Lesson #5: A Rhyme Isn't a Crime!

November 3: Today's lesson was more chill than previous ones, but this was also the lesson in which we utilized the most co-teaching, Mrs. Bevan and I! Mrs. Bevan has been so great at staying connected with the class, helping me with one management idea here and there for the kids when needed, taking pictures, singing the songs, and all around understanding what's going on in the classroom. TODAY, however, she began jumping right in with me to help teach, which was AWESOME! That's our ultimate goal with the BYU Arts Bridge program: not just come in and teach as the music specialist, but mentor the classroom teacher as well so s/he can become familiar with music integration methods and be adept enough to employ these songs, precepts, etc. by themselves. We're getting there; I've been admittedly slow on the uptake of this ultimate goal, but we've got a lot of co-teaching stuff planned for future lessons. Eventually (hopefully) it will be ALL Mrs. Bevan!

Our ritualistic Hello Song began our class today. Then I asked the children if they knew the song

called "Down By the Bay." To my dismay, NOT ONE SOUL knew it! Am I really that old already to have grown up with the ancients living and breathing Raffi songs in my childhood along with almost everybody else in my generation? This was weird to finally bump into kids who didn't know the song. Fortunately, they learned it today! I sang it for them a couple of times for them to get a feel for it, then asked them to repeat the words after me, phrase by phrase. We were now ready to sing-read the story accompanied by the children's book from which to read the lyrics. For the first two verses of the song I kept the class repeating after me so they could get more reps of learning the words, but after that we were all able to sing it in unison together. They got a kick out of each little silly rhyme at the end of each verse: "Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose?" "Did you ever see a whale with a polka-dot tail?" "Did you ever see a fly wearing a tie?" "Did you ever see a bear combing his hair?" "Did you ever see llamas eating their pajamas?" They laughed up a storm each time; it never got old.

When we completed the story, I went back through the pages of these silly rhymes. I repeated sentence containing the words of the rhyme and asked "which two words sound the same here?" Judging from their sheepish answers, I knew I wasn't phrasing the question right for kindergartners to grasp what I was trying to go for. Mrs. Bevan came to my rescue! She turned to the class and refreshed their memories of rhyme, which they have already started learning. She asked what rhyming means (listening for the last half of the word and hearing for what sounds the same). "Let's look at the word 'goose,'" Mrs. Bevan transitioned. "Which word rhymes with 'goose'? 'did you ever see a goose kissing a...'" Everyone exclaimed "MOOSE!" I nodded and smiled gratefully at Mrs. Bevan for saving my lesson. for each rhyming sentence following, I asked it like Mrs. Bevan did to be more clear. This exercise was successful!

As a middle-activity, I assessed the children's understanding of recognizing words when there wasn't a song to put to it, sequencing them from recognizing rhyming words to generating rhyming words. I told them to tell me if the two words I said sounded the same or not. They were able to distinguish rhyming words from non-rhyming words in a jiffy!

Now for the second half of my objective: first I wanted the children to be able to recognize words that rhyme, and secondly I wanted the children to generate their own rhymes. I asked the class to give me an animal by the raise of hand. Half of the students rose their hands after a while. One animal was "fish," and we brainstormed a new verse to sing to the tune of "Down By the Bay:" "Did you every see a fish eating a dish?" "Did you ever see a goat riding a boat?" "Did you ever see a lion who never was cryin'?" "Did you ever see an iguana sitting in a sauna?" (I felt particularly proud of that one; that's fast thinking on the spot if I do say so myself.) The entire class was engaged in thinking of words that could rhyme with the respective animals, including Mrs. Bevan and her assistant, Mrs. Nuansky (spelling?). Mrs. Nuansky kept going back to the computer where they have a rhyming generator to find words that could go with the song. One girl suggested penguin, we were stumped, and according to the computer discovered that that penguin does not have a word that rhymes! One of the other girls was a rhyming whiz throughout the whole thing; the rest of the kids got more accustomed to rhyming by the middle of this new verse activity. Then, we sang my Good Bye Song and I left!

I loved today because of the 100% involvement of Mrs. Bevan and Mrs. Nuansky. They really helped the lesson connect more to kindergartners, something that is really valuable to me as a future teacher, and I love how we all became a thinking tank in coming up with rhymes to sing to "Down By the Bay." It was such a cool experience. I'm excited to involve the classroom teachers even more in forthcoming lessons!

Lesson #4: HaLlOwEeN sEt To MuSiC

October 28: Today I had a sPoOkY lesson planned for my kindergartners. And it was perfectly timed...because I was visited by my boss today! I had no idea he would be there until we bumped into each other en route to the building. Doug Allen is the Lead Coordinator for the BYU Arts Bridge Program, the internship for which I'm working as a music specialist. It was exceptionally handy to bump into him in the parking lot because I now had a counterpart to help carry the boxes of instruments into the classroom! I had some time while Mrs. Bevan's assistant was wrapping up some learning material with the kids during which I was able to organize and set up the instruments. Mr. Allen sat in the back of the room, and we were rolling! Not only was I teaching objectives to children...but now I was being evaluated at the same time, too! I felt a little jittery inside, but I was prepared and ready to go!

At this point, our Hello Song is SO natural for the kids; they expect it every time I walk into the teaching space. Up to this point I've had to use my hand to motion to myself and then to them to signal whose turn it was to sing, but this time they totally have it down pat. It's so incredible to see what repetition does for kids to remember quickly! One step closer to performance of an actual song! "Who knows what special day is coming up on Saturday?" I asked the class. "Raise your hand if you know the answer." At my cue, they all exclaimed, "HALLOWEEN!" "Very good!" I congratulated them. "Are you ready for Halloween? What are you going to be?" *I didn't need to tell them to raise their hands to answer; they simply knew they were expected to do so and did it!* After hearing a handful of answers, I said, "Great! We're going to sing about it now! Are you ready?" Of course they were. I used a song aptly titled "Halloween." This song is unique from any other songs we've done thus far this term. While the other songs were all to be sung in call-and-response or in unison, this particular song features a solo opportunity! In the song, we ask what someone will be, and that "someone" repeats the descending line saying "I will be a _____," after which everyone repeats, "S/He will be a _____." As we sang, we used our cReEpY hands to make it spooky and lively. For the first time, I sang the song inserting my own name (even though I didn't really dress up as anything for Halloween, I sang to the children that "I will be a horsie," which reinforces the "h" letter, right?!) They got the hang of it this first time, and I started calling on individual names. The first ones were a tad shy to respond, so I asked them in my speaking voice what they're going to be, they replied, and I sang the descending line for them to follow me. Even though the children didn't quite get the mi-re-do-ti-la notes, they did descending pitches in a smaller frame, softly and almost in their speaking voices, yet rhythmically. They're catching on to singing alone! The last girl got the descending line the closest, and her costume of the "girl fox" was the perfect ending for us. It was a good introduction to creating a response and soloing it back for the class to hear, and we'll be able to do more as our lessons progress.

Now the time had come for us to recall the story of "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything"! The kids again impressed me with their ability to recall with exactness the order of events in the forest, and I had the laminated cards again to follow along with their answers to my questions about it. They even remembered which sound effect went with each item, too! Once the cards were all laid out on the floor, I transitioned by saying, "Now, we're going to read the story of the little old lady again, but I'm going to need YOUR help this time." brought over six types of instruments to present each one to the class. (I strategically did it out of order so it wouldn't be so easy to guess, but

perhaps it would've been okay to present the instruments in order of what went best with which item.) I demonstrated the claves (smooth, wooden, cylindrical rhythm sticks), egg shakers, the guiro (a wooden scraping percussion instrument of a mallet run across ridges), the cowbell (which called for some giggles because of the weird and loud sound produced), and the hand drum. Half-way through I realized that I forgot to include the jingle bells in my demonstration, but I fixed it. We went through each item, starting with the gloves because I had to stall to remember what I assigned to everything else, and I asked the class which instrument makes the closest sound to the "clap, clap." I was thrilled when a couple of children almost instantly chose the claves. I handed a few out to some expectant children, who I had to remind to sit "cross-cross-applesauce on their pockets" many times throughout this whole activity. We eventually assigned each instrument to an item; the pants were represented by the jingle bells (wiggle, wiggle), the shirt was represented by the egg shakers (shake, shake), the the gloves were represented by the claves (clap, clap), and guiros represented the hat (nod, nod). I saved the two hand drums for the boys in the back who I knew secretly wanted to slam the drum on the BOO, BOO!

After having the children sit in groups, we proceeded to read the story. At the beginning the children were a little shy about being the only ones in the class showcasing their instrument, but by the time we got to the shirt everybody was really after the idea of representing their item with their instrument. This whole setup stretched my normal teaching from from 15-20 minutes to almost a half hour, but it was well worth the literature connection enhanced with the instrumentation. After the story was completed and everything was a success, I applauded them and thanked them for helping me bring the story of the little old lady to LIFE!

(<---- cowbell = shoes)

The part I hadn't anticipated until towards the end of the story was how in the world I was going to recollect the instruments in an efficient and non-crazy fashion. I tried by holding a box and calling the children over by their instrument. This, to my relief, worked great for the start...but to my startled senses turned into a couple of random kids handing me their instrument when it wasn't their turn...but I made do and got them all contained. We sang the Goodbye song together, and I was left to the side of the room to reorganize the instruments and enlist Mr. Allen's help once again to carry the boxes back to my car.

(<---- jingle bells = pants)                                   (claves = gloves )

I am really grateful for Mr. Allen's attendance to today's lesson, because we
were able to chat for a bit afterwards about what worked so well and what I could consider for when I would teach this lesson again. He noticed that when I gave the kids their respective instruments, and I had them place the instrument on the floor in front of them to discourage them from playing out of turn...they wanted so much more to do the opposite and play whatever they wanted out of their instrument in which they were so invested! It would've been nice for me to allow them some time to experiment and become familiar with the sound of their instrument before moving on the the next assignments. That way they learn more about their instrument, and they also get their jitters out so they've heard what they wanted for the time being. Also, we proposed that having the grouped children sit in a circle during the story rather than having them in sporadically placed groups on the floor would've made it easier for me to recollect the instruments, which was an excellent suggestion. But he was so please to see that I am super energetic and engage the kids enough that they respond to me really well! What a relief!

(guiro = hat ---->)

I'm so glad today's lesson went so well; I feel like I'm getting better and better every week! I really love my job and am learning even more than I am teaching, which is so exciting to me!

(hand drum = scary pumpkin head ---->)

Lesson #3: Getting Ready for HALLOWEEN!

This lesson was super fun to teach! Today one of my objectives was to reinforce the sounds of the

letters "p," "j," and "l." "I'm a Pumpkin," a cute and catchy song about...well...pumpkins... accomplished this objective perfectly. I've included the music and actions in the picture below. I love this song to use for kindergarten kids because the melody is fun, the words are fun, and for the theme of Halloween they get to learn how jack-o-lanterns are make from pumpkins! And the focus words "pumpkin" and "jack-o-lantern" reinforced the sounds of the letters the students have been learning!

Anybody who teaches kindergarten, or any elementary grade, know that to teach effectively at all, you've got to "sell" your lesson agenda, just as a businessman may present an idea in a catchy, attractive manner to appeal to his or her clients. Selling a lesson to kindergartners is much more fun, though, let me attest to that fact! I began to whet their appetites for learning (after singing our ritual Hello Song) by starting with, "I hear you have been learning the sounds of the letter 'p.' That is so great! I heard you practicing it when I came in today and you sound so smart. What are some words that start with the letter 'p'?" to which responded dozens of hands shooting up in the air. I received many creative answers, including "panda!" I would've never guessed that word as a kindergartner. "Those are all awesome words, but I'm thinking of a very special word. It's something you see a lot at this time of year, during fall...that's orange...and there's one on the table..." each clue made each child more eager to answer my riddle. At my invitation, they all exclaimed, "PUMPKIN!" Now the product was sold, and I dived straight into singing "I'm a Pumpkin" with the accompanying actions (the song and activity are depicted to the right). The melody was catchy and fun, and they loved the clicking part when we made the eyes, nose, and mouth of the jack-o-lantern. They loved this song so much that even after having done it a couple of times, they requested to do it again at the end of the lesson! I love these kids.


After we learned and performed "I'm a Pumpkin" at our very best, I asked what very special day was coming up, and the children all knew about Halloween, so we were now ready to read the story called "The Little Old Lady who was Not Afraid of Anything." My objective with reading this book was to make a literature connection with music, in this case sound effects. Throughout the book there are certain sounds of things the Little Old Lady comes across in the dark woods, and the children were able to produce the different sounds each item made. The two shoes went, "clomp, clomp," the pair of

pants went "wiggle, wiggle," the shirt went "shake, shake," the pair of gloves went "clap, clap," the tall black hat went "nod, nod," and the very scary pumpkin was last, and it went "BOO, BOO!" (Every time the kids exclaimed that part, which was probably their favorite, I gave a huge startle in my chair so they would deliver just that way to "scare" me every time. :) ) The children were super engaged in the story, and it didn't surprise me that when I asked them to recall the order of the items in the forest back to me they remembered so perfectly! I displayed colorful, laminated cards (shout out to Dr. Brittany May for these beautiful props) for each one they said came next, wielding a picture of the item and the written form of the sound it made, until the scarecrow was formed. They loved it!

Now the goal with this story is that next week, the children will be able to respond to each corresponding part of the scarecrow on instruments. They had no problem retaining the understanding of the literature, and they were naturals at producing the appropriate sounds...now the adventure of adding instruments begins!