Need ideas for a third grade program? In today's blog post, I'm writing about a program you could do with the book, “I am One,” by Susan Verde and Peter H. Reynolds.
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Here is a summary of songs and dances I would use for this program. For the first part of the program, I would have three narrators come up and read the text in the book from “How do I make a difference?” to “to start a garden.”
After those three narrators, you could have students sing a song about flowers, such as “All Around the Buttercup.” Students could sing the song unaccompanied, or you could add an Orff arrangement. For example, some students could play an alternating bordun, while others play mi-re-do-rest as an ostinato.
Two more narrators could come up and read. After “to start a melody,” students could sing any song. The Hungarian folk song “Boots of Shining Leather” would be nice here–one of the classes could perform the dance in a round!
Another narrator could come up and read “One step to start a journey.” Afterwards, students could sing any song about a journey or going somewhere, such as the song “Going Home.” Here is a video of the song:
Afterwards, you could have three more narrators come up and read from “one brick” to “start a friendship.” Then, students could sing any song about friendship, such as “Make New Friends” in a round.
Then, three more narrators could come up and read from “I can perform” to “light one candle to start leading the way.” Then, students could sing any song about candles, such as the Indonesian folk song, “Panjang Umurnya.” You could even have the lights turned off during the song, and students could sing with light up candles like these.
Then two more narrators can come up and read from “I can make one drop” to “traveling across oceans.” Then, students could sing “I've been to Haarlem.” If you have a CD accompaniment for this song, through your textbook series, students could sing along with it, and/or one class could perform the cup game as singing!
Three more narrators could come up and read from “across borders” to “I am one, and I can take action.” Students could then perform any song with actions, or a dance that starts with one person and is cumulative.
After that, two more narrators could come up and read from “We are each one” to “we can make a difference.” Then students could perform “Einstein,” written by my friend Lessia Bonn from I am Bullyproof Music. Here is a video of the song:
If you are looking for teaching materials for this song, check out this set, which I co-authored with Lessia:
Lastly, two more narrators can come up and read the last part of the book. After “Something beautiful,” students could sing “What a Goodly Thing” in a round, like in this video:
And that's it! I hope that's helpful for you as you consider programs for your students. Looking for more musical programs? Check out these:
Happy teaching!
