Engine Engine Number Nine

Welcome to Episode 2. Today we're going to share a rhyme that covers so many bases, including taking turns and development of pulse. Engine Engine Number Nine This rhyme has so many uses It’s great for the relaxation segment of your lesson after your students have focused for a few minutes and need to reset, or to help you transition to a new activity The game includes movement so gets the children out of their seats and stretching their legs The game involves turn taking as different children get to be the engine driver It uses the speaking voice so perfect for that first term when you’re exploring voice types It’s use of the speaking voice also makes it very attractive for teachers who aren’t yet confident using their own singing voices in the classroom The actions help our students to feel the pulse or beat kinaesthetically and later we will use train icons when we visually represent the beat We can also use it later on when we’re exploring rhythm The Game You’ll definitely want to change the town from Worcester to your own town. Try not to squeeze in too many syllables though – look around your area for something suitable, or use Playground or something neutral. Once the students have learnt the rhyme ask them to improvise some train actions. It’s almost inevitable that someone will do a chugging train action where their bent arms represent the side rods that drive the wheels. Let’s make a train and chug around the room. I’ll be the engine driver. Lead the children round the room while continuing to chug with their arms, and ideally marching with their feet too. When they get to the toot phrase, they can pretend to pull on the whistle cord. There’s only so long that this will be interesting though. So once you’ve modelled a good walking speed you can allow a student to be the engine driver. And after each repeat you can peel the front child off, they go to the back and we get a new driver. So here’s an additional phrase to make the change “Sarah goes to the rear, Matthew is my engineer” Clea