The big bass drum that is. We took turns using the foot pedal on the bass drum and marched to the beat. We discussed how it keep the marching bands together that they might see at the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The song "When the Train Comes Along" (sung with the Grasshoppers), covers the topic of holiday travel and weather. I use visuals for each verse and chorus that are seen on the Smart Board as I am singing the song. Icons representing different kinds of weather are shown to help give clues as to what the words are to the verses in order to promote independent singing - which you can hear the Grasshoppers do on the last verse. The high pitched squeaking you hear in the background is the sound of brakes from a train pulling into a station in a video clip. It is a good example of a very high-pitched sound. In preparation for our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast, we sing traditional folk songs about the holiday. "The Turkey Ran Away" (here being sung with the Joeys) is a song that we sing every year. I show pictures of different food (on the Smart Board) that you might find at a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. We also discuss that people celebrate Thanksgiving with many dishes other than the ones mentioned in the song. Politeness and manners are addressed at the end when I say that I don't care for pumpkin pie (most are appalled at this fact), and I politely say, "No thank you" when offered the dessert. "Shoo Turkey" is an example of a traditional "Call and Response" song in which a leader sings a line and the group sings another line back. During this song, I remind the students to "sing" their response of "Yes, Sir" in their best singing voices. (It does get exciting and the "yes, sir" can often elicit a military-like response). During the "shoo turkey, shoo shoo" part, we flap and hop to the beat of the song like turkeys around the room. In this recording, you can hear the Penguins singing and hopping along. While I sang "The Turkey Song," some Bunnies and Dolphins got a chance to play a real fiddle" (or a violin, we call it a fiddle when we play folk or bluegrass music). I asked a fiddle player once, "What's the difference between the violin and the fiddle?" She replied, "The fiddle stays up later." "The Turkey Song" or "Fo-link-a-tidy" is an example of a traditional song that serves as a historical time capsule. I explain to the students that this song comes from a time before there was a grocery store down the street, or the food delivery services that we have come accustomed to nowadays. Early settlers had to hunt for their food. The song is sung from the viewpoint of a hunter who went out to get the Thanksgiving turkey but came back empty handed. He then had to explain to his family why there will be no turkey this year. The refrain of "his feet looked awful dirty" is an attempt by the hunter to say that the family wouldn't have wanted it anyway. This, along with the verse that says the turkey had "a wife and children," adds that the hunter showed compassion by sparing the animal's life. This is the reason that his family shouldn't make him feel guilty as they are eating this year's meal without a turkey as the main course. One of the first circle chasing games we have played this year is called the Turkey Game. Arrange the chairs in a circle and one person walks around the circle holding a small stuffed turkey. On the words, "better run away," the person outside the circle puts the turkey in a student's lap that is seated in the circle and says, "chase me." Then, the student who dropped the turkey runs around the circle and tries to get back to what was the seated student's seat before he/she does. On the surface, these types of musical games look simply like children having fun. But these games can be used to reinforce the basic musical aspects of singing, walking to the beat, and keeping an internal beat. It also supports simple game rules, turn taking, body control and consideration of others. This circle game concept is played throughout the year with different seasonal songs to accompany the game. Have your children show it to other cousins or relatives when your families get together. For groups like the Bunnies and Dolphins (here you can hear the Dolphins singing along during their first time hearing this song), I have started singing a new good morning sound called "Gilly Gilly Gilly Good Morning." Ask your child to show you the hand movements that accompany this song. This is an example of a "busy hands" song which reinforces the beat or musicality of the song. During the "minnie mac" lyrics we are tapping the beat on our laps, and during the "moe" lyrics we are moving our hands in a downward direction to show how the melody goes down and also that it is a longer rhythmic note. For Veteran's Day, we listened to songs that represented each branch of the military. We marched to the beat and identified the different instruments that we heard and noticed that there were no stringed instruments. Here, one of our OT's joins our music class to help our students march to the beat of the military songs.
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September 2018
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