Every year in fourth grade, we do a song and game called “Floating Down the River”. To play the game, you all get into a circle. Everyone walks on the beat in a circle. The student who is “it” walks on the inside of the circle in the opposite direction. When you sing, “O-hi-o”, the student takes the person who is by him or her and goes into the middle of the circle. They do a movement called “motorboat”. They put their feet close together and right in front of their partner. They both take hands and lean back. They move their fee in tiny steps while going in a circle while everyone sings “Two in a middle and you can’t dance Josie”, etc. When the song is over, those two students go into the inside of the circle and when they get to O-hi-o, they each take a partner and both do motorboat. Everyone then sings “four in the middle and you can’t beat Josie”. This keeps going until you have almost all of the kids in the middle. Finally, everyone takes a partner and we sing, “all in the middle and you can’t dance Josie”. My kids love this!
I was born and raised in Ohio, so we discuss a little about Ohio. I also used to live in the Pittsburgh area where they have the three rivers that come together into downtown Pittsburgh, the Monongahela river, the Allegheny river, and the Ohio river . I take a little time and show them pictures of it and the numerous bridges. We sing an Ohio Alphabet book called “B is for Buckeye” (in sol mi tones) that shows spectacular things from A to Z about Ohio. I believe there are other books like this in this series written for other states.
We practice all of the numerous rhythms we have learned up until 4th grade and each student gets to say them as a solo, one student each class period for a long, long time. After saying each stack of rhythms alone, each student gets to put up his or her name in a special font chosen in advance on our “Rhythm Wall of Fame, a bulletin board. See my post to get the “rhythm wall of fame” bulletin board labels.
Once everyone in the class has passed off the rhythms, we have an Ohio Celebration for one class period, where they get to see some special traditions of the Ohio State Marching Band by video, of which I was a part, and eat Buckeye candy that I make once a year for the fourth graders. It is a great opportunity to give an introduction to a really good marching band and a different kind of music.
Buckeye Recipe:
1 1/2 cups peanut butter 6 cups powdered sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup butter softened
4 cups semisweet Chocolate chips
Directions
Mix all ingredients together except for chocolate chips. Roll into balls and
put on wax paper on a pan. Put toothpick into top of each ball. Freeze until
firm.
Melt chocolate chips in double broiler or in a glass bowl set in a pan of
barely simmering water, stirring frequently until smooth.
Dip frozen balls into chocolate, leaving a portion of the top showing so they
look like buckeyes.
Tips on making the chocolate dipping work: I use a big silver deep pan. I put
water in it and then I put a glass measuring cup in the big pan for melting my
chocolate. Let your water simmer a bit. Keep stirring the chocolate or it will
burn.
Put in 1 tsp shortening for every 8 ounces of chocolate to thin it a little.
When it is smooth, take your measuring cup out. Even when your balls are
frozen, it is challenging to get the chocolate on. I have found a good method
is to hold the toothpick in your right hand and get some chocolate out of your
measuring cup with your left hand, using a large spoon. Then roll your ball on
the toothpick, leaving the top clear. I was able to do around 200 in a short
time.
If you want them to look perfect and not have the little toothpick hole, you
can smooth over the hole with your (clean) finger. These are really tasty. The hardest part is limiting yourself to just a couple of them.
————————————————————————————————–
I love this tradition and with my Ohio Roots, I felt that this would be a great name for my blog.
Check out some other fabulous posts for Fermata Friday.
I love the rhythm wall of fame idea, and the way you tie in the buckeye celebration (thanks for the recipe!) as a culminating event that students can look forward to in 4th grade. Having those special events really adds to students' sense of accomplishment. #fermatafridays
They love it and it gives them something to work toward. Thanks for reading my post!