This is a great song to teach SLS and quarter note/rest and eighth note pairs. Here’s my process.
After learning the song by echo singing with a pat/clap steady beat pattern, I told the Ss the history of the song from the info I found HERE. That info led me to have the students get in groups of 3 with two horses and a driver. I cut lengths of rope for the reins that went around the torso area of the two horses in front, with the driver holding the ends behind. We trotted around the room after singing the song, with the idea that the horses had done their work for the day and were heading home. We switched until everyone had been the driver. Lots of giggles and fun!
The next music class we sang and clapped the rhythm, then partners got bells or other non-pitched metal percussion and played the rhythm as they sang.
The third music class, as a group, we sat at my large rhythm chart, and together determined the rhythm of the song. How I made my chart is located HERE!
The fourth music class, partners got a 16 beat template, an envelope with the necessary rhythmic icons, and then wrote the rhythm. After a few minutes of them working on it, I clapped the first line, let them look at what they had, then I put it on my large chart for them to check and see if they were correct. I continued this method until all 4 lines were complete. Then one partner touched the answers as the other partner clapped and sang the song. They switched roles.
I needed a big chart for K-2 so that we could write song/rhyme rhythms. I wanted something cheap! 🙂 I bought a black foam board (20×30″) at Dollar Tree, then added strips of thick paper such as card stock to form the pockets. The actual rhythms are written on blank 4×6 note cards. I laminated them but that isn’t completely necessary.
A foam board is about 20″ wide. The pocket strips were cut to 20″ wide and about 2″ in height, and then I glued the strips on the left,right, and bottom edge, and then a vertical line about every 4.25″, enough room to slide a 4″ note card into.
The glued bottom edge serves as a stop for the note card. The red lines on the photo to the right show where I used glue.
This picture shows rhythmic icons, which required that I copied images onto the note cards. This is what I use for the song “Bell Horses”.
A great chant to teach quarter note, quarter rest, and beat bonding!
Echo speak each line of the chant as you keep a pat/clap beat. The 2 part pat/clap beat is preferable over a single body percussion choice (patting, clapping) because it forces the children to NOT disregard the rests!
Getting young children to pass a ball or bean bag to a beat is challenging. The following method has worked so well for me. Sit in a circle and give everyone a number, with the teacher having the LAST number. This means you are sitting between the last student number and the number 1 student.
Explain to the students that the ball has to be in their hands on THEIR number. (If someone passes it too slowly or too quickly, you can explain why they didn’t have possession of the ball on their own number)
Using numbers reinforces steady beat, so students aren’t inclined to HOLD the ball or RUSH the ball.
With students’ eyes on the person with the ball, which in the beginning is YOU, they clap and speak “1” when you hand it to the child next to you. This is an important step because it forces them to watch who has the ball, to know when to begin. They continue counting and clapping until the ball gets back to you. I like to do this step twice to solidify the idea that everyone has a number (beat). If all goes well after two practices, go on to the next step. If not, repeat again.
This time, tell the Ss to THINK the numbers as they clap.
The final step is to begin passing the ball as you say the chant.
The student who has the ball on the last word “out”, is out, gives the ball to the next person, and leaves the circle to go get a non-pitched percussion instrument to play the beat. I have them sit a couple of feet behind their normal circle spot.
Everyone is reminded to watch the person with the ball so that they know when to begin the chant again.
In the beginning, most are chatting and having fun and aren’t watching, but I encourage the person with the ball to start anyway, and then I make a BIG deal about the people who clap the very first beat and say the first word of the chant! This increases watchfulness GREATLY! Then the game is totally student-directed with the teacher as an observer, assessor, and occasional referee! 🙂 You can SO easily mark a steady beat assessment watching this game!!!
If you want to see MORE great ideas about this chant, check out the information at one of my favorite sites-Beth’s Notes!
Rhythm Practice
I use a blank chart to prepare, present, and practice rhythms.
Present the 16 beats of the chant as students speak and pat/clap the chant, T pointing to the beats.
Repeat, but this time have students only SPEAK the chant, discovering which beats have NO words on them.
Change those into RESTS and speak with syllables of your choice. I use “ta” and “sh”.
Body Percussion—Clap on quarters, snap on rests. How else could we do it?
Movement—Step on quarters, jump on rests. How else could we do it?
Percussion—Everyone will get a percussion instrument and working with a partner, one will play the quarters and the other play the rests. Pick an instrument for the rest that has a light sound. Partners will practice and then share with the class. After everyone has shared, have students share which instrument combo was their favorite and why they chose it.
You could have students choose wood and metal combinations or combinations of their choice that weren’t in the same family. Many options here.
Have partners reverse what they played. Question-Which was your favorite? Why?
Making UP Rhythms
There are 13 quarter notes and 3 rests in the chant. Re-order the notes into a NEW piece. Partners can work together and then perform for the class. A great time to talk about measures and 4/4.
Rhythm Writing
Write the rhythm of the chant using human notes! 16 students will lie down on the floor, 4 rows each with 4 beats. Then the notes will “perform” the chant saying rhythm syllables and/or the words of the chant. Those Ss watching will then take someone’s place and repeat the “performance”.
Students take dry erase boards, paper/pencil, whatever you use, and write out the chant’s rhythm. This is a great time to practice writing quarter notes and rests even before you write out the chant. Students can then touch each beat saying the notes or the words of the chant to make the connection between what they see and what they hear.
My project has been selected as a finalist for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s Igniting STEAM for Student Innovation Challenge. Winners will receive $10,000 to use on future DonorsChoose.org projects, and I need your votes to move my project from finalist to winner! I can’t express to you what this money would mean to me, my students, my classroom, and my school! THANK YOU!
Follow the link below and vote in ALL FOUR grade categories;
Write down student wishes. With younger students, pick four or eight that will work as a “B” section. I suggested we think of wishes to help others and we created “Houses, food, water, clothes, money, caring, kindness, peace”. We then created an ABA, sing, poem, sing arrangement.
Older grades could classify their wishes into rhythm bricks. A class poem can be created or small groups can create their own. Then RONDO form can be used, alternating the song “A” with the different group poems.
Solfege
Raise and lower arms to the s-m patterns of the song. Do it with a partner. Do it while raising and lowering a parachute or a shared scarf with a partner.
Sing using a pitch ladder.
Write on a 2 line staff as a class and individually.
Play it on the xylophone or other pitched instrument. I give the below half sheets to my students and they write in the notes/circles, the s,m, or l
I’ve taught different pieces of “world” music, done basic drumming, gone to a few seminars (World Music Drumming with Will Schmid), but never taught an ongoing world music class! Starting January 2015, I will be teaching world music classes to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Here you will find everything that I’m using in my class.
Resources
Notation of patterns from different countries HERE.
Kurry Seymour, public school world music teacher, HERE.
Like many things, I discovered this neat idea by accident! Just hang your headphones on a door and the cords NEVER become tangled as long as you take the headphone on the end.
I’d like to compile worthy information/activities about India! If you have something to share, PLEASE let me know! I’d love to have other great resources!
Dandiya Raas-Traditional Folk Dance by the group LIBANA
UPDATE: Here is my NEW way of storing my ukes. A wonderful retired music teacher and her husband built this amazing stand for 30 ukes.
Here’s how I stored them when I was first getting started!
I have 33 ukes and here is how they are stored. The unit below is a
storage unit which usually has tubs/bins on the four levels. I took out the
bins and found that the dowels going across are just the right width to hold
the ukes. I don’t have room to hang them so this is working well for me.
More care has to be taken when getting/putting away the uke. So far, I do
this job, with a quick tuning before handing the uke to a student!
For those who have inquired about the constructed storage unit at the top, I contacted the builders and they have no plans, and as they told me, “We design as we go.” The best I can do is share some close-up pictures I took of the cart.
This is a great song to teach SLS and quarter note/rest and eighth note pairs. Here’s my process.
I needed a big chart for K-2 so that we could write song/rhyme rhythms. I wanted something cheap! 🙂 I bought a black foam board (20×30″) at Dollar Tree, then added strips of thick paper such as card stock to form the pockets. The actual rhythms are written on blank 4×6 note cards. I laminated them but that isn’t completely necessary.
The glued bottom edge serves as a stop for the note card. The red lines on the photo to the right show where I used glue.
Dissect the text.
