First Two Lessons

I went in and took a deep breath as I walked into the classroom. I plunged in and waved at a few six grade students that looked at me. They had already met me and I was excited about starting to learn about their curiculum through music and movement. 

First Lesson: 

The first lesson that I taught, I started off with a get to know you game which we sung. The kids we a little shocked that I was singing to get to know them but they caught on and started singing names to help me learn. We learned the difference between the beat and the rhythm in music and how to explain them. I had them find different ways to keep the beat and then we tapped the rhythm with our fingers. 

At the end of the lesson I gave the students a card that said how they should move, either the beat or rhythm and a movement. They had creative ways of tip-toeing or hopping to show their dance. They were a little shy in getting up in front of their peers, but they were able to analyze the difference between the rhythm and the beat and tell it to others.  

Second Lesson: 

The second time I went, I wanted to make sure that the students were connecting the lesson to a topic that they were studying in Social Studies. I used a lesson from the BYU McKay School and it was on Egyptian Landmarks. Here is the link:Lesson Plan

This lesson went really well. I had a PowerPoint with the different Egyptian Landmarks on it and I introduced them to the students. Then we went out and created the movements for each section. I just used the Step Pyramid, The Pyramid of Giza, and The Valley of the Kings. At first when I asked them to show me how to represent the steps of the step pyramid they all tried kneeling on top of one another, but after a while they came up with creative ways to show the steps. 
As we went on the students were excited to come up with ways to show the flat sided pyramids and the obstacle course for the Valley of the Kings. I had them show off their ideas to their peers and they were much more comfortable doing so. I think that this lesson was really fun and they were engaged in learning and told me all the things that they already knew about Egypt, to make strong connections to this lesson.

I am very excited to keep working with this class, they seemed happy to be able to learn in a creative way. Mrs. Pulley, the class teacher, told me that she wanted to use a few ideas to connect to their vocab words. I will keep blogging about my lessons and experiences with this six grade class.