Sample Lesson

LYRICS:

Walk It
Music by Mary Lou Sicoly and George Brasovan 
Lyrics by Mary Lou Sicoly
Copyright DGB Music 2003

Refrain

Walk your friend, walk your dog
Walk your chicken and walk your hog
C’mon grandma, grandpa too
Exercise is good for you. (Repeat)

Refrain

Refrain

Refrain

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CURRICULUM CONTENT:

Walk It

Music Style: Bluegrass

Theme: This hand-clapping, toe-tapping song uses music and language to make fitness fun.

Behaviours/Attitudes: Active participation/Cooperation (teamwork)

Developmental Skills: Listening/Focus (counting)/Movement/Language Development

Musical Concepts (Skills): Beat/Rhythm/Form (identify beginnings and endings in music and simple ABA form- refrain/verse/refrain) Texture (identify sounds alone and sounds together)

Teaching Suggestions:

1. Listen to the song and clap with the beat when you hear the refrain: “Walk your friend, walk your dog, walk your chicken and walk your hog”.
   
   
2. The refrain is always sung twice, once with one voice and the second time with several voices. Listen to the song again, clap the beat during the refrain and sing along only when you hear several voices.
   
   
3. Play the song again, have everyone stand and when you hear each verse, walk on the spot to the beat. There are two places where you will hear, “stretch 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, walk forward”, and “stretch 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, walk back”. Follow the instructions.
   
   
4. When the song becomes familiar to the students, have individuals do a verse each and lead the class in the exercise commands.

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Curriculum Connections:

1. This song is a great motivator for a walk-a-thon. Use it as a warm-up for a walk-a-thon assembly or play it over the P.A. system with an announcement as a build up for the event.
   
   
2. Use “Walk It” as the theme song for a unit on “Active Healthy Living”, where the benefits of physical activity combined with healthy eating choices are the focus. Include artwork (two and three dimensional works), paintings, posters, pictures of students involved in physical activities and eating healthy foods. Take pictures and write stories as part of a computer presentation.
   
   
3. Prepare a “town hall” presentation as a class (as part of the language component) and as citizens of the school, students write and speak in role, asking the administration to make the environment an “Active Healthy School”. Suggest a plan for healthy lunch days and a walk-a-thon.

REPRODUCIBLE ACTIVITY:

Walk It

Draw a picture of TWO physical activities you enjoy doing.

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My Walking Chart

Fill in the number of minutes you walked each day and add it up at the
end of the week.

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PLANNING LINKS:

Walk It

1. Achieving Musical Understanding - Concepts and Skills for Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 8Coalition for Music Education in Canada
   
   Students will: 
   1. use movement to demonstrate musical concepts
   2. identify and respond to beat by singing, moving, listening, using body percussionand classroom instruments
   3. respond to “walking” (simple metre, 2/4 time)
      
      
2. The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1 – 8, The Arts (Music)
   
   Students will:
   1. identify examples of beat in daily life and in music (e.g. heartbeat, steady pulse of a bass drum in a march, waltzing to the beat of a song), walking to the beat of the song
      
      
3. The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1 – 8, Health and Physical Education
   
   Students will:
   1. develop skills related to the following four principles of movement
   2. body awareness (what parts the body moves)
   3. space awareness (where the body moves, e.g. location, direction or level)
   4. effort (how the body moves e.g. fast or slow, with strong or light force, or bound, free)
   5. relationship (with whom or with what the body moves e.g. with people or with objects)
      
      
4. The Ontario Curriculum, The Kindergarten Program
   
   By the end of Kindergarten, children will:
   1. respond to media materials verbally and non-verbally (e.g. move to recorded music)
   2. demonstrate balance, ease, and flexibility in movement (e.g. walking, running, jumping)
   3. recall and repeat familiar songs, dance steps and rhymes
      
      
5. Health and Life Skills Guide to Implementation…Alberta Learning, Alberta Canada
   
   Students will:
   1. (W-K.1) describe ways, and make choices to be physically active daily
   2. (W-1.1) describe the health benefits of physical activity
   3. (W-2.1) describe the effects of combining healthy eating and physical activity
   4. (W-3.1) analyze the factors that affect choices for physical activity (e.g. the impact of technology/media).

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