Cotton Eye Joe

Do you know "Cotton Eye Joe?".  I have this wonderful folk song in a couple of my books - the standard (orange) "150 American Folk Songs," and in "My Singing Bird."

This song is great for teaching so many things - cut time, low la, practicing half notes, etc.  I like to use it in 3rd-ish grade for low la.

We talk about la in relationship to both low so and do.  Then, we notate it on the staff:

The rhythm can get a little tricky - in my primary sources, it is in cut time.

But, sometimes, this meter can be a little tricky for kids, so depending on where my kids are, I've also done it in 4/4 time:

Or, I've also actually done it where I use both versions for a compare/contrast meter thing.

Now, the first time I actually have ever heard this song was back in college, when I used to go country dancing every Thursday nigh.  I don't really even like country music, but I had so much fun dancing that I ignored that I didn't like the music :)

I used to dance to the version by Rednex, but since that's a little inappropriate for elementary school (some of the lyrics), I've actually stumbled across another great one for line dances by The Chieftains:

You can learn the line dance here:

Of course, this one is based off a different version of the song, notated here:

That version has lots of possibilities to use with your older students - syncopation, fa, etc.

What I like to do is teach the kids the first version, then introduce the second version with the line dance.  They love it!

Of course, you can help support my adoption fund by getting my file of the song here :)

Old Roger Is Dead

I'll admit - I feel that I can teach rhythm pretty well, until we get to 6/8 meter.  I've always loved so many songs in 6/8 meter but it has been hard for me to verbalize it.

I found this adorable picture on Pinterest using big lego-type blocks to teach macro beat:

I love that it separates 6/8 into 2 groups of 3 - what a great visual!  All of a sudden, 6/8 time doesn't seem so daunting.  All you have to do is talk about macro beats and micro beats, and you're set!

Last year, I learned the song "Old Roger is Dead" at a workshop.  I had never heard it before.  It is the PERFECT song for Halloween time that is not about Halloween:

It reinforces 6/8 meter, it is a really good one to introduce anacrusis (pick-up notes), and even ti because of the s-l-t-do pattern.  You could also extract high do for 3rd grade from the first couple of measures.  There are several different versions of this song floating out there, but this is my favorite because of the melodic elements.

I loved it so much, I made a whole presentation about it that you can find on Teachers Pay Teachers here.

There's a lot as part of this:  

Steady beat:

Iconic rhythm:

Discussion of macro and micro beats:

Introduction to anacrusis/pick-up notes:

Melodic practice and introduction to ti:

Also on a staff:

But really, the best part is really the game.  Basically, the game is that you dramatize the words.  In my classroom, I call this game "Silent Movie."  This is, without question, my students' absolute favorite game.  They have to act out the lyrics of any given song (or sometimes, just the story line for something instrumental, like "In the Hall of the Mountain King").  Since the lyrics for this song involve a guy dying, a woman picking apples near his grave, and then the dead guy getting up and giving the woman a shock, this song becomes an instant October favorite.  (Zombies!)  You can play by having "Roger" chase the old woman around the circle, a la "Duck Duck Goose," or just getting up and shocking her.  Even when I have talking problems in my class, one mention of the word "Silent Movie" gets every student to shut their mouths and truly listen to the song.

I usually play Silent Movie with a certain group acting out the lyrics, while everybody else is singing, so they can truly appreciate the "silent" part of "silent movie."  Sometimes, we'll take turns with everybody showing off their performance to the rest of the class.

Other student favorites to play "Silent Movie":

• In the Hall of the Mountain King (I have one person creep into the Mountain King's lair, then get chased out by trolls)

• Don Gato (the kids love that the cat falls off the roof, dies, and comes back to life)

• Oh, Susanna! (crazy lyrics will do it every time)

Try it!  I guarantee your students will like it!

Oh, and just so you have the choice, here's another popular version of this song:

Frere Jacques

Who doesn't know and love "Frere Jacques"?  This is a folk song that most of your kids even know, but there is so much you can do with it.  This is a great song to present half note, fa, low sol, part-singing, and so much more!  I'm using it this year to present half note to my 2nd graders.  We prepped and prepped half note at the end of last year, and have been reviewing it for this year.  I'm just about ready to present it (my 2nd graders this year are just amazing - this is slightly earlier than I've done it with 2nd grade in the past).  Anyway, we've been singing this song in class and doing different activities with it.  I had them do this little game/dance that I sort of made up:

Standing in a double circle in pairs, each circle walks to their right for 8 beats, then back for 8 beats to face their partner (1st 8 beats is "Frere Jacques," 2nd is "Dormez vous?")
Play patty-cake on next 8 beats (Sonnez les matines) clap-right-clap-left, clap-right-clap-left
On last 8 beats, wave good-bye and take one step to the right (opposite directions for circles) and face a new partner.  Repeat.

If you do this enough times, the kids should be standing in front of their original partners after a few turns.  My kids loved this!  I also loved that by counting the beats, they were internalizing that they took two steps on "vous" - a great prep for half note.

Another activity they really enjoyed is identifying the long notes.  We haven't labeled them yet, but they know where they are.  I had some students come up and play a few instruments that make "bell" sounds - finger cymbals, triangles, etc on the long notes.  Then, a student suggested that instead of singing, the instruments play the "din dan don" part on their own.  So great!  So, that inspired me to write a simple little Orff arrangement.  Feel free to adapt it to your instruments, change parts up, etc.  I've included a simple recorder part if you'd like to use it with recorders.

I created a file for Teachers Pay Teachers that can help when you present the half note, fa, or low sol, as this song is great for all of them!

It has a lot included, like iconic rhythmic notation:

Iconic melodic notation:

Actual rhythmic notation:

Song lyrics in English and French, and more.  You can find it here for $1.50 if you want to help contribute to my adoption fund :)  Frere Jacques

Since my focus this year is on music around the world, I'm choosing to teach this song in French.  I was looking around the internet the other day, and found this great website that has video clips of kids from different European countries singing this song in their own language:  Frere Jacques around the world.  So cute!  The kids get a kick out of this familiar song in so many languages!

Kokoleoko

As my theme this year is "Music Around the World," I've been looking into lots of different folk songs from around the world.  I found this little gem, Kokoleoko.  I've found it in several different places, all slightly different versions.  The version below is the most common, found in "Spotlight on Music, Grade 5," as well as several South American sources.

If you change one note of this song (the f sharp to an a), it is a great recorder piece - using only the notes G-A-B-C, as shown in this example:

The translation is pretty simple.  Apparently "Kokoleoko" is just another way of saying "cock-a-doodle-doo," and "ahby" is "goodbye."

Now, each source I find this song says something different about where exactly it's from.  Most often, they say either Liberia or Ghana.  So, I've just labeled it as a West African folk song to be more accurate.

Anyway, this song is great for teaching the half note, which I do in 2nd grade.  We spend awhile preparing, using songs that have half notes, before actually labeling what they are.  This song is also great if you bring it back in the end of 3rd/beginning of 4th, or whenever you teach syncopation.

There is a clapping game that goes with this.  It looks more complicated than it actually is.  My 2nd graders are challenged by this, but really enjoy doing it.  You can watch an example below:



I recently made a Teachers Pay Teachers product for this song that has rhythmic practice slides, melodic practice slides, clapping game instructions, and notation for both voice in the original version and recorder in the revised version.

You can find it here:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:kokoleoko







There is even a great treble choral arrangement out there by Mary Donnelly and George Strid.  Here's a cute recording I found of it on YouTube:

Hope you can find use for this great song!  My kids are absolutely loving it :)

Dum-dum!

Today was my 3rd official day with students.  I do something new with them on the first day of school every year.  This year, I'm actually really excited about - more to come on that later.

Dum-Dums!

Anyway, as an attention-getter this year, I found this really fun youtube link:  Minnesota Boy Choir Dum-Dum.  I love it so much, and can think of so many ways to use this in my special chorus, general ed classes, and just for fun.  However, I learned the song more like this: 

I'm using this song with my 3rd through 5th graders right now, and they are loving it.  They are also coming up with different ways to change the actions, but especially the tempo.  (They absolutely love going as fast as possible).  It is a great quick transition song, great attention-grabber, and I can see myself using this a lot this year.

More fly swatters!

A few weeks ago I was at Dollar Tree (I really should by stock in that store since I get a lot of stuff there) and found these awesome fly swatters:

Just for an idea on how big these really are, here is my 4-year-old daughter holding one up:

My students absolutely love them!  One student told me that these were big enough to "whack an elephant!" 

Love it!  You must go buy them now!

I have blogged before about my "fly swatter" games that I like to play in class.  I have recently uploaded a few products to Teachers Pay Teachers (some free) that would be great to use these with:

1. Rhythm flash cards (one set is free, the others are a bundled set).  I like these because they are color-coded by rhythmic concept. I include large flash cards for large-group practice, and smaller flash cards that you can print, cut out, and laminate for small group practice, fly swatter games, memory games, etc.

You can get the ta ti-ti set for FREE here:  Ta ti-ti flash cards

You can get the bundled rhythm set here:  Bundled flash card set  Not free, sorry - but $4 gets you lots and lots of flash cards for all of the following rhythmic concepts:  

ta, ti-ti, ta rest

half note, half rest
sixteenth notes (tika-tika or tiri-tiri)
sixteenth/eighth note combinations (ti-tika, tika-ti or ti-tiri, tiri-ti)
syncopa
dotted quarter, eighth note (tom ti)

Here is an example of what a flash card looks like:  Simple, but effective

2. Rhythm Fly Swatter game:  you can get the ta, ti-ti, ta rest set for FREE here:  Ta ti-ti rest bug swatter game

Here is an example of one of the printable pages.  You cut them out, laminate, and swat away!

3.  I don't just advertise my own stuff.  I would be nowhere without the examples and help from other music teachers.  One of my heroes - never even met her - is music teacher Amy Abbott.  Read her amazing blog here:  Amy Abbott's music blog.  Anyway, she has recently uploaded a lot of "fly swatting" games to TpT - with rhythmic, melodic, and recorder skills.  She has them for sale individually, in bundles, and more.  Check them out here:  Amy Abbott's fly swatter games.