Lesson #2: Math Masters

Greetings once again! This past Wednesday I taught my second lesson! I was particularly excited for this lesson because while the first one was super fun and I'd do it over and over again in a heartbeat, this lesson was the first true integration of music into a core subject. When collaborating with Mrs. Bevan a few weeks ago, one of the topics she really wants to see done with music is math. She informed me that her students just learned the numbers 0-10, so I wanted to incorporate some singing games into counting...and indirectly educate them on keeping a beat.

I began with our customary "Hello Song" (which they remembered so well from last week, which came as a relief!), and we went straight into the lesson. After getting all the students to sit "criss-cross-applesauce" on the blue borders of the rug (this was a cute yet frustrating process because they all wanted to sit as close to me as possible), I asked them if they remembered the "walking beats" and "jogging beats" we learned last time, to which they all exclaimed, "Yeah!" I had them "walk" and "jog" with their hands on their laps, changing as I did, and stopping as I did. Then while we all kept the walking beats, I began singing "High Stepping Horses (3x walking) go jiggity jiggity (jogging hands) jog!" On jog, we all stopped. Even when we sang it a second time, the kids were already joining me in singing! It was fantastic.

Now we got into counting. I started singing "Johnny works with one hammer..." and then on the next verse "Johnny works with two," and each verse goes all the way to five, after which "Johnny goes to sleep." Everyone loved this game; when I asked if we should help Johnny again, the kids all exclaimed "YEAH!" They all giggled and said "what?" every time we had three or four hammers and used our legs as hammers, and on the fifth hammer we used our arms, legs, and our HEAD. This was funny to them. (Left: us working with three hammers: both arms and one leg.)

To segway into the next song, I introduced it saying that this song goes "allllll the way to number 10! I don't know if you guys can do that yet...can we do that?" to which they all answered enthusiastically. This song is called "Angel Band", and the tune goes, "There was one, there were two, there were three little angels, there were four, there were five, there were six little angels, there were seven, there were eight, there were nine little angels, ten little angels in the band" which was followed by a chorus which went, "Oh wasn't that a band, Monday morning, Monday morning, Monday morning! Wasn't that a band, Monday morning, Monday morning come soon" (except since it was a Wednesday, I replaced "Monday" with "Wednesday" so the kids could understand which day of the week it truly was. When I sang this song for them for the first time, I held up my fingers as I counted each little angel, and the kids naturally followed along counting on their fingers as well. During the chorus, we all clap on the beat (1 2 3 4 etc.). **Something I notice about every time I start singing a song: the kids always start singing with you right away so they can do as you do, which is adorable. I love seeing and hearing them so eager for the next thing.**

After we did the song
two times in its entirety, I brought out number signs I drew up in the morning just hours before my lesson, numbered 1-10 (shown above...I must say, I never write in block letters or numbers, and I am really proud of myself and how these numbers turned out!). I passed these number signs out to ten students sitting in a row around the circle, and when we sang the song this time, each child with a sign was to hold up their number when we sang their number. An excited glow ignited in their eyes when it came their turn, and one boy was especially excited and swooped up energetically when number "6" came along. I then gave the numbers 1-10 to the other half of the circle so they would have a turn recognizing their number.

I got to my Goodbye Song this time! "Goodbye, goodbye, it was very nice to see you. Goodbye, goodbye, I am on my way." We all waved to each other and I left in high spirits once again. It was the perfect way to leave them before I see them next Friday.