One of the other video requests last week was for the “Where are you going?” theme. This is always my go to song if I ever get a class of 5th or 6th graders who don’t want to do anything, the funk and competition of getting them to sing louder than each other works every single time – even when other sure hit themes fail!
Here we have the song in action….
Usually I just split the class into two halves, but here they split them into boys and girls. Each group thought of their own gestures for each item. (Oh, and don’t clap your hands in time with the music like the teachers are doing here – that’s a sure recipe to get everyone out of time as you can’t hear the music on a small system!)
Then we have the Leapfrog Game as recommended in the Lesson Plans Book:
Here we have a couple of recommendations for large classes. Either get all the kids to shout out the phrase, or get the kids to shout the phrase one at a time in the group. This keeps large classes from being bored in the demonstration. Then I would normally have them use theminicards to practice it in smaller groups.
In this theme we have things like “I’m going to school” and “I’m going home” but “I’m going to THE park” etc. The kids always pick this up naturally from the song, but here the teachers were mixing it up due to their junior high way of thinking about English. Just be careful the teachers you work with don’t negatively influence the kids.
Anyway, if you haven’t tried this theme, have a go. It only takes ten minutes and it works amazingly well for the “too cool for school” kids. It’s always my reserve secret weapon!
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whey, thanks for putting this up! I’ll take a look as soon as I get home!
This version of the Leapfrog game is great. Thank you!
“Oh, and don’t clap your hands in time with the music like the teachers are doing here – that’s a sure recipe to get everyone out of time as you can’t hear the music on a small system!”
what if you’ve got a fairly big music system? My problem is that many times the music is too loud and I can’t hear the how well the kids are doing with the song and have to lower the volume.
I usually use the music class rule, if you sing normally you can’t hear yourself, but sing a touch loud and you can. Adjust the volume to suit!
Also quality of the sound system really matters, usually the better quality the quieter it can be!
“Also quality of the sound system really matters, usually the better quality the quieter it can be!”
For sure. The reason I asked about the clapping was that with 5th and 6th graders, any added genkiness is always a plus. Also my experience with older kids is that the songs have a limited shelf life and after two or three times they’re bored with it. With the younger ones you can use the song longer and introduce new gestures or other twists as you go along, because they are still really into it.
Oh yeah, I wouldn’t recommend the doing any of the songs more than twice in one lesson with the upper graders!
Just my 2 cents. I wouldn’t have the upper grade students SING the song more than twice in one lesson, but I often have them listen and react to the song many times. I get them to count how many times they hear a certain phrase. I have them raise their hands when they hear a key word. or I have them put the words in order as they hear the song several times. For the birthday song I have then stand when they hear their birthday own birthday. Then I have them ask their neighbor to their right/left or front/behind and have them stand up for their neighbors birthday. There is a lot you can do with one song. The cool factor I think only applies when they have to “perform” in front of their classmates.
I’ll try it another time in the year. I think it can be great to try.
Thanks for all these games