Day Three

I especially enjoyed this third lesson! I think the students are getting more used to me being in the classroom with them. I also feel like I'm getting a better grip on my classroom management skills. I was able to bring the kids to attention much more quickly this time than I have before. Because of that, we were able to get a lot done!

This time around, we sang the classic camp song "I Love The Mountains". I grew up hearing this one at church camps, so it brings back some fun memories for me. Of course, I grew up in flat Texas. So I never really lived around mountains until coming to BYU! But these fourth graders have mountains all around them.



I feel a little bad, because I totally blanked on teaching the "integration" part of "arts integration" for this round. It was in my plan, but I completely forgot to talk about it, maybe because I like this song so much. The students are learning about the Mountain Men of Utah, and I was going to talk a little about that and the natural landscapes that Utah has. I did, however, briefly let the class know that Texas hardly EVER has snow, and they seemed a little blown away by that.

Regardless, we started out by learning the song all together. Instead of having the sheet music up on the document cam this time, I had my iPad up there instead with a little minimalist drawing of the lyrics. I think that the student's might have learned the notes a bit more solidly with the sheet music (you'll see that it's a bit rocky in the video), but it was a fun experiment anyway! And it was a good way for me to teach by rote a little bit more than usual.

After we learned the words, I had the kids decide on movements for each of the lines of the lyrics... because moving to music is fun! That part was really fun for me, and for the class. It got them involved in thinking and being creative. Everyone had a lot to say, and I could tell that they were all excited to be involved in this process. I had originally planned on just teaching them movements that I found online, but I'm really, really glad I got them involved. I'll definitely be doing something like that again.

Once they were solid on their moves, we sang the piece in a round! They did so well with it during the round for "My Paddle", I decided to bring that back. It worked pretty well. Like I said, the notes were somewhat shaky, but it held together overall. And they had fun, and were making music. I certainly can't complain about that.

For this round, I divided the class into four groups. Each group did the same movements to the verse of the song, but during the "boom-de-yada" refrain, each group put their heads together to come up with a unique movement to their group. It was really fun to see what everyone came up with. There was a lot of personality in those boom-de-yadas, and I loved seeing everyone's personal touches to the song.

This was probably my favorite lesson so far! I loved seeing so much personality in the kids. Getting them more involved in the creative process was absolutely fantastic. That is my favorite part about music, and I'm really glad that I got to help these fourth graders experience it first hand.

Great lesson, and great kids! I'm excited for what 2016 will hold.

- Amanda Ritter