One of my favorite lessons to teach every year was Miss Mary Mack. I taught the clapping game and song starting in second grade, and it was easily one of the students’ favorites. In fact, I often heard their homeroom teachers turning the lesson into a verb, as in “No Miss Mary Macking in the hallways please.” I got a secret thrill out of knowing that they were using what they learned in music outside of the classroom (even if it did drive their teachers bonkers).
Here are my top three reasons for teaching Miss Mary Mack:
- It’s a fun way for older students to practice steady beat and learn about tempo.
- There’s a recording of Miss Mary Mack in Silver Burdette’s Making Music Series, which starts off slowly, then gets faster each time it repeats.
- Students cross their midlines, which is vital for brain development.
- Kids loved it.
MISS MARY MACK CLAPPING GAME
This is the version I used, which crosses the midline more than other versions I’ve seen.
- Miss
- Arms crossed, touching both shoulders
- Ma-
- Uncross arms and pat thighs
- ry
- clap hands together
- Mack
- Right-hand crosses midline to clap with partner’s right hand
- *quarter rest*
- Clap hands together
- Mack
- Left-hand crosses midline to clap with partner’s left hand
- *quarter rest*
- Clap hands together
- Mack
- Clap both hands (uncrossed) with partner’s hands
SEQUENCE
When it comes to teaching clapping games, my best advice is to go slowly, and break this lesson up into several class periods. If you think some students are getting bored of the repetitions, then mix it up with a different tempo, face a new direction, or practice the moves laying down on the floor (always fun for kids).
To begin, students stood facing me as I taught the first three moves. I made sure to sing the words each time. If your students look as though they’ve mastered those moves, chances are, they still need several more repetitions before it’s muscle memory. We (very slowly) put all of the moves together, as I walked around and played the game with each student.
I think it’s important that they do these moves on their own at this stage. This way, they aren’t distracted by their partners. Also, it gives you a chance to work one-on-one with some students. Just make sure you keep moving around so as not to draw attention to any one student.
In the second class, we went over all of the moves again slowly (no partners). Then, I had students stand in a double-line facing each other to try the first few moves with partners. As they continued to practice, I had one line move down after a few repetitions so that they always practiced with someone new. I continued to sing the song throughout. Usually my students started singing with me (unprompted). At this point, I dropped out little by little until they were singing independently.