Articles by Troy

We’ve been having a lot of fun this week in class with Devon’s warm up activity that uses “Uh-Huh” from Super Simple Songs Two.

Place a jump rope or long rope across the center of the room. Place one sign that says “YES” and one sign that says “NO” on opposite sides of the room.

Have all the students line up on the “YES” side of the rope, facing you, and practice saying, “Uh-Huh”. Then, everyone jumps to the other side and says “Unh-Uhh”. Practice going back and forth and have fun with it. Then do the same thing, using “YES” and “NO”. Next play the song, jumping back and forth over the rope. In the middle interlude section, ask some simple yes and no questions and encourage the students to answer and jump to the correct side of the rope.

When the song is finished, you can expand on the activity and ask more yes and no questions, and either jump to that side of the rope, or run to that side of the room. For older students, have the students take turns asking the questions.

Another suggestion is to place an equal number of chairs at each end of the room that is one less that the number of students in the class. ( e.g. 4 students in the class = 3 chairs at each end of the room). When you ask a question, the students run and sit down on the yes side or the no side. One student will be left standing. They can either be “out” and continue playing as an elimination game (not recommended for younger students) or that person can ask the next question and continue playing in the next “round” when someone else is left standing.

In case you were wondering what the Uh-Huh song sounds like, here’s the video…

Recently a teacher on our Facebook page commented on how she thinks Super Simple Songs would be good for her 8 year olds, and did we think that would be okay?  OF COURSE!!

We use all kinds of songs with our kids up until that age–and even older.
Keep in mind, if you’ve never used a song in class, and you drop the Hokey Pokey on a class of 8 year olds, you won’t get a good reaction.  Kids don’t react well to change.  But if you ease them into it, you won’t regret it!

Start by playing songs in the background during quiet activities.  Then move on to something not quite so song-like.  Toss a ball around to the Alphabet Chant or the Months Chant.  Next, move onto something that the kids are guaranteed to have a blast with, like The Pinocchio.  Next thing you know, songs will be a regular part of your class.

Our focus with Super Simple Songs comes across at times as something that is best suited for kindergärtners and preschoolers.  But as anyone who has tried out the CDs knows, they’re incredibly versatile and kids of all ages enjoy them.

I remember a children’s music methods course that I took in university.  One of the first things we did for that class was head out to the local elementary school.  It was such a different place from way back when I was in elementary school.  We sang, we chanted…we made music.  The kids there didn’t.  There was no music on the playground and very little in the classrooms.

Don’t let that be your classroom!  Expose your kids to all kinds of music.  Anything will do….even some simple songs.

-Troy

These cards allow you to play “Who Took the Cookie?” with as few as two people or as many as you have in your class. Also, when you play with these cards, nobody knows who has the cookie…even the student who has it! (When you play the regular version of “Who Took the Cookie?” younger students may have trouble keeping it a secret that they have the cookie.)

First, print the “Who Took the Cookie?” cards (and laminate them if possible).

With two players, shuffle the cards and deal four cards, to each player. Each player, without looking at the cards, puts the four cards in a row in front of them. Chant the “Who Took the Cookie?” chant. When it’s someone’s turn to answer if they have the cookie or not, they turn one card over to check, and then answer.

Continue back and forth until one of the players turns over the cookie card. Children will want to play this game again and again, so it really gives them great practice! For variation, print two or three cards so that when one cookie card is turned over, the game continues!

For more than 2 people or a larger class, print several sets of the “Who Took the Cookie?” cards (and laminate them if possible). You can deal one card to each student, or several cards to each student. The more cards each student has, the longer the game will continue. For larger groups, print several “cookie” cards so that the game continues even after one of the cookies is found.

With very large classes, print several sets of the cards (black and white will work just fine), and have the students play in groups of five or six.

Many thanks to a good friend in Germany for this great idea!