FLP10106 Get Moving With Ella Jenkins

Get Moving With Ella Jenkins
A Smithsonian Folkways Lesson

Designed by: Anna Maria Walisser
University of Alberta
Smithsonian Intern
Summary:
In these two lessons, accompanied by music from Get Moving with Ella Jenkins, young students
can develop comfort singing, clapping, and moving along with musical tracks, while also
developing an understanding of basic musical concepts (beat, volume, notes, and rests).
Suggested Grade Levels: Pre K K
Country: USA
Region: Americas
Culture Group: American
Genre: Folk
Instruments (on Track): Vocal, Ukulele, Maraca
Language: English
Co-Curricular Areas: Visual Art, Physical Education
National Standards: 1, 2, 6, 8, 9
Prerequisites: none
Objectives:
Getting young children to sing and explore their voices
Clapping along with the music and understanding the concept of the music beat
Learning to move in rhythm with the beat of a song
Understanding the importance of the relationship between music and dancing
Identifying the difference between soft, or piano singing, and loud, or forte singing
Understand the difference between sound and silence, or notes and rests
Materials:
CD Get Moving With Ella Jenkins. Tracks 1 and 2: Hello and Stop and Go
Stereo
Voices and Hands
Lesson Segments:
1. Lesson #1: Hello (National Standards 1, 2, 6)
2. Lesson #2: Stop and Go (National Standards 2, 8, 9)
Lesson #1: Hello
a. Listen to the first track, Hello, on Get Moving with Ella Jenkins.
a. Ask students to listen to the song again, and try and guess what kind of
instruments Ella is playing.
b. Explain to the students that Ella is going to sing first, and then the students will
join in when the children and teachers on the track join in.
c. Have students clap along with the children on the track.
b. Explain to students the difference between Piano (singing softly as the children did at the
beginning of the song and Forte (singing loudly as the children sang at the end of the
song).
a. Helpful Hint: If students are having a difficult time understanding the concept, the
teacher may wish to draw three characters on the board a papa bear, a mama
bear, and a baby bear. The papa bear is loud (forte), the mama bear is medium
loud (mezzo forte or mezzo piano), and the baby bear is quite (piano). The
students can practice talking or singing like papa bear, mama bear, and baby bear.
Teachers may wish to create a coloring worksheet of the bears for the students, or
incorporate the lesson into craft time by creating hand puppets or popsicle stick
figures of the three different bears (or whichever animal the teacher chooses).
c. Explain to students the concept of beat. All music has a beat, or pulse, much the same
way that your heart has a beat, or pulse. When we clap along to the music, we are
clapping along to the beat, or the heart of the music.
Extension: Explain to students the three instruments that Ella is using (a ukulele, a
maraca, and her voice; be sure to explain to students that the voice is also an instrument).
Teachers may wish to show videos or pictures of the instruments. If the teacher has
access to the instrument they may wish to show, or play the instruments for the students.
If not, the teacher could create a worksheet for the students to color (perhaps with a child,
a ukulele, and a maraca).
Evaluation: As a class, students will listen to the song two additional times to apply the
skills they have learned. During the first replay of the song, students will identify and
clap along with the beat. During the second, students will demonstrate their
understanding of piano and forte by either (a) physically moving to stand beneath the
teachers illustration on the board of the baby bear (piano) or papa bear (forte) at the
appropriate points in the song, or (b) by holding up their corresponding drawings.
Lesson #2: Stop and Go
a. Listen to Track Stop and Go in Get Moving with Ella Jenkins.
a. Ask students to listen for the different kind of movements that Ella tells the
children to make (walk, skate, tap your knees, beat your chest, shake your head,
clapping, hopping, jump, etc.).
b. After listening to the track, ask students what the kind of movements will look like
(walking, skating, tapping knees, beat your chest, shake your head, clapping, hopping,
jump).
a. Explain to students that when Ella tells them to stop, they are supposed to stand as
still as a statue.
c. Have students perform the actions along with Ella. Make sure to encourage them to sing
along with the children at the end of the track.
d. Ask students:
a. Do they enjoy dancing to music at home?
b. Have they ever seen their parents dancing?
c. Have they ever watched a movie or television show with dancing on it? (Glee,
Dancing With the Stars, etc.)
a. Explain to students the cultural importance of music and dance. Teachers may wish to
show students videos of people from different cultures dancing.
b. Discuss with students the difference between sound and silence. Explain to the students
that silence is just as important to music as sound. Silence in music is called a rest. Rests
can be either short (quarter rests) or long (whole rests).
a. Ask the students to listen to the recording again, and try and figure out where
there are rests in the music (where Ella tells them to stop).
c. After the students have figured out where the rests in the music are, have the students put
their finger up to their lips (shhhh gesture). Explain to the students that whenever they are
told to stop they are to be as still as a statue, as well as being as silent as one.
Evaluation: Students will demonstrate their understanding of (a) sound and silence and
(b) the relationship between music and dance through a game: students will dance when
they hear sound, and freeze during points of silence in the song, following Ellas
instructions.

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Get Moving With Ella Jenkins

A Smithsonian Folkways Lesson

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