Submitted by Gretchen Taylor, Illinois

Idea posted June 13, 2003

I did something totally crazy & off the cuff during my rehearsals yesterday that got absolutely everyone singing, especially my middlers. It was a real hoot, too.

We were beginning "Lights Of Freedom" (from Music K-8, Vol. 13, No. 3. Also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.) and I wanted to first teach the short section right before the states are listed ("The lights, The lights, Oh say can you see..."). My objective was to drill this so firmly into their minds that they'd never forget it, soooo... I told them my intention, and that I had an idea of how to make learning it fun, but it would depend on their participation and creativity. If it looked like they weren't interested in my fun way, then we'd just do it the boring way (sit in our chairs and sing it about 10 times over & over). They opted for the fun way. Here's what I did:

  1. I sang and played each phrase for the students with them echoing back. I played the entire section followed by them singing it all back. We repeated this once more.

  2. I asked them to sing it again, but this time, to stand on the word "free."

  3. I drew their attention to how we changed our whole body position on this word and were now ready to sing it standing up. Which we did.

  4. Then, I asked someone to suggest another change of position (like turn and face opposite wall). So we sang it again, and on "free" everyone turned.

  5. Then, I asked for another position and someone said, stand on our chairs. We did it and the students really started getting excited now!

  6. By now we've repeated it six times? So I asked them to brainstorm some other positions, for example: bend over, lay on floor, sit backwards on chair.

  7. Then, I simply told them that now the fun would begin. I wanted to drill this section four more times starting in a normal standing position. This time, every time we got to "free," they were free to change their body position any way they wanted, as long as it was safe. Of course, no one would be doing the same position. Whatever position they took, they had to hold while we sang the section again, then change to a different position, and on and on until we sang it four times without pause. The main rule was that they had to sing each time or we'd stop and just do it the boring way. And sing they did!!

It was a blast! At each "free" there were some students on the chairs, in ballet-like stances, lying on the floor, bent over, squatting, stretching, sitting, et cetera. If my principal would have walked in, she'd of thought we'd gone crazy. But the students internalized that music, to be sure, and that was the point.

I'm doing this song with all my K-8ths and did this "game" with all classes except K's. They all loved it. One 5th grade "macho athlete" even said, "Man, I love music class!!" He made my day.

Of course this tool can be applied to any short section of music or song. Try it and get 'em all singing!