Teach “George Washington Bridge” by rote. Play the game. Use this as a fun warm-up activity. In the second lesson, try this at different speeds.

Teach the song in unison. When they know it well, divide the class into three groups. One group sings all the “George’s”, one group sings all the “Washington’s,” and one group sings all the “bridges”. Stand up when it is your turn to sing. Sing at different speeds using the correct tempo terms

Teach the song by rote and play the game. Use the song to teach the dotted quarter note - eighth note rhythms.

Sit in a single circle. Pass a potato (or a bean bag) to the beat. The student holding the potato at the end of the song is ‘out’ and must sit inside the circle. When there are enough students inside the circle, the game can be played in the inside and outside circles. One small change in the way you play may help your students to keep a beat more accurately with the “potato”. Instead of passing the potato from student to student, have each student that gets the potato do this pattern with it: floor, knee, knee, pass. In other words, they touch the floor, touch each knee, and then pass; this means they cannot rush the beat as much when they get to the end of the song and see who’s going to go out.

Sing the song with this ostinato: ta titi ta ta. Create other ostinati to accompany the song. Try some of your ostinati on cups and play the cup game as you sing.

This song was written by Australian jazz educators Susie Davies-Splitter and Phil Splitter. The song introduces the students to scat syllables. Since jazz was primarily an instrumental form of music, when singers perform jazz they sometimes imitated the sounds the instruments made. This evolved into the use of scat syllables for singers. You can use this piece as part of a unit introducing your students to jazz.

Play the first ostinato on barred percussion or Boomwhackers®.

Have your students try improvising and creating a new ostinato that can be performed with part one. You could put on the accompaniment track and invite students to improvise. After, ask the students if they would like to share their creations with the class. If they work, use them as part of the composition.

This song provides the opportunity to teach or reinforce the 3/4 time signature. The game is unique and a lot of fun for students to play. Introduce the song by having a discussion on what an “old maid” was. This is a derogatory term used years ago to describe an unmarried woman. It really wasn’t nice to call someone an “old maid”. The term has fallen out of use in recent times as many women and men make the choice to remain single. The card game “Old Maid” is similar
to the singing game in some ways.

The students form a single circle with pairs of students standing together, preferably with elbows linked. There needs to be space in between each pair. One student without a partner, or the teacher, is needed to begin the game. The student without a partner steals someone else’s partner. The person whose partner was stolen then goes to another pair and steals a partner. This continues until the song concludes with “old maid”. The student without a partner at that time has “lost” the game and is the “old maid”. To speed the game up, call out “old maid” at the number thirty instead of the number ninety.