MAKING CULTURAL CONNECTIONS - Baylor University• “ri”: hands open as if reading a book. (Backs of hands will touch partner’s.) • “da”: Touch own hands together. • “da-da-da”:

MAKING CULTURAL CONNECTIONS 1

Making Cultural Connections: All Around the Globe with Songs,

Games, and Dance

Presented by Darla Meek

[email protected]

Alleluia Conference Baylor University July 22, 2015


Why Teach Singing Games and Dances?

• Singing games and dances are a teacher’s treasure trove! They have features that engage students aurally, kinesthetically, imaginatively, and socially.

• They allow students opportunities to relate to each other in a positive way. • They build community. • The movements often involve a challenge. • They often include creative play and improvisation. • They encourage the children to sing! As the children focus on the other aspects of the

game, the melody and rhythm of the song is being repeated until it is internalized. Tips for Teaching Dances and Singing Games

• Before you teach a dance, listen carefully to the music and analyze its form. Write it out. Then, study the dance steps and make sure they line up with the form of the music. If it does not, consider changing the dance so that the physical movements the children will be performing reinforce the form of the music they will be hearing. Generally, every time the children hear a repeat of a section of music, they should be performing the same movement as before.

• Teach as much of the dance as you can with the children facing front…in their assigned seating spots. Only go to the required formation when you must.

• Use visual cues as much as possible. Display the form as you teach each section, using pictures, text, or letters…whatever will help them see the differences between each section.

• Whenever feasible, sing the melody of the dance as you teach. Perhaps even sing the instructions to the tune of the song.

• Try to have the children listen to musical cues to know when to change movements, rather than simply counting beats.

• After you teach the dance, have the children listen to the music first and make observations about the tempo and length of the introduction.

• When you teach a mixer (when the dancers change partners) teach the basic dance and have the students practice, THEN turn it into a mixer, usually the following choir rehearsal.

• To help younger children know where they are to stand, place masking tape or Velcro on the floor, either in concentric circles, a longways set, etc. Using tape of two different colors works even better!

• For dancers where right/left discrimination is needed, stamp a blue dot on the students’ right hands, and a red stamp on their left hands, as they enter the room. “Swing with your blue dots!”

• When you are giving instructions, have the children sit down. Children listen better sitting down than standing.


• Wait on passing out materials (such as scarves, bean bags, etc.) until the children can perform the activity first without them. Then, tell the children what they should do with the material: “I will place your scarf on the floor in front of you. You will keep your hands in your lap. Do not touch your scarf.” If the child then touches the scarf, have him or her return it to the receptacle immediately. Using the scarf, streamer, etc. is a privilege.

Creating Space If you must rearrange furniture to accommodate dancing and games, decide beforehand exactly what steps need to be taken, assign specific children to accomplish these tasks, and have the children practice until they can perform as quickly as possible. Make it a competition! Challenge them to have the room in position by the time you finish singing a refrain of a song, or by the time you count to a certain number. Choosing Leaders and Turns

• “Rock, Paper, Scissors” • “Choose a number between one and five.” • Teach the students to use their best manners when they play with each other. Best:

“Would you like to go first?” Next best: “I would like to go first.” Worst: “I wanna go first!” Tell the children that if they are too little to use good manners, they are too little to play.

• Have a child come to the center of the circle, cover eyes, spin and stop. The child closest to his pointed finger is the leader.

• Use a counting chant, such as… Eenie, meenie, miney, mo. Catch a turkey by the toe. If he gobbles, let him go. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo. Doggy doggy diamond, there you sit, Doggy doggy diamond, you are it! Red, white, and don’t forget blue, Everybody’s out except for YOU! Choosing Partners

• Have children count off in twos around a circle. • Instruct one child to walk to a partner, maintaining eye contact but no bodily contact.

Partners sit down facing each other. • If you are partner-‐less, raise your hand, and walk to another person with his/her hand in

the air.


• Again, another opportunity to teach manners! “Would you like to dance?” “May I have this dance?” “Yes, thank you, I would love to dance.”

• Divide into blues and reds—a red partners with a blue. The Different Types of Singing Games Circle games

Acting-‐out games Dancing games

Partner games Chase games

Passing games Clapping games

Play Parties Choosing Games

…and many more!


“Sorida” Children’s Clapping Game from Zimbabwe CONCEPTS and SKILLS: sol-mi-do, AB form

1. Teach movements. • Demonstrate movements for the children: • “Sorida”: Begin with palms touching together in front of chest (prayer position). Raise

arms up and outward in wide circular motion and back to prayer position. (Take your time with this movement, holding out the syllable “so-.”)

• “ri”: hands open as if reading a book. (Backs of hands will touch partner’s.) • “da”: Touch own hands together. • “da-da-da”: (with partner) Partners touch right hands together, then left, then touch own

hands together. 2. Teach the game.

• Choose one student to demonstrate with you. (Partners face each other with hands in a prayer position.)

• Once that student is able to perform the movements with confidence, s/he becomes a “teacher,” and may choose a friend to play with. You also choose another student to demonstrate with you.

• This continues in a cumulative fashion: each player chooses a new partner until all children are standing and playing the game. Have children switch partners and play again.

3. Derive the sol-mi-do melody.

• Have children sing the song, placing hands on their shoulders when they hear the high note, on their waists when they hear the middle note, and on their laps when they hear the lowest sound.

• Play a “listening game”: sing one of the three notes, instructing the students to place his/her hands in the correct position on the body (shoulders, waist, or laps). Sing sol, mi, or do randomly several times on a neutral syllable.

• Display a solfege ladder. Lead the children to discover the melody of “Sorida” with the solfege ladder.

• Notate the melody on a three-line staff, leading the students to discover the placement of do in relation to mi and sol.

• Have students practice reading sol-mi-do patterns. • Have the students discover a “mystery song” using sol-mi-do. “Mouse, Mousie” or “Ten in

a Bed” are possibilities.

Darla Meek Collection, 2010. SOURCE: Song learned from a workshop presented by Shirley Jackson in 1999.

& # # 86 .. .. ..œU jœ .œsSo

mridda,

œU jœ œ jœssomridda,

mri

œ jœ .œdda,mridda.

œ jœ .œdDa

ddadda,

œ jœ œ jœdda

ddadda,

mri

œ jœ .œdda,mridda.- - - - - - - - - - - -

SORIDA

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Score


“Al Citron” Mexican Passing Game Lesson Plan and arrangement by Darla Meek

CONCEPTS and SKILLS: low sol, steady beat, dotted quarter note MATERIALS: bean bags, text visual 1. Introduce the song.

• Sing the song for the students. Explain that the text is mostly nonsense, but that a fun game can be played with it! The game requires keeping steady beat.

• Have students practice patting the steady beat on a body part of their choice. • Add the challenge of stopping on the last syllable of the song, “-‐tron.”

2. Teach the song.

• Display Spanish text. Have students pronounce each nonsense word. • Chant text in rhythm. Teach text phrase by phrase. • Echo-‐sing do-‐re-‐mi phrases. Add low sol. • Sing text. Ask the students to count the number of times they heard the “sol-‐do” motif.

(6) Have the children sign the motif as they hear it. • Teach melody phrase by phrase, if needed. Sing entire.

3. Teach the game.

• Have students stand in a circle. • Have students pretend to pick up an article from the floor in front of themselves and

place it on the floor in front of their neighbor on the right. Use RIGHT hands. • Sing the song, picking and placing on the steady beat. (Pick up on the syllable “-‐tron.”) • Distribute bean bags to students. Only one yellow bean bag, the “lemon,” should be used

at first. Practice picking and placing the bean bags as they sing. Stop on the last syllable of the song.

• On “triki-‐triki-‐tron,” instead of passing the bean bags, all students keep holding their bean bags and touch their neighbors’ spots, then their own, then release the bean bags on their neighbors’ spots.

touch neighbor touch own spot pass to neighbor tri -‐ ki -‐ tri -‐ ki -‐ tron

• Play the game! Whoever ends up with the bean bag on the final word of the song is out. (Give that student something to do!)

• Continue play until one child remains—the WINNER. • If you have a large class, use two, or even three, yellow bean bags.


4. Teach instrument accompaniment parts. • Have the children sing and sign an ostinato (do-‐sol) as you sing the song. Switch parts. • Divide the children into two groups, one to sing the melody and the other to sing and sign

the ostinato. Switch parts. • Transfer to barred instruments. (This is the BX/BM part.) • Teach the unpitched percussion part through snapping. Transfer to an instrument of

choice. 5. Teach the countermelody.

• Sing the countermelody for the children, or have them read it from notation. (It helps to add two snaps on the two beats of rest, as placeholders.)

• Invite the children to sing this ostinato repeatedly as you sing the “Al Citron” melody. • Again, divide the childreninto two groups, one to sing the melody and one to sing the

countermelody. Switch parts. • If desired, divide into three groups to sing all three parts. Rotate. Make sure the children

can sing all parts accurately, and that they can perform their own part with the other parts, before transferring to instruments.

&&ã&

##

#

42

42

42

42

SR

UPP

BX/BM

œ œAl cit

ŒŒŒ

.œ jœron de

œ œ œ œWhen you buy a

!œ œ

.œ jœun fanjœ œ jœlem on, you

!œ œ

œ œ œ œdan go, san go

œ œ œget a sour

!œ œ

œ œ œ œsan go sa ba

˙deal.

Jœ œ JœMake lem on

œ œ

œ œ œlle. Sa ba

!œ Œade!

œ œ

-

- - - - - - - - -

- -

&&ã&

##

#

SR

UPP

BX/BM

6 .œ jœlle de

œ œ œ œWhen you buy a

6 !6 œ œ

.œ jœla ranjœ œ jœlem on, you

!œ œ

œ œ œ œdel la con su

œ œ œget a sour

!œ œ

œ œ œ œtri ki tri ki

˙deal.

Jœ œ JœMake lem on

œ œ

œ Œtron!

!œ Œade!

œ Œ

-

- - - - - -

- -

AL CITRON[Composer]


LOST MY GOLD RING Jamaican Children’s Game Lesson by Darla Meek CONCEPTS and SKILLS: syn-‐CO-‐pa; I-‐V chord roots, audiation, fa MATERIALS: a gold ring

1. Teach the game.

• Students form a circle with one child in the center, holding a gold ring enclosed in clasped hands. • All children hold their hands in front of their bodies in a “cup.” • As the children sing, the center child walks around from child to child, pretending to drop the ring

into each child’s “cup,” though, in reality, the child only drops the ring into one of the “cups.” This center child moves from cup to cup on the macrobeat.

• The children must guess who has the ring when the song is over. • Variation: Have another child stand outside the ring and be the “guesser.”

2. Discover chord roots.

• Have the children sing the tonic pitch (do), then the dominant (low sol). • Have the children sing the chord roots as they follow your hand signs. • Tell the children that they are going to use their musical ears to figure out an accompaniment for

the song using tonic and dominant roots. Tell the students they will start on the tonic, and move to the dominant when they hear a chord change in the melody.

• Sing the song for the children, and have them figure out an appropriate accompaniment. It may take several repetitions for them to come to a consensus. (I I I I, V V I I, repeat)

• Divide the children into two groups: one to sing the melody and the other to sing the chord roots. Switch.

• Have the children play the chords on resonator bells or barred instruments. OTHER TEACHING IDEAS

• Have the children practice syn-‐CO-‐pa by displaying the rhythm for the students to read, then add the text and melody.

• Introduce the song with solfege fragments: sms, dmd, rmf, etc. Then, keep adding to the fragments until they have the entire melody.

• Practice audiation: when you point to your mouth, the children sing. When you point to your head, the children audiate. Have a child be the leader!

& # # 44 œ œ œ œ œ œBid dy bid dy hold on,

œ œ œ œlost my gold ring.

jœ œ jœ œ œOne go to King ston,

jœ œ jœ œ Œcome back a gain.7 7 7 7

& # # œ œ œ œ œ œBid dy bid dy hold on,

œ œ œ œlost my gold ring.

jœ œ jœ œ œOne go to King ston,

jœ œ jœ œ Œcome back a gain.7 7 7 7

LOST MY GOLD RING

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Score


“The Sweets of May” Irish Ceili Lesson Plan by Darla Meek

CONCEPTS and SKILLS: ABC form, Irish folk dance, steady beat, ensemble MATERIALS: recording (found on iTunes) “The Sweets of May” is a Ceili. Ceili, which is the Gaelic word for “dances and gatherings,” is pronounced “KAY-‐lee.” Ceili dances were derived from group set dances and French quadrilles, but were set to Irish music. Sometimes ceili dancing is referred to as figure dancing. This type of dancing generally does not require more than an elementary knowledge of the basic steps. 1. Teach section C.

• “Can you perform a nonlocomotor movement that has sound to match my steady beat?” (Play a high sound, perhaps on a drum, or the highest temple block.)

• “Can you perform a different nonlocomotor sound when you hear this?” (Play a low sound on the beat, perhaps the lowest temple block.)

• “Notice that my first sound was high, and my second sound was low. Can you make your first movement with a high part of your body and your second movement with a low part of your body?” (Change back and forth: 8/8, then 4/4, then 2/2.)

• “Now perform a locomotor movement when you hear this new sound.” (Play another sound, a middle sound, on the beat.)

• “Now we have three sounds to play with!” (Play the pattern 2/2/2/2/8 twice.) • “Now find a partner. On this sound (the middle sound), find a way to move around in a

circle with your partner, and back to your place. Talk about it for a minute—brainstorm ideas.”

• “Now let’s practice! You have your movement for this (high sound) and this (low sound) and now try one of your ideas for this (middle sound).” Play the pattern several times so they can try out different ideas.

• OPTION: “We are going to put this whole pattern into a dance, so we all should be performing the same movements. Let’s choose three of your ideas.”

NOTE: If desired, you may choose the same movements from the source: First: Clap Second: Stamp Third: Walk in a circle holding hands

• As they perform, sing the melody (text mine):


• “This dance is an Irish party dance called a ceili. It has three sections, A, B, and C. The

part you just performed is the C section.” 2. Teach section A.

• “Between you and your partner, decide who will be the ‘one’ and who will be the ‘two.’” • “There is an imaginary line in the center of the floor. Ones, take your partner by the

hands and bring him or her to that line. This creates a ‘longways set.’ A longways set has a head and a foot.”

• “This is the head couple. You are the leader of the ones line, and you are the leader of the twos line.”

• “Ones leader, take your line on a little walk. Your pathway is around the twos line and back to where you are standing now.” Sing the melody (text mine):

• Repeat with the twos circling the ones.

3. Teach section B.

• Stand at the head of the set. “From where I’m standing, this looks like a huge banana! Let’s peel this banana: let’s have the ones travel the opposite direction, and NOT circle around the twos.” (Practice.)

• Repeat with the twos. • “Ones and twos, peel the banana at the same time.” • “This time, when the head couple gets to the foot of the set, they create an arch for the

rest of the line to go under, resulting in a new head couple!” • Have the students perform the movement alone while you sing:

& # 86 .œ .œHigh! High!

.œ .œLow! Low!

.œ .œHigh! High!

.œ .œLow! Low!

& # œ jœ œ jœTake your part ner

œ jœ œ Jœround and round, and

œ œ œ œ œ œthen go back to your

.œ Œ .place.-

SWEETS OF MAY C

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Score

& # 86 ...œ .œWon't you

œ œ œ œ œ œcome a long and

œ jœ œ jœskip with me? We'll

œ jœ œ œ œdance to geth er a

.œ .œcei li!- - - -

& # ..œ œ œ œ œ œCome a long and

œ jœ œ jœskip with me. We'll

œ Jœ œ œ œhave a won der ful

.œ œ Jœtime! Won't you- - -

SWEETS OF MAY A

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Score


• This movement will not require the full length of music provided. Have the children stand

and clap to the beat as they wait for the music for section C. 4. Perform the entire dance.

• Give the students an opportunity to first listen to the music and review the steps mentally.

SOURCE: Sweets of May, by Dudley and Jacqueline Laufman

& # 86 œ jœ œ jœCast off with your

œ jœ .œlead er, now

œ jœ œ Jœpeel ing the ba

œ Jœ œ Jœna na.- - - -

& # œ jœ œ jœFind your part ner

œ jœ .œ'neath the arch,

œ jœ œ œ œthen back to your

.œ Œ .place!-

SWEETS OF MAY B

©

Score


Resources Available from West Music http://www.westmusic.com David Brass Amidon, Chimes of Dunkirk, Jump Jim Joe, Listen to the Mockingbird, Down in the Valley, and Sashay the Donut New England Dancing Masters Productions, Vermont, 1991. (CD’s and books containing contra and country dances, and singing games) Anne Green Gilbert, Creative Dance for All Ages AGG Productions, 7327 46th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115 (excellent resource for teaching creative movement lessons) Martha Riley, English Country Dances for Children, and Backwoods Heritage Riverside Productions, 1995, 2003 (CD’s with booklet. Easy-‐to-‐follow directions.) Shenanigans, Dance Music for Children, Level I (CD’s with the dance directions in the insert.) Phyllis Weikart, Movement and Dance: Sequential Approach to Rhythmic Movement & Teaching Movement and Dance, sixth edition, High Scope Press, 2006 (Very thorough folk dance source utilizing “LOOK-‐SAY” method. There is a set of 12 CDs that accompanies the book. Authentic instruments. Use with Rhythmically Moving set of 9 CDs.) Sanna H. Longden and Phyllis S Weikart, Cultures and Styling in Folk Dance High Scope Press, 1998 (Background discussion on ore than 200 dances, including historical, cultural, and stylistic information) Eric Chappelle, Music for Creative Dance: Contrast and Continuum, Vol. 1-‐4 (CD set of four volumes, excellent for teaching movement and music concepts) Jacqueline and Dudley Laufman, Sweets of May, White Mountain Reel, Traditional Barn Dances with Calls and Fiddling Human Kinetics; Pap/DVD/Co edition, 2009 (Booklets and CDs, tracks with and without calls) Lois Choksy and David Brummitt, 120 Singing Games and Dances for Elementary Schools Prentice-‐Hall, 1987 (Notation and instructions for circle games, line dances, passing games, etc.)

Documents

MAKING CULTURAL CONNECTIONS - Baylor University• “ri”: hands open as if reading a book. (Backs of hands will touch partner’s.) • “da”: Touch own hands together. • “da-da-da”: