Teaching is a journey in more ways than one. In her very first publication from 1975, Dr. Peggy D. Bennett explores one facet of this metaphor as she draws connections between field trips and song game experiences, highlighting the social, emotional, and educational benefits of both.
Many times one of the highlights of the school year for a classroom of children is a field trip. Whether the group tours the zoo, a farm, the park, a museum, or a fire station, the field trip experience is usually well worth the careful and detailed planning which precedes and guides the event. How could this experience be related to a class of children singing and playing a game together? There are many valuable opportunities for learning provided by both a singing game and a field trip. Depending on the care with which the game is played and the related activities following the game, this experience for the children could supply any teacher with a springboard for learning that is similar to a field trip experience.
The Game
The term “experience game” is used in this article in order to broaden the connotation of the singing game. “Johnny, Get Your Hair Cut” has long been a favorite experience game of both children and teachers.
After the teacher sings the song, the introduction to the game might sound like this:
T. “What would we need if we were to cut Johnny’s hair?”
C. “Scissors!”
T. “Right! Can anyone think of a way to make a pair of finger scissors?” Noticing one child’s idea, the teacher immediately calls attention to “Bobby’s” scissors and suggests,
“Oh, look how Bobby made his scissors! Let’s all make our fingers look like Bobby’s while we move them and sing the song. And, because it’s Bobby’s idea, let’s put his name in the music —’just like Bobby.'”
With these instructions, the teacher is drawing the children’s focus of attention to one child, presenting the problem of making fingers work ‘just like Bobby’s’ and rewarding Bobby by inserting his name in the music. The song actually becomes Bobby’s for that turn and he becomes the leader. By asking, “Can anyone think of another way to make finger scissors?” the teacher is suggesting that many other ideas are acceptable and will be noticed and performed by the group. At this point in the game, the children can be encouraged or reminded to wait until the song starts to move their scissors and be careful to stop the motion with the music. The “Oh” can be used as a “get ready” sound.
Variations for further body awareness or new challenges might be: “Can you think of a way to make…”
- a. arm scissors?
- b. leg scissors?
- c. scissors with two body parts?
- d. scissors with a partner?
- e. scissors with two other friends?
- f. strong scissors?
- g. weak scissors?
- h. two, three, or four pairs of scissors?
- i. high, low and medium scissors?
- j. tiny scissors?
- k. huge scissors?
The Experience
A most obvious value of both a field trip and an experience game is that of the common experience it provides for all who participate. Have you ever seen in the faces or heard in the responses of your children that some of them lacked the concrete experience necessary to understand your explanation of an idea or a term? A child who has visited the chicken house and heard the label “chicken” attached to the animal being watched will likely have a visual recall when hearing the word “chicken.” This child has had a unique concrete experience of seeing, hearing, and possibly touching a chicken. Likewise, a teacher who attaches the label “steady beat” to the way the children are moving their scissors has a point of reference when she later decides to introduce that concept. The children, by playing “Johnny, Get Your Hair Cut,” are concretely experiencing a beat by hearing, seeing, and doing. The language and vocabulary outgrowth of the common experience of this game is almost limitless, ranging from “fermata” (on the “Oh”) to words descriptive of the different types of scissors.
The intrigue of the unknown is fascinating and exciting. As the children together visit new places or discover new things about themselves, they are also learning from each other. Small changes which occur during the playing of a game provide an element of intrigue and help the children remain spontaneous. The song “Johnny, Get Your Hair Cut” changes slightly with each new insertion of a child’s name, the children’s focus changes with each new turn, the difficulty of mirroring the scissors changes with each new idea, and the problem-solving of finding new scissors changes with each new instruction of “Can you think of a way…” By incorporating slight variations into an experience game, a wise teacher can increase the children’s attention span, decrease the probability of behavior problems, and intensify the musical experience.
Just as the responsibility for success of any class outing lies greatly in the hands of the children themselves, so does the success of an experience game depend upon group cooperation and consideration. Some teachers believe that if the children are allowed to take an active part in the preparation of the rules and procedures for a field trip, they are more aware of their role in the success of the event. If the children are allowed to make some decisions concerning how the game needs to be played, it becomes their game, and their own rules are being broken if the game “falls apart.”
Several tasks are expected of the children in “Johnny, Get Your Hair Cut” which are necessary to the game’s success. Learning to manage the roles of being a leader and being a follower is a very important accomplishment for the children in playing this game. And, as in most life situations, there are many more turns at following than at leading. Also significant to the game’s procedures is the participant’s realization that the scissor motion should start and stop with the music. This detail may need frequent prompting, but it is certainly a valuable tool for auditory discrimination, motor coordination, and focus on points of closure. Yes, it sometimes takes more time and more patience to allow the children to make the rules, but the value of giving the children this task is helping them to be responsible to their own decisions.
If the game “Johnny, Get Your Hair Cut” is a pleasant experience for the children, then the good feeling of the original playing might likely be revived with each subsequent usage or singing of the song. Much the same is the renewal of excitement and willingness to respond when mention is made of a past class field trip. This positive reaction to a recall of the original experience could aid in creating an atmosphere for learning in any classroom. Whether the experience is pleasurable for the children may depend on the aspects of both events which have already been discussed. In both situations the teacher needs to continually structure an environment where the children are able to have a positive regard for themselves and the others around them.
Often the most valuable experiences we have are those from which we continue to learn. Have you ever digested a statement someone made to you long after you replied? Would your reply have changed with your growing perspective and understanding of the statement? Did this statement then become more and more meaningful to you as your own experiences grew? An experience game played with both the children’s well-being and the teacher’s intentions in focus can function in the same way and provide a broad foundation for germination of a child’s understanding of music, movement, language, social interaction, and self-awareness.
This article originally appeared as: Bennett, P.D. (1975). Take a musical field trip: Play an experience game. Keeping Up with Kodály Concepts in Music Education, 1(4), 64–66.
