I love the We Are Dancing folk song for so many reasons. One, my students love the game. But also, sometimes it feels like simple songs are too simple. Like, what do I do with them? (I wrote another post all about what you can do with simple songs!) It takes the kids some time to learn this song but catchy enough that they remember it.
In this post, we’re going to talk about my favorite ways to teach La and Quarter and Eighth notes with We Are Dancing.
All of the images in this blog post are from my We Are Dancing song resource on Teachers Pay Teachers. You can definitely do these activities without the resource, but if you’re looking for something that is already done for you, you can check it out here.
Teaching the We Are Dancing folk song
First, let’s learn the We Are Dancing folk song! I use this song primarily in first and second grade. I sing the song the first couple of times while students keep a steady beat on their bodies. We’ll all pat our legs, then maybe I’ll have the kids choose a different way to keep the beat. Maybe Student #1 keeps a beat by tapping his head, while Student #2 stomps her feet, and Student #3 jumps. Student #4 thinks keeping the beat on one body part is too easy, so he alternates between clapping and stomping. This helps the kids be creative, but it also gives some of them to get the wiggles out.
Once we have heard the song a few times, I’ll break the song down into smaller chunks that they’ll echo.
Add Instruments
Now that we know the song, let’s add some instruments. You might have different instruments than I do, so let’s go through a few activities I might do.
We’re going to start on unpitched instruments. First, we’re going to keep the steady beat on metal instruments- triangles, bells, and tambourines. Once we can do that, let’s look at lines that sound the same or different. Hum the song for them. The first and third lines sound the same even though the words are different. The second and fourth lines are a little different because they have lower-sounding notes at the end. Maybe during the first and third lines, I’ll have wooden instruments like guiros and maracas play. Metal instruments like tambourines and triangles play during the second and fourth lines. The resource you see pictured has slides for creating your own body percussion movements- these slides work great for unpitched instruments, too!
We know the song really well now, so let’s improvise! I’ll first have the kids set up a pentatonic scale on their xylophones. I highly recommend having a picture on the board of what that should look like. We’re going to practice playing the beat of the song while I sing. I’ll hum the song and students will play the rhythm of the song on any notes of the pentatonic scale. When they can successfully do that, I’ll make it into an ABA form where we sing, improvise/hum, and sing again. When we put instruments back together, I’ll put a picture of what it should look like on the board.
Teaching La
Now that the students know the We Are Dancing folk song really well, let’s learn some melodic concepts with it! This song uses mi, sol, and la. Assuming your students know mi and sol already, we’re going to use this song to teach the higher note, la. First, review mi and sol using the words “star bright.” Then, point out that there’s a higher note that they haven’t learned yet. Sing the song using body movements. I’ll start with touching my knees for mi, shoulders for sol, and head for la. If your kids are using Curwen hand signs, they can learn the sign for la without knowing what it is quite yet. Once you’ve presented la, the kids will already know the hand sign and will associate it with the new note.
Boomwhackers
Another option is to play the song on boomwhackers! My students love boomwhackers, so I like to add this in whenever I can. I love boomwhackers because it allows the students to be in charge of just one note, but it also gives the students the pitches to sing so we can practice singing on pitch. Students might notice the word “la” on the higher-sounding boomwhacker and that’s okay. It just leads into the presenting phase nicely! You could also use the note C to keep a steady beat throughout the song (this is especially helpful when you start preparing Do.)
Yarn Activity
Once the students have practiced mi, sol, and high, we can do a pitch activity with a big piece of yarn. Have the students stand in a circle, and each student is assigned a note or syllable of the song. Students #1 and #2 will hold the string in the middle (sol) for the word “We are”. Then, students #3 and #4 are assigned the word “dancing”, which is high, so they’ll hold the yarn up to their head. Students #5 and #6 have the words “in the”, which is again sol, so they’ll hold the yarn in the middle, and Students #7 and #8 will hold the yarn down low for the word “forest,” which is mi.
You can do the yarn activity in a couple of different ways. The whole class in a big circle with one big piece of yarn, or you could do this in groups. Students could also work through the song as a class phrase by phrase, or you could assign each group a phrase of the song to figure out.
Teaching Quarter & Eighth Notes
To teach quarter and eighth notes using the We Are Dancing folk song, I would first start by reviewing the difference between beat and rhythm. Once students have been reminded of the difference, then you can focus on the rhythm.
I’ll have my students start by stomping the rhythm of the song. Are all of them the same? No, because that would be the beat. Some are long and some are short. There are always two short ones together. We’ll call that short-short while we’re preparing eighth notes. I’ll write the song on the board and students will go word by word to tell me if it’s long or short-short, and I’ll draw one long line or two short lines above the words to show the rhythm of the song.
When the rhythm of the song (or phrase if you want a shorter activity) is done, we’ll stomp or clap the whole thing. Then, I’ll make it a little trickier! I’ll have them stomp the long sounds and clap the short sounds. This helps some of my distracted kids refocus! Once your students have a good handle on the difference between long and short sounds, you can present it as quarter and eighth notes.
Adding instruments can be a great way to reinforce the idea of long and short-short. I would start by passing out rhythm sticks and having students practice the long and short sounds by tapping on the ground. I would use this as an opportunity to practice the mallet technique, too. We’d talk about bouncing the stick rather than hitting and leaving it on the ground.
Putting the We Are Dancing Folk Song All Together
Finally, let’s put melody and rhythm together to write out the song! To do this, we’re going to use manipulatives. You could use paper cutouts of a purse or wallet, foam stars, printouts of quarter and eighth notes, legos, erasers…seriously, you can use pretty much anything. You could even have kids draw a shape on a whiteboard if you have those! If you have more than one option, you can give students one manipulative for quarter notes and one for eighth notes, but it’s not necessary.
First, have the students put the rhythm of the first phrase in front of them. It should be four stars spread out to show four quarter notes. Then, have students adjust each star up or down depending on whether it’s mi, sol, or la. For eighth notes, they will have the stars close together. Students will go phrase by phrase to write out the melody and rhythm of the song.
You could also do this on a two-line staff paper! Students could first draw the dots on their paper, then you could show them how to add lines to create quarter or eighth notes. If you’re looking for paper to use, I have two-line staff paper in my free composition worksheet packet that you can get here.
Play the Game
Possibly the best part of this whole song is the game. This is a great game to get the kids moving, especially if you can get outside! Here’s how I play:
Pick a wolf to stand with its eyes closed outside the circle. Students will walk around the circle while singing the song. At the end of the song, students ask “where are you, wolf?” The wolf can say just about anything, like “I’m eating ice cream”, or “I’m taking a nap.” If the wolf says something like this, students walk around the circle and sing again. However, if the wolf says, “I’m right here!” then the wolf will start chasing the students! If the wolf tags someone, that person is frozen and cannot be unfrozen. I let the wolf say two silly things, then the third time they have to say “I’m right here” so that we’re not singing the song several times for that same person. If you want to use this song for more than just a game, it’s great for la and quarter and eighth notes. I have a separate blog post all about how I use this song in my classroom!
Conclusion
I hope you were able to get some ideas for We Are Dancing! If you read this post and decided you want to use my resource to help teach, here’s that link. I would love to hear about your favorite ways to teach la or quarter and eighth notes! Be sure to comment below or DM me on Instagram (@caffeinated.j) with your favorite activities or any questions you have about teaching these concepts.
