The other Tykes are Terrific Too

This week we sang "I am the Music Man" and gave every child a chance to play a drum, shaker, and set of bells. But this is how it went:

"Seriously! You'll all get a chance to play all the instruments! Stop whining! Be patient! Trust me for, like, 5 seconds!"

I eventually made sure that all of the drums and all of the shakers I handed out were the same color so that no one could start whining or doing black market trades/theft.

After we got through the whole song three times with each instrument we did a bit of elementary ear training. I hid the instruments under a cloth and the kids could only play when they heard *their* instrument being played. For the classes that were catching on quickly we then switched it up and played two instruments at once. That was a bit trickier because for some combinations (specifically shaker and bells, which sound very similar) you had to listen for what instrument wasn't there. Isn't that neat?

I also had to explain to each class why I was hobbling around with a crutch. I told them that I had been silly and run for the bus and fallen down. So don't run for buses. "Yeah, but why were you being silly?" Good question kid, good question.

One of the reception girls invented a long involved story about how I hurt myself on the bus which involved my getting my foot caught in the door and then having the bus driver open and close the doors a couple of times on my ankle. While I am impressed with her creative and inventive ability, I am also concerned that she will now be frightened of buses.

A lot of the kids were confused by the crutch because of its arm band. They thought that I had hurt my arm instead of my ankle. Another reception boy offered to teach music class for me since clearly I was completely out of commission.

It was nice to see that a more stationary music class worked just fine. I was a bit concerned that having them sit for the entire class would cause them to completely lose focus, but it turned out that I had enough activities that I managed to hold on to their attention for the whole time.

I always end with Simama Ka, which is one of their favorite songs and involves jumping up and down. The nursery kids in particular are unlikely to do anything without having it modeled for them. So even though they've done this for a couple of months now, when I didn't jump- they didn't jump. So in an effort to get them to jump I hopped on one foot. This led to the whole class hopping on one foot. Adorable, if misguided.