What did you think when you read the title of this post?  New York City?  Of course you did.  I thought the same thing when I first learned of this little bit of history. Imagine my surprise to discover that The Big Apple Dance Craze of the 1930's actually began right here in Columbia, South Carolina! As I learned more, I knew that The Big Apple Dance was the perfect "get up and move" activity to insert into my ongoing jazz unit.

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Hey there music friends!  The total eclipse of the sun will occur on Monday, August 21, 2017.  I am fortunate to live in the path of totality, so excitement is building in my city.  After participating in several brainstorming sessions in music teacher Facebook groups, I came up with some total eclipse lyrics to the tune of Sally Go 'Round The Sun to use with my students this week. You can find the original song here:  http://kodaly.hnu.edu/song.cfm?id=552

There are several ways you could present this song, depending on the age of your students, and the amount of time that you would like to spend.

Movement Partners

Students begin with a partner, one is the sun and the other is the moon.  Crouch down to begin.  Phrase 1:  Sun stands up with hands outstretched.  Phrase 2:  Moon stands up.  Phrase 3:  Moon moves to stand in front of sun.  Sun should keep hands outstretched so they are visible, as the corona will still be visible during totality of the eclipse.  Phrase 4:  Moon moves to stand beside sun.

Circle "Dance"

Sun & Moon partners stand in a single circle to begin.  Phrase 1:  Suns step 2 steps to center, then back to the circle.  Phrase 2:  Moons begin to walk in a circle around their sun partner.  Phrase 3:  Moons finish their circle and stand in front of suns.  Phrase 4:  Moons move back to their spot.

At this point, you might repeat the dance.  Or, you might consider singing the original version of Sally Go Round the Sun as the "B" section, while students grab hands and walk clockwise around the circle.

Instrument Option

This is the perfect song to begin resting tone accompaniments for your younger students.  Just get out your tone bells and pass out all of the D's to a small group of students.  These children can play on the steady beat, while the others sing and move.  If you don't have tone bells, you could certainly use your Orff instruments, playing either the resting tone or a D-A bordun.

Free Resource

Here is a little PowerPoint that you can use if you would like to do with your students this song all week.  Total Eclipse Piggyback Song - Sally Go 'Round the Sun Free PowerPoint

Let me know how you use this in your classroom!

P.S.  The cute graphics are from Educlips and Messare Clips & Design

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Recently on my Facebook page, I asked folks to comment with their favorite winter folk dances.  What I discovered was that most of us don't have "official" folk dances that we associate with winter, but rather do lots of freeze dances to holiday music and movement activities to Nutcracker music.

One reader mentioned that she used a Jingle Bells dance.  I also use a Jingle Bells dance with my K-2 students. Another reader asked for directions, so I thought I would share my version of a Jingle Bells dance here on my blog.

The version that I use is a combination of about 3 different versions that were posted on the Music K-8 email list somewhere around 2002 or 2003.  While the dance uses basic folk dance formations and steps, I adapted these to meet the ability level of my youngest students and to work in the time available.  You should also feel free to adapt to meet the needs of your "folks."  

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One of my strategies for surviving the last month of school is to get kids moving!  The popularity of Cinco de Mayo in recent years gives me a great excuse (as if I needed one!) to teach Los Machetes, a folk dance from the Jalisco region of Mexico.

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