Arioso: Sing Your Order – Jenny Parrot
La La Lunch Order!
by Guest Contributor and FAME Member Jenny Parrot
I use this visual menu in my classroom with Year 1 and Year 2 students. We start off by venturing over to an eatery in Arioso Land. This is a cheeky time to tie in movement exploration. Each week we go to a different store and have to move there in different ways.
For example, after explaining we are going to go for burgers for lunch, I might say “but to get there we have to walk down Slow Street! Don’t walk to fast, you will get in trouble if you move fast in Slow Street!” and “now we have to walk through Tiny Town – if you’re too tall in Tiny Town we will scare our friends so I want you to make yourself as small as you can” and so forth until we finally arrive and the children are sufficiently hyped. Once we get to the business of ‘ordering’ our food, I model one order to the children first and slot in reminders about using a singing voice. I make it a little bit silly to get their creativity fired up! For example, ordering 100 of one ingredient. We go through the motions of pretending to make and eat the burgers because, why not! The children love to pretend to eat their massive creations.
When the children have a turn I will play shopkeeper myself or with a puppet as some may need support to get an improvisation of a decent length. I like to think that this activity sits nicely between Level 2 and Level 3 Arioso. While some text is provided, students only use this as a stimulus or base for their order and must make up other words to fill in the gaps. Each week I like to use a different menu until all the students have had a turn to keep things exciting and fresh. Enjoy! I look forward to hearing how you use these in your classroom.
