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YELLOW BRICK ROAD MUSIC

There’s a Big Ship Sailing

March is a great month to introduce students to Irish music. And with the weather warming up, it’s also a great time for lots of movement and possibly a little field trip outside!

CONNECTIONS

There’s a Big Ship Sailing is a folk song originating from Ireland. The lyrics, which focus on ships and the ocean, provide a great opportunity for a class discussion about Irish culture. Project the PDF below on your whiteboard or print the included worksheet for individual student work.

Big Ship Sailing PrintableDownload

MOVEMENT

I discovered the following game from the kodaly.hnu.edu website. I’d never heard of using these movements with this song, but I’m sure it would be a hit with students in a variety of grade levels.

  • Students form a line holding hands
  • The student on the left end (it) leans against a wall or a basketball post (if you’re outside)
  • The student on the right end leads the line counter-clockwise through the space between “it” and the wall/post
  • Students continue this action until “it” is completely wound up
  • Students start winding again, this time passing through “it” and the next student in line
  • Continue on until, one by one, all are wound
  • To unwind, simply reverse the process

LISTENING

After your students have had some fun singing and playing the game, have them sit down for some quiet listening time and watch this fantastic video of Irish Dancers.

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6 Responses

  3. Thank you for the creative ideas around There's a Big Ship Sailing compiled in one place! We included it in our post on exploring and learning Irish music for St. Patrick's day, which gets more into apps and free resources for learning Irish folk music online: https://raisingcreativechildren.net/exploring-and-learning-irish-music-for-st-patricks-day/ While we were looking up info on There's a Big Ship Sailing we found some resources that also pointed to its potential history from England. We couldn't determine if it was from Ireland or England, particularly with all the different versions and names – like much of folk music I guess. Did you encounter any discussions about whether the song was from Ireland or England? We figured by opening up the question to students it could lead to some exploration about the oral tradition and phenomenon of folk music in general. Thanks again for sharing!

    1. Thanks for commenting. It's interesting that you bring up its origin. No, I hadn't read any discussion on it potentially being from England. That would definitely be a fun discussion to have with students though–a great mystery!