1. MATERIAL + TEACHING STRATEGY + MEDIUM

Material: A song, poem, story, dance, etc.

Teaching Strategy: Copying (imitation), Echoing (remembered imitation), Transfer (from one medium to another e.g. clap when I play the wood block, step when I play the drum, move to sound of my voice/stop when I stop)

Medium: Singing, saying, dancing, playing.
    Voice can be melodic (chanting or singing) or rhythmic (speaking)
    Playing instruments can be melodic (xylophone, recorder, etc.) or rhythmic (triangle, drum, etc.)

2. WARMUP ACTIVITY
A warmup serves several purposes:
- It gets the children in the mood to sing and dance
- It can be used to introduces elements* of the material (song, rhyme or dance) you are going to teach.
- To focuses the children's attention on the teacher.
I first used an Irish hand drum called a bodhran (any instrument which produces two distinct sounds could be used, for example, a two tone wood block, a two tone cowbell, bongo drums, congas, tapping and scraping on a guiro.)
We took turns to make up a warmup game, e.g. combinations of three sounds (clap, knee-pat and rest). We made repeating patterns (ostinati). These can be 4 beats long, or 8 beats long, and so on. In a just one four beat pattern there are 81 (3 x 3 x 3 x 3) can be made just by choosing to clap, knee-pat or rest on each beat. Some of these patterns are easier to echo than others. Placing a rest on the last beat makes the pattern easier to echo. Saying "go" on the last beat helps the children know when to start echo clapping.

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
PITCH ELEMENTS melody, harmony

EXPRESSION ELEMENTS dynamics (loud and soft), timbre (also called tone colour, it is the quality of sound of a voice or instrument, for example the 'silvery' sound of a triangle, the floaty pure sound of a flute), style (e.g.jazz, reggae, blues)

TIME ELEMENTS beat (basically a regular pulse which can have a slow or fast tempo, can speed up or slow down), rhythm (e.g. clapping the words of a poem, or song creates rhythms based on the underlying beat), phrase (like a line of a song), form (e.g. AB, ABA, ABACAD, )

ACTIVITIES FROM THE ANIMAL MAGIC COLLECTION
See http://www.myspace.com/animalmagicmusic

Highway Number One (As seen on Playschool) A song and a dance with lots of opportunities for active learning. The new animals version of Highway Number One is featured in the Shenanigans' Animal Magic collection while the previously published version explores a variety of dance moves.

Creepy Crawly Critters - Spider on my Wall Song
Children seem to feel more at home with little creatures than adults. We can have some fun learning about them, but which ones are dangerous? And how should we react if a bee mistakes us for a flower?

OTHER SUGGESTIONS FROM ANIMAL MAGIC
Koori Dreamtime The song creates a structure for free movement in the style of emus, dingos, eagles and kangaroos. When we work with children we make a signal for the children to curl up like possums in a possum-hole in between each verse.
Eucalypso This can be danced in several formations - leaders in front of a group face to face, a horse-shoe shape with leaders across the open end of the horse-shoe, children in two lines, one each side of the room copying dance leader standing in front of each line.
The basic structure of the piece remains the same whichever formation is used: -
Body Percussion Intro / Verse (copy leader/s) / Chorus (sing and sway) / Verse (copy new leader/s) / Chorus / Body Percussion Break / All move freely.

ACTIVITIES FROM SHENANIGANS CD 1 COLLECTION

Boanopstekker (Hello Dance) - Shenanigans CD 1, track 14
Part A & B - travel around circle walking, skipping, marching, gallop (side step)
Part C - say hello in different languages
Part D - choose a dance move invented by a group member (16 beats version)
- choose dance moves invented by two group members (8+8 beats version)
- choose dance moves invented by four group members (4+4+4+4 beats version)

Other Suggestions from CD 1
Chimes of Dunkirk - Shenanigans CD 1, track 18
Take took turns to lead and choose a way of travelling (locomotion) and which way we went (pathway).

Little Bird Dance - Shenanigans CD 1, track 5
Partners - In B part skip 16 beats on right arm, 16 beats on left arm
Fours - In B part 16 beats right hand star, 16 beats left hand star
Eights - A part, giant chicken. B part 16 beats chicken walk left, 16 beats chicken walk right
Sixteens - A part, little duck. B part 16 beats duck walk left, 16 beats duck walk right
Thirty-twos - "turkey' A part dance very fast, B part circle left and right.

La Raspa Shenanigans - CD 1, track 6

Syncopated Cyril Shenanigans - CD 1, track 19

 This workshop has introduced the basic principles of the Orff approach to music education. See http://www.vosa.org for more details.