Who's That?!

My second graders are currently practicing half-note.  One of my favorite songs for half note is this song:

This song can be found in 150 American Folk Songs.  Its possibilities are endless!!  I've used it for solo singing, where one child sings "I am tapping at the window" by his/herself and another sings "I am knocking at the door."  I've used it as a vocal timbre (recognition) game with two students hiding or the class closing their eyes while two students sing the for mentioned parts.  The class then tries to identify the solo singers.  It also lends itself very well towards early improvisation.  (I actually learned this song from Jill Trinka and this is how she notates it in her third volume John the Rabbit) The students can create/suggest "who" is tapping at the window and at the door.  For instance, in October goblins, ghosts, witches, etc. were tapping and knocking.  In the past students have improvised famous athletes, fictional and non-fictional characters and real people (i.e. fellow classmates, teachers, etc).

This year, I made a new PowerPoint for the song.  I'll walk you through it, follow along! :)

It includes a slide from which the students sing the song:

It includes a slide from which the students will read the rhythm (later on in the year, after re is presented we will read the solfa of the song):

And here's the part that I'm excited about!!!  I have created a slide that has 12 doors.  The numbers on the doors are hyperlinked to rhythm slides.  The first four doors are linked to rhythms from known song and doors 5-12 include new rhythms that they will read.

There are various ways to "play" this with students.  First, the class could read them all together with the main purpose simply being practice.  Once the students have practiced this, you can "up the ante" but making it a competition between you and the students: if they say it correctly they get a point, if they don't you get a point.  Or you can use it as an assessment and have individual students or small groups of students read it.

So, to use the PowerPoint, click on the number of the door:

It will bring you to one of the various rhythm slides, as notated below.  Have your kiddos read the rhythm.  When you want to return to the main "door" slide, click on the key in the lower right corner and it will take you to that slide.

This slide is from Here Comes a Bluebird ("hey, diddle diddle day day day):

The one down fall is that it doesnt' immediately change the color of the number's text until you "open" another door.  It's PowerPoint's flaw, not mine, lol!!!  If you know how to fix this or make it work better please let me know, I'd love to know how to improve this!

Here are a few other sample slides:
This one is from Are You Sleeping ("brother John" and "ding, ding, dong"):

This one if from "Who's That?":

 This one if from Blue ("I had a dog and his name was Blue"):

Here's an "unknown" or new pattern:

And here's another sample of a new reading slide:

I'm going to try to upload some of the files that I post on here into "Box".  Please let me know if you are unable to download this file! :)

You "should" be able to download the file by clicking here. I initially tried to upload the file with MusicEd font but it didn't translate.  If you'd like the original file withe MusicEd notation please leave a reply with your email and I'll send it your way!  ;)

Have a GREAT Sunday!