One way that my cooperative teacher engages her class in a meaningful way is by starting each class with some quick, and often silly, vocal warmups. She is constantly having them explore the range of their voices throughout class and uses the example of Dory from Finding Nemo speaking whale as a model to the kids of how to explore their voices. As the children walk into the classroom and sit down on the carpet, she "speaks whale" to them and they know to repeat it back to her. She might say, "gooOOOOood mmmooOOORRRRNNinnng kinderGARRRTen!" and they will "whale speak" back to her. Anytime they're singing a song together and some kids are singing in their low chest voice, she will use this tool to help them get their voices high up in their heads. It gives the kids the excuse to do something silly but also with purpose, which is very engaging for them!
This teacher also likes to tell stories to illustrate concepts and ideas. In her storytelling, she will use appropriate music terminology (i.e. composer, do-re-mi, string family...etc) and always defines them and has the kids repeat them. But what's more, the terminology she uses that she really wants to stick, she attaches movement to them. Right now she's teaching the children about the Mozart family and their musical influences in history, so when it's time to talk about the composer, every time she says the word composer she throws her hands up in the air and the kids repeat her and do the same. Immediately after they yell "composer!" she joyfully asks, "And what does a composer do?" The kids yell, "Writes music!" again throwing their hands in the air with each word. It's so fun to watch the kids as they anxiously wait for the right moments in the story to be moving.
Perhaps my favorite thing that she does to engage her students is to be in the group with them. She will stand at the front of the classroom when needed, but oftentimes she is in the circle singing with them or on their level engaging with them instead of "towering" over them. Last week with the fifth graders she handed two foot-long lengths of PVC pipes to each student to use in a fun rhythmic exercise where they tapped a rhythm and then, on the beat, passed their sticks to the students next to them around the circle. It was crazy and fun, and she was right there in the circle jamming out and having fun with them, too. You can just see the passion she has for music and for teaching children in everything she does!
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