Favorite Sleigh Ride Music Lessons

We just got our first snow of the season his past weekend (and it looks like a lot of others did too)! With snow on the ground (or in the forecast) and holidays on the horizon, Sleigh Ride is the perfect song to keep kids engaged. It talks a lot about snow and feels "holiday-esque" without actually referring to any holidays. Today I wanted to share some of my favorite lesson ideas using Sleigh Ride. I hope these ideas help you enjoy these last couple of weeks before break!

Cup Routine

I've shared this idea a few times before but it's worth including here because it is so much fun and it's a great way to review steady beat, rhythms, and form! I saw another music teacher post an idea for doing a cup routine with Sleigh Ride several years ago (here's the video) and loved the idea, but the routine was way too hard for my elementary students (I think it would be great for middle or even high school!). I created this simplified version, which can be done with kids as young as kindergarten (or with older students without much practice time, which is perfect for those concert days or that last day before break!). 

The key to teaching these cup routines (and the best way to reinforce the form of the piece) is to teach one section at a time. Start with the A section and go through the entire piece performing only the A section actions, resting and listening for the other parts. Then add B, and finally add C. Students will quickly figure out the pattern of the Rondo form that way.

Arrangements

I shared a similar idea last year in my post about lessons for The Nutcracker. Basically I show my students several different versions of the piece (I try to find the most disparate examples possible) and we discuss the different arrangements. Just this step alone is perfect for reviewing musical concepts and vocabulary, whether it's instrument names, dynamics, tempo, tonality, or articulation. But I have also taken it one step further with some of my older grades and had them create their own arrangement in small groups. In this case I have them use just the A section. Here are some of my favorite versions of Sleigh Ride to show, but there are many others out there you could use!

Paper Plate Skating

The idea of paper plate skating is probably not new to most of you, but I'll explain just in case: basically you give each student 2 paper plates and they put one under each foot so they can glide along the floor like they're skating. This works best on carpet- if you have hard flooring but have some kind of rug you can use that (just call it the "skating rink" and tell kids not to get too close to the edge). This is a great one for practicing half notes because they can glide along with each foot on the half notes. Here's what I have students do, but you can change it up depending on the age of the students.

A section: alternate feet on quarter, quarter, half note pattern

B section: all half notes

C section: jumps, spins, and tricks (I tell students to do some figure skating tricks in this section. Some of them can jump in the air, turn around, and land back on their skates, others do different spins with the arms in different positions or try skating backwards etc. What's really great is to get kids to try to do something where they land on the slapstick notes!)

A great variation I found recently on O for Tuna Orff Schulwerk's Facebook page is to cut skis out of laminated paper and use those the same way you would use skates- if you're logged in on Facebook you can see the video where she talks about them here (and oh my goodness you guys, did you know she started her FB page about a month ago? She has been sharing some fantastic videos with teaching tips! Just search O for Tuna Orff Schulwerk on Facebook to find her page and go follow!). 

Instrument Play Alongs

I've done this several times with whatever rhythms we're practicing in that grade level- I just throw one 4 or 8 beat rhythm on the board for each of the 3 sections and have the students play the rhythm as an ostinato with the music. I label the rhythm with the section names (A/B/C) to help them keep track. If you can, it's even more fun to have students switch instruments for each section. Either give every student 3 instruments, or have half of the class use one instrument to play all of the A section parts and have the other half use 2 different instruments to play the B and C sections.

If you want to stick with very simple rhythms (quarter notes and quarter rests only), you can have students play along with this video!

I hope you find some useful ideas here to use with your classes- I love finishing out the last few days before break with some fun lessons like these (and hey, the students are still learning). If you're looking for more ideas to use this season, be sure to check out my post from last year on lessons for The Nutcracker:

I send timely ideas and resources like these to my email subscribers every month, including an outline of the concepts I'm planning to teach for each of my K-6 general music classes for the month ahead. Click here to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

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Teacher Tuesday: Movement Ideas for Winter

Last week I shared 5 tips for incorporating more movement into elementary general music lessons. Today I am sharing a few of the specific movement activities I have done this winter that have worked really well. Even if you have already finished your Nutcracker and Sleigh Ride lessons for the year, I hope these ideas will spark new ones for you as well!

This first activity is a cup routine to go with "Sleigh Ride" that I did with my kindergartners. I saw a video from another music teacher a while ago with a cup routine to the same piece for middle school age students (which I have since lost track of...) and I decided to make a VERY simple version to do with my kindergarten students, since I am seeing them a few extra times before winter break this year. The students loved it, and it was a great way to introduce the concept of form without really consciously discussing it. I introduced the lesson by teaching them the words to the A section ("just hear those sleigh bells..."), and then having them do the cup pattern for just the A section every time they heard it. We then went back and added the B and C sections and talked about the horse sounds (and what instruments they used).

The next set of movement activities go with the Sugar Plum Fairy, March, and Trepak (Russian) Dances from "The Nutcracker". I used these activities with my second graders, and it was by far their favorite unit so far! For each piece I told them to copy me while I did the movements, then we discussed what we did and figured out the form. I then had the students perform the movements by themselves so they could listen to the music and show the form with their movements. For the March and Trepak, we also transferred the rhythms of the movements to percussion instruments. For the Sugar Plum Fairy, we pretended to be painters. I heard the idea of pretending to be a painter with a different piece from another music teacher recently and when I tried it with this piece it fit perfectly!

P.S. Sorry about my appearance- we had an assembly that day...

I hope you find these ideas useful- they were a huge success in my classroom and I will definitely be using them again next year!

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Cup Games for Upper Elementary Music

Who knew a simple plastic cup could be the source of so much learning and engagement for those tough-to-please upper elementary students?!? Over the years I've found a handful of cup games that have become unexpected favorites for my 4th-6th graders. If you're looking for something new to keep your upper elementary students musically engaged, these are surefire hits!

1. Escatumbararibe

The cup game that started it all for me was this Brazilian cup song I started teaching my 6th graders years ago as part of the bigger unit I teach them each year on the music of Brazil. It is just hard enough to hold their interest but attainable enough to avoid too much frustration. I start off teaching it without the passing element, and then eventually build up to passing the cups around the circle, but you could keep it an individual activity (which makes it slightly easier and does not require as much floor space) by just having students tap the cup in front of them instead of passing it. I will say, though, that one of the reasons I think this activity is so successful is that the passing part is slowed down enough that if one student is off for some reason there is enough time for everyone to recover without the whole circle falling apart, so if your students struggle with passing games generally, this one may be one they can handle (and I have more tips on teaching passing games successfully below). Read my post on my Brazilian unit for the song and demonstration of the game, including a slowed down tutorial.

2. Sleigh Ride

I created this super simplified cup routine to go with "Sleigh Ride" way back in 2014 and that video tutorial has been one of the most popular videos on my channel ever since! But I have a confession: while I labeled it as easy enough for Kindergarten- which it is, and I have used it with Kindergarten successfully multiple times- I actually use it most often with 5th grade. That's because it's easy enough for students to pick up in 1-2 run-throughs without me having to break down each movement, so it's perfect for introducing Rondo form, which is part of my 5th grade general music curriculum! Because I want it to be something students can pick up right away to experience the repeating and contrasting sections I don't do it as a passing game, but it could easily be adapted to a passing game by having students "tap-tap-pass" in the A section instead of tapping 3 times and switching hands as demonstrated in the video above, if you wanted to add a level of challenge or make the activity more cooperative.

3. Addams Family

This one has made the rounds on the internet since Marti Chandler came up with it decades ago but it's worth sharing. I don't use it as consistently as I do the first two, which have a permanent spot in my curriculum, but I do pull it out with my 4th-6th graders when I need something fun and different, and it's a great way to get students to experience triplets, identify A and B sections, or even review repeat signs. This video has an excellent visual that also shows the same mnemonic devices I use to teach the different patterns. I have always done this as a passing game because it is highly repetitive and simple enough for students to learn, but this could easily be adapted to take out the passing element by having students flip the cup over, or drag it in small circles in front of them on the floor, etc on the beat in the B section.

As I've mentioned for each of these cup games, they can all be done as individual cup song routines or as passing games. If you, like me, have found passing games seemed to suddenly become a lot more difficult to teach in the last 10 years, I am happy to report that I have, in the last few years, discovered a teaching strategy that has made it possible for me to do passing games successfully again! You can read all the details about how I teach them now in this post.

I know upper elementary students can be difficult to keep engaged in musically meaningful learning sometimes, so I hope this gives you some new ideas to try with your students! If you want to see how these fit into a sequenced curriculum that keeps students engaged year-round, be sure to check out my general music curriculum. What are other songs you have used with cups for upper elementary? I'd love to hear your successful lesson ideas in the comments as well!

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Teacher Tuesday: holiday music lesson ideas

December is always a crazy time of year for music teachers (if you want to read my top tips for making the holiday season less stressful, go to this post). The students get more and more hyper, your schedule is unpredictable, and it's hard to keep up with effective lesson planning when you are trying to prepare for concerts, sing-alongs, and musicals. These are a few activities that I found to be very successful with my students last holiday season- they involve movement, relate to the holidays (which is what everyone is thinking about anyway), teach and reinforce musical concepts and skills, and are just plain fun!

This one is a cup routine to go with "Sleigh Ride" that is great for K-2. I use it to teach form, reinforce steady beat, and discuss some of the instruments that they hear as well. You can make the routine more or less complicated for whatever age you want to use it with, but cup routines are fun for all ages no matter how you do it!

If you want more ideas to go with Sleigh Ride, here's a whole post full of them:

The second video is a set of movement ideas to go with the Sugar Plum Fairy, March, and Trepak (Russian) pieces from The Nutcracker. This is another activity that is easily adaptable to a variety of age groups- for older students, I would do one as an example and then have the students come up with their own movements for another piece to show whatever musical element I want them to practice. These movement activities are another great way to reinforce same and different sections to discuss form:

Looking for more lesson ideas to go with The Nutcracker? This post has a TON of ideas:

What are your favorite music lessons for this time of year? Share your ideas in the comments!

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Bring Winter to the Music Room

One of the easiest ways to make class more engaging, especially in those challenging months when students are preoccupied with upcoming vacations, is to incorporate the very thing they're thinking about into the lesson itself! This time of year, referencing winter themes can be a great way to engage students without worrying about excluding anyone with a specific holiday.

1. Snowball Fights

Such an easy way to practice/ review vocabulary, notation, or facts! Write words, notes, definitions, questions, or other prompts on pieces of paper and crumple them up into snowballs. Split the class into 2 sides and give each side a set of snowballs. Each side could even make barricades with chairs. Each side throws the "snowballs" at the other side. Any snowballs that hit the other team (or get past the barricade or line on the floor etc), the other side has to open and answer.

You could do this to review letter names by writing notes on a staff and having students identify them by letter, write musical terminology like dynamic and tempo words and have students give the definition, put pictures of instruments and have students identify the correct instrument family.... so many ways to go with this game!

2. Manipulatives

I love using manipulatives for composition (read this post for what I use and how), and this time of year I love pulling out winter shapes like snowflakes, snowmen, mittens, and hats. I've found little sticker shapes, mini erasers, and foam cutouts in these shapes and they're so easy to use! You can also use little cotton balls as manipulatives and call them snowballs :)

3. Winter Stories

I have a few books that I love to use for music lessons, especially with my Kindergarten students, that refer to winter. Click on the pictures to see my detailed plans for each of the books below- they are seriously some of my favorite lessons to teach!

4. Winter Songs and Music

Of course one of the best ways to incorporate winter is to use music with a winter theme! You'll find tons of lesson ideas to go with Sleigh Ride and The Nutcracker below, and here are some ideas for Vivaldi's Winter, and here are some for Frosty Weather.

I hope this gives you some ideas for easy ways to bring the season to your classroom without too much extra effort- it always makes school a little more fun for the students and for me when I change things up a little to fit with the season! I also wrote a similar post with ideas for incorporating summer themes if you're reading this by the pool (luck you!):

If you want to continue seeing more timely and helpful ideas and resources, be sure to sign up for the Organized Chaos newsletter. Click here to sign up!

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Toward an Inclusive Holiday Sing-Along

Holiday sing-alongs are something many music teachers are tasked with. They can be a lot of fun, and they're a great way to bring the entire school community together. But they also inherently center certain religions and cultures while ignoring others, and that is problematic. I cannot say that I'm completely happy with my sing-along just yet, but after doing a lot of thinking over the last few years I have made some changes that have certainly brought it a long way in making it more reflective of our school community and our world, and I want to share where I am in this journey to hopefully help other teachers think critically about their current practice and encourage others to join me in my journey.

First, if you haven't already read my previous series of posts on Reflecting, Responding, and Respecting all students in the music room, I encourage you to catch up on those. I have written extensively about my thoughts on inclusion and decolonization in music education, along with specific action steps and resources, on everything from race to students with special needs, and those thoughts play a big role in my journey to change my school's sing-along. In a nutshell, focusing on Christmas (and maybe throwing in a Hanukkah song) centers Christians (even if all the songs are "secular") and excludes all of our students of other religions and backgrounds, and talking about December as "the holiday season" ignores the fact that the majority of the world's major holidays do not fall in December!

Last year I made the conscious decision to include as many different winter holidays in my sing-along as I could, but limiting it to winter holidays still excluded a large part of the world's holidays. I realized that there was really no reason for me to limit the holidays to only winter ones, since we don't do any sort of holiday celebration in the spring/ summer, and I expanded my song choices further. I still have several changes in mind for next year, but this is as far as I was able to get with the time constraints and resources that I had to prepare. Here are the songs we'll be singing this year:

1. Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah
2. Jingle Bells
3. Feliz Navidad
4. Diwali is Here
5. Gong Xi, Gong Xi
6. Eid Mubarak
7. 12 Days of Christmas

The main criteria I'm looking for when I'm choosing songs are 1) songs that are easy enough for Kindergarten to learn in just a couple of rehearsals, and 2) songs that we can do something fun with rather than "just" singing. So for each song, I have instruments, motions, a game, or something that goes along with the singing to make it more fun for everyone- that's a lot of songs to sit and sing, especially right before break when students are antsy!

Here's what I'm hoping to work on improving in the future:

• Find songs that are more traditional/ representative for Diwali, Eid/ Ramadan
• Choose a different Spanish language song
• Do some research on Jingle Bells- I've just recently come across some information that it may not be an appropriate song choice for elementary school because it originated in minstrel shows, but I haven't had time to dig into it (I plan to replace it with Sleigh Ride or something if it turns out to be a song rooted in oppression)

I'm also aware that doing a holiday sing-along at all is questionable in itself, but I am doing my best to make this a learning opportunity for all of my students by discussing the many different holidays celebrated around the world, and I have been pleased with the responses I have gotten from families in my school community who celebrate Lunar New Year and Ramadan who have been so happy to see their tradition represented and acknowledged in some way.

Do you do a sing-along at your school? I'd love to hear your thoughts on holidays in public school classrooms, how to make holiday sing-alongs more reflective of our world, and whether holiday sing-alongs are even a good idea to begin with! Please share your thoughts in the comments below. I hope this sparks some conversation in the music education community as we continue to look for ways to value and respect all of our students and their backgrounds.

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"Jingle Bells" in Music Class and Winter Concerts

If you're still using Jingle Bells in your music class, you're missing out. 

In case you haven't heard, the song "Jingle Bells" was written for a minstrel show. And as prevalent as the song has somehow become all over the world since it was likely first performed in 1857, it's long past time we moved on. I know how hard it can be to change old habits, so in this post I've compiled some easy ways to replace the song regardless of what you're using it for in your music lessons.

1. Fun Children's Songs About Jingle Bells 

I think for most people, Jingle Bells is just a fun, easy song that feels "festive" without being directly connected to a holiday (although let's be honest, whether it was written for it or not, everyone associates the song with Christmas), and it's a fun song to break out the jingle bells with the little ones and sing with gusto! If that's what you're looking for, I'd venture to say these 2 songs are far superior: Jingle Jangle Everybody Sing by Charissa Duncanson, and Jingle All the Way by Stephanie Leavell. They're both written by music teachers for young children and they have both been huge hits with my students!

The great thing is both of these songs work great for common concepts we are often practicing in general music lessons:

• Steady beat
• Same and different sections/ A and B sections/ form
• Opportunities for composition/ improvisation
• Fast/ slow, loud/ quiet

2. Easy Beginning Instrumental Songs

"Jingle Bells" is a common song for beginning band and orchestra winter concerts or even for classroom instruments like recorder and orff ensemble, but there are so many better options out there this one should not be hard to replace. "We Will Rock You" is similar in the sense that the rhythm can be easily simplified, it has a limited range, and it's instantly recognizable so it feels legit (and you can find lots of arrangements for beginning band, beginning orchestra, recorder play-alongs, etc). "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle Twinkle" are other simple melodies that can swap in as another well-known tune.

For specifically wintery songs, it's easy to search by level on most sheet music sites and even TeachersPayTeachers to find some great pieces that fit the bill and will honestly be more appealing to upper elementary students who tend to find songs like "Jingle Bells" to be a little childish. 

If you haven't checked out the sheet music available on TPT, I think you'll be surprised at how much you can get for the price, and there is a lot of great quality literature available that is developmentally appropriate for every stage of learning because there are so many written by beginning instrumental teachers! Here are just a few examples:

Winter Music Bundle for Beginning Band by Classroom Composers

Beginning Orchestra Winter Concert Bundle by Motivational Music Classroom

"Winter's Here" Recorder Orff Song by Hutzel House of Music

3. Sing-Along Songs

I've written extensively about how I am working to continue teaching students about holidays, which are an important part of cultures around the world, while avoiding students feeling excluded in the process as much as I can. Jingle Bells is commonly used in sing-alongs as a non-religious holiday song, but obviously based on its racist origins doesn't fit the bill for non-exclusionary. For a full list of songs I have been using for many years now in my sing-along including songs for Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Lunar New Year, and Eid, with all the fun movement and other activities I include with the songs, head to this post. Another great idea that uses a simple prop (cups) with a wintery, festive, non-religious song that would be great for a sing-along is this simplified cup routine for Sleigh Ride:

I hope this helps provide some concrete suggestions for ways we can remove a problematic song from our music classrooms and programs while injecting more fun music that is engaging, perfect for the winter season, and accessible for beginners and young learners! If you want to see all of the music lessons that I teach in the month of December for every grade K-6 general music lessons, here is my full curriculum (also available in individual months and grade levels). What else is stopping you from removing the song from your music lessons and programs? If you have other ways you use this song that I can help find a replacement for, please send me an email or leave a comment and I'd be happy to help!

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Stretchy Band Songs and Activities for the End of the School Year

I have discovered a new favorite lesson activity to add to my list of things to do at the end of the school year, especially with the younger grades but honestly with the older ones too: the stretchy band! If you're looking for engaging activities to keep students from bouncing off the walls that can also be used to review musical concepts at the end of the school year, I highly recommend these.

I bought a stretchy band years ago with the intention of using it with my Kindergarten and self-contained classes, and then proceeded to leave it sitting in my classroom until this year. Every time I had the idea that maybe I would pull it out and use it, I just didn't feel confident that I had a clear idea of how to actually do it! If you're like me and haven't used a stretchy band in class before, I can assure you it is just as fun as they say it is and these activities are all beginner friendly. If you don't know what a stretchy band is, here is one you can get from Bear Paw Creek.

To get set up, I have students sit in a circle on the floor and tell everyone to keep their hands in their lap, then I get out the stretchy band and lay it out flat in a circle inside where they are sitting before having everyone grab the part in front of them with two hands and hold it down in their laps. I have 3 rules for using the stretchy band safely:

1) keep two hands on the band until I tell you to let go

2) don't jerk it around

3) stay sitting (not lying down) while holding it

1. Stretchy Band Song

For first time users I think this is the best one. The song explicitly tells you what to do with the band so you can focus on making sure students are using it correctly and not worry about remembering the words to the song or what comes next- just turn on the recording and follow along! It's also a great way for students to quickly experience the different ways you can use the band so it's a great way for them to practice using the stretchy band as well. Of course once they've learned the moves you can have everyone sing along as well. This activity is really a way to practice how to use the stretchy band and showing steady beat.

2. Put It In

This song is a good next step for younger students, and besides using the basic movements as the first song and continuing to review steady beat, it also gives students the opportunity to create and improvise by coming up with their own additional verses. I don't use a recording for this one- I sing while the students move when I first introduce it, then I teach students the song and we all sing together, stopping to choose new verses after each repetition of the chorus.

3. Show Form

Here is where I have really found the stretchy band to be versatile and effective for a broad range of ages: I've realized it's a fun and easy way to review form by doing different moves for different sections. I've done this with songs that we sang earlier in the school year, or with listening examples with older students. For example I used the stretchy band with "Shoemaker's Dance" with 1st grade to review same and different sections by having students wind, pull, and tap on their knees with the A section, and pass the band around the circle with the B section. I used it with "Sleigh Ride" with 5th grade to review Rondo form by having students move the band up, down, left, and right on the beat for the A section, move in and out on the beat for the B section, and tap on their knees with alternating hands and pull back for the whip, then pass around the circle for the C section. You can really do this with any form and it's a great way to mix it up at the end of the year.

4. Show Rhythm

The stretchy band is also a fun way to review rhythms at the end of the year too- take any song that you used to introduce or practice new rhythm elements during the year (or teach them a new one) and add a specific motion with the band that shows that rhythm that you do every time you sing it. For example I reviewed half notes with 2nd grade with "Who's That" by having them slowly lift the band up and then down with each pair of half notes, I similarly had 3rd grade students lift the band slowly up and down with the pair of whole notes at the end of "I Got a Letter", and had 4th graders tap on their knees with alternating hands to show the sixteenth notes in "Ding Dong".

There are plenty more fun ways to use the stretchy band, but those are my favorite ways to use it with different grade levels at the end of the school year! If you're finishing out the school year right now like I am I hope this helps give you some fresh ideas to close out the year. 

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Teaching Rondo Form

After introducing the basic idea of form, same and contrasting sections, etc in the younger grades, I introduce specific forms from Western classical music in the upper grades, relating it to how it is used in modern music as well. I teach Rondo form in 5th grade, which is easy to relate to many contemporary musical genres and is a great way to have students respond to and create with 3 or more contrasting sections. Here is an overview of the lessons I use to teach Rondo form.

1. Identify Rondo

I introduce Rondo form by having students follow along with this simple cup routine to go with "Sleigh Ride". I always like to have students experience the form first, usually through some type of movement, and then have students recall what they did in what order to help them discover the order of the same and contrasting sections. Because the routine is so simple my 5th graders are able to quickly pick up the moves for each section and do it in one run-through so they get the idea without taking too much class time to rehearse anything, and because the song is familiar for many of them they can recall the order of the sections more easily afterwards. 

After doing the cup routine I have them tell me the order in which they did the different cup moves for each section, review how to label same and contrasting sections with alphabet letters, and identify the ABACABA form, and I introduce the term "Rondo". I explain at this point that Rondo form has the repeated A section interspersed with any combination of 2 or more contrasting sections. Once they have the basic idea of what a Rondo is, I show them another quick example, like this one.

2. Perform in Rondo

Once they have a basic understanding of what a Rondo is, I use this rhythm playalong video to have them practice actually performing a Rondo (I love this one for my 5th graders specifically because it includes the eighth/ sixteenth note combination rhythms they are learning as well!). I have them practice counting and clapping the rhythm patterns in each of the 3 sections, then I hand out 3 different instruments to each student (simple, small instruments that I have class sets of, like egg shakers, jingle bells, and rhythm sticks) and assign each instrument to one section. They set all the instruments down in front of them and I tell them they need to read the rhythms and also think ahead to know which instrument to play when! It keeps them thinking about Rondo form and helps them experience it more concretely. 

3. Create in Rondo: Class Composition

The next step with learning about any musical form is to create! I start in 2nd grade having students create contrasting sections for a given A section as an introduction to creating contrasting sections to arrange in a specific form, so I start with the same task here. I pick a short song and have them all learn it- I like to use something silly so the 5th graders aren't as self-conscious about singing, like my current favorite, the chorus from Jack Black's "Peaches" (which, bonus, ties in with the next composition project). Once they know the song, I have them work together to create 2 short, simple sections to use as the B and C for our Rondo. With the "Peaches" song for example, I have them list other Mario character names and we "rap" them on the beat for the B section, then they choose a few simple instruments and play the rhythm of one of the melodies from the Mario soundtrack for C. Once we have our 3 sections we review the order we need for a Rondo and perform it as a whole song.

4. Create in Rondo: Individual Composition

Once they understand how to create contrasting sections and arrange them in Rondo form, we jump into creating a Rondo from scratch. I actually use the video game composition project (get all the materials and directions for that project here) for this. Students come up with a concept for a game that has 3 scenes or levels, with one of them being the "home" or "main" scene that the player returns to and the other 2 being sort of "side quests". Then they create music that evokes the image of each of the 3 scenes, and put them together in Rondo form.

There are certainly a lot of other great lesson activities and examples I've used over the years to introduce Rondo form, but those are the lessons I'm currently using! If you want to see the detailed lesson plans along with all of the visuals and materials for the lessons, you can find them in the Organized Chaos 5th grade curriculum. What other lessons do you like to use to teach Rondo form? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments! And if you want to see my general strategies and lesson ideas for teaching form, as well as my lesson plans for teaching other specific forms including theme and variations, sonata form, etc, head to this blog post.

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An Inclusive Holiday Sing Along in Pandemic Times

I have been doing an all-school holiday sing-along the last day before December break for several years now, and when I started talking with my principal about schoolwide events we could do in full distance learning, I knew I wanted to do it this year despite the obvious challenges. We started the school year in a hybrid model, which meant no singing in music class. Now that we're in a full distance model, all I want to do is get everyone singing! Here are my plans to make it happen this year.

Along with figuring out the logistics of running a sing-along virtually, I have also been on a quest the last few years to decenter Christmas and make the event more representative of our school community and our world. Last year I wrote about where I was in that journey- you can read that post here- and I have made further changes for this year to improve on that further. 

Logistics

As of right now, my plan is to hold the sing along on Zoom. A few things I've had to think through to make that work:

• My district got paid accounts for teachers, so I can host meetings with up to 300 participants. Our school has more than 300 students, and with staff coming too we will have well over 300 people invited! I am planning to tell students to join with 1 device per household- I think if everyone does that, and knowing some people will inevitably be absent, we will be OK. But I am looking into the possibility of live streaming, on something like YouTube live, as a backup.
• Because of the sound delay, everyone else will have to be muted. I'm planning to have the zoom set so nobody can unmute themselves. I've always included movement and other activities to go with each song to keep everyone engaged, and this year that will be even more important! 
• I've had to adapt some of the movement/ activities I normally use because they are group activities- one song we normally sing in canon, another song students shake hands with each other, and another each class does a circle dance. I've changed up the activities for all of those songs to make them doable over zoom.
• There is no way I can manage that many participants while also leading the event. I am planning to have a few staff members help out as co-hosts to 1) keep an eye on the chat, which I will have set to only send messages to the hosts, and 2) scroll through the videos to make sure there is nothing inappropriate going on in anyone's background etc. I'm also asking grade level teachers to be the point of contact for any of their students' question or tech issues during the event, so I don't have to worry about checking for messages and troubleshooting while leading!
• I have the lyrics for each song in a Google Slides file, so I am planning to share my screen and show the words and then just have myself singing (and possibly playing an instrument with some of the songs), rather than having any accompaniment tracks. I've never used tracks for my singalong before, and I think it's more "organic" without them (which is important when everything is on a computer screen).

There are a few songs that I'm planning to invite students to use props with. My plan is to publicize a supply list, making it clear that everything is optional, well in advance so we don't have to spend too much time waiting for people to find things in the middle of the program. I also am planning on needing to teach the songs live during the event itself, because we are on a rotation this year where I only see a few grade levels at a time, and I don't want to ask grade level teachers to do one more thing right now! Many of the students will (hopefully) remember the songs that we did last year, and all of them are very short and simple, so I think it will still work!

Content

After looking at continuing to improve the representation of my song selection and considering which songs are doable over Zoom, here is what I plan on doing this year:

1. Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah (we'll do a modified version of the circle dance we normally do- we sing only the first section)
2. Sleigh Ride (we'll do the cup routine shown in the linked video)
3. Feliz Navidad (I'll ask students to find something around their house to use as a shaker to play in the Spanish section, and do a simple clapping pattern in the English section)
4. Diwali is Here (I'll ask students to grab a flashlight/ cell phone light if they can, and do some simple choreography with the lights off while we sing)
5. Gong Xi, Gong Xi (we'll do the same motions with the verse- which we sing in an English translation- and then turn to each side of the video screen and pretend to shake hands in the chorus)
6. Eid Mubarak (we'll do a clapping pattern with this, clapping towards the camera so it looks like we're clapping each other's hands)
7. Happy Kwanzaa Song (I'll assign each grade to stand and do a motion that represents one of the 7 principles when we sing the verse (I teach K-6 so it works perfectly), and we'll all drum along while singing the chorus)

To be honest, I'm pretty happy with my plans for this year. I have absolutely no idea how well it will work with the technology, but I'm excited to try, and I'm much happier with my song selections this year than I was last year. 

Are you planning a sing-along this year? How are you planning to manage yours? I'd also love to hear your thoughts on holidays in public school classrooms, how to make holiday sing-alongs more reflective of our world, and whether holiday sing-alongs are even a good idea to begin with! Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below. I hope this sparks some conversation in the music education community as we continue to look for ways to value and respect all of our students and their backgrounds.

Read more "An Inclusive Holiday Sing Along in Pandemic Times"