William Tell Overture with rhythm sticks Grade 3

Grade three has been having fun learning about the William Tell Overture. We played instruments (jingle bells, hand drums, and maracas) to the different parts of the form. Then we did a parachute routine, and we finished with a rhythm stick routine. They know the piece well by now!

3S performing a rhythm stick routine to the William Tell Overture.

I got the idea from here and adapted it for third grade.

Music Share Week June 2-5th

MUSIC SHARE WEEK!

Photo credit: OpenClips

June 2-5, 2015

Dates and times will vary depending on when you have music class.

Music Share is an opportunity for students to share something musical with their peers during music class. They may bring in an instrument from home and store it in the music room for the day if needed, or use any of the classroom instruments we have. They can share anything musical (even a poem, skit, or dance routine!) that they have thought through and planned. Usually we have enough time for each child to share one or two things.

The purpose of having a performance day is to give children an opportunity to perform in front of a small, friendly, known group and learn the etiquette of doing so; to provide a platform for sharing musical ideas and interests; and to give the rest of the class practice at being respectful audience members. Most important, performing is completely voluntary and meant to occur in a casual, stress-free environment.

Here are some ideas for your music share. Be creative! J :

Sing a song

Do a dance

Recite a poem

Show an instrument from home

Play an instrument from school

Create your own instrument

Make up a dance with friends and perform

Do a skit with friends

Share your favorite song on youtube (Links can be emailed to me or I can look them up in advance)

Tell about your favorite musical, play, or singer/songwriter

Share a memory of music class

Choose an activity we have done in music to repeat

And much more!

If you have questions feel free to call the school or email me at moons@hartfordschools.net

Have fun!

Peter and the Wolf Video Presentation

Here is the video I put together for "Peter and the Wolf" that showcases all the wonderful work of grades K-4. The art teacher and I were lucky enough to receive a grant for visiting artist Linda Whelihan to make "Peter and the Wolf" themed puppets with students during the Arts Enrichment time. We had a lot of fun making the puppets and acting out scenes from the story.

Here is a link to the video that I used the background track from.

Chicken on the Fence Post Grade 3

April is jazz appreciation month so 3rd graders learned about jazz history and a song that involves improvising (making music up on the spot). The song is called "Chicken on the Fence Post" and teaches students the quick 16th note rhythm of "beat-e-t-a".

I got the lesson idea and notation from the wonderful blog: bethsmusicnotesplus.com.

Chicken on the Fence Post with instruments. Students improvise on the words "fence post yeah!".

The next week students learned the game to "Chicken on the Fence Post". There are two circles moving in opposite directions and two foxes on the outside of the circle. When the song is over two sets of students raise their hands to let the foxes in (I squeezed two sets of hands before the song began), and the foxes must race through the maze to the middle to get the chicken stuffed animal. The game idea was found here.

This week students learned a clapping and cup routine to a chant called "Funky Chicken". The routine had its challenges, but was very rewarding to put all together. Plus we got to do silly funky chicken dances! I got the lesson idea here.

China Unit Grade 3

3rd graders have been studying China in their classrooms the past few weeks so I decided to do a China unit in music too!
Week 1 students learned a song called "The Jasmine Flower" and played an accompaniment on the orff barred instruments. We then talked about Chinese Zodiacs and played a zodiac movement game.

Week 2 we talked about the different aspects of the Chinese New Year, which was on February 19th, 2015. One of the popular traditions is to have dragon dancing on the streets on the 5th day of the Chinese New Year when people have to go back to work. We got to make our own dragon dance in class!

3P Dragon Dance. 

The song used is called "Chinese New Year" from Silver Burdett Making Music Grade 2.

3S Dragon Dance

Students then made Chinese New Year Compositions using different Chinese symbols and writing out the stick notation. The words they could choose from were dragon, lantern, coin, fan, and firecrackers. Find the composition templates in this very useful bundle here.

Week 3 class 3P learned a Chinese song and game to the song "Hao Peng You" and finished with a Chinese ribbon dance. Class 3S spent the entire class going more in depth with the ribbon dance and added instruments. 

The music used is called "Ribbon Dance" from Music Connection 2.5 and the movements were adapted from the routine in "Mallet Madness" to fit the music. The instrument parts were written by fellow music teacher Lindsay Wadleigh.

Ribbon Dance Routine

1. Large circles in front- 4m.

2. Right arm circles (forwards or backwards)- 2m.

3. Figure eights in the front-  4m.

4. Left arm circles (forwards or backwards) 2m.

5. Figure eights side to side. 4m.

6. Lassos just above head 2m.

7. Snakes (start with ribbon stick high, bring downward quickly zig-zagging) 4m.

8. Fire (ribbon stick pointing down, make very fast, small circles) 2m.

3P Ribbon Dance

3S Ribbon Dance with Instruments

Dr. Seuss Week: Horton Hears a Who

To celebrate "Read Across America" day our school decided to "Seussify" the school on Friday and have Dr. Seuss related activities. Each classroom also chose a book that they studied the week leading up to Dr. Seuss day. Music and Art's book was "Horton Hears a Who".

We started the week making a whole school mural lead by the wonderful school art teacher Mrs. Divis. The mural used each student's painted pink hands to represent the clovers in the clover field where Vlad Vladikoff drops the Whoville clover. Then Horton must search through millions of clovers until he finds his Whos again. On our mural he has just found them!

A slideshow of the mural-making process.

2nd and 3rd graders learned a dance I created to 'Slavonic Dances Op. 46, No. 8' by Antonin Dvořák. Students pretended to be Whos in Whoville and had to let Horton and the Jungle of Nool animals know that they were there. During the loud parts of the song students walked around the circle shouting "WE ARE HERE!" and playing egg shakers and sleigh bells. (We talked about how we want to use our "inside/fake shouting" voices so we don't hurt our vocal chords.) During the soft parts of the piece we silently took 3 steps in, twisted 3 times, then 3 steps out and twisted 3 times.

3S "We Are Here!" Dance

2S "We Are Here" Dance (after this video is when I decided to talk about not harming our vocal chords by actually shouting... at least Horton would have heard us! :-)  )

Kindergarten and first graders did their own version of a "We are Here" activity to music from the "Horton Hears a Who" movie. Students chanted "WE ARE HERE!" during the sung parts of the song, and pretended to play different instruments during the instrumental part. This was a 'follow the leader' dance/activity.

1R follow the leader "We are Here" activity.

Music we used for the K/1 activity.

Here are some pictures from my classroom for Dr. Seuss day.

My composer spotlight was transformed into an "Instruments of Whoville" display. Look at all those funky instruments they play so Horton and the other animals can hear them!

Our new composer spotlight is Ludwig Van "Who"thoven instead of Beethoven.

The beautiful clover field mural in the music/art hallway.

Ms. Moon as a Who and Mrs. West as The Grinch!

You can view more photos from the whole school here and the photo booth here.

Magic Flute Instrument Game Grade 3

3rd graders have been learning about composers in music the past 2 weeks. One game they played that they might enjoy playing at home is a Magic Flute (by Mozart) instrument listening game.
Here's the link to the game:
http://www.interactiveclassics.com/demo/orchestra

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Find more more online music games here.

Recorder buying options for grades 3/4

4th graders will be playing recorders for a few weeks. 3rd graders will likely be playing recorders in a couple of months. They will be using the school recorders, but if they would like to purchase their own to practice at home or to bring into/keep at school, here is a great option.

Photo Credit

This recorder is currently $4.99, with free shipping on orders over $35 on Amazon, and is the #1 selling recorder on Amazon. This is a higher quality recorder than you may find in dollar stores, but those are still decent options for at-home practice. At-home practice is not required for students but could be enjoyable for them. Local music stores such as Blue Mountain Guitar in West Lebanon should have recorders in stock as well, but this will be a higher price than Amazon.
Feel free to email me with any questions about this at Moons@hartfordschools.net.

3S gets their jingle on

Mrs. Shattie's 3rd grade class got their "jingle on" today with Jingle Bells themed activities and some silly dances! What a fun class the week before winter break.

We started the class with this jingle bells circle dance (I can't remember where I got the dance idea from...)

Next we reviewed how to clap and count rhythms in stick notation. Then we applied this practice to a "Jingle Bells Flashcards" video. 

Students divided into two teams and we had a little friendly competition to see which color could play their rhythms more accurately. When the rhythm was outlined in red the rhythm sticks played, and when it was outlined in green the jingle bells played. Here's a video of their playing! 

We ended the class by filling in some mystery Christmas carols and doing two silly dance videos.

Source

Dance 1: The Santa Dance

Dance 2: Crazy Christmas: Just Dance

Happy Holidays! See you in the New Year.

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.

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.

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.  

Mallet Madness this month for K-3

Grades K-3 will experience "Mallet Madness" this month in music class! Mallet Madness is made up of 2 giant lines of both barred instruments and drums that students rotate through while singing a fun chant. This way students get to experience all of the instruments used. They will learn how to hold the mallets, improvise, follow a line of music, and make musical accompaniment to story books.

K-1 will also learn songs using smaller bell sets that have notes numbered 1-8 for easier playing. They will learn some of the beloved songs that every kid should know, such as hot cross buns!

5 Little Snowmen iPad Videos

The 3rd and 4th graders made "5 Little Snowmen" videos using the iPad app iMovie. Students were broken into groups of five and each given a role. Some students recorded the poem and took pictures for the video, while others were assigned specific snowmen/scenes to draw. The videos were made in their Arts Enrichment block, led by the art, library, and music teachers.

Here is the "5 Little Snowmen" poem (found here):

"5 Little Snowmen sitting on the ground.
The first one said, "Oh my! Aren't we round."
The second one said, "There are snowflakes in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some winter fun!"
"Wooooooo" went the wind and out came the sun.
And the five little snowmen knew their fun was done."

4th GRADE VIDEOS:

3rd GRADE VIDEOS

January Lesson Preview: Grades 2/3

Below is what grades 2/3 will be doing in music the month of January:

Students will start off with a SmartBoard game called "Candy Rhythms." Students must drag the named candy into the correct bag that has the same rhythm. Students will use quarter notes and eighth notes in this game.

Students will then start a unit on the 4 families of the symphony orchestra, and their corresponding instruments. The interactive online game called "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," will be a tool in helping students learn about the orchestra, along with various listening and visual non-internet activities.

After this unit is completed students will learn about a Conductor of the orchestra and how to conduct simple patterns. They will also touch on dynamics (volume) of music, and tempo (speed) of music. 

Photo by MITO SettembreMusica

Music Class Video Catch Up

Here are some videos from the last couple months of music students may enjoy seeing again.

Bach's Toccata and Fugue Listening Map K-4:

Witch's Brew K/1:

Carol of the Bells: Boy's Choir All grades:

Carol of the Bells: Boomwhackers All grades:

Carol of the Bells: For 12 Cellos: The Piano Guys: All grades

Carol of the Bells: Destiny's Child: All grades

Carol of the Bells: Pentatonix: All grades

Students loved the Pentatonix A Capella group and may enjoy watching other videos by them on Youtube, such as The Little Drummer Boy.

Grade 2/3 Frog Calls

Below are some recordings we made in 2nd and 3rd grade music the past couple weeks. First we learned about frogs and frog calls. Then we created our own frog calls (I found this idea online but do not remember where. If anyone knows feel free to comment!):

Leopard frog: rub a balloon w/a wet finger (This one was left out from some recordings since it didn't sound "real" enough)

Cricket frog: click two marbles together

Chorus frog: run a stick over guiro instruments

Green frog: snap a rubber band over plastic box opening

Next we learned about Haiku poems and students practiced speaking and clapping a haiku poem I had written about frogs, showing the normal 5-7-5 syllable lines:

"The sun has risen.

Chirps and croaks are in the air.

I listen and smile."

Finally, instead of clapping the syllables, students improvised on barred instruments, such as the xylophone, while saying the haiku poem out loud. They could only play one note per syllable. This was combined with the frog call recording to create the final product you hear below. The last recording (class 2G/N) is only of the frog call, which is interesting to listen to as well.

Enjoy!

Sandi Moon

Week 3 Links

Here are some links, by grade, of what we did in music class this week. I'm sure your children would love to teach the songs to you or share the videos we watched! :-)

Grades K/1: BEARS
Black bear info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaRGgipzehU
Grizzly bear info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7h_DriTS_4
We're Going on a Bear Hunt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzIcu6tbEko
Grumpy Grizzly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay6-47FEAR8
Gummy Bear Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jpqO-3UU_U

Grades 2/3: FROGS
Frogs info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMFxQsaT274

Frog in the Millpond song from Silver Burdett Making Music Gd 2:

Grade 4: Ukuleles
Langley Ukulele Ensemble playing "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk-hpv__cgo
Langley Ukulele Ensemble playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYHYnF1js0Y

Grade 5: Boomwhackers
One Minute Boomwhacker Introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Haf9IzInpM
Call Me Maybe on Boomwhackers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qxPie5_cEU
Lady Gaga's Pokerface by 5th grade students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd2UQoJ_9-0

Students worked in groups to play and figure out what their mystery piece was (Found on this post), then play it for the class and have them guess. Can you figure out what these mystery pieces are?

I had a blast this week! More fun still to come! :-)