Using Green Chili Jam Music in the Classroom

These suggestions are designed to help teachers (including those who do not necessarily have a music background) increase their use of music in the classroom with THE GREEN CHILI JAM BAND'S recordings.  It is by no means comprehensive, but rather a "jumping off" place for your own creative ideas.  Activities suggested for one song may work for another.  Use your own imagination to create projects tailored to your classroom learning environment.  Have fun!   If you have an idea that you would like to share, please send us email and pictures if you have them.

Coconut Moon

Starfishing

Magic Bike

 

Coconut Moon GREETINGS  -- With a multicultural emphasis, this is a great song to learn about other countries and customs.  Use it to begin foreign country studies.  Begin the year with it to learn about each other.  Compare what you have in common and what is different.  Build class community by pledging to work together. YO YO RODEO  --  Challenge older students to read the text and discover the different yo yo tricks.  Have yo yo’s available for bodily/kinesthetic learners to master a trick and teach to a friend.  Begin a unit on the history of toys or inventions by looking into the origins of the yo yo.  Keep a list of odd words to stimulate word play and literacy. COCONUT MOON  -- Take an imaginary trip.  Design your vehicle.  Where would you go?  How would you get there?  Write the story complete with illustrations. LOOKING FOR A PLANET  --  The repetition in this song makes it a good one for choral reading.  Learn sign language for the chorus and perform it.  Talk about sequencing concepts of room, school, community, city, state, country, planet, solar system.  Make your own group sequence from smallest to largest. LARD  --  Play it just to laugh!!  Then learn about blubber and the way it insulates animals.  Make a lard glove with two baggies.  Put lard between the bags.  Place your lard glove in ice water and see how well it works.  What other things insulate? Click here for more information about a blubber experiment. VILLAGE OF GOLD   --  Walk a mile around your playground to see how far it is.  Practice counting backwards from 6.  Use as a walking song for exercise. THE ISLANDERS  --  Talk about islands being mountains in the ocean.  What kind of transportation would you need on an island?  Study Polynesian foods, customs, clothing.  Build diorama’s.  Make watercolors as you listen to the story. I LIKE WHAT I LIKE  --  What do you like?  Make lists.  Pick one and tell why.  Practice categorizing (foods, books, times of day, etc.)  Make a big, fat What I Like Book. DREAM TIME  --  Great quiet time music.  Discuss your dreams.  Create a dream and see if the class can guess if it’s fact or fiction.  Keep dreaming . . . .  Return to top.

Starfishing I'M SHINING -- A great self-esteem song! Have kids talk about what they do best. With partners, they can write about each other's "talents" and read them to the class, guessing who this classmate might be. Use triangles to create 6 point stars. TOOTHLESS -- For younger kids (1st or 2nd grade) make a tooth graph. Each time they loose a tooth, they can color a square on the tooth graph. Draw pictures of the Tooth Fairy on small index cards and have the kids make a graph titled, "Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy?" For an art project, discuss what the Tooth Fairy might look like, what she might carry the teeth in (a bag, basket, box or purse). Would she wear a crown or have a wand? Draw her! HACKY SACK -- A fifth grade class wrote some great endings to this "never ending" story. STARFISHING -- What is a starfish? Where do they live? An ocean life unit wouldn't be complete without this song. THE BOO BOO TRUCK -- Talk about safety. Discuss the proper time to call 911. This is a great time for younger kids to learn their phone number and address, just in case. LITTLE PONY HOO -- Start with discussing other Tall Tales (Paul Bunyan, John Henry, etc.) Teach the kids how to waltz. Have the kids bring in other examples of music in triple meter. Look for triple meter examples in other genres of music. THE GIRL WHO LOVED SHOES -- After listening to this story, kids can do some classification activities. Have them take off one shoe and put in a pile in the middle of the room. The teacher or kids can start by putting the shoes in groups (color, size, lace up, boots, tennis shoes, velcro, etc.) RIVER SONG -- Create your own non-pitched percussion instruments and compose an accompaniment for the song. CAPTAIN OF THE MOON -- This is a calming song that you might use at the end of the day or after a physical activity. Use this song during your solar system unit. Return to top.

Magic Bike MAGIC BIKE -- Have the kids pick their favorite line or verse and draw their own magic bike ride. Ask "Where would you go? What would your magic bike be able to do? Who would go with you?" Make a laminated book from the pictures. Make slides of the pictures and have a slide show. Make a paper magic bike adventure mobile. Have the kids pedal their bikes on the choruses. TREES -- Plant a seed and chart the young tree's growth. Talk about all the things trees are used for in nature (produce oxygen, food, habitat) and how they are used by humans. Name creatures that live in trees. Pick a favorite tree and write a poem about it. Make your room a forest with tree murals on the walls and leaves that describe the functions of trees hanging from the ceiling. BONEY LITTLE KNEES -- Listen to the song a few times and ask the kids to describe its message in their own words. Have them verbalize something positive about a classmate; about themselves. A BILLION BASEBALLS -- Can help begin to conceptualize larger numbers. Measure a baseball. Talk about circumference and diameter. How many baseballs would it take to fill the hall? To get to Santa Fe, Washington, the moon? Make a list of the benefits of sharing. KOALA -- Sing along with the chorus. What are the differences and similarities between humans and koalas? Study Australia. Write stories from a koala's point of view. OH MY, MY -- Make animal hand puppets. Make a pattern book with new animals and where they would be in the house. Use homemade rhythm instruments encouraging awareness of musical form and expression. LANGUAGE DISCREPANCIES -- Start an English lesson with this song. List multiple meanings of words or plurals or special rules. DREAMER -- Turn on the music and draw self portraits. Practice listening by turning off the music during or after the song and, without talking, have kids write exact words or phrases they heard. Snap to the rhythm. Have artist visit class and talk about the creative process (writing, singing, dancing, etc.) Return to top.

 

Blubber Experiment: Why do certain animals have blubber? ("Lard" from Coconut Moon) Objective: Perform an experiment on the insulative properties of blubber; collect data, write up the experiment's results, and complete a creative writing assignment. When studying arctic mammals (e.g., polar bears), sea mammals (e.g., whales), or even the Inuit (Eskimo) people, it is easy and fun to do an experiment to teach students the insulative properties of blubber. The experiment consists having the students first place their hand into a bucket of ice and water to feel how cold it is. They could count the number of seconds before their hand becomes uncomfortable. (Note: limit this time to 60 seconds!) Then cover the students' hands with a sandwich bag and have them dip their covered hand into a large freezer bag containing shortening or lard. Have the students compare how long it takes for their hands to become uncomfortably cold. The students could then write up the results of their experiment. Play the "Lard" song (from Coconut Moon) and afterwards have the students write their own version of a lard experiment gone wrong.

"Lard Everywhere!" A second grader's story about a blubber experiment gone wrong.

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