Ice Cream Improvisations

The 1st graders have been talking about how melodies can move up, down, or stay the same. After talking about that we discussed improvising, and how we can make up our own melody as long as we form some sort of plan about how we want our music to move: up, down, or stay the same. I found a great flipchart on Promethean Planet created by Rebecca Dennis titled "One For Ice Cream".  While we were improvising we had to follow 3 rules. Rule 1: We could only use the notes CDEG. Rule 2: We all had to follow the same rhythm. We used flavors of ice cream to create an 8-beat rhythmic pattern (ex: chocolate, rocky road, chocolate, mint). Rule 3: We always ended with C (and mint).

At first a few students were a bit nervous about playing because they were afraid it wouldn't sound good. I stressed that the fun part about improvising is that you can never be wrong! It's your creation. After that, they all had a blast and enjoyed coming up with new, creative ways to improvise their melodies.

ABA Form

Our 2nd graders have been studying form. To help reinforce the concept, we used Zoo Pals and flashcards to compose a piece in ABA form. The first day they performed their rhythms with body percussion. The second day, they had to compose their own 4-beat rhythm patterns for each section and then performed them on instruments in front of the class.

Choir Holiday Party

My 5th and 6th grade choir students had a GREAT concert performance last week, so this week at rehearsal we celebrated by having a little party. It got a bit loud and wild, but we had a lot of fun! Here's what we played:

Paper Plate Pictures
The students had to hold their paper plate on their head and draw
1. A floor
2. A Christmas tree on the floor with decorations
3. A fireplace with a mantel
4. A stocking hanging from that mantel
5. A star on top of the tree
6. A present under the tree

When they were finished, we scored their drawings.
2 pts if their tree touched the floor
2 pts if the stocking touched the mantel
1 pt if the star touched the tree
1 pt for every ornament that was on the tree
1 pt if the fireplace was NOT touching the tree (that's a fire hazard!)
2 pts if the present was under the tree

The students had a blast and there were lots of giggles as they looked at their drawings.

Minute to Win It Snowball Toss

Students sat across from each other. One person held a cup and the other had to toss as many snowballs (mini marshmallows) into the cup as they could in 1 minute. The winner made 57 marshmallows!!

Minute to Win It Shovel the Snow

Every student had a cup and a straw. Using only their straw, they had to get as many marshmallows as they could into their cup in 1 minute. Finally, the room was silent!! Our winner had 21!

At the end of our party, I handed out ornaments that I made for each of the students to hang on their tree. How cute are these!?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is by far one of my favorite holidays during the school year. There are so many fun songs and games you can do to reinforce music concepts, I often can't fit them all in. This year I added a few new games/activities to my list. Here are a few of them.

 

5 Little Pumpkins:

The 4th graders performed "5 Little Pumpkins" on the Boomwhackers. I found the lesson at http://elementarymusicresources.blogspot.com. The lesson was created for a SMART board. I have an Activ Board, but was able to copy and paste the picture of the music notation and that was enough to teach the lesson. The color-coded pumpkins made it easy for the 4th graders to read their parts because we haven't covered all the note names of the treble clef staff yet (that comes in the spring with recorders). Here is a video of them performing their song after only 2 practices!

Candy Wrapper Rhythms:
I found a great Activ Board flipchart using candy wrappers to compose. I used that flipchart to create my own games and rhythm assessments for multiple grade levels. Over Valentine's Day and Halloween I always ask students to bring me their candy wrappers so I can add on to my collection. I then laminate them so they are more durable. For one activity, I put students into groups with a bag of candy wrappers. Depending on the rhythms they know, we talk about the different rhythms each candy has. For example, a Snickers could be a Ti-Ti. A Milky Way for my younger students would be ti-ti ta, and for my older students could be tika-ti. In their groups, I clap an age-appropriate rhythm, and they work together to create that rhythm using the wrappers. After a few practices, I hand out a worksheet and they each compose 2 measures of their own. Below is the worksheet I use and some pictures of the kids working in their groups. I also play a game the day after Halloween where they have to sort out their candy into different candy bags based on the rhythms. The first team to correctly sort all of their candy wins.

 

"Pantomime" by Kabalevsky:
I attended a music workshop this fall where Sharon Bursch (author of the Freddie the Frog books) presented. She introduced me to this activity. 1st, we discussed what pantomime means and how it differs from acting. Then, I gave an example of how to pantomime carrying a large pumpkin. We discussed what I did and then, while listening to "Pantomime" by Kabalevsky, the class pretended to be carrying tons of large, heavy pumpkins across the room. It was amazing to see the expressions some of them used. Some of them even had pumpkins too big to carry, so they had to drag them by the stem! Very creative! I did this with all of my classes and they all loved it. Here is a picture of my 5th graders.

Happy Halloween!

Apple Tree

The 1st graders are studying apples in their classrooms, so we thought we'd do a few apple songs in music class. Here are the 1st graders singing "Apple Tree".

I put 4 students at a time on the xylophones playing the steady beat while the rest of the class played the game. Once a student had been the tree, they rotated over to the instruments and the last instrument player came back to join the game. This way every student got a chance to play 4 times. The second day we did this, I assessed steady beat on the instruments as they played.

Autumn Leaves

This year I purchased the book "Kids Can Compose" by Nicole LeGrand. There are a ton of great projects in there for all grade levels. To celebrate the first week of fall, I did the Autumn Leaves lesson with my 1st and 2nd graders. At the first grade level, we composed using quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests. At the 2nd grade level, we used the same notes, but we have been talking about tied notes in preparation for learning half note next week. To practice our tied notes, I gave everyone 2 pieces of string that they could use to tie their leaves together. I partnered the kids up and they created rhythms for each other and clapped them. They loved trying to trick each other by creating extra-hard rhythms! Great way to challenge their thinking!

1st Grader clapping her partners rhythm pattern

 Tied rhythms

Down By the Bay!

The Kindergarteners are studying rhyming words in their classrooms, so I thought I would help them out by studying rhyming words in songs. We read the book "Down By the Bay" which is perfect for rhyming. After reading the book and doing some matching work on the Promethean board, I decided to tackle an art project. Now anyone who has Kindergarten knows that art projects can be a bit scary! Especially if you only have 30 minutes like I do! We used all 30 minutes (ok it was really 35, but the nice teachers let me keep them a bit longer!), but we finished! I think they turned out great! Here is what we made:

First we decorated and cut our watermelons. Then, each child was given an animal and had to find the picture that rhymed with it. They glued these on to the two pieces of their watermelons and I added in the starter phrases. How cute are these?!

Here is a copy of the pictures I created to put on the plates.

Music Symbol Centers: Symbol Stack Attack!

My 5th graders are preparing for their composition project, so we are covering all of the music symbols on my classroom rug. I posted pictures of the different centers I use last fall, so I won't post them again. But I do want to show you a new center I added this year.

It's the Symbol Stack Attack! center. I took small Dixie cups (the kind you would use in your bathroom) and drew music symbols on the outside bottom of each one. The group must name and define the symbol in order to use it to build a tower. The more cups they answer correctly, the bigger the tower they can create. Here is a picture of one group who was able to identify all 24 cups.

Classroom Tour

I know, I know. It's the middle of September and I'm just now getting my first post up for the year. Better late than never, right? Once again, I changed classrooms this year (that's 3 rooms in 4 years!). Call me crazy, but I kind of enjoy it. It keeps things fresh and keeps me from collecting too much "stuff". Here are some pictures of the new things I've added to my new room this year.

I'm using Freddie the Frog a lot this year with my K-2 students. He sits on top of my Promethean Board every day and watches over the kids to make sure they are listening. I often pull him down to involve him in a lesson if I need to get the kids back on track. They LOVE Freddie and often ask if they can give him hugs before they leave.



This is Humphrey. He's not new to my room, but I don't think I've ever posted about him before. Humphrey hangs over my instruments and watches to make sure nobody is playing them out of turn. He hangs by my window, so if there is a breeze, he rotates slightly, making it look like he's watching the room!

This is my main bulletin board for the fall. I love this quote by Henry Van Dyke. Next to the bulletin board, we created a poster of all of our talents. Every student in the school signed it and put something that they are good at.

 This is my reward board for this year. Students earn "beats" each day to move their clothespin down the keyboard. Once they reach the end, they get a class party. A whole note=4 beats, dotted half note=3 and so on. Each day they start at 3 and either move up or down depending on their behavior throughout class. They know that 4 is very special to earn because it means everybody in the class was doing a good job.

 These tempo posters have always been on my cupboards, but this year I added colored borders around them. It's amazing how many students noticed them for the first time! And I love my time for music clock. Whenever someone asks what time it is, that's what I respond!

 These are my classroom rules. DO your best, REspect others, and Have a MIghty fine attitude. Hanging next to it is my solfeg hand signs chart.

And next to my manipulative shelf and my book shelf I have "Pete the Cat". For those of you who haven't read his books yet, they are wonderful!

There you go! Hope everyone has a wonderful school year!!

6/8 Time

I found yet another use for my large felt notes. The 5th graders were learning about 6/8 time. I put them into groups and they were each given a pile of various notes. Using those notes, they had to create 2 measures in 6/8 time. They could do it in treble clef or bass clef. Once I had checked their measures, they copied the notes onto the paper and labeled the pitches. Once they were done with that, they used Boomwhackers to perform their composition for the class. 

 

Steps, Skips, and Repeats

The 1st graders have been talking about how notes can move by step, skip, or repeat. On large staff paper, we used felt notes to notate these different patterns. It really helped the kids see the movement of the notes.

Skips

Easter Egg Hunt

I'm a bit behind on my posts, but I wanted to share a great activity I did with several of my classes for Easter. I got a great deal on plastic Easter eggs at the Crazy Days sale in town this summer and I've been waiting all year to use them. I created a composition Easter egg hunt for several of my classes that they loved.

1st, I sorted the eggs out by color to create 5 different teams. Then, I put a piece of paper inside each egg with a note, time signature, or treble clef written on it. The students had to find all of their eggs and the pieces would add up to create a two-measure composition. Once they found all of their eggs, they went to the note station where they collected the pieces they had found in their eggs. I have a bunch of felt notes that fit great on a large piece a staff paper. (Had they been smaller, I would have put them right inside the eggs.) The teams took their notes back to their spots and composed their 2 measures. Each group was given a different time signature, so they had to make sure to have the correct number of beats in each measure.

This activity worked great, except to this day, there are still 2 eggs missing that we never could find! I'm hoping a good end-of-the-year cleaning will help me find them!



Opening up their eggs

Done!!

Improvisation and Partner Assessment

The 2nd graders recently learned about improvisation. We created a rhythmic pattern, and then improvised a melody on the xylophones and metallophones using the pentatonic scale.

Then we discussed what things were important to do when improvising on the instruments. We decided on 5 things: steady beat, correct rhythm, mallets bounced off the bars, proper hand position, and the melody should end on 'C'. The students paired up and graded their classmates on these 5 things. It was great seeing them play teacher for the day. They gave positive feedback as well as constructive feedback.



Students on the left, teachers on the right.

Teachers on the left, students on the right.