If All the World Were Paper....

Way back in 2007, I was living in the San Francisco bay area and was doing my part to help the Northern California AOSA chapter prepare to host the national conference in San Jose.  Aside from loaning instruments from my school and presenting a recorder session, most of my duties involved the AOSA boutique.  Those of you who have been to a national conference know that the host chapter sponsors a boutique full of teaching materials, manipulatives and ideas.  A portion of the funds raised at the boutique go toward local chapter scholarships for professional development.  Anyway, as part of the boutique committee, I spent several Saturdays meeting with chapter members to make ribbon streamers, abstract artwork note cards and small percussion instruments.  I also put together a collection of original canons written by chapter members and contributed a lesson idea to another book titled Simple Play.  

Over the years, I have really embraced the concept of Simple Play - using everyday objects and a bit of imagination to create engaging lessons in movement and music.  One of my favorites has become a simple piece of paper.  What started out as a simple folding activity has grown into imaginative play, creative movement and found sound performances.

Paper Play #1:  Found Sounds

In 2012, I was presenting a session at the St. Louis national conference.  The focus of the session was on using little pieces from the Music for Children volumes as resource material for new lessons.  The culminating piece was a take on the very well know "Ding Dong Diggidiggidong" from Volume One.  Using its sixteen beats as a rhythmic framework, participants were encouraged to created rhythmic variations using found objects:  the conference notebooks, chairs, etc.  Inevitably, a group was given a bunch of paper and explored its many sound qualities.  It was always enjoyable to hear the nuances of ripping, crumpling, tapping, blowing and other sounds the groups found within a simple piece of paper.

Paper Play #2:  Imaginative Play

Over several years, I have developed a sequence of activities to accompany the song "Who Has the Penny?" with my first graders.  Each object of the singing game (penny, key, paperclip) is given its own special day.  On Paperclip Day, I admit that I don't really have a paperclip song, but a paperclip's job is to hold papers together, so.....it's Paper Day!  After learning the song above, I teach students how to accordion fold a piece of paper.  Many of them already know this as fan folding, but being the music teacher, I prefer my term.  As students finish their folding, I ask them to imagine the many items that piece of paper can become and we perform corresponding beat motions as we sing the song (e.g. play the accordion, fan yourself, etc.).  Here are just a few of their ideas:

                                             fan                                   hat

                                            beard                             triangle

                                      ice cream cone                   dust pan

                             
                             
                         bow tie, hair bow                               guitar, trumpet
                              mustache                                            broom

                      accordion, xylophone                           window blinds                                       

                       
                                                                stairs

Paper Play #3:  Movement 

A simple piece of paper can be used to get students to explore creative movement and isolate certain parts of the body.  Just imagine students copying the bending, folding and twisting of a piece of paper.  I usually take them through a sequence of movements in a stand position - jumping, hopping, turning around, moving one then both arms, twisting at the waist - before lightly folding the paper into a "sitting" position.  After a few seated poses (legs stretched out, lying down, criss cross), I crumple the paper into a ball.  After the initial freakout (!), I guide them through gradually unfolding themselves by pulling part by part of the crumpled ball out (e.g. "Oh look, one elbow popped out.") until they are back in whatever position is needed for the next activity.  Once students experience these possibilities as a whole group, it is fun to have them work in pairs or small groups with one student conducting the movements of the others.