Maori Unit Grade 5

5th graders enjoyed learning about the Maori culture of New Zealand.
First, students learned a Maori poi-poi song called "Koo-ee". Then they learned how to use poi-poi, which are foam balls on a cord swung rhythmically.

5B poi-poi song

Students then practiced the Maori stick games. They tapped and even tossed their sticks across to their partners. Very fun!

Lastly, students learned about the Haka dance, which is a traditional war cry or challenge dance. This dance became popularized by the New Zealand rugby team performing a Haka for their opponents before each match. Haka can also be for other occasions too, such as funerals, as entertainment, and even simple routines are performed by children.

5th graders got to compose their own haka routines in small groups. Students utilized some of the famous haka challenge moves such as showing the whites of the eyes, sticking out the tongue, and hitting the arms to show strength.

Kindergarteners Compose Toothy Rhythms

Kindergarteners got to use their creativity this month by composing rhythms using teeth (Paper teeth that is!) After talking about dental health briefly and learning a fun song called "Bye Bye Baby Tooth," we composed a toothy rhythm on the SMARTboard as a class. Each tooth is a beat and each missing tooth is a rest. Here is Mrs. Rydjeski's class clapping their composition.

KR Claps their Rhythm

Then students each got their own red lips and paper teeth to create a composition. 

Click here for last year's loose teeth post.

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

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

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.

Spooky Soundtracks by 5th graders

Back in October of 2013 5th grade students composed "spooky soundtracks" in small groups using the iPad app Garageband. Students began by listening to some examples of spooky music, such as music that people might play for trick or treaters or scary music they hear in the movies. They brainstormed ideas by creating a list of sound elements they heard in the examples, such as creaking stairs or wind whistling. On the iPad app Garageband students used the Smart Bass, Smart Keyboard, Smart Strings, and some also used the real mic to capture classroom instruments and voices.

Below are some examples of the finished products. Boo!

Loose tooth compositions

In K/1 we made loose tooth compositions. We learned about beats and rests while making a whole-class composition, on the Smartboard, with teeth as the beats and missing teeth as the rests! Then students got some big red lips and paper teeth to make their own compositions in pairs. How fun!

January Lessons Preview: Grade 5

Students will begin the new year by learning more about notes and rests in a fun "Smartboard Now" interactive lesson called "It's a Bird! It's a Plane! Flying High with Notes and Rests."
Example page:

Students will then begin a drumming unit by learning about body percussion.

Here is one of the body percussion moves they will learn:

                                      

Students will then start learning the basic playing techniques of the djembe drum. They will apply their rhythmic knowledge through hands-on playing and singing/chanting. Students will have the opportunity to lead call and response and improvise on the drums. They will finish the unit by composing their own 8-measure rhythm for drums.

There will be an opportunity to continue learning about body percussion in chorus this year. Anyone in grades 4/5 is able and encouraged to join chorus in January.