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Move to the Music (Two Workshops)
Presented by Kevin and Stephanie Kammeraad

Introduction:

We all know the importance of using music and movement in the early childhood classroom. Our list of benefits could fill pages. But what if we could have our students moving in such a way that it further enhances our literacy and content-area instruction? What if we could use music to empower and inspire them to be more creative? We can! In this workshop you will develop the skills to turn pattern-based songs and high-energy movements into open-ended experiences that empower students to think creatively. You’ll also learn how to take any song and incorporate sign language based movements, thereby making them interactive. Not only does this add to the fun, but it also aids the students’ memory of the words by utilizing another learning modality.

Common Core Standards covered:

Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Anchor Standards for Language

Knowledge of Language

Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Vocabulary acquisition and Use

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Workshop Activities:

Activity #1: Using Pattern-Based Songs to Actively Stimulate Creativity

Pattern-based songs are easy to “catch-on” and then “add-on” to, making them a great choice for use with your students to stimulate their creativity. Singing one with your students before a writing assignment (or really any time when you want them to think creatively!) will get their imagination juices flowing!

Notes to you:

To prepare, simply choose a song that follows a repeated pattern or structure. Think of ways you and your students can change various aspects of the song in order to create something new, e.g. Can a word be changed to a new one in the same category? (Changing one body part to another, choosing a different color, changing an animal, vehicle, or food item to another animal, vehicle, or food item, etc.) If the song states a particular location, can a new place be substituted? (Changing Town to Farm or Zoo or vice versa.) Can new movements be created in place of old ones, or can new ones be developed to go along with the new words or locations that have been thought of? There are numerous possibilities with almost every song, and when in doubt, just ask the kids! They are full of ideas!

How to implement with students:

Introduce the song to the students in the traditional way. As soon as they catch on, ask them a specific question about how it could be changed. For example, if you are singing The Wheels on the Bus, after you’ve gone through one or two of the bus parts and movements with them, pause and then ask them what else is on the bus (having them name either another part of the bus or something that is inside of it). Then ask them what movement everyone could do to go along with the new idea. After implementing a few (or all!) of their ideas (or on a subsequent time of singing this song with them) ask them for their ideas of where else the bus could be going besides through town, what else might be on the bus if it was going to that new location, and/or what other vehicles have wheels and then sing the song about that new mode of transportation.

Lyrics to songs used in this session to practice taking pattern-based songs and changing them to be driven by students’ ideas:

Down By the Bay:

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelons grow.
Back to my home,
I dare not go.
For if I do,
My mother will say,
"Did you ever see a bear combing his hair?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelons grow.
Back to my home,
I dare not go.
For if I do,
My mother will say,
"Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose?"
Down by the bay.

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelons grow.
Back to my home,
I dare not go.
For if I do,
My mother will say,
"Did you ever see a whale with a polka dot tail?"
Down by the bay.

And it continues…

The Ants Go Marching

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two,
The little one stops to tie his shoe
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching three by three,
The little one stops to climb a tree
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And it continues…

The Wheels on the Bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round
Round and round, round and round
The wheels on the bus go round and round
All through the town.

The wipers on the bus go "Swish, swish, swish,
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish"
The wipers on the bus go "Swish, swish, swish"
All through the town.

The door on the bus goes open and shut
Open and shut, open and shut
The door on the bus goes open and shut
All through the town. And it continues…

If You’re Happy and You Know It

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. (clap clap)

If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it
If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet. (stomp stomp)

If you're happy and you know it, shout "Hurray!" (hoo-ray!)
If you're happy and you know it, shout "Hurray!" (hoo-ray!)
If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it
If you're happy and you know it, shout "Hurray!" (hoo-ray!)

And it can continue…

Here We Go ‘Round the Mulberry Bush:

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
So early in the morning.

This is the way we wash our clothes,
Wash our clothes, wash our clothes.
This is the way we wash our clothes,
So early in the morning.

This is the way we iron our clothes,
Iron our clothes, iron our clothes.
This is the way we iron our clothes,
So early in the morning.

And it continues…

A Hunting We Will Go

A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a fox and put him in a box
And then we'll let him go

A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a fish and put him on a dish
And then we'll let him go

A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a bear and cut his hair
And then we'll let him go

And it continues…

Resources:

http://www.theteachersguide.com/ChildrensSongs.htm - A huge database of children’s songs with lyrics

http://www.songsforteaching.com/index.html - A database of songs organized by subject/content area

http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=eh – A database of kids songs from around the world, organized by continent and then by country

Activity #2: Incorporating Sign Language into Songs to Increase Merriment, Movement, and Memory

Notes to you:

There are many benefits to incorporating and teaching sign language to your students with the songs that you use with them:

American Sign Language (ASL) is an official language, so the sign language movements that you are teaching your students can help them to communicate (even though it might just be in a small way) with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. We want our students to become global citizens, and teaching another language is one of the ways to help them do that.
We want our students to be compassionate. Teaching sign language is a great opportunity to share with your students about the various ways people communicate (now and throughout history): through written, spoken, pictorial, and kinesthetic language. Teaching sign language is also a natural opportunity to teach your students about people who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Teaching sign language for some of the words in a song brings movement into it and makes the song more interactive. For your kinesthetic learners, this is imperative!
The more learning modalities that are used by your students at one time, the easier it will be for them to remember what it is they are learning. If you play a content-rich song, post the lyrics where the students can see them, teach them sign language for the key words, and your students will be utilizing three out of the four learning modalities. Talk about aiding retention!
Learning sign language is fun!

Figuring out which words to do sign language for is the hardest part of the process. Once you do this for a few songs, it will become easier and will go faster for you.

Break the song down line by line and choose the most important words. These will be the ones that you will look up in an online ASL dictionary. (See “Resources” on last page to find links to various ASL dictionaries online.) You do not want to sign every word, nor sign more than a few words per line (depending on the length of the line.)
The more you use sign language with your students, the more you will know how many signs per song they can handle. You will also be able to increase the number of signs that you use with them per song as the year progresses. It will become easier for all of you!
We encourage you to look up the words in two ASL dictionaries to gain a good understanding of the sign movements. Sometimes the movements vary a bit, and this would be similar to how sometimes a word in English sounds different depending on the region you are in, i.e. different dialects. Choose the movement that you feel is best for using with your students.
Sometimes you will not find the word that you are looking for in the dictionary. When this happens, we recommend that you check another ASL dictionary. If you still can’t find it, then look up a synonym of that word.
Sometimes the sign for the word that you would like to use is complicated and you might deem it too hard to teach or too complex for your students to learn. In that case (after you’ve looked it up in a second ASL dictionary) you can either look up a synonym of that word, skip that word and focus on another word in that line, or modify the movement slightly, making it less complex. If you do the latter, simply tell your students that this sign is based on the ASL sign.

How to implement with students:

Start by telling your students that you are going to be teaching them some sign language for some of the words in the song you are about to sing together (or that they are about to hear). Say (don’t sing) the words of the song slowly, doing the sign language movement for the words as they come up. When you get to a word that you are signing, after you say it and sign it simultaneously, pause and show the kids again how you did the sign, explaining it to them as you do it. Then go back a few words and say the lyrics of the song again with that word in it, signing it as you say it. Continue on speaking the lyrics, pausing and teaching after each word that you are signing. Once you’ve gotten through the song, tell the students not to worry if they don’t remember how to do all of the signs. They will be watching and following along with you as they go. Remind them to have fun and that it doesn’t matter if they don’t do the signs just right – you are all learning together! Now sing or play the song and have fun!

Resources:

http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/nick-news-151-full-episode.html - Nick News: “Now Hear This! What If You Were Deaf?” This is a 22 minute video showing hearing kids what it’s like to be deaf, from the perspective of four different deaf children.

www.signingsavvy.com – Online dictionary of American Sign Language with videos

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/SITES/ASLWEB/browser.htm - Online dictionary of American Sign Language with videos

www.lifeprint.com – The website of American Sign Language University: a sign language resource site for ASL students and teachers.

Songs we used in this session to practice adding American Sign Language:

The More We Get Together

The more we get together,
Together, together,
The more we get together,
The happier we'll be.

For your friends are my friends,
And my friends are your friends.
The more we get together,
The happier we'll be!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

Baa, Baa Black Sheep

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

One for my master,
One for my dame,
One for the little boy,
Who lives down the lane.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow

And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go

It followed her to school one day
School one day, school one day
It followed her to school one day
Which was against the rules.

It made the children laugh and play,
Laugh and play, laugh and play,
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school

Itsy, Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy spider
Crawled up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider
Crawled up the spout again.

Three Little Birds

Hello everyone from Fire Up,It's a pleasure to have spent time with you...

Three Little Birds

Hello everyone from Fire Up,
It's a pleasure to have spent time with you...