Lesson #7: Hebrew Song

December 16th: Singing with the Sistrums

For the beginning of this lesson, I chose a couple poems that the students had created in our last lesson. I wrote them on my handy dandy white board, and we read them as a class in rhythm. This time our sistrums were ready to go, so we added in some percussion accompaniment. We performed the poems in a 2-part and then a 3-part round.

Then I taught the students a Hebrew song called "Ha'Sukkah Mah Yafah." The song is quite simple--it has two phrases which are nearly identical (except for the last note in each phrase). I sang the song several times--having the students copy what I was doing with my hands (patting the beat on my knees, then on my shoulders, then on my head, and so forth). Then I wrote the words on my whiteboard and pointed at each word while I sang through the song a couple more times. I soon invited the students to join me in singing and they then learned the song pretty quickly. 

After learning the song, I asked the kids to come up with some rhythms we could perform on our sistrums while singing the song. We performed the song with two original ideas from students. Some students began improvising their own rhythms. We all had a fun time!

Standards Met: 

6.M.P.4

6.M.P.10

6.M.R.1

6.M.CO.3