Open House

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Home : 2003 : March : 19

Open House
By Ingrid

This has never failed for me.
There is a learning song on one of Hap Palmer's albums, ( I think its the "Creative Movement" album,) that requires pieces of paper in four colors--red, yellow, blue and green.

I am trying
to make this a brief as possible, but it won't be easy.
Anyway, I use the song as a learning tool in my class. Each child is given a piece of paper in one of these four colors.
The song begins very easy. "Red stand up, Blue stand up, Green and Yellow stand up. Red sit down, Blue sit down, Green and Yellow sit down."
The instructions in the song, gradually become more unpredictable.

Each time we do it, the colors are given out at random. As the children's listening skills improve, they become more adept at following directions. By "Parent night," or in your case, "Open House" they get pretty good at it.

So we present our little program and when we finish, all the parents politely clap. It is then, that staff members hand out the colored pieces of paper to the PARENTS. Guess what? They now have to listen and follow the directions while the kids get to watch.

Not only is this a lot a fun for all involved, an ice-breaker for the teacher, but it also reminds parents how hard it is to learn new stuff. If you can't find the album, e-mail, and I will get you the specifics.