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 ---->)