Distance Learning & Social Distanced Classroom Approved Activities

As many of my friends & family know, I am not teaching (thus far) this fall. It doesn’t really feel real yet, in part because I am facilitating my child’s virtual kindergarten experience. Honestly, in spite of huge efforts and incalculable patience on behalf of her teachers, the first two days of virtual kindergarten were more exhausting for me than any first day of school I’ve ever experienced. (That includes First Day 2011, the day I had over 500 children in my room throughout the day because the master schedule was so badly mangled.)

Anyway.

Not teaching this fall was some parts my decision and some parts not. Regardless of my personal situation, I always want to support my fellow teachers, most of whom have been put into impossible positions.

So here’s a few videos I made that might help with distance learning or socially distant, no instrument playing, no group singing in-class teaching.

Tap Your Head!

This is, as far as I know, a welcome song that I made up. (If it bears enough resemblance to anything else you might have heard, let me know. You learn a lot during Orff levels and other trainings, and sometimes the things you learn become disorganized in your brain.) This a fun song for either the start of class or when you need kids to refocus, without doing a huge call & response or my early & misguided attempts at attention via gock block. (Sorry kids.)

Countdown!!

This warm-up I learned from my former chorus students at Lantana Middle and saw in perfection as practiced by Elizabeth G. Phillips (who teaches at Okeeheelee Middle School in Palm Beach County, FL). You can alter this warm-up to fit popular songs (Mrs. Phillips used "Geronimo” by Sheppard to great effect at All-County rehearsals) or in any other way. It’s an outstanding way to relieve tension & get kids ready, even when most forms of distancing are no longer a thing.

“Do Mi Sol” in The Little Red Fort

This is original stuff here! I hope I don’t get copyrighted into oblivion here, but this lesson pertains to the book The Little Red Fort, by Brenda Maier, and pictures by Sonia Sanchez. It’s a good “do mi sol” reinforcer for young kids. You can also involve (or play for them) other percussion instruments to identify characters or sounds, like the hammering of the nails. It is an adaptation of The Little Red Hen. It was a big hit with 1st & 2nd grades for me this past year.

Obviously you might have to alter the singing if you’re in person, but you could use solfege signs, or simply up & down pointing motions.

Anyone know what the situation with copyright & read-alouds is currently? I’m not associated with a school district at the moment, and also, many of us are going to be doing distance learning for a long time. Did most publishers extend the June 30th rule? Anyway. Here’s a neat preview of this book from Scholastic.

Soundtrack to “The Crocodile’s Toothache”

This lesson is a great one for distance learning, because students can create found sounds throughout the house in order to create a “soundtrack” for this poem. Lots of Shel Silverstein poems lend themselves to these ideas, so pick out your own, pick out the words that stand out to you, and have the kids add their own sound effects or make their own soundtrack!

I started this with my beginning band, as it was a different sort of way to demonstrate the timbres of our beginning band instruments (and how they sounded with them after only a few weeks of playing) and have included the footage from our Beginning Band Showcase in 2018.

Finding Your Because

Even thought Schumann’s Symphony in b-minor might not be most fitting background music for a beautifully uplifting book like Mo Willems’s Because, it is the piece of music mentioned throughout (& printed in the front of) the book. This was the last thing I sent my kids (of all grade levels) before the end of the school year this past spring. We also did a reading of this in class (mostly with 3rd graders), backed by Schumann before we ceased meeting at school. They really loved the book — one girl even pulled it out of her backpack in amazement when I announced I would be reading it. They also loved the after-reading activity, where I gave them the chance to reflect on & discuss who their “Because” was.

Enjoy the use of these as you’d like, and all of the best to each & every single one of you while in your classrooms, physical or virtual, this year.