Head and Shoulders

​A 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.
Standards
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 Arts
  • 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
  • "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)
Possibly on a subsequent day, adapt the song as follows:
  • 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.​
(By the way, my daughter's class absolutely loved this song and even chose to play it on the playground during recess.) ​
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). ​