Well, thanks for the compliment, but I certainly would not view myself as “incredibly talented.” I’ve experimented with many instruments including guitar, bass, saxophone, clarinet, harmonica, flute and percussion. I’m not an expert in any of them, but as a songwriter, I find that dabbling in a variety of instruments stimulates musical ideas. In producing my recordings, I’ve been blessed to work with many great musicians here in the Los Angeles area, and as an instrumentalist, this keeps me humble.
Q: Your main principle is "Learning Through Music and Movement" - Can you tell us what this means. Can you elaborate on the principle behind "Learning Through Music and Movement".
Learning through music and movement is a way of reinforcing the school curriculum with active learning. It reaches the whole child through a variety of sensory modes: auditory, kinesthetic, and visual.
Q: Lets take an imaginary situation - you are in charge of first grade kids in a classroom. Can you explain how you would go about teaching them by this method.
Here’s a sample phonics lesson plan based on the song “Bop ‘Til We Drop” which deals with ‘word families’ - an important skill in learning to read:
Subject: • 'OP' word family
• Initial consonants: B, H, P, M, O
• Blends: CH, FL.
Vocabulary: hop, mop, chop, bop (dancing to jazz music), pop (to move suddenly, quickly; to explode or burst), flop, (to fall or drop limply, heavily) short 'O' sound
Activity: (Teacher places the letters 'OP' on the board.) Who can think of a word that ends with the sound /op/? (Teacher lists words then circles any words that will be used in this song.) Let's try a fun way to play "freeze dance." When the music plays, do the motion that ends with OP. Stop moving when the music stops and listen for the next motion.
Lyrics:
Well let's bop, bop, 'til we drop
Dance 'til we hear the music stop
Bop, bop, 'til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
Let's hop, hop, 'til we drop
Hop 'til we hear the music stop
Hop, hop, 'til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
With the short O sound and the letter P
We can do so much it's plain to see
Let's pop, pop 'til we drop
Like kernels of corn on a hot stove top
Pop, pop 'til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
Let's mop, mop 'til we drop
The floor's all sticky with slop and glop
Mop, mop til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
With the short O sound and the letter P
We can do so much it's plain to see
Let's chop, chop til we drop
Pile logs in the shed right up to the top
Chop, chop til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
Let's flop, flop til we drop
Like Raggedy Ann dolls in a toy shop
Flop, flop til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
Let's /h/ op 'H' 'O' 'P', /p/ op 'P' 'O' 'P', /m/ op 'M' 'O' 'P', /ch/ op 'C' 'H' 'O' 'P', /fl/ op 'F' 'L' 'O' 'P', /b/ op 'B' 'O' 'P',
Well let's bop, bop, 'til we drop
Dance 'til we hear the music stop
Bop, bop, 'til we drop
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
Everything we do ends 'O' 'P' op
Follow up:
What other words can you think of that end with the letters 'op'?
(Examples: crop, shop, top, stop, drop, plop, stop, top)
• Use other word families and find ways to move Examples:
'UMP' jump, bump, pump
'IDE' slide, ride, hide
'INK' blink, sink, wink
'OCK' rock, knock, block, walk, talk,
'UG tug, shrug, hug
'ALL' fall, ball, crawl
'AW' draw, saw, paw,
'ASH' dash, mash, bash,
'IP' skip, dip, sip, tip, flip
'ING' swing, sing, cling, fling
'IRL' swirl, whirl, unfurl
'AMP' stamp, clamp, tamp,
'AKE' shake, bake, ache,
• I'm going to place six movement words on the board. Examples: JUMP, SLIDE, SKIP, RUN, SWING, STAMP, SHAKE, FALL Let's move with the instrumental version of this song. During each pause, I will call out a word ending. Look at the board and find the word on the board which uses this ending and show in movement the word that fits.
(You can find many more lyrics and activities on my web site: www.happalmer.com)
