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.