Red Belt - Hush Little Baby

Recorder Karate has wrapped up and I was pleased with the number of students who worked super hard to achieve their black belts! Next year, I will need to make more of an effort to get kids past their orange belt as there were a few that only received one or two belts. Part of that will include me taking more class time to hear students. Sometimes Music is not long enough!

I will still be posting my lesson ideas for the three remaining belts so read on for my red belt lesson!

I started off by showing students this video by Lauryn Hill:

The lyrics aren't exactly the same as the words in the method book but it was a neat way to introduce the song!

In the class prior to this one I spent some time teaching the notes and rhythms for Hush Little Baby so that the students would be more successful with this activity.

Since I have an abundance of file folders, I turned them into envelopes by stapling the edges. I glued the instructions for the game on the front of the folder and photocopied Hush Little Baby from the method book onto cardstock and cut it up into six sections. I numbered each card from 1-6.

The students were split up into groups of three and were given the folder containing the cards, a wad of sticky tack and a die. Here are the instructions that they were given:

Take turns rolling the die. If you roll a “4” find that card and sticky tack it to your folder. Roll again. If your next roll is a “2” find that card and stick it to the right of your first card. Keep rolling until you have attached all 6 cards to your folder. If you roll a number twice, try again for a different number.

Now practice playing your variation on “Hush Little Baby”. Be ready to perform it!

The activity worked pretty well and was another opportunity for me to assess their playing.