to go outside - it was overcast, but not raining (yet).  Going outside always seems to shorten the lesson a bit with the walk outside (and back in), but the benefit of the extra space is worth it.

1. Intro: Teaching Peace.  This time I really did want to have the students learn the song, as most of the student body knows the song from the weekly assemblies from past years.  The students are getting the chorus down pretty well, but they do need help with the verse.  I only went through this once since I found myself strangely unable to hit the higher notes.  Bummer!
2. First Tulip.  This is a pretty easy song, and I used it now because we were well into spring, and it made a nice segue into...
3. Body Solfege.  I reviewed the scale, and then had the students sing/motion the last line of First Tulip, which was basically the lower five notes of the scale.  I then had them echo me in various combinations, such as sol-mi, etc.
4. Paw Paw Patch.  I was able to teach the tune (it's pretty darn simple!) quickly, and during the second iteration of the second line ("let's go find her..."), I then led the students outside, where I had previously set up two lines of cones.  After some obligatory playing with cones, I then had the students line up, each set to the inside of the cone lines - this makes for two very close lines of students; the next time I must remember to keep the lines further apart.
   Today, I was fortunate to have a parent helper, who I assigned as the leader of one of the lines - that really made it easy to explain what each line was doing.  While Paw Paw typically has a single leader crossing over, I decided to have the helper run the second line, and simply have the second line mirror the first during the second stanza.  During the banana peel, this became very easy with a parent helper.  Yay!  I did feel like the students really had fun with this, even though we only did it three times - two one direction and one the other; during each time, we reset the leaders so that we had the lines in the same order each time.
5. Tony Chestnut.  This was an obligatory practice for the spring sing.  The students are slowly getting the 2nd half of the song, and we did that part twice.
6. Bonanopstekker.  Since we were outside, and I had the speaker set up, I wanted to have the kids dancing to some recording.  I covered this one back in the fall, and while I know I rushed the review, some students still remembered what was going on.
7. Back Inside.  I returned the students while singing Paw Paw Patch, and then released the students back to their seats.

Indeed, each dance takes a lot of time, but I feel that the students are generally doing a much better job following during activities that take a long time.

Teaching Notes, 20160427

It was actually a cold, cloudy day, so I decided to keep the students inside.  Here's what happened!

1. Intro: Teaching Peace.  Knowing that few students knew this the first time, I spent time having the students echo each line of the chorus.  We did this twice, but since it was supposed to be a warmup song, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it.
2. Body Solfege.  I deliberately wanted the students to practice this, and so we started with the first three notes, followed by myself randomly choosing one of the three.  I continued to expand this to include the first five notes, and then the whole scale.  I pointed out that the "scale" starts and ends with "Do" (although I don't think I used the term "scale").  I then tried to have them practice signing and singing Sol-Mi.  Few students recognized "Bee Bee Bumblebee" when I sang the solfege version, but eventually I got them to do Bee Bee while doing the body solfege.
3. Right Hand Boogie.  This was simply pure fun.  We tried the "other" hand boogie, followed by the right leg boogie.
4. Milky Way.  Time to review, and finally complete the song, which I hadn't done yet.  I did include "my house" and "that's me" into the song, which kept the last two (and new) lines fresh.  I think the students really know the chorus of the song like the back of their hand.
5. Popcorn Tree: I told the students that even though it was cold, trees were blooming.  I didn't expect the students to really learn the song after I sang it through for them, but I did tell them to listen and try to count the number of times "pop" showed up in the song (either as a solitary word or part of "popcorn").  The students were a little all over the map after the first singing, and I tried to help them with hand signs every time I said "pop" in any form.  It took three times through the song before a majority of children converged on the right answer (7).
6. Pony Macaroni.  The kids wanted to revisit one of the past dances, and so while I was connecting the iPod, I taught the students this song, having them simply gallop around in a circle until I said "stop" - it was more an exercise to have the students try to listen to commands, and it was a nice way to continue to have the kids do something new until the iPod was ready.
7. Seven Jumps.  The class really wanted to do this, and so I went ahead and let them try.  Now, this time we were inside, and it turns out that the students routinely tried to creep into the middle every time, which made the "dance" very crowded and cluttered.  After the dance was over, I chatted briefly with the students about how the dance went very differently compared to the previous attempts.  Although the kids had fun, I'll have to try a different dance next time.
8. Exit: Goodbye My Friends.  The children returned to their seats as we sang.

I didn't actually get around to using instruments again, and I know that the students are overdue.  With the dances that they seem to be consistently interested in, and with the concentration of time on the spring sing songs, I realize I may not have a lot of time for the instruments for a while.   I hope to be able to sneak them in however before May ends.