There's A Wocket In My Pocket!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Since March 2nd is the legendary Dr Seuss' birthday, I have created a lesson plan that incorporates reading, singing, and playing instruments with his book, "There's A Wocket In My Pocket!"

I definitely cannot take credit for this idea -- I got the idea from Ms. Benson (you can be redirected to her blog by clicking on her name)!

I did change the melody from what she originally used to incorporate Mi, Sol, and La (intervals I think are easiest for children at this young age).

Before my Kindergarten and First Grade class arrived, I was sure to remove all the bars from our xylophones so that only E (Mi), G (Sol), and A (La) were available for them to play.

Prep for Success -- Internalizing Pitches and Intervals

We did our standard warm-ups from the last class, with rhythm reading two measures in 4/4 time (using only quarter notes and eighth notes).  We also sang our intervals from last week, leaving out "Do" and introducing "La" for this exercise.

Once the children were comfortable with the intervals and hand signs, I had them sing, "Sol-Mi-Sol-Mi-Sol-La-Sol-Mi" on half notes, while using their hand signs.  I then added the words "There's a wocket in my pocket."

***I actually changed the piece to only include "Sol" and "Mi" -- I think adding "La" was a little ambitious of me to have K/1 play!

Performance

I have the children move back to the Orff instruments, and we practice playing the same melody while singing.  I then read the book to them, and after each page I read, they perform the melody on their instruments while singing.  The first grade was, for the most part, able to keep up with what I wanted them to do.

In Kindergarten, there were a small number of children understood and were able to play correctly, a few who were confused and played E to G instead of the other way around, and then a large percentage of children who were not able to move from G to E with just one mallet and fell behind.

During the last few days that I tried this, I ended up just having all the children in Kindergarten play a G over and over again while singing the original melody (although many children were intuitive and added a "La" to the song!).

What I Would Change Next Time:

For next year, I would definitely go ahead and buy more mallets so that each child can have two.  In this way, the Kindergarten classes would be able to play two notes without becoming overly confused and have more success on their instruments.

Here is video of one of my first grade classes performing!

Standards Being Met

Kindergarten

MU.K.S.3.1, MU.K.S.3.3

Sing age-appropriate songs using proper vocal technique.
MU.K.F.1.1
Enhance stories and/or poems through music.

First Grade

MU.1.S.2.1, MU.1.S.3.1

Sing age-appropriate songs using proper vocal technique from memory.
MU.1.H.3.1
Enhance stories, poems, chants, and songs through music.