I'm marking the kid's Religious Education books. Okay, so I probably should have done this...before. But I'm doing it now! So that's good.
At one point we were illustrating the metaphor of good= light and bad= dark. I've just got to a page where one of the children has drawn a giant warning sign that says "DANG" with exclamation point above it. I think it's adorable! (even though the next page makes it clear that what he was *trying* to write was "danger," which isn't nearly as funny as Dang!)
One child has suggested that on the sabbath Jewish people could go to the opera or go swimming. Those are his only two suggestions. I kind of love it. This same kid's explanation for why David fought Goliath was the reward of £10,000. (I don't remember that part of the story...?)
Possibly my new favourite: under Things I Wouldn't Do If My Parents Were Watching I found the suggestion that perhaps it would not be the best idea to smuggle a mummy from Egypt into the house under your folk's noses.
I heartily agree.
Also, "don't wobble with your silly faces." I mean, who could disagree with that?
And don't make the BT tower break. Very important to remember not to do that in front of your parents.
Showing posts with label kids are cute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids are cute. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Work Hours and Whatnot
Here's what I started writing last week:
Since I don't have any formal education training this will be a provisional arrangement until everyone is satisfied that I can do the work effectively (or, you know, not.) I'm quite pleased with how this is working out and though none of it is set in stone, I'm feeling cautiously excited.
Want to know what I will be teaching this group of 8 and 9 year olds? (The lesson plans and curriculum are written, all I have to do is follow them.)
Religious Education.
(and English.)
"My hours are all up in the air currently which makes me feel anxious, but I've done what I can about it and at this point all I can do is sit and wait- secure in the knowledge that my direct superiors are crossing their fingers to have me around for two days and at this point it is up to...um...other people. (Not really sure who to be perfectly honest.) I continue to have a lot of faith in the new Head Mistress, she's got her head on straight and I feel like we're on pretty much the same page about what sort of hours I'm hoping for. (And on the same page about how that probably isn't going to happen.)"This week our new headmistress has worked genius miracles and it looks like I will be getting a day and a half. In order to fill out some of those hours what I will be doing is taking two hours of lessons away from one of the year 3 teachers who is also the head of Key Stage 2 (years 3 through 6) so that she has time to do the administrative portion of her job.
Since I don't have any formal education training this will be a provisional arrangement until everyone is satisfied that I can do the work effectively (or, you know, not.) I'm quite pleased with how this is working out and though none of it is set in stone, I'm feeling cautiously excited.
Want to know what I will be teaching this group of 8 and 9 year olds? (The lesson plans and curriculum are written, all I have to do is follow them.)
Religious Education.
(and English.)
Composition Club
This club is my baby.
I love this club.
I have been wanting to do this club for ages and would (shh, it's a secret!) totally do it for free.
It's a group composition club with 9 year olds, and the whole thing warms my heart so much that I bounce up and down when I think about it. Or talk about it. Or type about it.
Want to hear what we did the first week?
I have this book that I bought with Mical last year from the remainders section at the U. Bookstore in Seattle. I would link to it, but I totally don't remember the title. Suffice to say it matches up paintings with tracks from famous and evocative pieces of music. So for instance flight of the bumble bee with a Japanese print of dahlias and a bee. Or Vivaldi's "Winter" with a landscape painting from the 1700's of Flemish ice skaters.
I wanted to write a piece our first week of club so that we really jumped in head first and got right in to the making of things. I figured that building a soundscape would be the easiest way in and I knew that we could build something fairly quickly. We started by looking at 4 of the paintings in the book and discussing what we expected the music to sound like based on the paintings. This aquarium scene is underwater and has a lot of fish. Do you suppose the music will be legato or staccato? Do you think it's going to be loud or quiet? What sort of instruments would you use for this scene? Based on this painting do you expect the music to be scary? happy? authoritative? calm? angry? Something else?
We only had two girls the first week, so I left them lying on their bellies on the carpet, waving their feet gently back and forth in the air while they flipped through the pictures and listened to the pieces in order to guess which one they were listening to.
Having discussed all four of the chosen pictures I was only going to play one piece for them to guess and sort out, but they were enjoying themselves so much that they asked if they could do all of them. You bet you can!
Once we'd finished looking at the book and they'd correctly deduced all four pieces (we even had a bit of a knights' duel during the march) it started to rain very, very heavily. This was *perfect* as it meant that when I brought up making a soundscape, the first thing they wanted to make it about was the rain. (How ideal.)
We went out into the hallway where the instrument store closet is and picked out some percussion that we thought might be useful including two rain sticks, some bongos, a slit drum, a thunder drum, and a clacker thing that probably has a proper name but if it does I don't know what it is.
We brought the instruments back into the room, had a bit of time to experiment, and then discussed and tried playing the story that our soundscape would be structured on. We begin with people walking around slowly (bongos), then the rain starts (rain sticks) and the people hurry away. When the thunder starts (thunder drum) the people knock urgently on doors in order to be let inside (slit drum top and sides to make two different sounds). Then, since we are doing this from the storm's point of view- there is a thunder drum solo accompanied by the rain sticks. The thunder dies away and the first brave souls venture out again (bongos). Then the rain stops and all you hear are footsteps.
Our piece is called "The Big Storm."
We wrote it all down, stuck our written text score on a music stand, and rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed. I was willing to quit way before the girls wanted to stop. We even performed it for one of the Year 3 teachers who happened to be walking by. I had the girls initial and date the score and gave them each photo copies to take home with them.
Excellent.
This week we started by analyzing three more paintings, welcoming our 3rd club member, and reviewing last week's piece. Our newest member learned/was taught two different parts (the rain sticks and the slit drum) which we rehearsed extensively before recording. (They're each going to get a CD of their work at the end of the term.) That took up so much time that we only had 15 minutes to make a start on our next piece.
Apparently this club is half music and half art appreciation (with a bit of Earth Sciences thrown in: for some reason we had a big conversation about the Pacific rim of fire before club got started today). The next piece we're working on uses as its starting point rhythm and pitch instead of location and environment. Rhythm and pitch are the two most basic building blocks of music and maybe a sculpture or picture of neat architecture would have been better to look at- but the first thing that came to mind was Piet Mondrian with his lines and colours. Shapes and colours? Pitch and rhythm. Let's work it.
So that's where we're at right now. (Just wait 'til we start using poetry as a starting point!) This club makes me so. so. SO happy.
I love this club.
I have been wanting to do this club for ages and would (shh, it's a secret!) totally do it for free.
It's a group composition club with 9 year olds, and the whole thing warms my heart so much that I bounce up and down when I think about it. Or talk about it. Or type about it.
Want to hear what we did the first week?
I have this book that I bought with Mical last year from the remainders section at the U. Bookstore in Seattle. I would link to it, but I totally don't remember the title. Suffice to say it matches up paintings with tracks from famous and evocative pieces of music. So for instance flight of the bumble bee with a Japanese print of dahlias and a bee. Or Vivaldi's "Winter" with a landscape painting from the 1700's of Flemish ice skaters.
I wanted to write a piece our first week of club so that we really jumped in head first and got right in to the making of things. I figured that building a soundscape would be the easiest way in and I knew that we could build something fairly quickly. We started by looking at 4 of the paintings in the book and discussing what we expected the music to sound like based on the paintings. This aquarium scene is underwater and has a lot of fish. Do you suppose the music will be legato or staccato? Do you think it's going to be loud or quiet? What sort of instruments would you use for this scene? Based on this painting do you expect the music to be scary? happy? authoritative? calm? angry? Something else?
We only had two girls the first week, so I left them lying on their bellies on the carpet, waving their feet gently back and forth in the air while they flipped through the pictures and listened to the pieces in order to guess which one they were listening to.
Having discussed all four of the chosen pictures I was only going to play one piece for them to guess and sort out, but they were enjoying themselves so much that they asked if they could do all of them. You bet you can!
Once we'd finished looking at the book and they'd correctly deduced all four pieces (we even had a bit of a knights' duel during the march) it started to rain very, very heavily. This was *perfect* as it meant that when I brought up making a soundscape, the first thing they wanted to make it about was the rain. (How ideal.)
We went out into the hallway where the instrument store closet is and picked out some percussion that we thought might be useful including two rain sticks, some bongos, a slit drum, a thunder drum, and a clacker thing that probably has a proper name but if it does I don't know what it is.
We brought the instruments back into the room, had a bit of time to experiment, and then discussed and tried playing the story that our soundscape would be structured on. We begin with people walking around slowly (bongos), then the rain starts (rain sticks) and the people hurry away. When the thunder starts (thunder drum) the people knock urgently on doors in order to be let inside (slit drum top and sides to make two different sounds). Then, since we are doing this from the storm's point of view- there is a thunder drum solo accompanied by the rain sticks. The thunder dies away and the first brave souls venture out again (bongos). Then the rain stops and all you hear are footsteps.
Our piece is called "The Big Storm."
We wrote it all down, stuck our written text score on a music stand, and rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed. I was willing to quit way before the girls wanted to stop. We even performed it for one of the Year 3 teachers who happened to be walking by. I had the girls initial and date the score and gave them each photo copies to take home with them.
Excellent.
This week we started by analyzing three more paintings, welcoming our 3rd club member, and reviewing last week's piece. Our newest member learned/was taught two different parts (the rain sticks and the slit drum) which we rehearsed extensively before recording. (They're each going to get a CD of their work at the end of the term.) That took up so much time that we only had 15 minutes to make a start on our next piece.
Apparently this club is half music and half art appreciation (with a bit of Earth Sciences thrown in: for some reason we had a big conversation about the Pacific rim of fire before club got started today). The next piece we're working on uses as its starting point rhythm and pitch instead of location and environment. Rhythm and pitch are the two most basic building blocks of music and maybe a sculpture or picture of neat architecture would have been better to look at- but the first thing that came to mind was Piet Mondrian with his lines and colours. Shapes and colours? Pitch and rhythm. Let's work it.
So that's where we're at right now. (Just wait 'til we start using poetry as a starting point!) This club makes me so. so. SO happy.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Things I learned on Sunday
Sunday was the first of the Christmas concerts with the Kids singing "Snowflake Serenade" at the beginning of the music service recital. The concert was in Christchurch about a five minute walk from Gloucester road. (I think I have found where I want to live when I have buckets and buckets of money- there is a mews behind the church that is full of charming and cute little houses with large planters and pots outside just about every door and climbing plants growing up the fronts of the buildings. It was just beautiful; especially as since it is Christmas time the whole road was lit up with fairy lights as well.) The church was lovely but very cold. All the teachers got there at 1pm to have a staff meeting before the students started trailing in to practice with their accompanists.
The meeting was a little bit silly- it is a new organization and while things are generally going well there is more that the org would like to do and expand upon- which is all well and good. A chamber music programme *would* be a great addition to the offerings, as would composition workshops. Absolutely.
But here's the thing- one of the things that I learned during my IPE rehearsals this summer was that if I was prepared with a number of possible ideas for how a portion of the piece could go then things went swimmingly- even if the devising process left my ideas in the dust. The important part was to have an *idea* of a solution (if, as the director, I couldn't think of a way to make it work, isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that other people are going to take the problem and run with it? Okay- sometimes that was exactly what was needed because I was beating my head against a brick wall and needed help- but that's not what I'm talking about- this is more at the beginning of the process.)
For instance say I wanted a story to be told through a piece of music. And presented it to my group exactly like that: "hey guys! Lets put a story to music! So...what story do you want to do?" It's awfully open ended, and totally not helpful. They may completely agree with me that putting a story to music is brilliant, what a fabulous idea! But I, as director, am going to need to put a little bit more in to it. A lot more in to it. "Hey, lets try little red riding hood with the oboe as the main character- do you think we could have a recurring bassoon part for the wolf? Maybe based a little bit on the wolf theme from Peter and the Wolf and oh! Hey! Maybe we could do a whole concert of pieces based on stories with wolves and use that as our common thread through the whole evening...." etc.
Yeah, a chamber music program is a great idea, but during this meeting we're not going to be able to organize that and figure out all the logistics and think of who should play with who and blah blah blah.
Here's how, in retrospect, I would have run that portion of the meeting (oh, it dragged on so!):
"We think a chamber music option would be great to have at the school- any first thoughts?"
(five minutes of discussion)
"So it sounds like using the students current lesson times isn't going to work for a number of reasons including disrupting already short lesson times, matching up groups of the same level who are having lessons at the same time, and figuring out how the payment works. What about if we tried having chamber music taster sessions to see if the students and parents are interested?"
(five minutes of discussion)
"Am I correct in understanding that most of you think Sunday would be a good day to do this? Is there anyone who is particularly interested or particularly not interested in joining in with this idea/plan?"
(raised hands or around the circle- 2 minutes)
"Wonderful then the four of us who are gung ho- lets be in touch via email about specific dates. Next on the agenda is..."h
See? streamlined! Repeating and clarifying the key points! Creating a sub-committee!
Anyhow- this morning I wrote a list of "things that I have learned about Kid's Christmas Recitals"
1. If it is in a church, dress you child in a turtleneck. Old stone churches are hard to heat and they get *cold.*
2. Kids in choirs are cute. Kids in choirs with over sized Santa hats are cuter still!
3. Treats and tastiness are a great idea for the interval. (And children drink mulled wine in the UK? Isn't it...alcoholic? I guess the cooking takes care of that?)
4. Two hours is far too long for a children's recital.
5. Sketch books are useful for keeping multiple teachers/tutors entertained
6. Question: is it alright to tell of other people's children when a: the child is noisily and repetitively interrupting the concert and b: the parent is doing nothing about it?
7. For those of you who ever messed up in a recital: no one minds- we're all just so proud of you for even getting up there.
It was really nice to spend some time with the rest of the tutors. They are all lovely people and since we never have a chance really to speak while we're teaching- it was particularly nice to get a chance to just hang out a little bit.
One of my favorite Kids is moving back to France after Christmas so this week is the last time I get to see him. Fortunately his parents and two little sisters were helping out with the treats and tastiness so I was able to spend a bunch of time talking to them as well. It was a bit of a mutual appreciation society: "Oh! M. just loves your class! Talks about it all the time!" "Well M. is such a good singer and he catches on to concepts so quickly! He concentrates hard and he's a joy to have in class, I'll miss him!" etc.
All in all a good experience.
The meeting was a little bit silly- it is a new organization and while things are generally going well there is more that the org would like to do and expand upon- which is all well and good. A chamber music programme *would* be a great addition to the offerings, as would composition workshops. Absolutely.
But here's the thing- one of the things that I learned during my IPE rehearsals this summer was that if I was prepared with a number of possible ideas for how a portion of the piece could go then things went swimmingly- even if the devising process left my ideas in the dust. The important part was to have an *idea* of a solution (if, as the director, I couldn't think of a way to make it work, isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that other people are going to take the problem and run with it? Okay- sometimes that was exactly what was needed because I was beating my head against a brick wall and needed help- but that's not what I'm talking about- this is more at the beginning of the process.)
For instance say I wanted a story to be told through a piece of music. And presented it to my group exactly like that: "hey guys! Lets put a story to music! So...what story do you want to do?" It's awfully open ended, and totally not helpful. They may completely agree with me that putting a story to music is brilliant, what a fabulous idea! But I, as director, am going to need to put a little bit more in to it. A lot more in to it. "Hey, lets try little red riding hood with the oboe as the main character- do you think we could have a recurring bassoon part for the wolf? Maybe based a little bit on the wolf theme from Peter and the Wolf and oh! Hey! Maybe we could do a whole concert of pieces based on stories with wolves and use that as our common thread through the whole evening...." etc.
Yeah, a chamber music program is a great idea, but during this meeting we're not going to be able to organize that and figure out all the logistics and think of who should play with who and blah blah blah.
Here's how, in retrospect, I would have run that portion of the meeting (oh, it dragged on so!):
"We think a chamber music option would be great to have at the school- any first thoughts?"
(five minutes of discussion)
"So it sounds like using the students current lesson times isn't going to work for a number of reasons including disrupting already short lesson times, matching up groups of the same level who are having lessons at the same time, and figuring out how the payment works. What about if we tried having chamber music taster sessions to see if the students and parents are interested?"
(five minutes of discussion)
"Am I correct in understanding that most of you think Sunday would be a good day to do this? Is there anyone who is particularly interested or particularly not interested in joining in with this idea/plan?"
(raised hands or around the circle- 2 minutes)
"Wonderful then the four of us who are gung ho- lets be in touch via email about specific dates. Next on the agenda is..."h
See? streamlined! Repeating and clarifying the key points! Creating a sub-committee!
Anyhow- this morning I wrote a list of "things that I have learned about Kid's Christmas Recitals"
1. If it is in a church, dress you child in a turtleneck. Old stone churches are hard to heat and they get *cold.*
2. Kids in choirs are cute. Kids in choirs with over sized Santa hats are cuter still!
3. Treats and tastiness are a great idea for the interval. (And children drink mulled wine in the UK? Isn't it...alcoholic? I guess the cooking takes care of that?)
4. Two hours is far too long for a children's recital.
5. Sketch books are useful for keeping multiple teachers/tutors entertained
6. Question: is it alright to tell of other people's children when a: the child is noisily and repetitively interrupting the concert and b: the parent is doing nothing about it?
7. For those of you who ever messed up in a recital: no one minds- we're all just so proud of you for even getting up there.
It was really nice to spend some time with the rest of the tutors. They are all lovely people and since we never have a chance really to speak while we're teaching- it was particularly nice to get a chance to just hang out a little bit.
One of my favorite Kids is moving back to France after Christmas so this week is the last time I get to see him. Fortunately his parents and two little sisters were helping out with the treats and tastiness so I was able to spend a bunch of time talking to them as well. It was a bit of a mutual appreciation society: "Oh! M. just loves your class! Talks about it all the time!" "Well M. is such a good singer and he catches on to concepts so quickly! He concentrates hard and he's a joy to have in class, I'll miss him!" etc.
All in all a good experience.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Pantomime
I saw my first pantomime today. There was a traveling production called Mother Goose that the nursery and reception kids watched this morning.
I'm not really sure how to describe a panto for Americans...they are generally based around a fairy tale or nursery rhyme, I gather that usually there is quite a lot of cross dressing, it is for children(ish) but contains a number of topical pop culture/news references, you yell out at the actors on stage (In ENGLAND! I think this is one of those cases where something is SO taboo that an event is created where the taboo is lifted once a year. Is there a word for that? A fancy anthropology word?), and they happen every Christmas- generally with some random celebrity headlining (Case in point- this year Pamela Anderson is in one in Wimbledon. Seriously? Pamela Anderson?)
The panto started at half past nine so that meant that I had just enough time after the tykes arrived to gather them all up into one room and *try* going through all of the songs for the nursery's Christmas Carols performance. It was at about a quarter past nine that I realized that I had never seen all of the nursery children in one place. Do you know how many of them there are? *63!* And do you know how short they are? In order to get their attention I started with our basic physical warm up: wiggling fingers on our heads, clapping together, a big "shhhhhhhh!", and a bit of vocalizing. That mostly worked except that I was literally tripping over children. (The room was far too small to have a circle and we hadn't been organized enough when they were entering to keep any semblance of order- the tykes were willy nilly around the room/my ankles)
There is still a lot of work to be done on the songs but it was such a good thing to get all of them into one room. We'll be doing that again multiple times next week- at least then the shock of performing and being surrounded by their mommies and daddies (and babies! Don't forget the babies Miss Casey!) won't be compounded by the shock of having all three nursery classes together for the first time.
We went through the songs for the show, I sang "snowflake serenade" (the late entry to our set list) at them since they just need to hear it a lot at this point, and then we still had 10 minutes to kill and did I mention this was disorganized? The teachers were mostly sitting at the back of the room either dealing with a few tykes who are unable to handle crowds or exhaustedly taking a moment to breathe- which is when it occurred to me that I was in charge. That I was running this rehearsal, no one else had any particular agenda, and any decision about what we were going to do was in my hands since I was the expert in the room. Weird. So we sang some movement songs and I got them all quiet and then LOUD and we were princesses and princes (a first, actually), and spiderman (not a first), and eventually we were able to go into the cafeteria/hall to watch the panto. Oh, the panto.
Quick Plot Summary: Old Mother Hubbard and Silly Billy have adopted Priscilla the Goose and are worried both about money and about their evil neighbor who is a famous chef with a famous restaurant called Hells Kitchen. Priscilla lays a golden egg, the evil neighbor kidnaps her, and eventually Silly Billy saves her. Woo!
Oh, something I forgot about pantomimes, you *always* end up shouting "He's/She's BEHIND YOU!!" (also, according to Ella, "oh yes he is!" "Oh no he isn't!" and "BOOO!" with appropriate thumbs down gesturing)
We sat all of reception and nursery down on short benches and the floor and, for the first half (it was an hour and a half long show! For four year olds! I was impressed), I sat in amongst the tykes on the floor. The tykes: they got in to it.
*N. kept standing up and screeching with a big grin on her face because she was SO! EXCITED!
*M. was practically bursting out of her skin trying to help Silly Billy and Mother Hubbard out. She was pointing her arm out with her back arched and all of her muscles taught, clearly holding her breath as though if she could just squeeze herself enough the good guys would win. With her help and inside information. Obvs.
*T. wandered on to the stage, looked up at Silly Billy, and then was whisked off again by a teaching assistant
*P. got "cross" with the villain and during one quiet lull yelled out "You'll not be getting a biscuit!"
The whole thing was pretty hilariously cute.
I'm not really sure how to describe a panto for Americans...they are generally based around a fairy tale or nursery rhyme, I gather that usually there is quite a lot of cross dressing, it is for children(ish) but contains a number of topical pop culture/news references, you yell out at the actors on stage (In ENGLAND! I think this is one of those cases where something is SO taboo that an event is created where the taboo is lifted once a year. Is there a word for that? A fancy anthropology word?), and they happen every Christmas- generally with some random celebrity headlining (Case in point- this year Pamela Anderson is in one in Wimbledon. Seriously? Pamela Anderson?)
The panto started at half past nine so that meant that I had just enough time after the tykes arrived to gather them all up into one room and *try* going through all of the songs for the nursery's Christmas Carols performance. It was at about a quarter past nine that I realized that I had never seen all of the nursery children in one place. Do you know how many of them there are? *63!* And do you know how short they are? In order to get their attention I started with our basic physical warm up: wiggling fingers on our heads, clapping together, a big "shhhhhhhh!", and a bit of vocalizing. That mostly worked except that I was literally tripping over children. (The room was far too small to have a circle and we hadn't been organized enough when they were entering to keep any semblance of order- the tykes were willy nilly around the room/my ankles)
There is still a lot of work to be done on the songs but it was such a good thing to get all of them into one room. We'll be doing that again multiple times next week- at least then the shock of performing and being surrounded by their mommies and daddies (and babies! Don't forget the babies Miss Casey!) won't be compounded by the shock of having all three nursery classes together for the first time.
We went through the songs for the show, I sang "snowflake serenade" (the late entry to our set list) at them since they just need to hear it a lot at this point, and then we still had 10 minutes to kill and did I mention this was disorganized? The teachers were mostly sitting at the back of the room either dealing with a few tykes who are unable to handle crowds or exhaustedly taking a moment to breathe- which is when it occurred to me that I was in charge. That I was running this rehearsal, no one else had any particular agenda, and any decision about what we were going to do was in my hands since I was the expert in the room. Weird. So we sang some movement songs and I got them all quiet and then LOUD and we were princesses and princes (a first, actually), and spiderman (not a first), and eventually we were able to go into the cafeteria/hall to watch the panto. Oh, the panto.
Quick Plot Summary: Old Mother Hubbard and Silly Billy have adopted Priscilla the Goose and are worried both about money and about their evil neighbor who is a famous chef with a famous restaurant called Hells Kitchen. Priscilla lays a golden egg, the evil neighbor kidnaps her, and eventually Silly Billy saves her. Woo!
Oh, something I forgot about pantomimes, you *always* end up shouting "He's/She's BEHIND YOU!!" (also, according to Ella, "oh yes he is!" "Oh no he isn't!" and "BOOO!" with appropriate thumbs down gesturing)
We sat all of reception and nursery down on short benches and the floor and, for the first half (it was an hour and a half long show! For four year olds! I was impressed), I sat in amongst the tykes on the floor. The tykes: they got in to it.
*N. kept standing up and screeching with a big grin on her face because she was SO! EXCITED!
*M. was practically bursting out of her skin trying to help Silly Billy and Mother Hubbard out. She was pointing her arm out with her back arched and all of her muscles taught, clearly holding her breath as though if she could just squeeze herself enough the good guys would win. With her help and inside information. Obvs.
*T. wandered on to the stage, looked up at Silly Billy, and then was whisked off again by a teaching assistant
*P. got "cross" with the villain and during one quiet lull yelled out "You'll not be getting a biscuit!"
The whole thing was pretty hilariously cute.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
TYKES!
I've missed them. I know I was getting all frustrated with them just before mid-term break, but we're back now and it's all good. We're gearing up for Winter festivities (yes, I know Halloween was just a few days ago- but in my mind it is Christmas all the time.) The nursery tykes have some winter themed songs to sing and the Reception tykes are putting on a whole nativity play!
Apparently that is a done thing in this country- schools do Nativity plays. The one that we're doing is called "Whoops-A-Daisy Angel" and is by Nikki Davies. It's got cute songs that don't seem like they'll get *too* annoying by mid-December and it has a cute little plot:
Whoops-a-Daisy Angel is always rushing around and making mistakes- so she never gets any of the good jobs- like dusting moonbeams. Instead she has to count snowflakes...Then one day she gets an exciting job! She gets to tell the shepherds on a hill that Jesus is born. So finally she gets something right.
Aww.
I cut both the songs that mention "Jesus" or "Christ the Lord" and now the only time he is referred to as anything other than a baby is in French. It still weirds me out that we're doing a nativity play but this is just about as secular as I can make it. So that feels more comfortable to me. For next year I kind of want to write my own...we'll see how that goes.
I'm excited about how I've decided to hand out parts and do the staging and whatnot. There are three reception classes so each of them get to be a part as a unit. That means one class is the Perfect Angels, one class is the Snowflakes, and one class is the Whoops-a-Daisy AngelS. (I've pluralized everything.) That way each class can make their own costumes as a group and they all sing together.
There are two songs that the whole year group sings and then each class gets their character's song as well. For the set we'll have three benches- one for each class- so they'll all be sat as a group and when it is their turn to sing or speak they just stand up where they are. None of this funny business with walking across the stage or anything like that.
The costumes will be white clothes (they've all got white turtlenecks for their school uniforms anyway) and then various headdresses: perfect halos, crooked halos, and some sort of snow flake headdress. Not entirely sure what to do about wings for the angels, but some of the reception teachers are trying to figure out what to do with that. The reason we're trying to keep away from having the parents really getting involved with the costumes is the concern that they will get overly competitive and each try to outdo the others. Not so good for uniformity in costumes...
In any case we are all kinds of on top of this project and I'm getting pretty excited about it. I also have the songs running through my head constantly. So the reception years are totally sorted.
Nursery years are a bit harder to sort out for this winter extravaganza. I should probably just go with a bunch of traditional Christmas songs since they are three years old and have never sung them before- but I have to sing them over and over again as well so I want to make sure that they are still fun for me as well. There is one about snowflakes that I found that I'm excited about. And one that we learned this week about the cold wind whistling around various body parts --but that one only changes one word per verse which is more repetitive than I am really willing to deal with.
It is a fine line to balance with kids songs- being repetitive enough that they can learn it and understand the pattern and being different enough so that it is not obnoxious. For the wind whistling song I am thinking of writing a short B section so that it changes just a little at some point.
Enough with the Christmas show- we also started using instruments! And oh. It went so very well. We have a rhyme this year "if you play before I say, then I will take it away" and I was ruthless-- which worked WONDERS. They treated it as a game and sat quietly and payed attention and it was awesome. We even had a little "explore your instruments" time where I told them to figure out other ways of playing and then looked around the circle and did my best to congratulate each child on something creative they were doing. My favorite was from one of the nursery classes where a little girl was putting her egg shaker on top of her bent knees and then pulling them apart so that the egg shaker fell on to the carpet. It was really fun to do and not something I ever would have thought of. The kid who kept hitting his head with the claves though? I said "what a great idea, doesn't it hurt though?"
Apparently that is a done thing in this country- schools do Nativity plays. The one that we're doing is called "Whoops-A-Daisy Angel" and is by Nikki Davies. It's got cute songs that don't seem like they'll get *too* annoying by mid-December and it has a cute little plot:
Whoops-a-Daisy Angel is always rushing around and making mistakes- so she never gets any of the good jobs- like dusting moonbeams. Instead she has to count snowflakes...Then one day she gets an exciting job! She gets to tell the shepherds on a hill that Jesus is born. So finally she gets something right.
Aww.
I cut both the songs that mention "Jesus" or "Christ the Lord" and now the only time he is referred to as anything other than a baby is in French. It still weirds me out that we're doing a nativity play but this is just about as secular as I can make it. So that feels more comfortable to me. For next year I kind of want to write my own...we'll see how that goes.
I'm excited about how I've decided to hand out parts and do the staging and whatnot. There are three reception classes so each of them get to be a part as a unit. That means one class is the Perfect Angels, one class is the Snowflakes, and one class is the Whoops-a-Daisy AngelS. (I've pluralized everything.) That way each class can make their own costumes as a group and they all sing together.
There are two songs that the whole year group sings and then each class gets their character's song as well. For the set we'll have three benches- one for each class- so they'll all be sat as a group and when it is their turn to sing or speak they just stand up where they are. None of this funny business with walking across the stage or anything like that.
The costumes will be white clothes (they've all got white turtlenecks for their school uniforms anyway) and then various headdresses: perfect halos, crooked halos, and some sort of snow flake headdress. Not entirely sure what to do about wings for the angels, but some of the reception teachers are trying to figure out what to do with that. The reason we're trying to keep away from having the parents really getting involved with the costumes is the concern that they will get overly competitive and each try to outdo the others. Not so good for uniformity in costumes...
In any case we are all kinds of on top of this project and I'm getting pretty excited about it. I also have the songs running through my head constantly. So the reception years are totally sorted.
Nursery years are a bit harder to sort out for this winter extravaganza. I should probably just go with a bunch of traditional Christmas songs since they are three years old and have never sung them before- but I have to sing them over and over again as well so I want to make sure that they are still fun for me as well. There is one about snowflakes that I found that I'm excited about. And one that we learned this week about the cold wind whistling around various body parts --but that one only changes one word per verse which is more repetitive than I am really willing to deal with.
It is a fine line to balance with kids songs- being repetitive enough that they can learn it and understand the pattern and being different enough so that it is not obnoxious. For the wind whistling song I am thinking of writing a short B section so that it changes just a little at some point.
Enough with the Christmas show- we also started using instruments! And oh. It went so very well. We have a rhyme this year "if you play before I say, then I will take it away" and I was ruthless-- which worked WONDERS. They treated it as a game and sat quietly and payed attention and it was awesome. We even had a little "explore your instruments" time where I told them to figure out other ways of playing and then looked around the circle and did my best to congratulate each child on something creative they were doing. My favorite was from one of the nursery classes where a little girl was putting her egg shaker on top of her bent knees and then pulling them apart so that the egg shaker fell on to the carpet. It was really fun to do and not something I ever would have thought of. The kid who kept hitting his head with the claves though? I said "what a great idea, doesn't it hurt though?"
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
It's real wet out. The tykes are probably muddy.
It has been pouring down rain this afternoon and evening. I just arrived home and have now changed into yoga pants and fuzzy slippers; so that's quite a bit better than sopping wet trousers and waterlogged shoes.
This morning I finally had a chance to work on the computers a bit and retroactively put my lesson plans on the system. It was good to do and helped me to realize how much I was flailing around at the beginning of this term. Not that I think that was a bad thing necessarily- but, for instance, I have gone through three different "hello" introduction songs in five weeks. I'm pretty sure I've finally hit on one that I can actually stand to sing over and over and over and over again; so that will stay the same. However, with more forethought this half-term could have been better organized/less confusing.
Just as an example- here are three lyrics from three different songs I have taught so far this term. You'd be excused for getting them mixed up:
1. bounce the penguin, fun to do
2. bounce and bounce and bounce and stop!
3. See how we're bouncing, bouncing, bouncing
here are three other songs:
1. hello, how are you?
2. say hello- hello
3. hello, hello- it's good to see you
confused yet?
1. I'm standing in a tall shape
2. we're all making a shape
3. (actually an activity where you listen to the music and when it stops you freeze--in a shape.)
Now, of course each of these songs have different tunes and sound quite different from one another, but it is clear that I have...whatchacallit....themes.
It got embarrassing as I was writing all these lyrics down in order to publish them on the academic server. I'm just going to continue pretending like what I teach has a structured purpose behind it...
It is "book week" this week and so during music club we ended up doing a version of "Going on a Bear Hunt" as well as listening to some dinosaur book with CD that I don't remember the title of. It is a long day for the nursery tykes and listening to as story (with music!) is always a relaxing/sleepy sort of thing to do. So one of them climbed into my lap and rested his warm, soft, little ear on my cheek. It's like having a kitten. A little kitten who sings...
Um. yeah. So, anyhow.
The new school! What brilliant children I have there. My one problematic child in Wednesday's class was poorly today so all I had were little gems who learn so quickly and don't even get bored learning how to draw treble clefs (particularly if I allow them to draw underwater scenes on the whiteboard while I help one of their classmates)
Okay, so cuteness?
I have a little story that I made up about the G- clef and how to draw it. You see- there is this mouse...and it is circling around the bottom of a grandfather clock trying to figure out how to make its way up to the top... and then it does and it climbs up to the top where it holds on to the minute hand but then slips! And plummets to the ground before trying to climb back into the clock.
If you tell the story while drawing the clef it does work. I think. At least, Linda and I both think it has potential.
However, the youngest in the class? (Three of them are 6 and he is only 4.5) Instead of tracing the clef that I had dotted out on the board for him-- he painstakingly drew a grandfather clock right next to it.
I told him Good Job! And then considered that maybe I hadn't succeeded with that particular story.
This morning I finally had a chance to work on the computers a bit and retroactively put my lesson plans on the system. It was good to do and helped me to realize how much I was flailing around at the beginning of this term. Not that I think that was a bad thing necessarily- but, for instance, I have gone through three different "hello" introduction songs in five weeks. I'm pretty sure I've finally hit on one that I can actually stand to sing over and over and over and over again; so that will stay the same. However, with more forethought this half-term could have been better organized/less confusing.
Just as an example- here are three lyrics from three different songs I have taught so far this term. You'd be excused for getting them mixed up:
1. bounce the penguin, fun to do
2. bounce and bounce and bounce and stop!
3. See how we're bouncing, bouncing, bouncing
here are three other songs:
1. hello, how are you?
2. say hello- hello
3. hello, hello- it's good to see you
confused yet?
1. I'm standing in a tall shape
2. we're all making a shape
3. (actually an activity where you listen to the music and when it stops you freeze--in a shape.)
Now, of course each of these songs have different tunes and sound quite different from one another, but it is clear that I have...whatchacallit....themes.
It got embarrassing as I was writing all these lyrics down in order to publish them on the academic server. I'm just going to continue pretending like what I teach has a structured purpose behind it...
It is "book week" this week and so during music club we ended up doing a version of "Going on a Bear Hunt" as well as listening to some dinosaur book with CD that I don't remember the title of. It is a long day for the nursery tykes and listening to as story (with music!) is always a relaxing/sleepy sort of thing to do. So one of them climbed into my lap and rested his warm, soft, little ear on my cheek. It's like having a kitten. A little kitten who sings...
Um. yeah. So, anyhow.
The new school! What brilliant children I have there. My one problematic child in Wednesday's class was poorly today so all I had were little gems who learn so quickly and don't even get bored learning how to draw treble clefs (particularly if I allow them to draw underwater scenes on the whiteboard while I help one of their classmates)
Okay, so cuteness?
I have a little story that I made up about the G- clef and how to draw it. You see- there is this mouse...and it is circling around the bottom of a grandfather clock trying to figure out how to make its way up to the top... and then it does and it climbs up to the top where it holds on to the minute hand but then slips! And plummets to the ground before trying to climb back into the clock.
If you tell the story while drawing the clef it does work. I think. At least, Linda and I both think it has potential.
However, the youngest in the class? (Three of them are 6 and he is only 4.5) Instead of tracing the clef that I had dotted out on the board for him-- he painstakingly drew a grandfather clock right next to it.
I told him Good Job! And then considered that maybe I hadn't succeeded with that particular story.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Music class with Tykes!
On Friday one of the activities we did was music! Which made me really happy, I like teaching music. But it also brought up a new question: what do I do when half the class knows the songs really well and the other half (or even third, whatever) has never heard them before? We sang "My Mini-beast Friends" which is one of the songs that I did with the nursery classes for parents day. It's a fun song because it's got this part where it goes "down on the ground" and you bend over and touch your toes. Hilarity ensues. In any case- I couldn't get through one line of teaching it to the new kids without having the tykes who already knew it start hollering the rest of the song out.
This is actually going to be a big challenge: a lot of the songs I've used so far I'd like to continue using because they're fun, I like them, and I have a clue how the kids react to them. But if I'm not going to be able to teach them? The tykes stay in nursery for one or two years depending on how old they are when they start, and I'm not sure how many tykes enter the school at reception age but I should think it wouldn't be an insignificant number which means that both sets of classes will have a bunch who've had me as a teacher before and a bunch who haven't.
In any case we also did art yesterday. Listening in on a conversation during home time I heard this interaction:
Girl 1. Wow, my painting is so pretty! Can I see yours?
Girl 2. shows girl 1 her painting
Girl 1. Wow, my painting is so pretty!
This is actually going to be a big challenge: a lot of the songs I've used so far I'd like to continue using because they're fun, I like them, and I have a clue how the kids react to them. But if I'm not going to be able to teach them? The tykes stay in nursery for one or two years depending on how old they are when they start, and I'm not sure how many tykes enter the school at reception age but I should think it wouldn't be an insignificant number which means that both sets of classes will have a bunch who've had me as a teacher before and a bunch who haven't.
In any case we also did art yesterday. Listening in on a conversation during home time I heard this interaction:
Girl 1. Wow, my painting is so pretty! Can I see yours?
Girl 2. shows girl 1 her painting
Girl 1. Wow, my painting is so pretty!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
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.
"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.
This Tyke is Terrific
There is a special tyke in one of the nursery classes who I should find a pain in the butt, but instead I find incredibly endearing. We're going to call him "J." J. is always very insistent about what he wants/needs which can be difficult to deal with in a class of 21 when you've managed to get the rest of the class in a circle and J is standing in front of you saying "drum. I would like a drum." It's clear what he wants, and you'd like to help him out, but kid- there are 20 more of you!
Anyhow- he's the sort that doesn't deal totally well in a group setting, but it is clear that he gets very turned on by the instruments and by music class in general so last week I asked his teacher if it would be alright if I took him out for some one on one instrument time. She literally started jumping up and down she thought it was such a good idea.
J, however, will always be his own person- so when we asked him this week if he would like to do instruments he said no. (...cool.) Eventually we were able to convince him to come along to the staff room where I had a bunch of instruments set out, but only on the condition that he could bring a small plastic horse (that's "neigh neigh" to you) along with him. N, a little girl, followed us out of the room as well so I was like sure. Two is cool.
J has mad rhythm skills. He can keep a pulse, he can do groups of four and he can repeat a rhythm I play for him first. He *can* do all of these things, but only if he feels like it. And if his neigh neigh can be involved.
We sang "Old MacDonald" and he was doing the more complicated rhythm that I was doing: stopping at the ends of phrases instead of playing the pulse all the way through. (N did a very good job of playing all the way through, which is what I was originally going to work towards) But J would only sing along if we did horses. I suggested pigs, but no- we had to do horses again. Then I didn't ask and we just went ahead and did pigs; I asked again for another animal and after that and we did pigs again...so I guess any animal is fine as long as they happen twice in a row? J! You're a weird little kid!
But the best thing ever? Getting a giant hug around the knees and a kiss on the cheek from J at the end of class. I'm a little besotted.
Anyhow- he's the sort that doesn't deal totally well in a group setting, but it is clear that he gets very turned on by the instruments and by music class in general so last week I asked his teacher if it would be alright if I took him out for some one on one instrument time. She literally started jumping up and down she thought it was such a good idea.
J, however, will always be his own person- so when we asked him this week if he would like to do instruments he said no. (...cool.) Eventually we were able to convince him to come along to the staff room where I had a bunch of instruments set out, but only on the condition that he could bring a small plastic horse (that's "neigh neigh" to you) along with him. N, a little girl, followed us out of the room as well so I was like sure. Two is cool.
J has mad rhythm skills. He can keep a pulse, he can do groups of four and he can repeat a rhythm I play for him first. He *can* do all of these things, but only if he feels like it. And if his neigh neigh can be involved.
We sang "Old MacDonald" and he was doing the more complicated rhythm that I was doing: stopping at the ends of phrases instead of playing the pulse all the way through. (N did a very good job of playing all the way through, which is what I was originally going to work towards) But J would only sing along if we did horses. I suggested pigs, but no- we had to do horses again. Then I didn't ask and we just went ahead and did pigs; I asked again for another animal and after that and we did pigs again...so I guess any animal is fine as long as they happen twice in a row? J! You're a weird little kid!
But the best thing ever? Getting a giant hug around the knees and a kiss on the cheek from J at the end of class. I'm a little besotted.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The tykes are getting grabby
I had to have a lecture with one of my classes yesterday about how, particularly when it comes to touching other people, when someone asks you to stop or says "no" you need to listen. In other words: my butt- it's not a drum. You know what else isn't? My stomach. Also? It turns out I'm not a jungle gym. Hugs however? I'm so totally there. Just, you know, not all of you right as I'm trying to leave the room, kay?
There were some out of control classes yesterday, all day long kids were getting in major trouble for fighting, not to mention biting. One of the reception classes was even brought to another of my reception classes to see a model for what good behaviour during music class looked like. And one poor girl wet her pants three times. They were beginning to run out of extra uniforms.
On the other hand- they've all got the picture in terms of playing the instruments only when they're asked to, and some of them are even starting to be able to play together as a group- like one clap at one time. Which I think is pretty impressive.
Green class, one of the nursery classes was particularly adorable yesterday. We sang a song with different actions each verse and when I asked for suggestions suddenly we were being sheep, batman, princesses, and frogs. It was pretty great. Also, a fun challenge to fit all of those suggestions into the existing rhythmic pattern of the song.
The upper school music teacher and I began doing music club this week. She uses puppets, storybooks, the piano, and CD's. It is very different from what I am used to doing, but good to see in action. I think I'm going to stay away from the puppets, but there are some good children's music CD's out there and it is silly not to use existing resources. Particularly if they are actually good and not excessively corny. Which is always a fine line to balance.
There were some out of control classes yesterday, all day long kids were getting in major trouble for fighting, not to mention biting. One of the reception classes was even brought to another of my reception classes to see a model for what good behaviour during music class looked like. And one poor girl wet her pants three times. They were beginning to run out of extra uniforms.
On the other hand- they've all got the picture in terms of playing the instruments only when they're asked to, and some of them are even starting to be able to play together as a group- like one clap at one time. Which I think is pretty impressive.
Green class, one of the nursery classes was particularly adorable yesterday. We sang a song with different actions each verse and when I asked for suggestions suddenly we were being sheep, batman, princesses, and frogs. It was pretty great. Also, a fun challenge to fit all of those suggestions into the existing rhythmic pattern of the song.
The upper school music teacher and I began doing music club this week. She uses puppets, storybooks, the piano, and CD's. It is very different from what I am used to doing, but good to see in action. I think I'm going to stay away from the puppets, but there are some good children's music CD's out there and it is silly not to use existing resources. Particularly if they are actually good and not excessively corny. Which is always a fine line to balance.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
I still love my job
We've been working on instrumental skillz and playing as an ensemble. It's been a little difficult because the tykes only had tambourines and bells to work with which are not terribly different sounding instruments. But today we had a breakthrough; today the drums had arrived!
These drums are great- they're about five inches across, come with two sticks each, have rubber feet so that you can leave them on the ground and still get a full sound, and have a surprisingly good tone for such a little drum. I was ruthless with the taking away of the instruments if they were played out of turn, which I think was a good move. I'd give them back when we went on to the next round of anything we were doing, but I would always take them away if they were played out of turn. This resulted in much better behaviour than I've ever managed to get before.
I hadn't totally expected it, but raising the stakes on things makes them pay, like, WAY more attention. We tiptoed quietly and STOMPED LOUDLY and stopped whenever the drum stopped. When I was starting the activity there was lots of colliding with other children and manic giggling. When I turned it into an elimination game where you were out if you didn't start with the drum and stop with the drum. The tiny tykes got deadly serious.
You know what is funny? Four year olds with looks of intense concentration, standing on one foot, and waiting for you to start again. I wish I could express this one girl's face: she's looking up at me because I'm so much taller and she looks like she could scale a mountain if the situation called for it- that determined and that fierce.
We also played the rhythm of our names on our drums. Some kids immediately got that they were to play the syllables of their names, others- not so much. But there were some super creative things they did too- like scratching the drum, saying their name and then hitting the drum in the beat afterwards, and turning the drum over and tapping it that way. I'm all about exploring the sound potential of the instruments so that was cool.
My favorite was a class where they all started stretching out their names with extra vowels so that a name like "Jane" would become "Jah-ah-ai-ne-uh." The best was when George got terribly upset because I laughed when he tried to tell me that his name really IS pronounced "Ge-eh-or-ge-eh." I'm sorry George, I didn't mean to laugh at you.
In other news I am a big fan of Teaching Foundation Music: a complete step-by-step scheme of work by Ann Bryant. I've thought this book was fabulous for a while now, but it only occurred to me today to check out her bio in the back- she's all kinds of Dalcroze trained. No wonder I think she's awesome.
These drums are great- they're about five inches across, come with two sticks each, have rubber feet so that you can leave them on the ground and still get a full sound, and have a surprisingly good tone for such a little drum. I was ruthless with the taking away of the instruments if they were played out of turn, which I think was a good move. I'd give them back when we went on to the next round of anything we were doing, but I would always take them away if they were played out of turn. This resulted in much better behaviour than I've ever managed to get before.
I hadn't totally expected it, but raising the stakes on things makes them pay, like, WAY more attention. We tiptoed quietly and STOMPED LOUDLY and stopped whenever the drum stopped. When I was starting the activity there was lots of colliding with other children and manic giggling. When I turned it into an elimination game where you were out if you didn't start with the drum and stop with the drum. The tiny tykes got deadly serious.
You know what is funny? Four year olds with looks of intense concentration, standing on one foot, and waiting for you to start again. I wish I could express this one girl's face: she's looking up at me because I'm so much taller and she looks like she could scale a mountain if the situation called for it- that determined and that fierce.
We also played the rhythm of our names on our drums. Some kids immediately got that they were to play the syllables of their names, others- not so much. But there were some super creative things they did too- like scratching the drum, saying their name and then hitting the drum in the beat afterwards, and turning the drum over and tapping it that way. I'm all about exploring the sound potential of the instruments so that was cool.
My favorite was a class where they all started stretching out their names with extra vowels so that a name like "Jane" would become "Jah-ah-ai-ne-uh." The best was when George got terribly upset because I laughed when he tried to tell me that his name really IS pronounced "Ge-eh-or-ge-eh." I'm sorry George, I didn't mean to laugh at you.
In other news I am a big fan of Teaching Foundation Music: a complete step-by-step scheme of work by Ann Bryant. I've thought this book was fabulous for a while now, but it only occurred to me today to check out her bio in the back- she's all kinds of Dalcroze trained. No wonder I think she's awesome.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Temporary Tykes
My friend Kate teaches a drop in nursery class at a community centre in Hackney. She's been sick so she asked me to fill in. Thanks, Kate! It was a bit different from what I am used to doing; there were a couple of parents there as well as a small class from the nursery school across the street. Also, the class was an hour long instead of half an hour.
Kate told me what she normally does with them last night and I was getting intimidated: I've never incorporated stories into my classes! Shown instruments?! She was saying that they're good with rhythms and there were parents and it was long and it was my first time and OH!! I was nervous by the time I got there this morning.
I decided that the theme for the day was going to be "Springtime" because, hey. It is. So I wrote a list of what songs and activities fit in to that theme that I knew already and decided on an order that would alternate between careening wildly around the room and sitting down and trying to actually sing.
We started with Kalele, the name song with fun time drumming beats. I'm used to kids hiding their faces during this song or somehow otherwise drawing even MORE attention to themselves when their name is being sung. But this group was still being pretty shy since it was the beginning of the class.
Then we did the caterpillar song which involved hand motions and then body motions. (Sitting down and then standing up) We had wiggling, munching, spinning, and flapping. I would have preferred to have the teachers contribute ideas for the actions less and the kids contribute ideas more...but whatcha gonna do?
After the hilarity of spinning around in a circle was over we sang a seed growing song that sounds like a lovely lullaby. I don't have a very good sense of pitch- I can stay on key when I'm singing the song, but it's always a bit of a surprise what key is going to come out when I start. I accidentally started this song WAAAY too high. The teachers and mothers were trying to sing along but it wasn't going to happen. So I stopped halfway through and dropped it a fifth. Looks like I might be a soprano after all....
The chorus of that song has the line "and the rain falls, drip drop" so the next thing we did was a body percussion rainstorm. It's nice because they have to look and pay attention to the conductor/director (me) which is a lovely set up for the next thing we did which was a rainstorm again, but this time with instruments.
With the shakers I have a system where if the leader has their shaker above their head: you play loud. By their knees? play soft. Held tightly pressed against their stomach? Quiet! No sound! So I lead it first for a while and then the best behaved kids lead it. It's a good system.
One of the children was totally cutting up the whole morning, but he did something really interesting during the instrumental section- whenever it was loud he started giggling. Whenever it was soft he stopped. And he would do it absolutely with the leader, even if the leader was one of his classmates. He'd been told off that morning so much that I wanted to draw particular attention to the fact that even if he didn't totally realize it- he was doing *exactly* what I wanted him to. Isn't that neat? I was so proud of him.
We finished up with Simama ka which is the big hit with the three year olds in these parts. Jumping up? Bending down? Whispering and yelling all in a very repetitive atmosphere?! Man oh MAN are they there!
So we ended with that.
No instrumental showings, no stories, and nearly a whole hour (50 minutes, but the nursery class was late. If we'd kept going I would have added in a song about an Easter egg hunt because I was PREPARED. Yes, yes I was.)
I gave my contact info to the woman running the centre and told her that if they ever needed a substitute again or even wanted to add another music class on another day during the week that I would be more than happy to help them out and that I really enjoyed their students. She said she particularly liked how kid centered the class had been.
Whee!
Kate told me what she normally does with them last night and I was getting intimidated: I've never incorporated stories into my classes! Shown instruments?! She was saying that they're good with rhythms and there were parents and it was long and it was my first time and OH!! I was nervous by the time I got there this morning.
I decided that the theme for the day was going to be "Springtime" because, hey. It is. So I wrote a list of what songs and activities fit in to that theme that I knew already and decided on an order that would alternate between careening wildly around the room and sitting down and trying to actually sing.
We started with Kalele, the name song with fun time drumming beats. I'm used to kids hiding their faces during this song or somehow otherwise drawing even MORE attention to themselves when their name is being sung. But this group was still being pretty shy since it was the beginning of the class.
Then we did the caterpillar song which involved hand motions and then body motions. (Sitting down and then standing up) We had wiggling, munching, spinning, and flapping. I would have preferred to have the teachers contribute ideas for the actions less and the kids contribute ideas more...but whatcha gonna do?
After the hilarity of spinning around in a circle was over we sang a seed growing song that sounds like a lovely lullaby. I don't have a very good sense of pitch- I can stay on key when I'm singing the song, but it's always a bit of a surprise what key is going to come out when I start. I accidentally started this song WAAAY too high. The teachers and mothers were trying to sing along but it wasn't going to happen. So I stopped halfway through and dropped it a fifth. Looks like I might be a soprano after all....
The chorus of that song has the line "and the rain falls, drip drop" so the next thing we did was a body percussion rainstorm. It's nice because they have to look and pay attention to the conductor/director (me) which is a lovely set up for the next thing we did which was a rainstorm again, but this time with instruments.
With the shakers I have a system where if the leader has their shaker above their head: you play loud. By their knees? play soft. Held tightly pressed against their stomach? Quiet! No sound! So I lead it first for a while and then the best behaved kids lead it. It's a good system.
One of the children was totally cutting up the whole morning, but he did something really interesting during the instrumental section- whenever it was loud he started giggling. Whenever it was soft he stopped. And he would do it absolutely with the leader, even if the leader was one of his classmates. He'd been told off that morning so much that I wanted to draw particular attention to the fact that even if he didn't totally realize it- he was doing *exactly* what I wanted him to. Isn't that neat? I was so proud of him.
We finished up with Simama ka which is the big hit with the three year olds in these parts. Jumping up? Bending down? Whispering and yelling all in a very repetitive atmosphere?! Man oh MAN are they there!
So we ended with that.
No instrumental showings, no stories, and nearly a whole hour (50 minutes, but the nursery class was late. If we'd kept going I would have added in a song about an Easter egg hunt because I was PREPARED. Yes, yes I was.)
I gave my contact info to the woman running the centre and told her that if they ever needed a substitute again or even wanted to add another music class on another day during the week that I would be more than happy to help them out and that I really enjoyed their students. She said she particularly liked how kid centered the class had been.
Whee!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
I'm tired of tykes titles (but not tired of the tykes)
but clearly not yet tired of alliteration (as though that's ever going to happen.)
Yesterday was yet another fly by the seat of my pants operations. We sang a couple of songs from Tanzania that I learned way back at the beginning of last year- and they worked a treat.
The first one "Kalele" is a welcoming song that is great because you can put in each child's name (wonderful since I still am struggling with the names) and then they giggle or roll their eyes back in to their head (that was a weird reaction) or turn bright red or grin or curl up into a little ball.
Green class nursery is my first class each week and I feel a bit bad about them because they're the experiment class- is this going to work? Is this enough material? Do I bring the instruments out? Are they going to enjoy this? Is it engaging? I find all of this out in green class. Or rather, I begin to find this out and then refine as the day goes on.
The thing about 'Kalele' is that you can, at any point in the song, throw in this bit where you have a call and response "hey!" shouty thing- which is totally fun- but a helpful tip is to not do it after every child's name in a class of 20+ kids. Also, make sure that you're singing in head voice instead of chest voice so that you don't go totally hoarse by the time you get to blue class nursery. These are the sorts of things I learn in green class nursery. I felt bad about it too- because their attention was totally wandering by the time we got halfway through the group- but you can't not include half of their names, that would be *devastating* and you also can't totally change how the song goes halfway through. That would be totally bewildering.
I was pleased to hear after school that the playground/field area had been filled with song as everyone was singing the two songs that I taught this week. Apparently non-stop- which I can see would be annoying for the teachers, but I was chuffed.
I found out this week that I get to write a lesson plan grid for the next term with learning objectives, activities, resources, topic links, and learning outcomes. Surprise! I kind of love the fact that I have been given so much autonomy and am only beginning to have supervision now; in my third week of doing the job. I won't have a proper meeting with my upper school counterpart until next week at the earliest and I've been enjoying the ferreting out process of figuring out all that my job actually entails- things like writing a term long lesson plan.
Wednesday was gorgeous and I hadn't yet gone out to the garden- so I wandered around a bit after my last class and ended up getting heavily involved in a rocket ship trip with stops in Spain, Ecuador, and Tanzania to gather pebbles. I kept trying to leave and let them get on with playing by themselves, but my hand was very firmly grasped and it was clear that I was going to be staying. I loved that they didn't change how they were playing just because I was there- I was just another one of their playmates- albeit quite a lot larger.
Yesterday was yet another fly by the seat of my pants operations. We sang a couple of songs from Tanzania that I learned way back at the beginning of last year- and they worked a treat.
The first one "Kalele" is a welcoming song that is great because you can put in each child's name (wonderful since I still am struggling with the names) and then they giggle or roll their eyes back in to their head (that was a weird reaction) or turn bright red or grin or curl up into a little ball.
Green class nursery is my first class each week and I feel a bit bad about them because they're the experiment class- is this going to work? Is this enough material? Do I bring the instruments out? Are they going to enjoy this? Is it engaging? I find all of this out in green class. Or rather, I begin to find this out and then refine as the day goes on.
The thing about 'Kalele' is that you can, at any point in the song, throw in this bit where you have a call and response "hey!" shouty thing- which is totally fun- but a helpful tip is to not do it after every child's name in a class of 20+ kids. Also, make sure that you're singing in head voice instead of chest voice so that you don't go totally hoarse by the time you get to blue class nursery. These are the sorts of things I learn in green class nursery. I felt bad about it too- because their attention was totally wandering by the time we got halfway through the group- but you can't not include half of their names, that would be *devastating* and you also can't totally change how the song goes halfway through. That would be totally bewildering.
I was pleased to hear after school that the playground/field area had been filled with song as everyone was singing the two songs that I taught this week. Apparently non-stop- which I can see would be annoying for the teachers, but I was chuffed.
I found out this week that I get to write a lesson plan grid for the next term with learning objectives, activities, resources, topic links, and learning outcomes. Surprise! I kind of love the fact that I have been given so much autonomy and am only beginning to have supervision now; in my third week of doing the job. I won't have a proper meeting with my upper school counterpart until next week at the earliest and I've been enjoying the ferreting out process of figuring out all that my job actually entails- things like writing a term long lesson plan.
Wednesday was gorgeous and I hadn't yet gone out to the garden- so I wandered around a bit after my last class and ended up getting heavily involved in a rocket ship trip with stops in Spain, Ecuador, and Tanzania to gather pebbles. I kept trying to leave and let them get on with playing by themselves, but my hand was very firmly grasped and it was clear that I was going to be staying. I loved that they didn't change how they were playing just because I was there- I was just another one of their playmates- albeit quite a lot larger.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Cornwall: The end
Our last trip to Cornwall was last weekend and I'm sorry that it is all over now. I had a wonderful time with the project and became very attached to (not to mention proud of) my group of kids.
We had an uneventful drive up to Cornwall and were back at the first set of cottages. This time we didn't have the uninhabitable in the winter cottage up on the cliff with the outdoor toilet and the coffin bathtub- but we also weren't entirely sure where the other cottage was... so that let to a very late night the first night as we kept trying to figure out where we were staying. I say "we" but I actually slept through most of that as I was in the first cottage.
Fortunately for the more sleep deprived members of our party we didn't have to get to the school until 4:30 the next day so we had a leisurely morning and then FINALLY had a chance to explore a bit of Cornwall. Emma and Jo went for a drive while the rest of us explored the sea side and countryside around our cottages. We were blessed with gorgeous weather (also a first for our Cornwall trips) and went on a bit of a hike. I played unabashed tourist and took bunches of pictures which are now up on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10933141@N07/
That afternoon we only got one and a half hours with our kids, and actually it was in the evening too- so they were knackered and we were all like "Ahh! You have to remember the piece because this is the only time we get with you before the performance! Ahh!" So it wasn't quite as much fun as the other rehearsals/composition times have been. But my group is still pretty great. It was nice that the piece worked out the way that it did too- because there were clear wind sections and string sections which meant that I could send the winds out to the hallway to remember what they were doing and I could keep the strings in the room and tell them to "play that again. Nice, now listen to each other and try to get the same sort of sound. Sit up straight" etc.
Sunday was the day of the performance. The pieces that we wrote were only one part of a much larger "Super Sunday" that happens once a month at the Tate St. Ives. It is an open family day with free activities for all ages to help them engage a bit more than they might usually at an art gallery. In one room they were writing stories, another they were making textured collages, and in my room they were making graphic scores. The 9 of us were divided up in to teams for the various gallery spaces. Heather, Jo, and I were lucky enough to be in the gorgeous room with the giant windows looking out at the sea and the beach.
As kids came into the room they were encouraged to take some crayons and a giant piece of staff paper and make a piece for us to play. We started as a cello, tuba, and bass trio and then broke up to turn into solo acts as the room got busier. It was so much fun, and really quite rewarding to do so many graphic scores in a row. Instead of straight reading what they had drawn, we decided to have them conduct it and point to the shape/color/whatever that they wanted us to play. We encouraged them to point in any order and to go back to sounds that they really liked.
I had two favorites from the morning. The first was a child who had drawn a pink cloud. We tried something together first and that was "pretty good, but it sounded like a dark cloud" but then his father asked if the tuba could be played with out pitch, just air. So then Heather and I wanted in on the fun so we started blowing into our F holes which A: made a great sound and was louder than we expected and B: made both of us rather light headed... It was all to the good though because then we were "perfect." And you can't top that.
My other favorite was a toddler who had scribbled all over the page. There was one small, purple scribble in the centre and whenever he pointed there I played a short, loud, rumble at the bottom of my range. He loved it and would point quickly at the purple dot before burying his face in his father's knee over and over and over again. It was so cool that he understood that he was controlling what I was doing.
Whew. So that was a long and satisfying morning- and then we had the performances! The crowd was pretty large at this point. My group played splendidly (though I really would have appreciated a chance to do a run through on the day of the performance) and everyone else did as well. Two of the gallery spaces were too small to fit the crowd, so they got to play their pieces twice in order to let everyone hear who wanted to. It was a lovely day and really such a wonderful experience.
We had an uneventful drive up to Cornwall and were back at the first set of cottages. This time we didn't have the uninhabitable in the winter cottage up on the cliff with the outdoor toilet and the coffin bathtub- but we also weren't entirely sure where the other cottage was... so that let to a very late night the first night as we kept trying to figure out where we were staying. I say "we" but I actually slept through most of that as I was in the first cottage.
Fortunately for the more sleep deprived members of our party we didn't have to get to the school until 4:30 the next day so we had a leisurely morning and then FINALLY had a chance to explore a bit of Cornwall. Emma and Jo went for a drive while the rest of us explored the sea side and countryside around our cottages. We were blessed with gorgeous weather (also a first for our Cornwall trips) and went on a bit of a hike. I played unabashed tourist and took bunches of pictures which are now up on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10933141@N07/
That afternoon we only got one and a half hours with our kids, and actually it was in the evening too- so they were knackered and we were all like "Ahh! You have to remember the piece because this is the only time we get with you before the performance! Ahh!" So it wasn't quite as much fun as the other rehearsals/composition times have been. But my group is still pretty great. It was nice that the piece worked out the way that it did too- because there were clear wind sections and string sections which meant that I could send the winds out to the hallway to remember what they were doing and I could keep the strings in the room and tell them to "play that again. Nice, now listen to each other and try to get the same sort of sound. Sit up straight" etc.
Sunday was the day of the performance. The pieces that we wrote were only one part of a much larger "Super Sunday" that happens once a month at the Tate St. Ives. It is an open family day with free activities for all ages to help them engage a bit more than they might usually at an art gallery. In one room they were writing stories, another they were making textured collages, and in my room they were making graphic scores. The 9 of us were divided up in to teams for the various gallery spaces. Heather, Jo, and I were lucky enough to be in the gorgeous room with the giant windows looking out at the sea and the beach.
As kids came into the room they were encouraged to take some crayons and a giant piece of staff paper and make a piece for us to play. We started as a cello, tuba, and bass trio and then broke up to turn into solo acts as the room got busier. It was so much fun, and really quite rewarding to do so many graphic scores in a row. Instead of straight reading what they had drawn, we decided to have them conduct it and point to the shape/color/whatever that they wanted us to play. We encouraged them to point in any order and to go back to sounds that they really liked.
I had two favorites from the morning. The first was a child who had drawn a pink cloud. We tried something together first and that was "pretty good, but it sounded like a dark cloud" but then his father asked if the tuba could be played with out pitch, just air. So then Heather and I wanted in on the fun so we started blowing into our F holes which A: made a great sound and was louder than we expected and B: made both of us rather light headed... It was all to the good though because then we were "perfect." And you can't top that.
My other favorite was a toddler who had scribbled all over the page. There was one small, purple scribble in the centre and whenever he pointed there I played a short, loud, rumble at the bottom of my range. He loved it and would point quickly at the purple dot before burying his face in his father's knee over and over and over again. It was so cool that he understood that he was controlling what I was doing.
Whew. So that was a long and satisfying morning- and then we had the performances! The crowd was pretty large at this point. My group played splendidly (though I really would have appreciated a chance to do a run through on the day of the performance) and everyone else did as well. Two of the gallery spaces were too small to fit the crowd, so they got to play their pieces twice in order to let everyone hear who wanted to. It was a lovely day and really such a wonderful experience.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tiny Tykes Tire Out
Second day of teaching little ones and I'm still having a lot of fun. This week we sang a song about caterpillars. (The nursery kids are learning about the life cycle of butterflies this week. Which actually I didn't know, so well timed me!) The song goes to the same tune as "she'll be coming round the mountain" and it goes a little like this:
"There's a tiny caterpillar on a leaf wiggle wiggle, there's a tiny caterpillar on a leaf wiggle wiggle, there's a tiny caterpillar, tiny caterpillar, there's a tiny caterpillar on a leaf wiggle wiggle
He will eat the leaves around him till he's full... munch munch
A cocoon is what he's building for his home... spin spin
Soon he'll be a butterfly and fly away...flap flap"
So that's kind of cute, right? I got the song and lesson plan from a Foundation Stages music book. I couldn't bring myself to use the CD that came along with it because it was just far too corny and jangly but I did use a lot of what they suggested for extra bits to reinforce the song. We did hand motions, whole body motions, a caterpillar chant that got louder and softer, and then when I got to the reception/kindergarten classes they kept asking to make shapes again so we'd sing the song and freeze in a shape during the italicised bits of the song.
I expected that I would need more material for the reception kids because they're older and able to learn material more quickly, but what it actually turned out was that the nursery classes needed a LOT more material because they couldn't get as deep in to it.
The song stayed interesting for longer in the older classes because they could actually sing it and understand where it was going to go next and how to freeze when it was the opposite of what they had done before. The nursery kids just got super bored of having the same song sung at them over and over again. So we did the motions and wiggled about on the floor and practiced loud and soft with the caterpillar chant- but all of that only took up about 15-20 minutes. So fortunately I had an extra song to use as well and in one of the nursery classes we learned that, but man- they're tough customers those three year olds!
The nursery classes had a big day on Tuesday- they went on a coach to a play park and saw lots of animals in a jungle setting (was it a zoo? I don't know...) so they were tuckered out. One class in particular was just NOT going to pay attention. After about 10 minutes of trying and trying I finally looked helplessly at the head teacher and asked if she had any ideas. So we put on their favorite version of Nellie the Elephant which usually they love dancing around to, but that only managed to grab the attention of about four more children and in a class of 21, that just isn't all that helpful. So we quit about 10 minutes early because there was nothing doing, it really wasn't going to work.
The next nursery class after that was my pain in the butt one from last week where they all wandered off behind the pillar- this week they were angels and it was a lot of fun. Then, at lunch time the angel class teacher apologised for how out of it they were...really? That was them being spacey? Awesome! I'm looking forward to next week then!
The reception classes all have VERY different personalities. The first one just wants to play the instruments, they want to play them NOW. They're also the most sound oriented of the bunch, we can play with how things sound and different types of sound and how concepts would sound and all that. Sound as opposed to words or actions or singing.
The second one likes dancing, they will sing too- but they'll be happier about the singing if they can also dance and preferably crawl under the tables. Under the tables is a very desirable place to be.
The third reception class is full of personalities. "Miss Casey! Look at my shoes!" "Miss Casey! Look at my spinning! This is how I spin!" They're all chatty chatty chatty and will chat regardless of whether or not anyone (and I mean anyone) is actually listening. Also, they are bossy bossy bossy and if it seems like I've gotten confused or have lost the plot at all, then there are a number of them who will be quick to tell me where to go and what to do and what I've just done wrong. We're singing High School Musical songs with them next week because they asked specifically and they have already started to learn the words. They tried to perform it for me after their music class but it sounded like this:
".... .....mn hemamn.........TOGETHER, TOGETHER........hmm amnm.......TOGETHER......mfha...."
also, there was some dancing involved.
"There's a tiny caterpillar on a leaf wiggle wiggle, there's a tiny caterpillar on a leaf wiggle wiggle, there's a tiny caterpillar, tiny caterpillar, there's a tiny caterpillar on a leaf wiggle wiggle
He will eat the leaves around him till he's full... munch munch
A cocoon is what he's building for his home... spin spin
Soon he'll be a butterfly and fly away...flap flap"
So that's kind of cute, right? I got the song and lesson plan from a Foundation Stages music book. I couldn't bring myself to use the CD that came along with it because it was just far too corny and jangly but I did use a lot of what they suggested for extra bits to reinforce the song. We did hand motions, whole body motions, a caterpillar chant that got louder and softer, and then when I got to the reception/kindergarten classes they kept asking to make shapes again so we'd sing the song and freeze in a shape during the italicised bits of the song.
I expected that I would need more material for the reception kids because they're older and able to learn material more quickly, but what it actually turned out was that the nursery classes needed a LOT more material because they couldn't get as deep in to it.
The song stayed interesting for longer in the older classes because they could actually sing it and understand where it was going to go next and how to freeze when it was the opposite of what they had done before. The nursery kids just got super bored of having the same song sung at them over and over again. So we did the motions and wiggled about on the floor and practiced loud and soft with the caterpillar chant- but all of that only took up about 15-20 minutes. So fortunately I had an extra song to use as well and in one of the nursery classes we learned that, but man- they're tough customers those three year olds!
The nursery classes had a big day on Tuesday- they went on a coach to a play park and saw lots of animals in a jungle setting (was it a zoo? I don't know...) so they were tuckered out. One class in particular was just NOT going to pay attention. After about 10 minutes of trying and trying I finally looked helplessly at the head teacher and asked if she had any ideas. So we put on their favorite version of Nellie the Elephant which usually they love dancing around to, but that only managed to grab the attention of about four more children and in a class of 21, that just isn't all that helpful. So we quit about 10 minutes early because there was nothing doing, it really wasn't going to work.
The next nursery class after that was my pain in the butt one from last week where they all wandered off behind the pillar- this week they were angels and it was a lot of fun. Then, at lunch time the angel class teacher apologised for how out of it they were...really? That was them being spacey? Awesome! I'm looking forward to next week then!
The reception classes all have VERY different personalities. The first one just wants to play the instruments, they want to play them NOW. They're also the most sound oriented of the bunch, we can play with how things sound and different types of sound and how concepts would sound and all that. Sound as opposed to words or actions or singing.
The second one likes dancing, they will sing too- but they'll be happier about the singing if they can also dance and preferably crawl under the tables. Under the tables is a very desirable place to be.
The third reception class is full of personalities. "Miss Casey! Look at my shoes!" "Miss Casey! Look at my spinning! This is how I spin!" They're all chatty chatty chatty and will chat regardless of whether or not anyone (and I mean anyone) is actually listening. Also, they are bossy bossy bossy and if it seems like I've gotten confused or have lost the plot at all, then there are a number of them who will be quick to tell me where to go and what to do and what I've just done wrong. We're singing High School Musical songs with them next week because they asked specifically and they have already started to learn the words. They tried to perform it for me after their music class but it sounded like this:
".... .....mn hemamn.........TOGETHER, TOGETHER........hmm amnm.......TOGETHER......mfha...."
also, there was some dancing involved.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I teach tykes
I survived my first day of work! And it was lovely! Here are some things I learned:
1. I need to work on how I use my voice, because talking for 3 hours straight is throat scratchingly difficult
2. It is best when the teachers are involved in the music class instead of off in the corner
3. Big slobbery kisses are charming the first time, and then just a little bit slimy
4. ohmygosh these kids are cute
5. 1/2 of them don't speak English...if only I spoke French!
6. Nursery teachers swear an unexpected amount when in the staff room
I taught *6* classes today. I arrived at 8:30 in the morning to meet the head of Early Years again and also to meet the upper school music teacher. I was so afraid I was going to be late- I was so wired that I couldn't fall asleep until 3am last night and then waking up was tough so I didn't leave the house until 20 minutes after I planned to- but instead of taking the estimated hour and a quarter to get there that TFL said it would, it only took 45 minutes- so I was early!) I didn't actually start teaching class until 10 though, so I had a chance to wander in to the classes, meet the teachers, and give a little spiel about what I was going to do. The nursery classes were in the morning, back to back. So I had three classes of 3-4 year olds from 10-11:30.
Here is what we did: First I said hello and introduced myself (that's Miss Casey to you!) and explained that I was the new music teacher. (There isn't really a music room, so I was traveling from room to room with my glockenspiel in a plastic case) Then I said "now that you know my name, can you help me learn yours? Okay, everybody keep this lovely circle and stand up!" So we'd stand up and I'd ask them to make shapes with their bodies for me- a big circle over their heads, lots of superhero poses, a bunch of sort of rocking back and forth nervously, etc. I pointed out nice shapes that kids were doing and got the rest of the group to do them. Then we went around the circle and said our names with a shape.
The idea was to have the group say the name back and also do the shape- in practice this only worked about 40% of the time. The kids would do the shape- but pretty much it was just me saying the name. Or rather, butchering the crap out of their names and needing to be corrected four times before completely forgetting anyway. Six classes, people. SIX CLASSES! And they're all foreign with fancy weird names that I can't pronounce. Little kids speak with lisps anyway, but now imagine a classroom full of accented lisps.
Right, so- now we've gone around the circle and more or less (less) know people's names. Then I ask them to sit down again and bring out the glockenspiel- from here on out referred to as the "xylophone." Does anyone know what this instrument is? No, it's not a piano- close but a piano is played with your fingers and this is played with...? Yes! Mallets. No? No one knows? Oh that is lovely that you have one at home! This is a xylophone. Can we all say xylophone?
So I play them a little tune and ask them what it sounds like. My *favorite* class came up with this gem: "it sounds like butterflies dancing" Awww. That class was full of beautiful, wonderful imagery- we ended up walking around as princesses and tigers and fairies and leaves.
So then they walked to the music when I said "walk" and froze into a shape when I said "shape" I was playing in quarter notes and periodic phrases to get them used to phrase length and listening. I was hoping that some of them would figure out that there was a pattern to when I would say "shape." I think a couple of kids did in the older, reception (kindergarten) classes because I missed one once and extended it a second phrase and they kept saying "shape? shape?" So that was cool.
For some of the classes we paired up and then tried to do the same exercise but with pair shapes instead of solo shapes. I hadn't considered how troublesome it is to get small children to work in pairs. There were always a few tears when choosing the pairs...my favorite was a little boy and girl who were just bawling at being stuck with each other but then as we played the game they were totally entwined and had the both the best shapes (many involving pulling their mouths out with their fingers to make silly faces) and were absolutely together- the same angles with their bodies and everything. It was incredible how in sync they were- especially considering their mutual crying fits at the beginning of the game. (or maybe their mutual crying fits explain everything?)
So that was all we had time for with the nursery kids. I told them that I would be back next week and we'd do some singing, because we did a lot of dancing this week- didn't we? Then the head teachers would ask them to thank me- sometimes they would and sometimes they would stare at the ceiling. Bye Miss Casey!
Lunch was then at 11:30. 11:30 isn't so early in American time- but Brits rarely eat lunch before 1pm so it was sort of like "oh! Okay. Lunch it is." So I went to the staff room and had a wonderful time talking to some of the other Early years teachers. They're a very welcoming and chatty bunch. There were several whom I felt very comfortable with. I wasn't meant to start teaching again until 12:45 so I took the opportunity to take a stroll through the park. I *love* that the parks are across the street. How lucky am I?!
Afternoon was the reception (kindergarten) classes. They all desperately wanted to play the xylophone as well so we did a bit of passing it around the circle:
"Wow, that was some lovely playing- can someone tell me what animal it sounded like to them?"
"I really liked how smooth that was! Can someone play for me the opposite of that?"
"Wow! That was REALLY LOUD! Can someone else play really quietly for me?"
"Good job! That was REALLY LOUD TOO! Now can someone play quietly?!"
giggle giggle squirm
So whew. Then SIX CLASSES and a meeting with the headmaster later it was all over. Unfortunately my boss had stepped out for the afternoon so I was like do I stay? Do I go? Do I need to talk to someone else? I found the upper school music teacher, spoke quickly about ordering instruments (I started today and already I got to order supplies. Sweet.) and then left to go wander in the V&A before having supper with my favorite RCA artist. Nice.
Oh, and I gave my phone number to a frazzled American mom (3 kids and pregnant with the 4th) for babysitting purposes.
1. I need to work on how I use my voice, because talking for 3 hours straight is throat scratchingly difficult
2. It is best when the teachers are involved in the music class instead of off in the corner
3. Big slobbery kisses are charming the first time, and then just a little bit slimy
4. ohmygosh these kids are cute
5. 1/2 of them don't speak English...if only I spoke French!
6. Nursery teachers swear an unexpected amount when in the staff room
I taught *6* classes today. I arrived at 8:30 in the morning to meet the head of Early Years again and also to meet the upper school music teacher. I was so afraid I was going to be late- I was so wired that I couldn't fall asleep until 3am last night and then waking up was tough so I didn't leave the house until 20 minutes after I planned to- but instead of taking the estimated hour and a quarter to get there that TFL said it would, it only took 45 minutes- so I was early!) I didn't actually start teaching class until 10 though, so I had a chance to wander in to the classes, meet the teachers, and give a little spiel about what I was going to do. The nursery classes were in the morning, back to back. So I had three classes of 3-4 year olds from 10-11:30.
Here is what we did: First I said hello and introduced myself (that's Miss Casey to you!) and explained that I was the new music teacher. (There isn't really a music room, so I was traveling from room to room with my glockenspiel in a plastic case) Then I said "now that you know my name, can you help me learn yours? Okay, everybody keep this lovely circle and stand up!" So we'd stand up and I'd ask them to make shapes with their bodies for me- a big circle over their heads, lots of superhero poses, a bunch of sort of rocking back and forth nervously, etc. I pointed out nice shapes that kids were doing and got the rest of the group to do them. Then we went around the circle and said our names with a shape.
The idea was to have the group say the name back and also do the shape- in practice this only worked about 40% of the time. The kids would do the shape- but pretty much it was just me saying the name. Or rather, butchering the crap out of their names and needing to be corrected four times before completely forgetting anyway. Six classes, people. SIX CLASSES! And they're all foreign with fancy weird names that I can't pronounce. Little kids speak with lisps anyway, but now imagine a classroom full of accented lisps.
Right, so- now we've gone around the circle and more or less (less) know people's names. Then I ask them to sit down again and bring out the glockenspiel- from here on out referred to as the "xylophone." Does anyone know what this instrument is? No, it's not a piano- close but a piano is played with your fingers and this is played with...? Yes! Mallets. No? No one knows? Oh that is lovely that you have one at home! This is a xylophone. Can we all say xylophone?
So I play them a little tune and ask them what it sounds like. My *favorite* class came up with this gem: "it sounds like butterflies dancing" Awww. That class was full of beautiful, wonderful imagery- we ended up walking around as princesses and tigers and fairies and leaves.
So then they walked to the music when I said "walk" and froze into a shape when I said "shape" I was playing in quarter notes and periodic phrases to get them used to phrase length and listening. I was hoping that some of them would figure out that there was a pattern to when I would say "shape." I think a couple of kids did in the older, reception (kindergarten) classes because I missed one once and extended it a second phrase and they kept saying "shape? shape?" So that was cool.
For some of the classes we paired up and then tried to do the same exercise but with pair shapes instead of solo shapes. I hadn't considered how troublesome it is to get small children to work in pairs. There were always a few tears when choosing the pairs...my favorite was a little boy and girl who were just bawling at being stuck with each other but then as we played the game they were totally entwined and had the both the best shapes (many involving pulling their mouths out with their fingers to make silly faces) and were absolutely together- the same angles with their bodies and everything. It was incredible how in sync they were- especially considering their mutual crying fits at the beginning of the game. (or maybe their mutual crying fits explain everything?)
So that was all we had time for with the nursery kids. I told them that I would be back next week and we'd do some singing, because we did a lot of dancing this week- didn't we? Then the head teachers would ask them to thank me- sometimes they would and sometimes they would stare at the ceiling. Bye Miss Casey!
Lunch was then at 11:30. 11:30 isn't so early in American time- but Brits rarely eat lunch before 1pm so it was sort of like "oh! Okay. Lunch it is." So I went to the staff room and had a wonderful time talking to some of the other Early years teachers. They're a very welcoming and chatty bunch. There were several whom I felt very comfortable with. I wasn't meant to start teaching again until 12:45 so I took the opportunity to take a stroll through the park. I *love* that the parks are across the street. How lucky am I?!
Afternoon was the reception (kindergarten) classes. They all desperately wanted to play the xylophone as well so we did a bit of passing it around the circle:
"Wow, that was some lovely playing- can someone tell me what animal it sounded like to them?"
"I really liked how smooth that was! Can someone play for me the opposite of that?"
"Wow! That was REALLY LOUD! Can someone else play really quietly for me?"
"Good job! That was REALLY LOUD TOO! Now can someone play quietly?!"
giggle giggle squirm
So whew. Then SIX CLASSES and a meeting with the headmaster later it was all over. Unfortunately my boss had stepped out for the afternoon so I was like do I stay? Do I go? Do I need to talk to someone else? I found the upper school music teacher, spoke quickly about ordering instruments (I started today and already I got to order supplies. Sweet.) and then left to go wander in the V&A before having supper with my favorite RCA artist. Nice.
Oh, and I gave my phone number to a frazzled American mom (3 kids and pregnant with the 4th) for babysitting purposes.
Monday, February 16, 2009
February 28, 1996
February must have been poetry month in sixth grade, or something like that. This one isn't the complete poem- I only wrote down what I thought was the funniest, most overly dramatic stanza from a much longer poem about our first cat. His name was Kitya, and what you have to know is that a: he was black, and b: he left us for a family across the alleyway. I wasn't really that bothered, but you might not be able to tell that from this poem...
Kitya
His eyes were the mists as sea,
rolling, rolling waves of amber, blue, and green.
His fur was soft, silken cloth in mourning.
His paws walked silently by, that's why no one awoke when
he purred his last purr and went out the door.
Kitya
His eyes were the mists as sea,
rolling, rolling waves of amber, blue, and green.
His fur was soft, silken cloth in mourning.
His paws walked silently by, that's why no one awoke when
he purred his last purr and went out the door.
February 26, 1996
I found this poem that I wrote in 6th grade while I was in Seattle this Christmas. I've added one line at the end of the second stanza in order to keep the rhythm the same throughout, but other than that this is what I wrote when I was 12.
Rose is Going Romping
Rose is going romping
through the thorough field of daisies.
Her feet are a flight with feathers just right,
and the daisies are as yellow as the sun.
Rose is going romping
to the West end of the field.
The town lays there, with two small shops,
and her feet are a flight with feathers just right
(and the daisies are as yellow as the sun.)
Rose was going romping, and reaching the small town:
she bought two eggs and an elephant ear,
but her feet were a flight with feathers just right
and so she went home with a tear.
Rose is Going Romping
Rose is going romping
through the thorough field of daisies.
Her feet are a flight with feathers just right,
and the daisies are as yellow as the sun.
Rose is going romping
to the West end of the field.
The town lays there, with two small shops,
and her feet are a flight with feathers just right
(and the daisies are as yellow as the sun.)
Rose was going romping, and reaching the small town:
she bought two eggs and an elephant ear,
but her feet were a flight with feathers just right
and so she went home with a tear.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Programme Notes
These are the programme notes for the CYO concert next month. I couldn't remember what all of the links were between the music we wrote and the painting- so I made the kids brainstorm and remind me and we came up with a whole slew of reasons- many of which are contained in these here programme notes. (The concert is in Cornwall- therefore I am using their spelling of Program. Just so you don't think I've gone totally British on you here.) Some of the more esoteric ones I left off, these are plenty esoteric enough:
"In 'Six Circles' we are using the painting as a graphic score. Every section of the piece is based directly on one of the circles or sections of the painting. We looked at a number of ways of representing the idea of circularity in a musical context and included ternary beats and staggered entrances to sound like the music is rolling, repetitions as loops, literally passing the material around the circle, and phasing tempi and dynamics so that the sound is moving around the space. Every element of the piece is tied to the painting, from the minor tonality representing the colour palate to the Major key ending representing the largest and brightest of the six circles.
"In 'Six Circles' we are using the painting as a graphic score. Every section of the piece is based directly on one of the circles or sections of the painting. We looked at a number of ways of representing the idea of circularity in a musical context and included ternary beats and staggered entrances to sound like the music is rolling, repetitions as loops, literally passing the material around the circle, and phasing tempi and dynamics so that the sound is moving around the space. Every element of the piece is tied to the painting, from the minor tonality representing the colour palate to the Major key ending representing the largest and brightest of the six circles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
