Name: Nicholas DePalo
Section: D02E
School: Saint Edmund Elementary School
1902 Avenue T
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Cooperating Teacher: Ms. Mary Benson
Number of Children: 19
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
List of Songs
Recording #1 – “Hello My Friend”, “Good Morning”, and “Say Hello”
Recording #2 – “Say Hello”, “Five Little Birdies”, Three Little Smelly Skunks”, and “What Did We Do Today?”
Recording #3 – “Three Little Smelly Skunks”, “Three Little Muffins”, and “What Did We Do Today?”
Recording #4 – “Three Little Muffins”, “This Is What I Can Do”, and “Three Little Muffins”
Recording #5 – “This Is What I Can Do”, “Activity 1” of Auditory Sequencing on page 176 in the textbook, and “Come, Come Play with Me”
Recording #6 – “This Is What I Can Do”, “Hello There”, and “Come, Come Play with Me”
Nicholas DePalo 5/9/12
Greeting Song
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
Number of Children: 19 children -2 groups of six and 1 group of seven
Objective: Children will be able to greet someone new that they haven’t met. Children will also be able to learn how to use their singing voice.
Materials: The materials that I used were the songs “Hello My Friend”, “Good
Morning”, and “Say Hello.” (I used three songs because I didn’t know exactly how much time it would take.)
Location: The location where this lesson will take place is at the table in Ms. Benson’s Second Grade classroom. The classroom is located on the first floor of Saint Edmund Elementary School. The table is in the back of the classroom behind the students’ desks. At the table, the children usually do little activities, read books, or just sit there and learn something new. Basically, Ms. Benson uses it as a place of extra learning.
Procedures
A. For the Warm-up/Introduction, I will start by seeing if any of the children know what a greeting is. Then I would have them show me how they greet someone using different movements.
B. For the Transition, I will talk to them about the different songs that we are going to do. I will also explain to them what their singing voice is and how they can use it. Lastly, I show them how they can incorporate this with a greeting song.
C. I will start off by introducing the songs to kids. I would tell them that the names of the songs are “Hello My Friends”, Good Morning”, and “Say Hello.” I would then sing “Hello My Friend” a couple of times and then have the children sing it for themselves. And then I would do the same thing for “Good Morning” and “Say Hello”. I would then ask them questions about what we just did and talk to them about how they used their singing voices.
D. For the Culmination/Ending, I continued to talk to them about what exactly a greeting is. I also asked them about what other ways they can use movements to greet someone. Lastly, we sang “Say Hello” as a closing song because it was the one that all the kids seemed to enjoy.
Evaluation
1. In what ways did the children preform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills outlined by your objective? What difficulties did you encounter? Answer: The ways in which the children preformed or demonstrated the musical concepts and skills outlined by my objective are that they were able to use their singing voices to sing the song and they were able to use different movements to show me the different ways that they greet people. Some difficulties that I encountered are that they were a little too energetic that day and they wouldn’t really concentrate on the lesson and they really didn’t understand how to use their singing voices.
2. Suggestions for improving the lesson. Strategies for assisting children who are having difficulties. Answer: Some suggestions that I can give myself are to explain the lesson more clearly and to show the children that learning a new song can be fun. Just because they don’t know something; it doesn’t mean that it is not fun. Some strategies for children who are having difficulty are to make the lesson a little more interesting and possibly add some more movements into the song. The children would be interested more in the lesson if they were doing more movements with the song.
3. In what ways will you extend/expand/elaborate on the musical concepts in your lesson? Answer: Some ways in which I can extend, expand, or elaborate on the musical concepts in my next lesson are to make the songs a little more interesting and to allow the children to put their own little spin on the song. What I mean by their own little spin is that they can sing it at different speeds or at different pitches. I can make sure to relate my lessons to things that the children enjoy. For example, my next lesson could have the theme of animals incorporated into it.
Nicholas DePalo 5/9/12
Finger Plays
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
Number of Children: 18 children – 3 groups of six
Objective: Children will be able to connect movement with language. Children will also be able to subtract the numbers 1 to 5.
Materials: The material that I used were the songs “Five Little Birdies”, “Three Little Smelly Skunks”, “What Did We Do Today?”, “Say Hello”, bird cutouts, skunk cutouts, a dog cutout, a person cutout, an owl cutout, and popsicles sticks.
Location: The location where this lesson will take place is at the table in Ms. Benson’s Second Grade classroom. The classroom is located on the first floor of Saint Edmund Elementary School. The table is in the back of the classroom behind the students’ desks. At the table, the children usually do little activities, read books, or just sit there and learn something new. Basically, Ms. Benson uses it as a place of extra learning.
Procedures
A. For the Warm-up/Introduction, I start by having them review the greeting song called “Say Hello.” I will also ask them to briefly explain what a greeting is.
B. For the Transition, I will talk to them about what exactly a finger play is. I will also see if they know about any movements that could be done with the hands. I will also talk to them about what exactly a finger play is and the various movements that could be done with the hands and then we would relate it to how their movements can “speak” to music.
C. I will start to sing the first finger play called “Five Little Birdies” while they just sit there and listen. I will repeat it one more them and then they will have a chance to sing. I will then incorporate the use of the various bird cutouts, in which they will take a bird cutout away every time a bird flies away in the song. Then, we start to sing the other finger play called “Three Little Smelly Skunks.” The kids will sing it once and then I would incorporate the various cutouts into the song. The children will act out the song with the various cutouts because the song reads almost like a story. Next, I will ask the children questions about how they connected movements to music and how they learned some subtraction facts by singing the song.
D. For the Culmination/Ending, I will ask the children questions about what they learned today. I would also talk about why we did the stuff that we did. For example, I would talk to them about how they added their various movements throughout the song. Then for our closing song, I would have them sing “What Did We Do Today?” and I would let them rewrite the words so it answers what we did in the lesson.
Evaluation
1. In what ways did the children perform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills outlined by your objective? What difficulties did you encounter? Answer: The children were able to perform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills that were outlined in my objective because they knew exactly when to do the movements while they were singing and for how long to do them. The children were also able to explain about the subtraction facts that were in each song. I encountered some difficulties in the lesson. For instance, one difficulty was that the children took a little while to figure out what to do first and when to do the other things. But they soon picked it up.
2. Suggestions for improving the lesson. Strategies for assisting children who are having difficulty. Answer: Some suggestions that I can give myself are to explain the lesson a little more to the children and to figure out easier movements that everybody could do. Some strategies for children who are having difficulty is to slow down the lesson, so they can catch up. I could also figure out how to make the lesson a little more easier to understand by changing the words or the movements.
3. In what ways will you extend/expand/elaborate on the musical concepts in your lesson? Answer: Some ways in which I can extend, expand, or elaborate on the musical concepts in my next lesson are to pick a song that interests the children and to pick songs that about things that are happening in the children’s’ lives at the moment. For example, if the children like dogs, I will find a song that relates to dogs. I could also make the movements more enjoyable and maybe let the children put their own spin on the movements.
Nicholas DePalo 5/10/12
Chants
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
Number of Children: 16 children – 2 groups of five and 1 group of four
Objective: Children will be able to find and use their speaking voice. Children will also be able to find the beat of a song. Children will also be able to learn how to count down from 3 to 1.
Materials: The material that I used is the chant “Three Little Muffins”, “Three Little Smelly Skunks”, “What Did We Do Today?”, penny cutouts, and muffin cutouts.
Location: The location where this lesson will take place is at the table in Ms. Benson’s Second Grade classroom. The classroom is located on the first floor of Saint Edmund Elementary School. The table is in the back of the classroom behind the students’ desks. At the table, the children usually do little activities, read books, or just sit there and learn something new. Basically, Ms. Benson uses it as a place of extra learning.
Procedures
A. For the Warm-up/Introduction, I will start by reviewing the finger play called “Three Little Smelly Skunks.” I will also talk briefly about we did with the finger play and how it relates to what we are going to do today.
B. For the Transition, I will talk to them about how they can find their speaking voice and when to use it rather than their singing voice. I will also explain to them that using their speaking voice is a little like rapping. Just like famous rappers, children will speak the words instead of singing them.
C. I will start off by speaking “Three Little Muffins” with my speaking voice. I will repeat it a couple of times and then I will let the children have a turn at doing it. The children will also use the cutouts of the pennies and muffins and they will take them away as we sing each part in the chant. I will then have them find a steady beat within the chant. After they find the beat, I will have them do the chant while they are clapping out the beat. I will also ask them questions about the beat, how the beat helps a song stay in track, and about how they used their speaking voices.
D. For the Culmination/Ending, I would continue to ask the children about what they did during the lesson. For example, I would ask them if they learned the different subtraction facts that they heard in the chant. I would also see if they know why the beat is important to a song. Lastly, I will have them sing “What Did We Do Today?” and have them rewrite the lyrics according to what we did today.
Evaluation
1. In what ways did the children preform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills outlined by your objective? What difficulties did you encounter? Answer: The ways in which the children performed or demonstrated the musical concepts and skill outlined by my objective are they put some enthusiasm into it and that they had fun with it. I also told them that speaking the chant is a little like rapping. Some difficulties that I encountered were that the children started rapping the chant instead of doing it correctly with their speaking voice and they were also getting a little too wild. They were also playing around with the cutouts, which was distracting some of them from the lesson.
2. Suggestions for improving the lesson. Strategies for assisting children who are having difficulties. Answer: Some suggestions that I can give myself are to explain exactly how to use your speaking voice to say a chant and why it’s not appropriate to start rapping the chant. Some strategies for children who are having difficulties are to have them pretend that they are rapping, so then maybe they will get more interested and have an easier time doing the lesson.
3. In what ways will you extend/expand/elaborate on the musical concepts in your lesson? Answer: Some ways in which I can extend, expand, or elaborate on the musical concepts in my next lesson are to pick songs that maybe the children have a little more interest in and to make the lesson a little more interesting, so the children could have more fun. The children need to have some fun in the lesson because it will allow for them to have an easier and more enjoyable time learning. Also, the children will feel more comfortable during the lesson.
Nicholas DePalo 5/10/12
Shakers
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
Number of Children: 19 children – 2 groups of six and 1 group of seven
Objective: Children will be able to find the beat using shakers. Children will also be able to use an instrument while singing a song.
Materials: The materials that I used are the chant “This Is What I Can Do”, the chant “Three Little Muffins”, and shakers. The shakers were made with paper towel rolls, beads, plastic wrap, duct tape, stickers, and colored pencils.
Location: The location where this lesson will take place is at the table in Ms. Benson’s Second Grade classroom. The classroom is located on the first floor of Saint Edmund Elementary School. The table is in the back of the classroom behind the students’ desks. At the table, the children usually do little activities, read books, or just sit there and learn something new. Basically, Ms. Benson uses it as a place of extra learning.
Procedures
A. For the Warm-up/Introduction, I will start by reviewing the chant “Three Little Muffins” with the children without using the penny and muffin cutout. First, I will have them sing a couple of lines of it and then I will have them do another couple of lines with them clapping out the beat.
B. For the Transition, I will talk to them about how they found the beat in the chant “Three Little Muffins” and how they demonstrated it by clapping. I will also introduce the shakers to the children. I will explain the rules about the shakers like how to handle them, how not to hit anybody with them, how to shake them, and how to share them. Also, I will explain to them about how you can use the shakers to show the beat in a song.
C. I will start off by speaking the chant “This Is What I Can Do” a couple of times, so the children can see exactly how the chant goes. I will then let them do it themselves a couple of times. I will then have them find the beat in the chant. After they find the beat, they will use the shakers to demonstrate the beat. Lastly, they will sing the chant while demonstrating the beat with the shakers.
D. For the Culmination/Ending, I would ask them questions about what we did during today’s lesson. For example, I will ask them about how the shakers made the lesson a little more interesting and easier to understand. To review the lesson with the shakers, I had them use the shakers to find the beat in the chant “Three Little Muffins.”
Evaluation
1. In what ways did the children perform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills outlined by your objective? What difficulties did you encounter? Answer: The ways in which the children preformed or demonstrated the musical concepts and skills outlined by my objective are that the children were able to shake the shakers to the beat and find the beat easily. The children were able to perform the lesson quite well. Some difficulties that I encountered are that the children were a little too fascinated with the shakers and that they wouldn’t really concentrate on the lesson. The children were more concentrated on when they would get a chance with the shakers.
2. Suggestions for improving the lesson. Strategies for assisting children who are having difficulties. Answer: Some suggestions that I can give myself are to keep the children more concentrated on the lesson and to make sure the children share the shakers. When the children are concentrated on the lesson, they are able to learn new things that I am trying to teach them. They also have to share the shakers with each other so everybody gets a chance to use them and nobody gets left out. Some strategies for children who are having difficulties are to have them follow another child who knows what they are doing and to slow the lesson down a little bit. When the child having difficulties follows another child who knows what they are doing allows for the child having difficulties to see exactly how to do the lesson. Also, slowing the lesson down will allow the children to have a little more time to understand the lesson and to do the different parts of the lesson.
3. In what ways will you extend/expand/elaborate on the musical concepts in your lesson? Answer: Some ways in which I can extend, expand, or elaborate on the musical concepts in my lesson are to pick different songs with different beats and to have the children make their own shakers. Picking different songs’ with different beats will allow the children to demonstrate the different beats with the shakers. If the children made their own shakers, they would be able to concentrate on the lesson more. They wouldn’t have to fight over my shakers and nobody would feel left out because they have their own shakers.
Nicholas DePalo 5/10/12
Listening Game
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
Number of Children: 17 children – 2 groups of six and 1 group of five
Objective: Children will be able to reproduce a sequence of sounds in the order heard (auditory sequencing). Children will also be able to produce movements and sounds with their hands. Children will also be able to follow directions to a game.
Materials: The materials that I used are the song from “Activity 1” from Auditory Sequencing on page 176 in the textbook, the chant “This Is What I Can Do”, and the song “Come, Come Play with Me.”
Location: The location where this lesson will take place is at the table in Ms. Benson’s Second Grade classroom. The classroom is located on the first floor of Saint Edmund Elementary School. The table is in the back of the classroom behind the students’ desks. At the table, the children usually do little activities, read books, or just sit there and learn something new. Basically, Ms. Benson uses it as a place of extra learning.
Procedures
A. For the Warm-up/Introduction, I will start by reviewing the chant “This Is What I Can Do.” I will have the children sing it a couple of times, so they get used to using their speaking voices. When they practice using their speaking voice, it will allow them to have better control of it.
B. For the Transition, I will talk to them about their ability to listen. For example, I will talk to them about how the ability of listening can be very important when in the field of music. I will also start to speak about today’s lesson in which the children will use their listening skills to copy the words that I say and the movements that I make.
C. I will start off by continuing my brief discussion on what we are going to do in the lesson. Then I will start to tell them about the song that we are going to do, which is the one from “Activity 1” from Auditory Sequencing on page 176 in the textbook. I would sing the song once and have them repeat after me, so they get to know the song. Then, I would add movements to the words (like clapping, stomping the feet, etc.), where the children would have to copy them along with the words. As the song progressed, I would change up the movements and make them a little harder.
D. For the Culmination/Ending, I would ask them questions about what we did in the lesson. I would focus on questions about how they listened, repeated what I did, and how well they played attention to me. I would also have them sing the song “Come, Come Play with Me.” I would have them sing the song a couple of times, so they understand how the song goes.
Evaluation
1. In what ways did the children perform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills outlined by your objective? What difficulties did you encounter? Answer: The ways in which the children preformed or demonstrated the musical concepts and skills outlined by my objective are that the children were able to repeat back to me what I showed them and they were able to repeat the movements along with the words. Some difficulties that I encountered are that the children were getting a little too wild and that they were singing a little too loud. The children were getting a little too wild because they were carried away with clapping their hands and stomping their feet. The children were also singing a little too loud. They were distracting the rest of the class from what they had to.
2. Suggestions for improving the lesson. Strategies for assisting children who are having difficulties. Answer: Some suggestions that I can give myself are to keep the children’s volume of singing at a low volume and to have them pay more attention on repeating the words of the song instead of the movements. If the children sing at a low volume, they will be able to do the lesson without distracting the rest of the class from doing what they have to do. The children will have to pay more attention to repeating the words that I say instead of the movements because the lesson is on how well they can repeat the words of the song. Some strategies for children who are having difficulties are to have the children help one another out and to have the children repeat one thing at a time. When the children help each other out, they will show the ones having difficulties how to repeat the song and the movements. If they focus on repeating one thing at a time them to focus on one thing instead of remembering two different things.
3. In what ways will you extend/expand/elaborate on the musical concepts in your lesson? Answer: Some ways in which I can extend, expand, or elaborate on the musical concepts in my lesson are to change up the movements they have to repeat and to have the children focus more on the lesson than anything else. When I change up the movements, it will keep the children on their toes because they never know what kind of movement is coming up next. If the children would focus more on the lesson, instead of what’s going on around them, they would be able to concentrate on exactly what they are doing.
Nicholas DePalo 5/10/12
Echo Song
Age of Children: 7 – 8 years old
Number of Children: 16 children – 2 groups of five and 1 group of six
Objective: Children will be able to repeat or echo back certain sounds or words. Children will also be able to listen and pay attention to directions.
Materials: The materials that I used are the chant “This Is What I Can Do”, the echo song “Hello There”, and the song “Come, Come Play with Me.”
Location: The location where this lesson will take place is at the table in Ms. Benson’s Second Grade classroom. The classroom is located on the first floor of Saint Edmund Elementary School. The table is in the back of the classroom behind the students’ desks. At the table, the children usually do little activities, read books, or just sit there and learn something new. Basically, Ms. Benson uses it as a place of extra learning.
Procedures
A. For the Warm-up/Introduction, I will start by reviewing the chant “This Is What I Can Do.” I will have them do it a couple of times, so they can review it a couple of times. I will also talk a little about what we are going to do today and how it relates to what we did in the previous lesson.
B. For the Transition, I will explain to them about what exactly an echo is. I will the example of an echo in the game for the song echo song that we are going to do. I told them that when I speak the words of the song first, that I am like the person screaming into the cave. When the sound of my speaking hits the children’s ears that is considered to be the cave. And when they repeat what I just said, that is the echo from the cave.
C. I will start off by continuing my brief discussion on what an echo is. Then I will start by introducing the echo song “Hello There” to the children. I will explain to the children that they have to repeat each part of the song after I say it. I will have the students sing it a couple of times, so they understand what the purpose of the song was. Then I would ask them questions that helped them to review what we did in the lesson.
D. For the Culmination/Ending, I will continue my questions that help the children review what we did in the lesson. I will also ask the children if they know the importance of the echo song and why we sing it the way we do. Then, I would have the children sing “Come, Come Play with Me.” I will have the children sing this song a couple of times, so they understand how the song goes.
Evaluation
1. In what ways did the children perform or demonstrate the music concepts and skills outlined by your objective? What difficulties did you encounter? Answer: The ways in which the children preformed or demonstrated the musical concepts and skills outlined by my objective are that the children were able to repeat the words that I said and that they were also able to follow the directions correctly. The children were able to repeat the words that I said, which showed that they were paying attention to what was going on. The children were able to follow directions correctly because they knew exactly what to do. Some difficulties that I encountered are that the children were repeating the words in weird voices and they were singing a little too loud. The children were repeating the words in weird voices which sometimes distracted the other children. The children were singing a little too loud and they were distracting the rest of the class from what they were doing.
2. Suggestions for improving the lesson. Strategies for assisting children who are having difficulties. Answer: Some suggestions that I can give myself are to keep the children’s singing low and to have the children focus more on the lesson. If the children would keep their singing low, they wouldn’t distract the rest of the class from doing what they need to do. The children will also need to focus more on the lesson, instead of what is going on around them. Some strategies for children who are having difficulties are to have the lesson a little more interesting and to explain the directions a little more clearly. If I make the lesson a little more interesting, then the child who is having difficulties might be able to understand it better. If I explain the directions a little more clearly, then maybe they will understand it much better.
3. In what ways will you extend/expand/elaborate on the musical concepts in your lesson? Answer: Some ways in which I can extend, expand, or elaborate on the musical concepts in my lesson are to have a different song where the children can repeat some more things and to Maybe add some movements to the song for the children to copy. A different song where the children can repeat more things can allow the children to learn about how they can echo things in different ways back to the teacher. Adding some movements to the song for the children to copy will help to keep the children’s attention on the lesson. The children will have to focus on what I do, so they can be able to repeat back exactly what I did.