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Featured Lesson

I Let Her Go Go
(Folk Song from Trindadad and Tobago)

I taught this activity to 4th graders while learning about 
​​low ti  and as a part of teaching my students songs and singing games from around the world. . 

Teaching Sequence

Formation: 
Standing circle

Teaching the Song:

  1. Sing the song. Tell students it’s from Trinidad and Tobago, and find it on a map.
  2. ​Ask, “Which word happens in the song the most?” Sing the song again.
  3. Ask, “Are all of the ‘go’s’ the same length?” Sing the song again.
  4. Say, “Clap when you hear the word go.” Sing the song again.
  5. Say, “Sing the song, and clap on go.”
  6. Give each student 2 sticks. Say, “Sing the song again, and click your sticks on go.”

Teaching the Movement
  1. Tell them that, to play the game, they have to know the difference between “turn” and “trade.” Bring a student to the center of the circle to help demonstrate. You face that student. Turn means that you turn back-t0-back (or face-to-face if you were back-to-back); you stay in the same place in the circle. Trade means that you keep facing the same person but trade places. Show each of these several times.
  2. ​Have each person face a partner in the circle. Repeat the practice of “turn” and “trade” lots of times. Do NOT put it with the song yet.
  3. Sing the song VERY SLOWLY, clicking their partner’s sticks on go. Teacher inserts “turn” or “trade” where it belongs (see above).
  4. Say, “The direction you are facing at the start is the direction you will always move. The goal is to get back to your first partner.”
  5. Start from the beginning, reminding the kids to sing while they play. Teacher continues to say “turn” and “trade.” 
  6. Start over if things are confused from the start. Once the kids get it, continue singing slowly until they get back to their first partner.
  7. Repeat the game the following week, and add an accelerando each time the song starts over. This is the actual way the game is supposed to be played.

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