Submitted by Jane Rivera, Pennsylvania
Idea posted February 22, 2005
I've been working on a set of songs to keep the election on the kids' minds and as a topic of discussion.
I started with "Rap Of The Presidents". The discussions while learning this song were why it is so long (because we get to elect a president every four years instead of being stuck with a king for his whole life), and what do we know about any of these presidents (i.e., which presidents were related and how, why was James Buchanan's last year so turbulent, which president was re-elected after being defeated, etc.). The questions were ones that they could figure out just from having the words in front of them.
The rap is also very good to use for rhythm dictation. I just take a phrase and say the words in rhythm, and ask them to write it on their white boards in quarter and eighth notes. (We use doo and doo-day as suggested by Feierabend.)
Next we go onto "Of The People," from Music K-8, Vol. 3, No. 1, and have a good discussion on how our country works. How exactly do you vote? What would happen if nobody voted? How does our system of government work, exactly?
I haven't started "Election Day" yet, from Music K-8, Vol. 7, No. 1, but that will come in when we're a lot closer to the election.