Advice From Classroom/group Teachers, Fairest way to give out mixed percussion instruments Options

[pianodub]

Hi!

This will probably sound a little silly! I have been teaching young children for years and always feel a little awkward when distributing instruments for different activities. There is ALWAYS a child who moans a bit that they wanted a tambourine not a triangle or whatever. My attitude to this is that you get what you get and that's it, thinking that if I start swapping around I'll be there all day. I often think that the child would probably moan no matter what they got! If the moan continues, I tend to get very strict and basically say that is what you're getting today, it's that or nothing. Afterwards I often feel a bit bad.

So my question is, is there a better way to deal with this or am I handling it the correct way? I feel that while I do try to be friendly and fun, I can also be quite strict. With young kids I think it's important for them to know who is boss, especially if we are doing quite physical things and boys get rough.

At the moment the instruments are for accompanying a song we will sing for the parents in a few weeks, different ones for each verse (the children chose them to go with the words). I don't want to confuse them too much by changing instruments every week!

I think the paranoia here stems from working alone all the time and not having anyone else to consult!

sorry for the rant!

[Alison]

If you are preparing for a concert then it's just tough - the children get what you give them.
Obviously it is good to give all children experience of the different instruments over the term, and obviously too some instruments are more popular than others!
You can "randomise" it - more or less hand them out with your eyes shut - or use choosing first as a reward - eg anyone who sings particularly well / is sitting up straight / has done what you told them gets first pick.
Or you could have a strict rotation basis so each group gets the tambourines one week and the drums the next, etc.
If children have had lots of exposure to playing different instruments they will not make so much fuss (hopefully!) when they don't get their favourite for the concert.
If you want ideas for using percussion with a class other than for accompanying singing, feel free to pm me. I used to use a great one that involved all swapping round the whole time so it didn't make any difference what you started with.
Hope this helps. And you are right to be strict - music lessons can easily descend into chaos once the instruments come out!

[pianodub]

If you are preparing for a concert then it's just tough - the children get what you give them.
Obviously it is good to give all children experience of the different instruments over the term, and obviously too some instruments are more popular than others!
You can "randomise" it - more or less hand them out with your eyes shut - or use choosing first as a reward - eg anyone who sings particularly well / is sitting up straight / has done what you told them gets first pick.
Or you could have a strict rotation basis so each group gets the tambourines one week and the drums the next, etc.
If children have had lots of exposure to playing different instruments they will not make so much fuss (hopefully!) when they don't get their favourite for the concert.
If you want ideas for using percussion with a class other than for accompanying singing, feel free to pm me. I used to use a great one that involved all swapping round the whole time so it didn't make any difference what you started with.
Hope this helps. And you are right to be strict - music lessons can easily descend into chaos once the instruments come out!

Thanks Alison! It is a pre-instrumental class (or rather a few of them!) and they will perform for their parents in a few weeks (only two and a bit lessons left to prepare.) They are only singing one "song" as it were, the other stuff will be demonstrating stuff we have done in the lessons (finding pulse, rhythm, naming s-m-l, and other things).

I think, inspired by your post, I will let them do other rhythm work on the percussion tomorrow and let it be a bit of a free for all, so that they won't mind so much when they have to use a particular one for the song.

Thanks!

For some reason I have ended up with lots of brackets!!!

[violincjj]

I do preschool music sessions and the kids choose their own instruments with the Choosing Song!

I sing 'Albert, Flossie, where are you?'

Albert and Flossie jump up, come and shake hands with me and we sing 'Here I am, here I am, how do you do' - then they choose from the box. It's the Tommy Thumb tune!

I like that they get a name check, a moment of eye-contact and singing straight to me on their own, they have figured out mostly that the kids who sing and behave well in the 10 mins of action songs before the instruments tend to get called first.

And yes, if all the drums have gone already, tough.

It takes a little while and we have a 'don't play till everyone has an instrument please' rule so the last ones can still hear!

[Ivories]

I teach classroom music to reception up to year 3, so just the perfect ages for spotting when things are not fair! I discovered very quickly that they have amazing memories for who has had a go at what in which lessons too!

So, in my music lessons we start every lesson with 'music helpers' - the childrens names on card in a bag, then in register order I have 2 helpers to hand out books/instruments/help me etc. Then for times when children get to 'have a go' at something I have a 'take-it-in-turns bag'. All the childrens names are on coloured card in a bag & e.g. lesson 1 for whatever activity, children get picked out to have a turn. Then at the end of the lesson those cards are kept aside & next lesson more children picked out for activities etc, until after a few lessons all children have had a go at something. Then all names go back in & starts all over again. I have a box for each class for helpers & turns. I don't look when picking out names or sometimes the helpers pick out names so the class do see it as fair.

It doesn't sound silly at all - having structures and methods with the little ones is SO important! They love this system now & they remind me to do it if I even think about starting the lesson without organising my helpers etc. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Priscilla]

I was the child who always got the triangle - but didn't moan out loud! I make up for it these days by playing probably the noisiest percussion instrument, I'm a bell ringer!
You could put the children into groups, and allocate triangles to one group, tambourines to another etc, note which group had which and change it round from week to week.
How about also improving the image of the triangle by giving it simething special to do in your concert!

[pianodub]

Thanks for all the replies!

Yesterday I got them to take the same instruments for the song we are doing for the parents, but afterwards asked them to put them on the ground and allowed everyone to pick any instrument they wanted (with spares if anyone wanted a woodblock or whatever and they were all gone) for the next activity. There are only 9-13 kids in the classes, so it was fine. With 30 or so that would be a total disaster!!! This worked well for them and I will do the same next time I think.

How about also improving the image of the triangle by giving it simething special to do in your concert!

The song we are singing is "Rocky Mountain" and the triangles are being used to show the "Sunny Valley" in the third verse. They get their moment to shine! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)