Inspiration

Today in Kindergarten I felt as though the principles of my Orff-Schulwerk education took hold. Now, it was no big deal, but it was so fun and satisfying. Orff classrooms should ideally be places where students and teachers create their own music out of what's at hand.

Every October I like to teach the song "Stirring My Brew" to the Ks. We pretend to stir a big vat of "brew" (which the children often think is broom) while we sing. Well, we had just finished tapping with our sticks along with a Jack-o-lantern song (ti-ti ta ta), and instead of putting the sticks down, I had them put just one stick down and use the other one as a stirrer of the brew.

Of course, I used the same song this week with my beginning string students (9-11 - year-olds) as we learn to hold our bows correctly. They may be older, but they still like the song, because, really, they are still just kids.