Rain, Sunshine & Shakers

I began today's lesson with the solfege body movement warm-up. We went up and down the scale twice~ David was very eager to share his knowledge about solfege with us! After the warm-up, I held up my rainstick and asked them to guess what is inside. I stopped taking answers when they started saying things like pineapples and birds haha~ I told them that it's used in bands, and Eric figured that I brought it in to make music with them AND to get their attention so they can be quiet. =P



Alex kept on trying to get the rainstick off of my hand, but I promised him that I'll pass it around after our lesson. That kept him off for a while. Then we did an activity called "Rain". We sat in a circle. I started rubbing my palms, and Franklin on my left was supposed to follow what I'm doing, and the person on his left would follow him, and so on, until everybody's doing the same thing. Then I started snapping my fingers (which a lot of them couldn't do, and I decided that I'll leave out this part next time). The following motions are clapping hands, patting on the thigh, and then stomping the feet. The purpose is to create the sound of a dripping rain that ends up being a thunderstorm. Then the process was reversed until there's no more "rain". It didn't work out as well as I thought, because all the kids started doing the motions once they saw what I was doing. But I would try it again next time and try to work it out with them!

Then, I told them that we're going to learn the song "You are my Sunshine", and that I want their help with clapping the beats. I explained to them that beats are like heartbeats of a song, and it's very important that they're consistent. I patted the beats on my thigh and asked them to follow me, and then I started singing the song. They didn't know the words, so I went over the song line by line and sang it with them. I'd like to refine it more, but due to the short attention span of the kids, I decided that we'll just sing it a couple of times for now, and we'll come back to the song later and make it sound nicer.

After singing, I passed the rainstick around for the kids to hold it and manipulate it to make slower and faster raining sounds. They really liked that~ Then came the fun part! I showed them the shaker that I made with empty toilet paper rolls, constuction papers, and rice. I showed them how to do it, and then handed out the supplies. Because I couldn't collect enough toilet paper rolls, the alternative was to roll a small piece of construction paper into a roll, and then follow the same procedures. I was surprised that the kids didn't fight over who gets the toilet paper rolls! While I was helping some kids with gluing and stapling, I asked the other kids to put the rice into their shaker, which was a really really bad idea, 'cause I ended up with rice all over the carpet! A reminder to myself: bring a spoon for an activity like that, put a table cloth on the carpet before we pour the rice, or I'll just do it for them~





I'm really happy because the kids were soooo engaged in the activity! When their parents picked them up, some of them refused to go because they wanted to finish it~ When I told little Kayla that she can decorate it tomorrow, she asked, "Are you going to be here tomorrow?" I feel so warm~ ^-^

I learned that with kids that are so young, it is hard for them to focus on one single activity during a lesson, so it's important to be prepared for different activities that'll keep them engaged. I think today's lesson went pretty well, and I'm looking forward to share more of my creativity with the kids and to learn from theirs! =)