I love Halloween songs. I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s the rich selection of songs in minor (or phyrgian and dorian!). Maybe it’s the dramatic quality that spooky songs have. Who knows. But I couldn’t let October go by without posting one more of my favorite songs to use in the classroom.
This one is actually a throwback to when I was an elementary school student myself. It is called Stirring Our Brew. I think that the actual song maybe longer, but I sing these words:
Stirring and stirring and stirring our brew. Oooooooh! Oooooooh! Tip toe. Tip toe. Tip toe. Boo!
I looked around and but I can’t find any information on who wrote this song. However, I’m sure if you Youtube it you can find a recording.
Classroom Activity
I use this with my kindergarteners. We sit it a circle and use a rhythm stick to stir our brew using fluid movement. Research has shown that before students can feel the beat, they need to feel the space between the beats. So starting your kindergartners out with fluid motions (stirring brew, drawing curvy lines with scarves, etc) can help them be more prepared for learning the beat.
At the end of the song, I take ideas for what to add to the brew. We sing and add our ingredients to the brew (ex. 5 oranges: “5-4-3-2-1-0”: All notes sung on fifth scale degree except “0,” which is sung on the first scale degree (aka – the resting tone)). I like adding in this tiny amount of math skills. It is something you can show to teachers/principals to show how you reinforce skills from other classes AND it doesn’t take away from MY goals in the lesson. WINNING! Sometimes we even get fancy and count backwards by 5s or 10s when a kid says they want to add 50 pizzas to the brew.
After 1-2 lessons using the song as-is, I give students the opportunity to add their ingredients whole or chopped up. We first start by chopping (using our hands, alternating) to the steady beat, which is something I have begun to introduce in class by this point in the year. We talk about how it is called the “steady” beat because it does not change. When students look like they are imitating steady beat pretty well, I introduce chopping to match the rhythm of the words. So now student have the choice of chopping to the beat or to the rhythm.
Here are the reasons I LOVE this song:
- the kids love it. They would do it all class period if they could
- it has different levels for different students (stirring – fluid movement, chopping – steady beat, chopping – rhythm)
- it has a little math component that doesn’t take away from my musical focus
- it allows for imagination and creativity – very in-line with the spirit of Orff
- it introduces essential music vocabulary – beat and rhythm, and makes the students use the vocabulary and make decisions about the vocabulary (will we chop to the beat or rhythm?)
If you liked this post, here are some others you may wish to check out:
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