Hey Ho, Let's All Go!

Need an ice breaker? A game song? Or a song to learn each other's names? Well, here you go! This hoedown includes many Appalachian instruments like guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, mountain dulcimer, acoustic bass, and brushes. There is a simple, catchy, unison chorus, sung four times, that ends each time with the name of one of your students. As the class sings the chorus, the teacher can look around and point to a student and everyone has to say that name. If you like, the selected student may be required to do a silly dance (like the chicken dance) during the breakdown section at measure 13. If you aren't using the recording, and are chunking away on the piano, you could cover the entire class by repeating the chorus as many times as you need... if you have enough class time, of course. A fun way to play the game might be to start by selecting one student, then that student gets to point to the next person, and so on. If you use the recording you could have everyone do the dance and expend some energy.

In every breakdown section you have optional "activities" other than dancing. The first time at measures 13 through 20, the kids will stomp on beats one and two. The second time they stomp again but add a high drum or any other form of percussion on the and of beat one. Third time, build again by adding a low drum or contrasting percussion on the and of beat two. The fourth time they will build by adding handclaps on all the backbeats and continue to the end of the song. It could be sheer mayhem, but fun!