New song is like a new adventure
Do you ever get excited about teaching a new song to your students? For me, developing teaching ideas for a new tune is as intriguing as going on an exotic road trip. There are so many possibilities! You never know what you will find along the way. Often, my best guides on this journey are my students. The challenge is to keep a good "travel log": remembering to write down all the different music games we end up creating and exploring. The song "Get Rolling" from my new Songbook collection is one of these songs. It started as a simple movement activity. On our musical journey, my students and I discovered many fun ways to play with this tune. I hope you enjoy it with your students. Please feel free to share new discoveries in the comments below!
Take a nap:
Sing this tune during a “nap” activity. Turn down the lights, and invite everyone to lay down. Once the song becomes familiar, create pauses and silences, listen to the children, and imitate their vocalizations.
Use a parachute:
Raise and lower the parachute as you sing the song. Alternate the movement every measure. Some children like to help holding and moving the parachute, some enjoy laying on the floor underneath it. If you see children are underneath the parachute, cover them at the conclusion of the song, and pause. After a little while, sing “where are the children?” on the dominant pitch of the song. Raise the
parachute, and sing “here they are” as the children are “found”.
Use beanbags:
Listen and move:
parachute, and sing “here they are” as the children are “found”.
Use beanbags:
- Give a smooth ride to a beanbag in the palm of your hand. Explore space in front, behind, below, above, and beside you in seated position.
- Give the beanbag a tour of the room: travel with the beanbag in your palm through the room, and explore medium, high, and low levels of space as you travel.
- Explore weight: as you move the beanbag, pretend that it is very light, and reflect that in your movement. Next, pretend the beanbag is very heavy, and reflect that in your movement. What can it be? Is it a feather? A leaf? An elephant? A bowling ball? Explore the possibilities with the children.
- Use a beanbag to tap the beat of the song. Tap the floor, tap your knees, tap your shoulder, your head, your feet. Explore different ways to tap the beanbag to the beat. Explore different beat functions (macrobeats, microbeats, every other beat).
Elementary Emphasis
Sing the song for the students, and invite students to move with continuous free flow. Explore movement concepts: pathways (straight, curvy, zig-zag, figure eight); space (high, medium, low); direction (forward, backward, sideways); weight (strong, gentle); time (quick, slow); flow (free, bound).
Throw and catch a scarf with a partner:
Sing the song for the students, and demonstrate macrobeats using a throw and catch pattern with a scarf. Invite students to practice the movement without the scarves, and add scarves once students demonstrate rhythmic fluency and accuracy through their movement. Sing and move. Next, demonstrate the throw and catch pattern with a partner. Invite students to practice with a partner. Add more excitement by using two scarves, and make it a challenge. The pair that moves to the macrobeats and keeps the scarves from falling wins!
Move to different beat functions, and create simple rhythm patterns:
Explore macrobeats, microbeats, and macrobeat rests. Toss the scarf to macrobeats. Juggle or shake the scarf to microbeats. Throw the scarf on macrobeats, catch it and freeze movement to show rests. Combine the movements to create simple rhythm patterns. Invite students to create their own combinations, and to share it with a partner.
Transfer the movement to written notation, and finally to classroom percussion instruments:
Depending on your students' literacy level and readiness, this could either be an excellent segway to introducing reading, or an opportunity to review reading. Demonstrate what the rhythm patterns would look like in notation, or ask students to notate it. Finally, transfer the patterns to classroom percussion instruments, and perform in ensemble to the song.
Add resting tone harmony:
Sing the song for the students, and demonstrate macrobeats using a throw and catch pattern with a scarf. Invite students to practice the movement without the scarves, and add scarves once students demonstrate rhythmic fluency and accuracy through their movement. Sing and move. Next, demonstrate the throw and catch pattern with a partner. Invite students to practice with a partner. Add more excitement by using two scarves, and make it a challenge. The pair that moves to the macrobeats and keeps the scarves from falling wins!
Move to different beat functions, and create simple rhythm patterns:
Explore macrobeats, microbeats, and macrobeat rests. Toss the scarf to macrobeats. Juggle or shake the scarf to microbeats. Throw the scarf on macrobeats, catch it and freeze movement to show rests. Combine the movements to create simple rhythm patterns. Invite students to create their own combinations, and to share it with a partner.
Transfer the movement to written notation, and finally to classroom percussion instruments:
Depending on your students' literacy level and readiness, this could either be an excellent segway to introducing reading, or an opportunity to review reading. Demonstrate what the rhythm patterns would look like in notation, or ask students to notate it. Finally, transfer the patterns to classroom percussion instruments, and perform in ensemble to the song.
Add resting tone harmony:
Continue to move, and add the resting tone by singing it every time you throw the scarf (first beat of every measure). Teach students to sing the resting tone in harmony with you as you sing the melody.
Add rhythm ostinato and simple harmony
Below is an arrangement you can teach to students who are ready to sing in harmony and perform in ensemble. The percussion part could be performed using body percussion, beat boxing, or a percussion instrument.
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