Opening and Closing Songs for Lower Elementary General Music

One of the most effective musicianship and classroom management strategies I know of is to bring students into the classroom musically. When we begin the warm up routine with an active musical entrance procedure, students are immediately immersed in the tone of the lesson.

Active musicing as an entrance procedure can take many different forms. Students might enter the room listening to music, they might enter speaking, they could enter with body percussion, they might copy the teacher’s movements, or they might sing. Today we’ll focus in on songs for entering the classroom, specifically geared toward lower elementary students in Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades.

Similarly, we have an opportunity to maximize music and student engagement in the way we bring class to a close. Reading the room for a calming or energizing musical ending is part of our practice of pairing responsiveness and flexibility with musical purpose and pedagogy.

Today we’ll look at the warm up routine as a whole, active musicing options for entering the room, and specific songs and processes to facilitate opening and closing music time.

Let’s jump in.

 
 

Musical Warm Up Routine:

Many educators use a combination of several items inside the warm up space. The order, emphasis, and musical complexity might change depending on the musical goals for the lesson and student age. However, the core pillars often look something like this:

  1. Enter the classroom: Students enter musicing

  2. Movement: Stretching or getting the wiggles out

  3. Vocal greetings & vocal conversations: Melodic focus

  4. Rhythmic conversations: Rhythmic focus

  5. Transition out: Move into the core activities or other communal musical experience

Especially with younger grades, there may be an additional Welcome Song in the mix as well.

Entering Musically

An active musical entrance could take the form of active listening, speaking, body percussion, movement, or singing.

Here are a few examples of what these musical processes look like in a musical entrance.

Active Listening

The teacher might greet students in the hallway and give two questions for them to consider about the piece they’ll hear as they enter. Questions might be convergent or divergent. After students are in the room, they can discuss what they noticed about the piece.

>>>Blog post: Active Listening in Elementary General Music
>>> Blog post: Creative Listening in Elementary General Music

Speaking

The teacher might greet students in the hallway and give an ostinato option or two for students to speak as they enter the room. As students enter, they speak their chosen ostinato pattern while the teacher sings or plays a recording.

>>> Podcast Episode #32: Layered Ostinati
>>> YouTube video: Steps to Singing Harmony

Body Percussion

The teacher might greet students in the hallway and ask them to come up with a four or eight-beat body percussion steady beat pattern. As students enter the room to recorded music or a known song, they play their beat pattern. Once they’re inside in their spots, they might take turns teaching their pattern to a partner or the rest of the class.

>>> Blog Post: First Day of Music Lesson Plans

Movement

Students might enter to a recording of Seven Jumps, Highway Number One, or another movement piece.

>>> Podcase Episode #5: Using Movement to Teach Musical Concepts

Singing

Singing is my favorite way to bring students into the classroom! Let’s look at some options for choosing an opening song.

Songs to Start the Music Lesson

Virtually any song works for this!

Choose a song students love and sing it as you enter the room.

If you’re looking for ideas, here are a few to consider. Each of these songs emphasizes movement, and the imagery connects to walking in a line.

All ‘Round the Brickyard

Opening Songs for Elementary Music

This is an American play party.

Students sing as they enter the classroom, and suggest words to change in the song.

Musical uses in the warm up:

Vocal Conversations:

  • Kinder / 1st: Echo animal sounds (cockadoodledooooooooooooo)

Transition out:

  • 1st / 2nd: Isolate opening phrase, “all round the brickyard” s-s-s-l-s

  • 3rd: Change the motion to “paint it,” and paint the last phase that uses m-d-l,-s,-d-d-d-d. Notice low la and low sol.

Come on In

Echo song for opening the music class

I wrote this song for The Planning Binder curriculum this year.

If you use this, you may want to bring students into the classroom with the song and do some partwork, then sing another song to set major tonality for the vocal greetings. Again, this is dependent upon the musical goals for the students and the lesson.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up:

Movement:

  • The teacher leads a movement (jumping, twisting, heel & toe, etc.) as they sing the call. Students copy the motion when they echo sing.

Partwork:

  • Sing as an echo song with half the class singing the call and half the class singing the echo.

  • Students “talk to themselves,” singing both the call and the echo. When students are ready, sing the song in four-beat round.

Engine Engine

Engine Engine Number Nine

This rhyme is already a staple in many lower elementary classrooms, and is likely one students can speak along right away. It also lends itself nicely to imagery of keeping everyone in a line and following the leader.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up:

Vocal Exploration:

  • Echo train whistles

  • Ask students to be the conductor and show their train whistle

Vocal Greetings:

  • The teacher sings a question to students, and students sing their answer back.

    • Teacher sings: “Would you like anything from the dining cart?”

      • Student sings: “Yes please, I’d like a grilled cheese sandwich”

      • Student sings: “Yes please I’d like ice cream and gummy bears and a watermelon popsicle”

Gamle Sine

This song is sourced from Nordic Sounds. I cannot recommend this website highly enough! It was put together by a thoughtful Orff team in the Nordic countries. The editing team for the project was made up of Elfa Lilja Gísladóttir, Soili Perkiö, Kristín Valsdóttir, Nanna Hlíf Ingvadóttir and Elisa Seppänen.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up

Movement:

  • Students take turns leading the steady beat dance motions

Go Round the Mountain

McIntosh (1957) collected this play party from Leata Ross in Illinois.

The original dance repeats the melody with several verses. Motions to the verses include movements like swinging, moving “through the windows,” and switching partners.

In a classroom context, students can suggest other motions to do instead of going round the mountain, such as “jump up and down,” “tap your toe,” etc.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up

Partwork:

  • The song references going around the mountain, so this is a great time to practice singing in a round. After students walk into the classroom in a line, they can continue walking in a line around the circle. The teacher sings the second part of the round while walking the opposite direction in the circle.

Rhythm Conversations:

  • Students sing the first and third measure (“go ‘round the mountain”) and create body percussion rhythm improvisations during measures two and four.

Hey Betty Martin

According to the sources for the song, this tune was popular during the war of 1812. The words continued to evolve as the years went on and the song was eventually turned into a play party. Reportedly, it was also a favorite of Abraham Lincoln - young students certainly have this in common with the former president.

Musical Uses in the Warm Up

Movement:

  • How else could Betty Martin move?

  • Consider non-locomotor and locomotor options, depending on what students need at the time.

Vocal Greetings:

The teacher sings a question to students on an improvised melody, and students sing their improvised answer back.

  • Teacher sings: “Betty Martin, where are you walking to?”

    • Student sings: “I’m walking to Disneyland.”

    • Student sings: “I’m walking to my nanna’s house”

Transition Out:

  • Sing “Hey Betty Martin, walking to your spots”

One Two Three (Walk Around and Follow Me)

This is another song new in The Planning Binder this year, and there are many possibilities for an opening routine!

Students suggest movement words to replace “walk” such as “hop around,” “slide around,” “twist around,” etc.

At the end of the song, the teacher claps a pattern and students echo

Musical Uses in the Warm Up

Rhythm:

  • At the end of the song, students echo the teacher’s pattern on body percussion instead of clapping

  • Eventually, students turn to a partner and have their own rhythm conversations

Vocal Greetings:

  • The teacher

Transition out:

  • At the end of the song, the teacher claps the opening four beats of the next song. Students aurally identify the rhythm from a list of known songs on the board.

Closing Songs: Reading the room

Part of flexible teaching is sensing when the class would benefit from a calming song, or an energizing song.

There are times a class ends and we need to get the wiggles out! More often than not, students are asked to sit still and quiet when they need a chance to move. We often see this need in the form of things like fidgeting, talking, or distracted behavior. In these cases, an energizing closing song is likely the most appropriate.

Sometimes, however, we want to use a calming song. Perhaps students have engaged in many high-energy musical tasks and we want to end the class on a relaxed note. For some students, this may be one of the few calm moments they have in their day.

In a school setting, students need space to be energized, and space to be calm. We do ourselves and our students a service when we can adapt lesson plans to the energy we read in the classroom. 

Let’s look at a few examples of energizing and calming songs. Similar to the entrance song options, virtually any well-loved song works for this! Choose

Energizing Closing Songs:

An energizing closing song will be a selection students love, and one that invites students to use large muscle groups through jumping, stamping, patting, twisting, etc.

Counting-Out Rhymes

Consider using a rhyme or song like All Around the Buttercup, Bee Bee Bumblebee, Zapatitos Blancos, or another of your favorites. The person who is “out” chooses two or three other friends to line up. As always with counting out rhymes, the class keeps a steady beat through movement even if they are not the one pointing around the circle.

  • Note: This is a nice time to establish criteria for what it looks like to be ready to line up. If your expectation is that students are ready when they are seated in their spots with a silent thumbs up, the student choosing friends will need to pick students who show they are ready.

>>> Blog Post: Scaffolding Passing Games

Everything is Awesome

This song from The LEGO Movie is one of my personal favorites.

Transition to Lining Up:

  • Play the song and keep beat motions a variety of ways (jumping, stamping, patting, etc.)

  • Eventually students choose to keep a steady beat patting their shoes, knees, shoulder, elbow, or head. The teacher calls on beat body parts to line up.

    • “If you’re keeping your beat on your knees, please walk to line up.”

Johnny Works with One Hammer 

In this action song, Johnny works with one hammer, two hammers, three hammers, four hammers, and eventually five hammers.

With each new repetition of the song, add a different hammer:

  • One hammer - one fist on the ground

  • Two hammers - two fists on the ground

  • Three hammers - two fists and one foot

  • Four hammers - two fists and two feet

  • Five hammers - two fists, two feet, and nod head

Transition to Lining Up

  • After singing the song one time through, pause between each verse and call on the appropriate number of students to line up. 

    • Johnny works with one hammer, one hammer, one hammer. Johnny works with one hammer, then he works with two. 

  • Call on two people to go sit in line. In their line at the door, students sit and continue to sing and and do the motions to the song 

    • Johnny works with four hammers, four hammers, four hammers. Johnny works with four hammers, then he works with five 

  • Call on five people to line up 

Depending on the size of your class, this will take about two times through the song to get everyone lined up. 

Just from the Kitchen

This African-American ring game is sourced from many places, but is often associated with Bessie Jones.

Students stand in a circle. The leader sings the call, and changes what comes from the kitchen (a handful of chicken, a handful of cotton candy, etc.). Call students to “fly way over yonder” and switch places in the circle.

Transition to lining up

  • Sing student names two at a time to line up: “Isabella and Emmett, shoo li loo, fly way over yonder, shoo li loo”

  • Alternatively, call students by groupings: “Everybody wearing yellow, shoo li loo,” “Everybody with two feet on their spot, shoo li loo,” “Everybody wearing tennis shoes, shoo li loo”

  • Eventually call the rest of the class to line up: “Everybody in 1st grade, shoo li loo, fly way over yonder, shoo li loo”

Calming Closing Songs:

Sometimes the energy has been high all class long, and we sense that students would benefit from a calming song instead of an energizing song.

Consider turning the lights down for the final few moments to end the class on a calming, breathable note.

Colita de Rana

Many students may already know this popular Hispanic rhyme! It’s spoken when a child has injured some part of their body.

Transition to lining up:

  • Speak the rhyme. Students gently rub their elbow, knee, head, ear, or shoulder.

  • The teacher calls on students to line up by body part

    • If you’re touching your elbow, please walk to line up.

Over in the Meadow

Songtales at the end of class are often associated with the Feierabend approach and many teachers enjoy using them to end the class in a calm way.

Katherine Floyd Dana wrote under the pen name, Olive A. Wadsworth. She wrote the text of this rhyme in 1870.

School libraries often carry a picture book of the song, or you can consider using a version from Epic Books.

Transition to lining up:

  • On the last verse of the story, students stand from their spots in the circle and follow the teacher around in a line (“all around the meadow”) as the teacher continues singing.

  • Lead the class to the door.

Sulla Rulla

This is a lullaby from Norway, and is also sourced from Nordic Sounds.

Transition to Lining Up:

Sometimes simple is best!

  • Students sing the song while swaying back and forth.

  • The teacher walks around and taps students on the shoulder to line up.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 

This is another familiar song for many students, and they’ll often have motions they do at home to accompany the song.

Transition to Lining Up:

  • After singing the song one time through, the teacher sings student names to the melody of the first eight beats

    • Isabella, Emmett, Aiden, Jacqulyn, Tucker, Asher, please line up

  • Sing the full song again with students doing the motions. Continue singing names until everyone is in line

Today we’ve looked at the warm up routine as a whole, and several musical options for entering the room musically. We’ve discussed specific songs and processes to facilitate the transition into the room. We’ve also considered the need for a flexible closing routine that takes student energy into account.

When we utilize musical transitions, we not only maximize instructional time, but we increase student engagement. We provide many opportunities for creative, communal, and intentional musical interactions that set the scene learning.

Review and Assessment at the Beginning of the Music Year

When a new school year starts, many teachers want to begin making music right away, and actively exploring musical concepts from last year and moving toward new musical understandings.

When we start the school year, where might we begin musically? How will we know what students remember from last year? How will we keep music class active, while reviewing previously learned concepts?

Let’s look at a few ways to review and assess at the beginning of the year. We’ll clarify what assessment is (and isn’t) in this context, we’ll talk about choosing what to assess, the assessment process, and documentation options.

Let’s jump in!

 
 

Assessments, Grades, & Documentation

Many of us come to conversations about assessment with some baggage from undergraduate or graduate degree programs or administration.

When I discuss these terms, here are my definitions:

  • Assessments: How we know what students need from us next

  • Grades: Markings meant to show achievement

  • Documentation: Preserving data through video, audio, or written text

For the purposes of this conversation, we probably don’t care about grades. We do care about assessments because that’s the mechanism we’ll use to plan the next class. The assessments might be documented a number of ways, depending on what works best for each unique teaching situation.

Ensemble Context

It’s also helpful to point out that not all assessments need to be individual. In fact, most of us care about how our students perform in an ensemble setting more than an individual solo setting. The assessment context we’re talking about today is within an ensemble.

Assessing What We Care About 

For many of us, we don’t actually care if students have memorized a symbol and assigned it a Standard Western Notation name. 

What’s actually more valuable is how students embody and interact with the musical material. 

Since that’s what we care about more than rote memorization, that’s where we’ll start the assessment process.

The Review & Assessment Process: Do, Describe, Label, Use

This review and assessment process moves from singing and playing games (do), to noticing the musical characteristics of the material (describe), to aligning vocabulary to discuss the musical element (label), and to extending our use of the element in a creative way (use).

There are examples of the individual steps below. However, in the classroom, these steps might not happen in a neat, isolated way. For some groups we might condense the process as a whole, shortening each activity so it takes place in a single lesson. For other groups it will be more appropriate to extend the activities through several weeks, depending on how much review students need.

The data we gather from students during the activities will inform pacing.

These review experiences will likely be the core activities in the first weeks of school, but they certainly won’t be the only activities. We’ll combine them with other songs, games, and activities that move us toward future learning.

 
 

Do: Making Music

The first step of our process is to actually do the skill we’re assessing!

This is the fun part, and this is actually the core assessment step. Everything else we do comes from these experiences. 

Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Catchy Song

This is the circle game from last year’s 3rd Grade concept plan for taka-di inside The Planning Binder, and part of the review process for 4th and 5th grade this year.

The form of the song is Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus.

The movements for the chorus and the verses stay the same throughout the song. (Note: it can be helpful to slow the playback speed when introducing the song.)

Assessment Question: Do students play the rhythm accurately in the game?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies  

Students love this game! This is part of the 2nd Grade Melody Review concept plan.

Consider using a scarf, cotton ball, napkin, or tissue. When students are ready, they can advance to using a bean bag or a small ball.

 
 

  • Sing and play game

  • Sing on a neutral syllable and use your scarf to show the melodic contour

Assessment Questions: Do students match pitch in the game? Do they show the melodic contour accurately?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá 

This popular rhyme is well-known and well-loved in many places! We’re using this inside the 1st grade Steady Beat Review concept plan inside The Planning Binder.

 
 

  • Speak the rhyme and pat tortillitas.

  • Replace “mama” and “papa” with students’ names

  • What will we put inside the tortilliats when they’re done? Students suggest foods between rounds of the rhyme.

Assessment Question: Do students pat a consistent and accurate steady beat in time with the rhyme?

 
 

What Materials to Use 

Because we’re using this as a baseline assessment, we want to be sure students are familiar with the song. This helps ensure the validity and reliability of the assessment results. 

With validity and reliability as a consideration, we’ll probably want to start our musicing with songs students already know and enjoy. Consider singing and playing games from last year as review, then adding in new repertoire.

Assessment that Feels like Play 

This is the part of the process that feels like play. At this point in the assessment process, we’re mainly working on remembering what it’s like to be in the music class and interact with each other. 

Assessment questions: 

At this point in the assessment process, we’re primarily interested in how students actualize the musical material. That is, how they music. These assessment questions have a lot to do with the accuracy of the performance.

Do students match pitch? Do students sing the target element in the context of the repertoire? Do students keep a steady beat? Do students play body percussion to the rhythm of the song? 

This information sets us up well to move on to the next step of the process.

Describe: Noticing Music

In the next class, the same class, or several classes later, students might be ready to notice the musical features of the song material. 

With the target element in an extracted phrase, students can notice its characteristics. Is it high or low? How many times do they hear the high note? Is the rhythm from the extracted phrase long or short? Where is the longest word? What’s the form of the song?

Example 1: Catchy Song

  • Play the circle game.

  • Notice that the rhythmic form is aaab (same same same different).

  • Speak and point to steady beat strips on the board.

  • With a partner, students figure out where each of the words go over the steady beat strips as the teacher walks around the room.

  • Notice a “short short long” pattern on the second beat.

  • As a class, transfer text notation to graphic notation.

Assessment Questions: In their partner conversations, do students accurately identify the text placement of the words? Are there any points of friction in the process of moving from playing the rhythm, to moving text, to showing graphic notation? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies  

  • Play the game.

  • Isolate the phrase, “right hand, left hand” and aurally identify sol and mi in “left hand”

  • What do you notice about the “right hand” part? Is it the same melody or different? (different)

  • Sing the same phrase with sol and mi in the last two beats (“right hand, sol mi”)

  • Sing the phrase again. Students throw their scarf on the highest pitch they hear.

  • Aurally identify that “hand” is the high pitch and that it’s higher than sol.

Assessment Questions: Do students aurally identify the descending minor third pattern as “sol mi”? Do they aurally identify the highest word in the phrase? Do they identify that it’s higher than sol? How much teacher input does the process take?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá 

  • Speak the rhyme and pat the tortillitas

  • As we pat these tortillitas, do our hands stay steady or unsteady? Let’s check. (steady)

  • Do they stay steady the whole time? Let’s check. (the whole time)

Assessment Question: Do students identify that the motions of the rhyme stay steady?

 
 

Assessment Questions:

These assessment questions are geared toward seeing what students notice about the new element. In this stage of the process, we’re interested in how students aurally zoom in on the musical characteristics of the material. Is the element we’re discussing long or short? Even or uneven? High or low? How much higher? How much lower?

The Review and Assessment Process:

This part of the process will have many variables! It’s entirely possible that in a single lesson, this step of noticing and describing an element will blend directly into the labeling step. This will depend on how familiar students are with the material and aural identification process from last year. If students are ready to move ahead, great! If not, we can stay in this step as long as we need.

Label: Assigning Vocabulary

After students have sung songs and played games, and after they’ve articulated what they notice about the music, we might be ready to move on to labeling.

When we label an element, we assign it a common classroom vocabulary.

Real musicians call these elements many things and write them many different ways! Sometimes real musicians don’t label these elements at all, and they don’t write them down. They just use them to make music.

Because real musicians can use so many different terms to describe music, it can be helpful to have a common classroom vocabulary so we can communicate visually and aurally more effectively.

 
 

Example 1: Catchy Song:

  • Review ta-di and taka-di. Compare those rhythms to other previously learned rhythmic elements, like ta, takadimi, and ta-dimi.

 

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies:

  • Review the hand signs for sol, la, and mi. Review where these pitches live on the staff.

 

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mama:

  • Review the term, “beat.” Practice tracking beat icons of tortillas on the board.

 
 

Students as Teachers

This is a beautiful time for students to be the teacher! 

Sometimes this happens seamlessly in the moment - one student remembers and can share the information with the class, or several students remember and talk to each other.

Other times it might need a bit more structuring.

Facilitating Students as Teachers 

There are many different ways we might approach asking students to teach the class! Here’s a process to consider if you’re looking for a way to facilitate student-led review.

  • Turn and Talk: Students turn to a partner and work together to describe the element and recall the vocabulary we use in this class. 

    • As they talk, encourage students to think about how they would describe the element (higher than, lower than, longer than, shorter than, etc.), how they would show the element (either with a hand sign or something written), and what we call the element (either descriptive vocabulary or classroom vocabulary)

  • Partner Pair: Pairs of students join with another group, creating a group of four. In the group of four, students combine their information. Some students will recall things that others won’t! It can be helpful to join pieces of the musical puzzle together through small group work.

  • Share Out: One “spokesperson” from each group shares their group’s thoughts about how to describe, show, and label the element.

  • Check: Students have already come up with the important information about the element. The only missing piece might be what we call the element in this class. This is the time for the teacher to circle in and fill in any gaps, or decide to wait until next class to discuss.

This is also a great structure to consider for classes with combined grades, or new students who came from other programs.

In this process, students might recall the name, sign, or symbol of a new element, but perhaps not all three. In this case, remember that they’ve already done the most important work on their own by using the element musically and analyzing it critically.

Use: Creating Music

After we’ve had an active music experience, after we’ve described the characteristics of the target element, and after we have a common vocabulary for the element, we’re probably ready to start using it consciously in a creative way.

Students can certainly use the target element creatively without establishing a common vocabulary for it! Real musicians do this all the time. However, having a common vocabulary (such as “la” “takadimi” “half note”), and a common way to notate the element can help us communicate with each other more efficiently during the creative process.

Example 1: Catchy Song

  • Play the circle game.

  • Students sit.

  • Play the song again. During the verses, instead of walking around the circle, the teacher pats an improvised eight-beat rhythm pattern. Students improvise a rhythm response back. Continue improvising through the verses, then play the rhythm of the chorus like normal.

  • After the activity, students choose their favorite rhythm improvisation response and figure out how to speak it on rhythm syllables.

Assessment Questions: When they play their rhythm response, do you notice students improvising or imitating your pattern? Do you notice a variety of rhythms being used? Do students easily identify the rhythmic syllables of their rhythm? How much teacher assistance does this process take?

Example 2: Plainsies Clapsies  

  • Play the game.

  • Sing the song on solfege while pointing to stairsteps and a barred instrument.

  • With a partner, students figure out how to play the first eight beats of the song by ear.

  • With a partner, students mix up the pitches to create a new version of the song. Students practice and then share out as time allows.

Assessment Questions: Do students identify where sol la mi are on the barred instrument in this context? Do they play the first eight beats accurately? And when they mix up the pitches to create their new song, are they still using sol la mi? How much teacher assistance does this whole process take?

Example 3: Tortillitas para Mamá 

  • Speak the rhyme and pat the tortillitas.

  • Students help the teacher arrange the beat motions for each line of the rhyme using clap, pat, and stamp

    • Example:

    • Clap clap clap clap | stamp stamp stamp stamp | clap clap clap clap | stamp stamp stamp stamp

    • Pat pat pat pat | clap clap clap clap | pat pat pat pat | stamp stamp stamp stamp

Assessment Question: Do you notice that students have flexibility in how they keep the steady beat? Are some combinations of body percussion easier than others?

Assessment Documentation 

You’ll notice that these assessment questions lend themselves to qualitative - not quantitative - data collection.

My opinion is that for many teaching situations, qualitative data are more useful at the beginning of the year when we just want to get a sense of where the class is musically.

That said, these assessment questions can easily be formulated into rubrics or other quantitative measurement systems.

If you choose to collect qualitative data, you might consider using a document like this:

 
 

Next Steps

Now that students have reviewed known musical elements in known material, a great next step is to see if they can transfer their understanding to new, unknown material.

Bringing in new songs, games, and activities, do students apply the same critical thinking process to identify known concepts in unknown material?

Students are active learners, so it makes sense that our assessment and review process should be active as well!

This is an approach that starts the year musically, while looking for evidence of learning that will inform the pacing of the next steps.

Throughout the process, we’re looking at how students embody and interact with the musical material. This sets us up well to continue actively musicing in community.