Orchestrating Success

My MIOSM bulletin board. I printed off facts about how music is used in each of the subjects.

March is Music in Our Schools Month and this year's theme is "Orchestrating Success." Our students have been learning all month long about how music can help you be successful in all areas of school. We kicked off the month by have a School-Wide dance party. Our principal played one of his favorite songs over the intercom and everyone in the building got up and danced! We also aired several celebrity music advocacy messages (available at www.nafme.org) on our local radio station and had several students endorse them by saying what they liked best about music. Each week has been devoted to a different school subject. Here are some pictures from each week!

Week 1: Music & the Arts. We held a school-wide poster contest and a winner was chosen from each class. We also studied language arts and how songs can also be poems or stories. The 1st graders read different books I had in my room that are also songs. The 2nd graders added Orff instruments to accompany the story, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The 6th graders wrote acrostic poems based on a color after learning about the piece "Rhapsody in Blue" by Gershwin.


The "Terrible" group

The "Horrible" group

 The "No Good" Group

 

 The "Very Bad" group

 

 A Kindergartener working on his music poster

 Another music poster

 Look at all our books!

We LOVE "Pete the Cat" 

 Partner reading

 

 

Week 2: Music, Math, & Science. The first 2 days we did Science experiments discovering how sound is made. We watched Bill Nye the Science Guy's "Science in Music" video and discussed how music causes emotions, triggers memories, and is made up of sound waves and vibrations. We then studied just how sound is made by traveling through 5 different science stations in the room.

 

Station 1: How Sound Waves Travel-We put rice onto a large bass drum and hit a hand drum nearby to make the rice move. We made a hypothesis about what would happen and why and then tested it.

Station 2: Sound Has Pitch-We had 5 glasses filled with water and had to figure out which glass would have the highest pitch and which would have the lowest pitch and why. We also tried making up our own songs.

Station 3: Sound Waves Can Bounce-We took turns yelling into a garbage can to hear our voices echo. Then we put a towel in the garbage can to see what would happen. Of course they all loved yelling into the can!

Station 4: Sound Has Pitch-We put a ruler on the edge of the counter and noted the pitch changes as we moved the ruler closer to the edge and then farther away. We also experimented with how to make it louder and softer.

Station 5: Sound Travels Through Solids-We know sound travels through air, but can it travel through wood and water? What about in outer space? We tested our ideas here. (I forgot to get pics of this station!)

 

For Math we also did stations.

Station 1: Pizza Rhythms-Depending on the age level and experience with fractions, the students had to create different pizzas using the fractions of each note value (quarter note=1/4, half note=1/2). The older students then used their pizzas to create 4 beat measures. The younger students tried to see how many pizzas they could make.

 

 

Station 2: Graphing- Every classes made a bar graph of their favorite genre of music and their favorite instrument. Surprisingly, all of the classes, except for 2nd grade, chose Country as their favorite genre and guitar as their favorite instrument.

 

Station 3: Music Math Worksheets-At this station we had to add and subtract note values. For example, a quarter note plus a half note =3. There were 4 levels of folders to work on, starting at easy and ending with challenge.

 

Station 4: Ordering-Curious George was forming a marching band made up of a tuba, clarinet, xylophone, and drum. How many different ways can they stand in line?

 

Station 5: Computers-I found a great website for the older students to do some interactive music, science, and math activities. www.philtulga.com.

 

Week 3: Music and Physical Education
This week was all about dance and fitness. Monday was the day after St. Patrick's Day so we learned how to do an Irish Jig and then did an Irish circle dance. The kids loved both dances. I, however, was very sore by the end of the day having jigged for 4 hours! We also learned the dance to Alabama Gal which was a huge hit K-6th grade. I need to do dance more often!

 Sashay!

 Pajama Day in 3rd grade for Alabama Gal

 Do-si-do

A 2nd grader doing the Irish Jig

 

 

Week 4: Music & History Our last week was history week. We went all the way back to the very first instruments ever made. I used this website (http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/arts/music/music.htm) to show a few YouTube videos of some of the first instruments. We then talked about how they would use instruments for communication and to tell stories. We also went through the different instruments in the classroom that came from different countries and talked about how they were probably made originally. The two main instruments we did were from Mexico and Africa. We learned "Obwisana", an African song game.

 Claves

Castanets, tambourines, and maracas from Mexico

 

 

We also had a dress-up day and students were supposed to wear a shirt with something musical on it.

 

And finally, each week I had "Tuesday Trivia" for the chance to earn a MIOSM sticker. Here are the questions, but I won't tell you the answers! Happy Music In Our Schools Month, everyone!!

Trivia Questions:
1. The National Anthem of which European country contains 158 verses?
2. In Switzerland, what is it illegal to do while dressed as Elvis Presley?
3. What is remarkable about the piece 4'33" by American composer, John Cage?
4. In which key do most toilets flush?