Head and ShouldersA Music and Language Arts Lesson for Grades 1-4
I taught my daughter's third grade class Head and Shoulder's Baby and then we played the singing game to explore verbs and nouns. Here's a copy of the singing game played by my methods class back in Missouri, followed by a lesson outline: Overview Participants will learn Head and Shoulders Baby and sing it in new ways to explore nouns and verbs. |
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Standards
Music
Music
- Perform: Sing folk, traditional, and call-and-response songs in tune, with good vocal tone.
- Perform: Demonstrate persistence and cooperation in refining performance pieces.
- Create: Elaborate on an imaginative idea and apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas through the art-making [song-writing] process.
- Language: Conventions of Standard English—Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
- Language: Knowledge of Language—Choose words and phrases for effect.
- Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration—Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions...
Process
Teach the Song
Teach the Song
- "While I sing the song, clap every time you hear 'baby'." Sing the song or watch the video.
- "Close. Let's try again." Sing the song again or watch the video again.
- Try one more time.
- Touch head and shoulders at the appropriate time.
- Try again.
- Change head and shoulders to knees and ankles and sing the song again.
- Try again.
- Learn the clapping pattern (with imaginary partners) slowly (baby, one-clap, two-clap, three) as in the video
- Add the hand clapping pattern (with imaginary partners) to entire song, head and shoulders and then knees and ankles
- Try it with real partners. Demonstrate first and then give students five or so minutes to practice it and then try it all together.
- Teach the chorus (Ain't Been to Frisco) by singing sections of the song and having students repeat (or learn it from the video)
- Instead of head and shoulders, sing throw the ball and milk the cow (or some other action with a verb followed by a noun)
- Write the new lyrics on the board under the headings "verbs" and "nouns"
- Have the students choose new verbs and nouns to put in the song. Sing the song with the new lyrics.
Extensions
- We could also explore the meaning and origins of this singing game using imagination (language arts) or historical documents (social studies and language arts).
- In Utah, third grade social studies are focused on Utah. Using the verbs and nouns idea above, children could explore a variety of human actions that impacted the physical environment of Utah (e.g. blast the tunnel, plow the field, drive the car, shoot the deer). This would address Standard 1: Students will understand the relationship between the physical geography in Utah and human life; Objective 3: Analyze how human actions modify the physical environment; Indicator a. Describe how and why humans have changed the physical environment of Utah to meet their needs (e.g. reservoirs, irrigation, climate, transportation systems and cities).