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)
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.
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".
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". (FromMallet 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. (FromMallet 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.
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)
Students in grades K-4 began the Lion King unit this Monday during Arts Enrichment time. Arts Enrichment is an extra music/art time a week taught by the Art teacher Mrs. Divis and the music teacher Ms. Moon.
For the next two Mondays students will be learning a fun dance to "The Circle of Life" and making African necklaces. Students will wear the necklaces while showcasing "The Circle of Life" dance at an upcoming school assembly.
After those two weeks students will explore The Lion King theme more through various art projects and music activities. Some of the music activity videos are shown below:
Hakuna Matata:
The Lion Sleeps Tonight Music Video
Lion Sleeps Tonight- Just Dance 2 Video
I made two different arrangements of Lion Sleeps Tonight (and found the ukulele online) for grades 2-4, to align with what instruments they are learning in general music class. Grade 2 will learn the song on boomwhackers, grade 3 on the barred instruments, and grade 4 on the ukulele. I will also give a brief description of some common African instruments and add appropriate percussion parts (likely only one or two per grade of the percussion parts listed below).
Below is a video from a 2nd grade class of students playing the boomwhacker part and some African instruments.
Here is a 3rd grade class practicing the mallet accompaniment to "Lions Sleeps Tonight".
Although the Lion King takes place in Kenya, the theme of the unit opens up the wonderful opportunity to explore musical activities from all parts of Africa. Obwisana is a folk song from Ghana. Students will play a rock passing game while singing the song.
The words of the song mean "The rock has crushed my hand, grandma." I found this description in a book I have:
"A child singing this song is repeatedly receiving a message of security and comfort, even in the context of a phrase and game which tells of injury. The injured child can take comfort in the fact that he or she can turn to "Nana" for sympathy and assistance- the ever-present circle of relatives supports Ghanaian children and adults during times of misfortune and celebration both."
Che Che Koolay is also a folk song from Ghana. The words have been said by some to be nonsense words. But the movements to the song lean toward this translation:
5th graders started learning the cup game this week! It is a rhythmically difficult pattern made on cups that became popular by the song "When I'm Gone" in the movie "Pitch Perfect".
Here are the lyrics to the song (with one word changed for appropriateness):
My classroom is ready and waiting for students to arrive tomorrow! I have added some extra details, more instruments, music activities, and even more color! We will have so much fun with music in the year to come.
Bulletin board outside my classroom. Shows students note names!
5th grade band students will become a "band rockstar" and receive a guitar to decorate when they earn 100 practice points.
Composer spotlight is where 5th grade students will learn about a new composer every month and do some fun related activities. (Posters found here)
We are so lucky at DBS to have so many ukuleles! Keep your eyes open for a community ukulele class in October through the rec. department.
I added ribbon and colorful labels to all my bins around the story rug!
I now have twice as many boomwhackers as last year!
Wrapping paper added to my desk and table for some pizzazz!
Here we go 2014-2015 school year. Let's make some music!
Our Spring Concert "Hungry to Learn" was a wonderful event! The 4th grade ukulele players plucked their hearts out, the 4/5 chorus danced the night away, and the 5th grade band wowed us with their pieces about garden gnome attacks and superheros flying through the sky! Here are some pictures of the concert:
4/5 Chorus
Grade 5 Band
4th graders on the ukuleles
'Attack of the Garden Gnomes' with gnome hats!
Thank you to everyone in the audience who supported the arts at DBS and to all the wonderful staff that helped make this concert possible. See you next year for some more fun music-making!
