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.

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.

Holiday Songs Mad Libs

Sorry, I know this post is a little late! I'm trying to catch up on my posts.
4th and 5th graders got the fun chance to change some of the words to popular holiday songs. Get the mad lib pages from class here and "Let it Snow" mad lib from here.
Here's one song that students could choose:

Get Here

After working in groups to complete their mad lib of choice, students performed their compositions for the class.

"Let it Snow" from 4T

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" from 4T

"Deck the Halls" from 5B

"Jolly Old St. Nicholas" from 5B

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.

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

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.