2nd graders learn the ukulele!

2nd graders were so excited to learn a little ukulele this past week! They have been reading the book "My First Orchestra Book", and just finished learning about the String Family. Although the ukulele is not a part of the Symphony Orchestra, it does have strings. And what better way to wrap up the strings than with some actual string playing?! Students will learn A LOT more about the ukulele in 4th grade, where students play ukulele most of the school year during music!

New bongo drums: 2 drums in 1!

The music room got some new bongo drums! But they're not being used as bongo drums... They can be taken apart to become two separate drums! It's like two drums for the price of one. I got this idea from a drumming workshop with Bob Bloom.

Here's a link to the drums on Amazon: Remo Rhythm Club Bongos.

These drums are a great idea for families with multiple children who each want a drum, or teachers who want some inexpensive drums that younger grades can hit upon without worry to us! I have used these drums a few times and they are durable and the kids love the cute design. They are also very portable since the smaller drum fits into the bigger drum. The feet on the bottom of the drums allows the drums to sit right on the floor without muffling the sound, which makes it very easy with younger students.

Bongo drums attached (top) and unattached (bottom).

The inside of the drums where you can see how they are connected.

The drums once unattached and the parts (I just saved all these screws, etc. in a big bag and labeled it "bongo drum parts").

The little drum can fit into the big drum for easy storage and transport!

Orff with 5th grade

5th graders learned a "Winter Snowflakes" piece on the Orff barred instruments this January (Lesson found here, thanks O For Tuna Orff!). The form of the piece was ABA, with A being the "Winter Snowflakes" song and part B being one student improvising. Students rotated for each "part A" around the rug so they got to play the barred instruments, finger cymbals, and improvising glockenspiel.

Scott Joplin in 5th grade

5th graders have been studying composers through our "Composer Spotlight" this year. Since February is "African-American History Month" our composer spotlight is on the famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin.

Here are some videos we watched and discussed, of pieces by Scott Joplin:

Scott Joplin himself, on piano roll. Piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with holes punched into it.

A piano animation of the "Maple Leaf Rag".

Students then learned about a famous ragtime dance step called the "Castle Walk". We emphasized standing on our tiptoes and swaying.

Here are some of our 5th graders trying out the dance!

Rhythm Sticks with Grade 1

Grade 1 has been learning about fast and slow this past month. One of the books we read in class to help teach tempo words was "Freddie the Frog and the Mysterious Wahooooo".

Play the rhythm stick game from class here, and find more fun online music games listed here.

In the book, the characters make rhythms out of sticks, so after we read the book we got to make rhythms out of Popsicle sticks! We used what we already knew about making stick rhythms for "beat" (quarter note), "beat-and" (Eighth note pair), "beat-e-+-a" (4 sixteenth notes) and "rest" (Quarter rest).

Nutcracker Activities

Grades K-2 and Grade 5 participated in Nutcracker activities in the month of January (there was just not enough time in December with snow days and the concert!)

Grades K-2 moved to the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" with scarves and fairy wings (from the Dollar Store). When the music began, students with fairy wings started dancing in the middle of the tile circle. They could then tap awake the sleeping fairy children around the circle. Once tapped the fairy children woke up and danced with their scarves.

Here's a clip of the Sugar Plum Fairy ballet dance we saw in class:

One of student's favorite Nutcracker activities was a parachute routine to the "Trepak" Russian Dance. I got the wonderful routine from here.

Grade 5B

Grade KS, where it's a little more difficult to keep a quiet voice in such a fun situation! :-)

Here is a visual I made of the parachute routine. This lesson is a great way to teach students about form: The structure/layout of a piece of music.

5th graders took the "Trepak" Russian Dance to the next level by learning and performing a fast paced cup routine.

Found on Pinterest Here

Grade 5B

Here's a clip of the Trepak Russian Dance we watched in class:

KS Winter Vocal Exploration

KS practiced moving their voices up, down, and all around in a "Winter Vocal Exploration" activity. Someone points to the line as students follow where it goes with their voices. (Get it here for free!)

Example Page

After that students were able to compose their own vocal lines to follow. 

Here is one example of a student leading the class to his composition.