The Playground Connection

This past week 2nd grade learned a new game called "Hot potato, Pass it on".  I recently learned this from a website called Active Music Digital.  Instead of passing the "hot potato" as quickly as they can, the students learned that to play the game properly, they needed to bounce the ball to the metric beat (beginning of each measure in the song).  I love this game for many reasons:

1. ASSESSMENT:

I was able to assess if students do or do not feel the metric beat.  In first grade, we spend a lot of time understanding how to perform a steady beat, which does not come naturally to some students.  However, 2nd graders start to understand that steady beats are grouped and we can perform several different steady beats (micro beats: the subdivision of the beat; macro beats: the beat; and metric beats: the beginning of each measure or group of notes.)  I was surprised how many of my good steady beaters were having trouble finding the metric beat in our song, while for others it came as naturally as walking.  This formative assessment allowed me to gauge my student's progress and make changes to my upcoming lessons to accommodate the students who need more practice in this area.

2. SINGING:

The students enjoyed singing the song, even if we sang it 20 times in a row!  They loved it, everyone participated without reminders and everyone was singing with energy!

3. SOCIAL LESSONS:

While students got "out" during the game, it was not based on skill.  Getting out was simply based on chance.  Students learned that getting out may be undesirable, but it was part of the game.  This is a life lesson that children need to practice in order to understand how to control their feelings in similar situations in the future.

 

My favorite moment while teaching and playing this game was when one of my students said, "Hey!  We could play this on the playground!"  It is surprising how novel that concept is to the students.  Children learn first through play and yet there has become this disconnect between what we learn in the classroom and what we do outside of the classroom.  

Time outside the classroom, whether it be on the playground, at home, or in the comings and goings of our daily lives, should be time for students to practice what they are learning in school.  For my 2nd graders, taking the "Hot Potato" song to the playground is a great way to practice finding the meter of a song.  What they don't realize is that they can do this with any song that they know!

Parents can cultivate the idea of bringing school learning into daily life by modeling ways that children can take the concepts they are learning and applying it to a real situation.  If your child is learning addition skills, simply turn an everyday routine into an addition sentence (ex. You put one plate on the table and we have 3 more plates to set.  How many plates do we have altogether?).  Children become more comfortable with asking questions and excited about learning if the adults in their life model it for them.