Learning by experience (February 20th visit)

This visit with Mrs. Larson's class was fun, but I also learned about selecting music music for a specific age group.

We began by practicing the Little Beggarman. The children love this song! They know all the words now, and one even told me that she was happy because she had it stuck in her head the day before. We worked on memorizing the words, and to make it more interesting we did different ways of beating and clapping and snapping the rhythm.

Then, I decided to teach them a new folk song: Johnny's Gone for a Soldier. This a complete opposite from the Beggarman song. It is slow and sad. I incorporated their study of parts of speech by asking them to identify different things like nouns, verbs and adjectives. This was a good exercise for them. The problem, however came when we began to sing. They picked up the melody and words quickly, but they didn't have the same enthusiasm. I realized, as we sang, that maybe the song was a little too sad and not quite accessible to the understanding of 3rd graders. We finished singing all the verses, and the class was in a more somber mood. I wanted to bring the excitement from the beginning of class back, so as we stood and walked back to the classroom, I began singing the Beggarman song. Soon everyone was singing and happy again.

This was a good learning experience for me as I pick music for my students in the future. I will be more sensitive to their age and understanding, and also what they would enjoy.