Wednesday, October 29, 2014

3rd grade "Mister Troll" activity

This week 3rd graders learned the song "Mister Troll" from One, Two, Three, Echo Me. Half the class plays various parts on instruments, and half the class waits for "Mister Troll" to say a color. If the students waiting are wearing that color they get to cross the troll's bridge. Once everyone has crossed the bridge the two groups switch and now those that were playing the instruments get to try and cross the troll's bridge.

4th grade Spooky Uke

This week 4th graders learned a new ukulele chord: A minor! Minor chords are perfect for spooky sounding music in October. In this video students play the A minor chord to the song "Spooky Ukee" by MusicK8. They use the rhythm: strum, strum, strum, stomp.

Pre-K spooky voices

This week Pre-K will explore some October related activities. In the video below students use their spooky voices to make different sounds for the poem "On a dark and stormy night" from The Book of Pitch Exploration by Feierabend.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Little Old Lady Sound Story

Last week grades K/1 performed a sound story to the book "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything". During sound stories certain words in the story have instruments that go along with it. Here's what instruments we played for what words:

Found here



Here's a clip from that!

Friday, October 17, 2014

Winter Concert Song Links

The DBS Winter Concert will be on Thursday, December 4th, 2014 at 6:30 PM. To help prepare students I am listing links to song clips and videos below that can be used to practice at home. I will send lyric packets home the last week of October.

Grades K-5 Songs:
“Let’s Make it Shine” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePkSI2MkmRE
“Santa’s Getting Fit for Christmas” choreography video (some moves slightly modified):
“A Nice, Nice Christmas” sound clip:

Grades K/1:
“Sounds of Santa’s Workshop” choreography video (some moves have been simplified for our concert):
“Hip Hop Reindeer”:

Grade 2:
“I have a Little Dreidel” song clip:
Grades 2/3:
“Hot Cup of Cocoa”:

4/5 Chorus:
“Let it Go”:


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Rotation stations for grades 2/3

This week in music class grade 2 and 3 are doing rotation stations. Grade 2 has a boomwhackers theme and grade 3 has a mallets/barred instruments theme. Students work in small groups of 2-3 students and rotate from station to station, with about 5 minutes at each of the 7 stations.
Here are some pictures from this week:

Making rhythms and clapping them out!

Guessing what the "Mystery Piece" is that he played on his bell set.

Clapping rhythms they composed.

Picking three note names and improvising with them on the barred instruments. Improvising means to make music up on the spot.

Using stick notation to create rhythms, then clapping them out.

Using the boomwhackers to play the "mystery piece" and then guess what the name of it is (Ideas and multiple pages used from here)

Using the boomwhackers to figure out the correct notes to play a song such as "Hot Cross Buns" and coloring in what color boomwhackers are in what order.

Using colored cards to compose a piece for the boomwhackers (found here)





Improvising with 3 notes on the xylophone.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

September fun in music!

Below is a summary of what each grade has been doing the past month, with a few tidbits from lessons.
Kindergarten has been learning about echoes, sounds they can make, and using the 4 voices: Speaking, singing, whispering, and yelling. This week they will learn about loud and soft.
"Play what I play after me" is a song where students hear a rhythm on a drum and then must play it on their egg shaker if their egg color is called. (song from SoundShapes Playbook)
"I Bought me a Cat" is an American folk song. Students were assigned an animal to listen for in the song. They played their animal's instrument when it was their turn in the song.

Slide found here





Grade 1 has been learning about the 4 voices: Speaking, singing, whispering, and yelling. They have also been learning more in depth about loud and soft and have been using the Italian musical terms: Forte (loud) and piano (soft).
"This is my speaking voice" chant is lead by a student for the class to echo, that goes through all 4 voices (From One, Two, Three, Echo Me).


"Good King Leopold" uses a student as the king. The class ask if they may cross his kingdom. Then the king says they may ask again but in a different voice. (The yelling voices are a bit too strong in this video, and I teach students that our "yelling" voices are not really yelling since that can hurt our voices, but the kids got excited!) Once the king says "Yes!" students must jump up and run in place (across his kingdom) until the king gestures them to sit down (Idea from One, Two, Three, Echo Me).


Grade 2 has been working on a boomwhacker unit and has been using a new and exciting curriculum called "Boomwhacker Beatz". 2nd graders will play boomwhackers in the Winter Concert on December 4th.
"Wait to eat the doughnut" activity from "Boomwhacker Beatz".

"Baa baa black sheep for the boomwhackers":

Source: NHCS Blog




Grade 3 has been working on the barred instruments such as the xylophone and glockenspiel. 3rd graders will play the barred instruments in the Winter Concert on December 4th.
"Which way is up?" This piece helps students remember which way is "up" on the barred instruments, and which way is "down". (From Mallet Madness Strikes Again)




"The Grand Old Duke of York" practices playing a chord, going up and down the barred instruments, and rolling on one note. (From Mallet Madness)

"Beetle Bop" uses a book along with the barred instruments. After each page is sung to the class students say "Beetle beetle Bop" while playing a descending 5-note scale on their instruments. (From Mallet Madness Strikes Again)




Grade 4 is off to a wonderful start on the ukuleles. They have already learned 3 chords! Chord C, C7, and F.
"I Can Play the Ukulele" is the first song students learned on the ukulele. It uses the C chord. Students not only were able to learn this chord and use it in the song, but they are all holding the ukulele correctly which takes a lot as a beginner!

"Troubadour" uses two chords: C and C7.


Grade 5 started off the year by learning the "Cup Song". The past two weeks they started their "Composer Spotlight" studies with the famous German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven. Beethoven was deaf for the last 10 years of his life, which is when many of his famous compositions were written. The next composer is French composer Camille-Saint-Saens who wrote the beloved children's work: Carnival of the Animals. He also wrote the October-appropriate Danse Macabre.

A popular video from the class called "Beethoven's Wig". This video adds words to Beethoven's 5th symphony.  





First two weeks of school

Lots has been happening in music class!
Here are some videos from the first 2 weeks of school where we played "get to know you" games. Many of these games focused on names and keeping a steady beat. Also warming up those singing voices for the school year!!
4th grade "Concentration" game: See if you can pass the names along without getting off the beat!
2nd grade "Up the Ladder" song where students are able to perform moves during the "A" section, while I play a beat on the drum. Then names are said by students and repeated by the class in the "B" section. (Found the idea here)