(no subject)
In theory everything works better, doesn't it? I've faced this feeling so many times during my work with the children. Today was an example. I had planned an activity which involved me singing an Iza Trapani book, "Row Row Your Boat", and then having the kids make up their own story. The book is an extended version of the song and I was hoping the kids could do something similar with a different song. I picked "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I even wrote out the lyrics and left blanks for them to fill in. It was quite simple in my mind, they fill in their names, an animal they like, and one descriptive sentence about the animal. Then their version of the song would be something like "John had a little dog, little dog, little dog, John had a little dog and its fun to pet."
Sounds simple? Only one child was able to complete the task. The others balked about the writing portion of the activity and others ignored that it was suppose to be about an animal, others picked "lamb" as their animal and some just drew pictures. I guess this was too difficult an a task individually, but perhaps as a group activity where I can write it out for everybody to see and get their input that way. Or perhaps even continuing with the "Row Your Boat" story line would have been an easier concept to follow than starting with a completely new idea.
The rhythm stick game with the older boys worked well again. Some boys had a hard time playing a proper rhythm and just beated randomly with their sticks, which makes this game of imitation extremely difficult. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get them to play a rhythm that is semi-repeatable. I made a new rule that they had to play no longer than 3 seconds, which I hoped would help with random and long rhythms. I also started with a rhythmic call and response, which I think helped to get them more "rhythmic feeling", if that's possible. But call and response does quickly get old. I've thought about adding vocal sounds but I feel a little unsure about that. I lost a stick today, one of the boys hit the stick on the wooden part of the sofa and it split in half. I was little sad about that, since the sticks were my own instruments. I guess it's time to go instrument shopping again!
Sounds simple? Only one child was able to complete the task. The others balked about the writing portion of the activity and others ignored that it was suppose to be about an animal, others picked "lamb" as their animal and some just drew pictures. I guess this was too difficult an a task individually, but perhaps as a group activity where I can write it out for everybody to see and get their input that way. Or perhaps even continuing with the "Row Your Boat" story line would have been an easier concept to follow than starting with a completely new idea.
The rhythm stick game with the older boys worked well again. Some boys had a hard time playing a proper rhythm and just beated randomly with their sticks, which makes this game of imitation extremely difficult. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get them to play a rhythm that is semi-repeatable. I made a new rule that they had to play no longer than 3 seconds, which I hoped would help with random and long rhythms. I also started with a rhythmic call and response, which I think helped to get them more "rhythmic feeling", if that's possible. But call and response does quickly get old. I've thought about adding vocal sounds but I feel a little unsure about that. I lost a stick today, one of the boys hit the stick on the wooden part of the sofa and it split in half. I was little sad about that, since the sticks were my own instruments. I guess it's time to go instrument shopping again!