Is a Banana only a Banana?

 If you think music can only be performed with musical instruments, you are definitely wrong. Anything can be a part of music and the two videos that I am about to share are the proof of it. 

Most ELT classrooms focus more on lyrics, rather than the music itself. In my classroom I benefit from lyrics of Pop and Rock music, as well. However, sometimes it is good to display different aspects of "things" to boost creativity and have a memorable lesson.

As an ELT teacher working with kids, my aim is to have them think critically - think outside the box ;)  To shock them is a way -and it's my favourite way!

I began one of my lessons with talking about trees: where we see them, what kind of trees we know and what kind of sound they make and if we like it. Who doesn't like the sound of a tree? We even pretended that we are a bunch of trees and move and sound like one. What kind of music is this?

And then I asked: Have you ever heard that trees can make “real” music? Then I showed them this video.

After listening to the song, we discussed our ideas about it. While some couldn’t believe what they heard, some wanted to try it with different objects such as leaves, buildings.

The other video to help our kids to see things not as they are is this. Anything can be an instrument if you can see things beyond themselves. With this you can do some creative writing.

·        What did the carrot do when it became an instrument for an orchestra?

·        If you were a fruit / vegetable how would you feel?  

·         Who would be the chef? Why?

                                                                                          Google images

Zombie-ie-ie

Today I had one of my weirdest lessons ever! 

We were about to finish the last book of this year with my 3rd graders -that is "The Clever Woman" by Herbert Puchta- and the last activity was about Ireland. In that activity there was some basic information about Ireland such as the capital and the population. Also some of the famous music bands were included-and one of them was The Cranberries !

I had a casette of The Cranberries when I was in secondary school and I was constantly listening to it. They were already worn out at that time so I could never imagine that a 9-year-old girl would hear their music.

However, this girl smiled when I said the name: The Cranberries! I was trying to figure out how she heard them when she started to sing "Zombie". Oh I wasn't expecting that!

Then -not to anybody's surprise-  it spread like wildfire and all my kids were insisting on listening to the song. I had nothing else to do but to except.

On youtube I found a video with lyrics since I was not sure to show the original video. Before playing the song I explained that this song is a rock song which means that it might sound different; so no need to worry. If they hadn't liked it, I would have turned it off. But, the moment the song started, all of them also started to sing it by following the lines. I was  dazzled because I thought they wouldn't have liked it. 

Moreover, we've been doing Present Continuous Tense recently, and while listening to the song I found out that there is Present Continuous Tense in it! Out of the blue my lesson was turning into a new one. When the song finished I asked if anybody had any idea on the content of the song. Of course nobody thought about that. I said it is about war so is it a happy song? No, it is sad Ms Aysu =)

Then we talked about the tense that was used in the lyrics. e.g.: "In your head they are fighting." I asked when they are fighting? Is it past? I didn't go further as I already planned and prepared another song for them. I will share it soon.

Then they wanted to listen to it again and I said if they would be quiet. And they did and they got the song in the last 5 minutes.

So, this made me think : Why do we always keep using children's song instead of "real songs"? I never listened to songs for children when I was 9 or 10. I was listening to what my 9-year-older brother was listening. 

Here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5wF-E9D8Y

P.S.: I couldn’t escape from the question though: “Why is their name a fruit?” I have no idea=)