The iPad and SongWorks

I have been using the iPad with my kinder classes, letting them draw a song map on the iPad. I am then able to project their map on my whiteboard. The children enjoy seeing their map projected in the front of the class. Students take great pride in seeing their work posted in their classrooms or in the school hallway. In it's simplest form, this type of "publishing" helps validate a child's work in the class. It gives them a way to contribute to the class. We are all then able to view and follow their map in the air. These maps can then be saved as a photo, posted on a website or even emailed to parents with an explanation of what their child was doing in music class. Much like the papers that get stuffed in folders and backpacks but without the tears or crumples.

The iPad is one of many educational tools that teachers can choose to give their students another way to express themselves.

Music EdVentures Vancouver BC

I am off to the Music EdVentures conference in Vancouver. Thursday I get to present how I integrate technology into the SongWorks method. For me, I see technology following the principle of giving children the opportunity to express themselves in a variety of ways. Technology isn't for every student but the many varied ways just might be what one child needs to feel successful. I am embedding my Prezi presentation for anyone who might be interested. Plus I will also include my handout here.

SongWorks in Action on Prezi

Bumpity Bumpity Yellow Bus

or is that a Bumble Bee?

At the beginning of the school year, I always sang Hickety Tickety Bumble Bee with my young students. Using it to learn their names and encourage them to sing by themselves. Unfortunately when my classes were large, I would end up singing the song 20-25 times because everyone's name had to be sung! So finding Bumpity Bumpity Yellow Bus in the Song Play book was a nice surprise. It works very similar to how I used the other version but in the Song Play book, movement was a main focus. My students enjoyed adding the movements while singing the song. But the primary focus here was on the individual student and how important their name is and how they say their name. They all wanted us to hear and say their names. I noticed though when some students would say their names, we didn't always echo it back the same. So we would stop, and really listen to their name and their voice and repeat it back just as they had said it. You could see on that child's face the pleasure in hearing their name said in the same way.

We also tapped the names as we said them, listening carefully to how many times we would tap for the names. Sometimes we would practice a name a few times to make sure we had it correct. We also listened  to the strong sounds in the names and tapped them harder in our hands.

Playing with their names was a fun activity for the students. A person's name gives them an identity and it is important to let children know their name is important. It is equally important to say their name as they say it.

Come and Follow Me

Come and follow me in a line, in a line.
Come and follow me, we will stop this way.

Following the script, the students were very attentive and followed what I did. They listened carefully to the song and when asked "what did the song tell us to do?" they answered "stop this way". Some also responded that the song asked us to "follow in a line". Moving on, they were asked to watch my feet and notice what happened at the end of the song. We continued on, following the script and I could write out everything the book says and my students responded as you would expect. They loved the game and we played with some of the variations in switching leaders.

I've used this song with other classes over the years but followed the script in the Song Play book. What I have observed in following the scripts is that they are very well thought out. Children will typically respond exactly like the book suggests they will. This result is caused by how the questions are worded and I have found that to be an important factor with the SongWorks approach. Words have so much impact on people. And children, who don't know all the intricacies of words may interpret your words differently than you would expect. Our words when chosen carefully can make someone happy or ruin their day. What words will you say?

Hot Cross Buns

It seems that Hot Cross Buns is one of those little songs that literally everyone knows. Such a simple little melody.

Following the script in Song Play, I introduced the hand signs to my students. They were so attentive and ready to go. (Sometimes I just want to chuckle out loud as I look at their eagerness. They are just fun to watch.) Going through each one, practicing, reviewing and then finally I sang the song to them using the hand signs. Observing doesn't last long since they were quick to see what was happening and tried to follow me. They learned the song quickly and put the hand signs with it. We practiced with one hand, two hands, with a partner (they always love that) and as a group. We also practiced the hand signs while the song was in our inner hearing. They especially love to do this but there is always one character that "sneaks" out a word or two. I find it interesting when they get upset at this student for leaking the words out loud. They definitely want to "hear" it only inside their heads.

Once they were comfortable with the song, I introduced the solfa syllables to them. There was no slowing them down! We sang the song both ways and played with our hand signs. Only then did I show them a smart notebook page with the hand signs. Some children exclaimed "that looks like what we were doing!" They also recognized the mi-re-do words on the page.

We also talked about what a real hot cross bun is and when they were eaten.

Grieg In the Hall of the Mountain King Story and Listening

I don't know if this qualifies as a SongWorks lesson but it's from one of Peggy Bennett's books, specifically Playing with the Classics. Wonderful resource for using classical music in the classroom with engaging lessons covering from story making, to moving and score reading. I have used Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King many times in my music class but had not used the ideas in the book before. I introduced Grieg to the children and we talked a bit about him and some things about his life. Did you know that Grieg did not like school and would find ways to get his close wet on the way to school so he would be sent home for dry clothes? Well by the time he went home and came back, school would be over. Tricky boy, eh?

I then began to share the story with the children although I did adapt it a bit and kept it closer to the Peer Gynt story including the trolls! I found that they were familiar with the story the 3 Billy Goats Gruff and knew what a troll was- grumpy! I asked them questions as we went along, what did the princess look like? Why was she riding a pig? What was the pig's name? and so on. I had created a smart notebook file for Grieg and revealed pictures of the story as we went along. They loved the story and I probably could have gone on for 1001 and nights! (Sorry that was a bit cliché)

After the story we listened to the music and imagined Peer, the princess and the trolls. Again, they loved the music and talked about how the music sounded just like Peer being chased by the trolls out of the mountain. Of course they all wanted to listen to it again and again!

Circle Left or was that Right?

Circle Left with kindergarten. That was interesting!

Well, introducing the song, following script somewhat. We first did the song sitting in our places. I sang "touch your nose" touching my nose and on "do-oh-do-oh" put my hands in the air. At "shake those fingers down" I did exactly that. The class caught on quite quickly to the song and the movements. I intended to practice and remind them to shake their fingers down at the end but they pointed it out to me and reminded
their classmates that they needed to do that at the end.

It was fascinating to watch them take over the song and sing it over and over and over with all the motions. Sometimes it is hard to stop them and move on to something else when they just want to repeat it again and again! This is a good thing and a bad thing rolled into one!

Once we managed to move ahead I introduced the words "circle left" which of course they learned right away. We talked about what the song was telling us now and discussed how we could make circles sitting in our places. We used our arms, our fingers, switching from right to left hand. No one suggested any other body part but thinking back now I realize I didn't encourage them to consider anything else. Not that I discouraged it but I didn't lead them to thinking of some other way besides our fingers, hands and arms. I will have to remember to suggest a nose or ear?

We then got up from our places and made a large circle. Making circles is always interesting with any age children. I sometimes don't see any difference between the circle making skills of a kindergarten student and a 5th grader. We sang the song and followed the motions but not giving any special attention the words LEFT in the song. I felt that we needed to accomplish merely walking in a circle before we tried going to the left.

We did then point out that the song does say circle "left" and we discussed different ways to find our left hand. For example, some students that is the hand they put their pencil in (write with), we know that we do the pledge of allegiance with our right hand over our heart so our left must be the other hand :-), and then I showed them how when you hold your hands out in front of you, you can make the letter L with your left hand. It is backwards with your right hand. As you can see, discussing which way is left can be a lengthy matter.

Once decided which way was left, we sang the song and circled "left"!

A Hunting We will Go Song maps and SmartBoard

Back to "A Hunting We will Go"...I neglected to mention that before my students ever put their map on paper and tried to follow it, I used the SmartBoard to draw my map. Of course Kindergarten was most impressed! Going on now- The class sang for me as I drew my map and then followed my map. I followed it too fast, too slow and finally, they decided that I needed to go just the right speed to get to the end of my map when the song finished. We talked about the beginning and the end of the song and how I knew where it was. The "X" was my beginning and where the line stopped was the end. The class traced my map in the air while we sang it again making sure to stop our finger at the end. We also used the SmartBoard map to find different places in the song like "fox", "box" and "go" marking over these places darker. We talked about the rhyming words of fox and box. My SmartBoard lesson had a page where they could drag the fox into the box.

The SmartBoard has become for me what a felt board or poster paper was for teachers in the past. I like to be able to take what I've done before and use the new tools that I have in the classroom. The SmartBoard is a lot of fun and students love to touch it and manipulate the pictures.

The students enjoyed this lesson. They love the song, they love the game, they liked the SmartBoard map, they enjoyed every aspect of the song. Who would have guessed that it would be so fascinating but there are so many things to find and discuss in just this one song. That was always the beauty of the early Song Works ideas. Simple songs that offer so many things to learn inside of them. There are layers and layers to unfold and see what lies beneath. It is amazing how many things you can do with one song. I think about that we haven't even begun to consider the melody or the rhythm. Many layers, one song.

A Hunting We Will Go Part 2- moving to a map

The continuing of "A Hunting We Will Go" activity:

First let me mention that I see my kindergarten class once a week for 45 minutes. Sometimes I know that I do more than I should in a class period but I try to plant little seeds as much as possible. Hopefully those small tidbits will be remembered and we can build on them.

So after we played the game I asked my students to pick a hand and we put a "fox" on our finger. Then we let the fox dance in the air while we sang the song. We did this a number of times making certain that we switched our hands and picked our favorite hand to use. We always made an "X" to start and we made sure to stop our fox at the end of the song. We talked about that the song had a beginning and an end.

Eventually we took our air map and put it on the floor in front of us. We were careful not to let our fox go in front of our neighbor. Again, we did this many times, switching hands, drawing an "X", and making sure to stop at the end.

I believe that I should have stopped at this point and not gone to a paper map but we did move on. I know that a paper map should really come after the children have had many experiences of just singing and drawing imaginary maps in the air and on the floor. It probably would have made the paper map experience better. But- on to the paper. Each child got a piece of paper. We drew an imaginary X, and then did our map on just the paper as we did in the air but keeping our fox only on our paper. The children were very good about following all the directions. Very eager to do whatever came next. I also passed out markers and we went through the whole process with a marker. Drawing our map and then following what we drew with our finger.

This was an interesting point. I am always curious to see if they are able to follow their map and start and stop. It usually doesn't work. But for first experiences I do not expect them to be able to do this. Nor would I expect until after many experiences of drawing and following. All that I have explained was done over two class sessions. I did not use the entire class time on just this song/game. I had other activities planned. We also do a listening part, listening to our "composer of the day" and we did another song not related to the SongWorks program.

The Beginning of the Singing Hound and A Hunting We Will Go

Many years ago, (more than I care to admit) I took a few courses at a local university in elementary music education. I really enjoyed the class material, my classmates and especially the instructor, Dr. Peggy Bennett. Through these classes I came to get to know Peggy, not just as my instructor, but as a colleague in music and more importantly as a friend. I was most impressed with her calm demeanor as she taught her classes. Not just us graduate students, but when working with young children. She has always had such a wonderful sense of working with children. At this writing, I can't even remember what her "method" of teaching music was called but today, after collaborating with other educators, she has developed the SongWorks approach. It has not changed much from the style I learned but seems to have grown into a more organized process. I recently purchased all of the books available on SongWorks and have been perusing through the material. Through this blog I hope to write about my experiences working with my classes using the SongWorks approach.

My first foray was using the song "A Hunting We Will Go". I had not played this game for a while and had forgotten how much the children have with such a simple song and game. I used this with a kindergarten class of about 15 students. I followed the script in the book as best as I could trying to use the same terminology. We made our circle, I sang through the song, asking questions about different parts of the song, adding hand movements when appropriate. Eventually we arrived at the part where we play the game. We had plenty of time and were able to let everyone have a turn being the hunter. The class really enjoyed the song and the game. Even if this were the only purpose of doing this song, it would have been well worth it to give the children a piece of joy in their day.