I Sing and Dance The Woodcraft Folk
Forword All Elfins will have at some point taken part in some singing, at home, school or as part of their religion, and perhaps some dance too. It is an area where some children can feel very self conscious about themselves and the I Sing and Dance badge is there to help them grow in confidence while also learning a few Woodcraft Folk songs along the way. Learning Objectives To have fun singing songs To learn a selection of Woodcraft Folk songs. To learn basic instrument skills such as rhythm. To learn that dance is fun. Tests 1) Be able to sing 3 songs from the songbook, without the words (can be done as a group). 2) Accompany 3 songs on an instrument (bought or homemade, can be done as a group). 3) To take part in a dance (ceilidh, hokey cokey, Macarena etc).
Activities Making instruments: This can also count towards Elfins I Craft badge, or if they re making instruments from recycled materials it could count towards their Ecologist badge. All sorts of instruments can be easily made by Elfins. There are lots of examples out there on the internet, but here a few ideas. Shakers Fill tubes such as drink bottles or toilet rolls with rice, dried beans or anything else small and hard. Don t fill them all the way up or they won t shake, leave plenty of room. Make sure both ends are sealed, then shake away! Drums ask a local carpet shop for any old carpet tubes/rolls they have (most places will let you have these for free). Cut into lengths using a saw. Elfins can then cut off the end of a balloon (the narrow bit you blow into) and stretch the remaining part over the top of the drum. Pencils with rubbers on them make great drum sticks! Different length tubes will produce different sounds. Once made instruments can be decorated to make them more personal for the Elfins. Then use the instruments to accompany some Woodcraft Folk songs!
Activities Singing songs as a group: It can be easier to start off with some really easy yells, or songs that they all know like Wheels on the Bus before learning some Woodcraft Folk songs from the songbook. Some nice songs to start Elfins off might include: Blue Lake and Rocky Shore ; Going to the Zoo ; Mighty Song of Peace ; the Worm Song ; or Back of the Bus. Action songs can also be a fun way to start things off. Dancing: Any dance will do. You could do something nice and easy like the hokey cokey or the macarena, or you could try some barn dancing (also known as a ceilidh). Music is easily available on the internet and the dance steps are usually fairly easy to learn, especially if you stick to some simple dances. You ll need the music, but you ll also need someone to call out the steps so everyone knows what to do. There's some easy instructions at the end of this resource pack. Rhythm: You can play an easy game to teach the basics of rythym and staying in time. Start with everyone sitting in a circle. One Elfin goes out of the room while the others choose a 'leader'. The leader then starts the game by making a rythym this can be by clapping hands, clicking fingers, stamping feet etc and the others then follow the leader by copying the rythym. The Elfin who was asked to go out of the room is then brought back in and stands in the middle of the circle. The leader needs to change the rythym regularly while the others try to follow. The Elfin in the middle has 3 guesses to work out who the leader is (so the leader needs to be careful timing any changes to the rythym so they don't get caught!). Once the Elfin has guessed correctly, or run out of guesses, swap over.
Resources How to Dance 'Strip the Willow' The dancers form a longways set a row of gentlemen facing their partners, a row of ladies, of four couples. Of course it doesn't matter who is actually a boy or girl, it's just so that the steps make sense. The 'objective' is to move the top couple to the bottom of the set, and the other couples move up one position. A brief description of the dance would be: The top couple link arms and spin each other for a count of 16, at which point the lady 'strips' down the line of men alternating left handed anti clockwise swings with someone else's partner right handed clockwise half turn swings with their partner working steadily down the set, the gentleman at this point swinging only with his partner. At the bottom, the couple join again and spin for a count of 8, then the gentleman 'strips' up the line of ladies the same as his partner just did, while the lady swings only with the man. At the top of the set, the couple join together and swing for a count of 8 then together they 'strip' down to the bottom, alternately swinging the other partners down the line and meeting to swing each other between people. At the bottom they meet one last time to swing for 8 beats, while the next top couple meet and swing for 16 and follow the steps above.
Resources Line up the set like this (lower case ladies, upper case gentlemen): Then the steps go: (down the line) Clockwise whole turn A with a for 16 beats. Anticlockwise half turn a with B. Anticlockwise half turn a with C. Anticlockwise half turn a with D. Clockwise whole turn A with a for 8 beats.
Resources (up the line) Anticlockwise half turn A with d. Anticlockwise half turn A with c. Anticlockwise half turn A with b. Clockwise whole turn A with a for 8 beats. (down the line) Anticlockwise half turn A with b and a with B. Anticlockwise half turn A with c and a with C. Anticlockwise half turn A with d and a with D. Clockwise whole turn A with a for 8 beats. The sets can be as long as the music allows. You can find music to accompany this dance easily on the internet, and demonstrations of other people dancing it so you can check you've got it!