Revisiting Recorders with Chickalileelo

Today I’ll be revisiting recorder lesson ideas using the song Chickalilleelo. Last year I wrote a post all about how I taught recorder, and I featured a free printable of the ridiculous phrases I used to help my students remember posture and technique. If you don’t want to “burn your back on the lava”, you’ll definitely want to read that post here: Teaching Recorder Basics. Today, I’ll be delving into teaching the song on instruments and creating a small ensemble of players and singers.

If your students don’t already know this song, you can introduce them to it with some simple movement activities. If a song doesn’t have traditional movements to go along with it, try using movement activities or games from other songs to fit into your new one.

I enjoy working with students to create our own movements for a song, and they don’t need to be complex. Here’s a simple example that you can try:

• Break your class into several medium-sized groups (I find this helps some students feel more comfortable while singing and moving).
• Have the students stand in a circle, moving clock-wise as they sing.
• They should alternate the direction they’re moving for each verse.
• For a bit more added interest, have them clap the rhythm as they sing the final line of a verse (La, la chickalileelo).

Recorders

Due to the pentatonic melody and simple rhythms, this song would be great to play on recorders as well as barred instruments.

• Pair students and ask them to “figure out” how to play the first four measures of the song (on recorders or barred instruments).
  • To reduce the noise level, students on recorder can “play on their chin” while fingering through the piece. If the students are playing Orff instruments, they play using the mallet handles instead of the heads.
• Pairs who think they’ve mastered it, can come to you and play it. This is a sneaky way to assess.
• Once all pairs have played for you, gather together the whole class to play through the last four measures, which are almost an exact repeat of the beginning.

Free Recorder Fingering Charts

A reader who enjoyed one of my recorder fingering charts, recently asked if I had more like it. So, I decided to make a full version of the free fingering charts. Click on the image below to download a set of fingering charts in black and white. You can get my full version with bright colors HERE.

Create an Ensemble

Now that your students can both play and sing the song, you can try adding in some rhythm instruments to create an ensemble.

• Split the class into three groups (recorder/Orff, rhythm instruments, and singers/movers).
• The rhythm students can play the beat through the verse until the final phrase, in which they’ll switch to the familiar rhythm pattern found in “chickalileelo”.
• If you notice any part of the ensemble struggling, try forming the group into a circle so that they’re all facing each other. Sometimes it helps struggling students keep on track when they’re able to watch other group members for visual cues.
• Have students rotate through the groups till everyone has had a chance to play and sing in each group.