Wednesday, March 31, 2010

spontaneous carpet dance party.

several weeks back i had a friend of mine come and play the guitar and sing for my students.  we were studying the way instruments make sounds and had spent a week building our own guitars out of pegboards and fishing wire.  i wanted my students to have an opportunity to see what you could do with a real instrument (and lets be honest...a mini-concert is so fun. how could i pass that up?).  keep this in mind as you continue reading.

monday was supposed to be spring break. because of the snow, however, everyone had to come to school to make up a day.  we had finished testing and one day is not enough time to begin something brand new and then have everyone out for a week...so...we had a pretty fun day.  at one point the students were getting a little riled up, so i had them lay down on the carpet, close their eyes, and listen to music. (i'm still meeting NCSCOS objective 4.05, mind you. we're LISTENING for the SOUNDS instruments make. right?) one student requested that we listen to "mr. goans."  i put on a song that the kids love called "suitcase man."  it's about MLK and the kids love it because we talked about the civil rights movement and it's ties to slavery for about 3 months.

the song starts out pretty mellow and builds into some exciting stuff. my students were calm and collected until the build. then they started jiggling.

and shaking.

and clapping

and stomping.

pretty soon the whole class was clapping in unison! some students stood up and began dancing. the whole class followed! a spontaneous dance party had erupted in my classroom!  then i hear

"I FEEL LIKE I'M PART OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT!!!!"

i just busted out laughing. how cute can you be?

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