Trouble with Treble Clefs and Silly Staves!

It seems like the treble clef is one of the hardest music symbols for students to draw. It still scares some of my 6th graders when I ask them to put a treble clef at the beginning of their compositions!

The 1st graders are working on identifying the staff and the treble clef this week. We had a scavenger hunt in my classroom and everybody had to find and stand by a treble clef that was somewhere in my room. Between my borders, posters, and student art works, I have over 20 of them scattered around my classroom. It was fun to see the kids discover more and more around the room.

For our treble clef activity, I had them practice drawing treble clefs. I found a tracing worksheet on-line and each of the kids practiced tracing the clef with a crayon, then with a pencil, and finally they could try to draw one on their own. The kids that were able to draw them on their own were so excited!!

All by himself!!

I also did a staff activity. I split the class into 5 groups and gave them each a pile of items. Using those items they had to create some sort of a staff. When they had created one way, I asked them to find a different way...and another way...and another way! Some of the groups were able to get really creative! And it definitely drove home the lesson that a staff has 5 lines and can be short or very long. Here are some of the creations they came up with.

Welcome to Google Classroom!

Our 6th graders are one-to-one again this year, meaning each student has their own Chromebook. Every year my 6th graders do an instrument building project. I usually preface the project by doing a very brief introduction of Ethnomusicology, the study of music and instruments of the world. We usually don't do more than learn the four families (aerophone, chordophone, membranophone, and idiophone). This year I decided to go a bit more in depth. My original plan was to have them do an instrument report on one world instrument and create a poster for the hallway. However, I started thinking it would be really cool if they could use their Chromebooks. It was then that I was introduced to Google Classroom.

All of the 6th graders are using it in their classrooms already to complete assignments, so I thought I would try it. I have created an assignment using Google Slides and now my students are going to create a slideshow presentation of four different world instruments, one from each of the four families. They must include the instrument's name, country of origin, how it's played, what it's made of, a picture, other interesting facts, and an optional video of one being played. All sources must be cited on the last slide. We just started working on them today, but so far it seems really cool! The best part is I have access to every project through my Google Classroom account so I can see how far students are, leave comments for them, and grade them online.

Who would have ever thought you would walk by the music room and see this!!

Party Time Cup Creations!

Each class has the chance to earn a party in music class. When they do, I vary the activities between a class game, student choice, or bringing something from home. This party was student choice, and the students basically had free time in my room to play whatever they wanted. Cup stacking is always a huge hit, and the boys asked that I take a picture of their latest cup stacking creation. I have to say, I was quite impressed!

Can you tell what it is?......A dotted half note!!

And a treble clef!

Dynamics

I just finished up two weeks of Dynamic Centers with my 3rd graders. They worked on pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, fortissimo, crescendo, and decrescendo. Now that they know all of the terms and symbols, we can start applying them. I put 8 rhythm flashcards in my chart stand and gave each row of rhythms a dynamic. Using coffee can drums, we performed each rhythm with its designated dynamic level. I let kids take turns creating new rhythms and switching the dynamics. The first few times I would review the dynamic level with them, but after a bit of practice they were able to perform the rhythms from beginning to end with the correct dynamic changes.

On another day, we listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and they had to map out the dynamics of the piece. I put four of their answers on the board and we compared them. Some had listed the dynamics as going pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff. Others listed it as pp Cresc. ff. Others started on mp instead of pp. We discussed the similarities and differences between all of the options and kids got the chance to debate which version they thought was more accurate. It led to some very upper level discussions and it was great to hear them use their new vocabulary words!!

Chair Rhythms

I have been looking for a way to help students remember the difference between the number of beats and the number of sounds that notes get. I decided to try chair rhythms with my 5th graders because I thought it would also be a good way to practice our new rhythm, short-long, short (prep for syncopa). It got a bit noisy and a bit cozy, but I think it worked! Here's what we did:

1. I put 4 chairs in the front of the room and explained that each chair equaled one beat.
2. I had one person sit in each chair. The class was able to figure out that they were quarter notes.
3. I had 2 students sit on each chair and the class discovered they were ti-tis (or pairs of eighth notes).
4. I had 4 students on each chair (this is where things got a bit cozy!) and they discovered they were tika-tikas (4 sixteenth notes). I stopped here to re-explain that they were 4 sounds on 1 beat. NOT 4 beats long.
5. I had 3 students sit on each chair. The first time I had one student sit on the lap of the person on the left and then one person next to them. This was a tika-ti (2 people had to share half a chair/beat). Then we figured out how to make a ti-tika.
6. I had 1 student lay across two chairs. The class discovered this person was a half note. I did the same with 3 chairs for dotted half and 4 chairs for whole note. By this point the kids were starting to really understand. YAY!!
7. The last step was to make 3 people fit on 2 chairs to create our short-long-short. After telling the 2 outside people they only got half of a chair and the middle person got 2 halves (or a whole), kids started putting together the pieces and trying to guess what rhythms made up a short-long-short pattern. Some of the kids were really close to discovering it was eighth-quarter-eighth, but I didn't reveal that answer just yet.
8. The last thing I did was split the kids into 2 groups. Their group had to form a rhythm using all of their group members and the other group had to notate it. Now they had to use some math to decide how to divide themselves up among the four chairs!

Like I said, it got a bit noisy and a bit uncomfortable at times, but I think the lesson really worked well. Kids were problem solving, drawing conclusions, and notating rhythms. And they had fun!! Woohoo!

A Whole Note!

Tika-tika, tika-tika, ta, ti-ti

Ti-ti, tika-tika, ta, tika-tika

Write the Room

I discovered a new review activity this summer called "Write the Room". My 5th graders are studying music symbols and I thought this would be an easy way to review the first 8.  I created cards with music symbols on them and their name and definition. I posted these cards around the room. Then, each student gets a sheet to fill out. They walk around the room finding each symbol and fill out their sheets. It's a great way to get them up and moving, and having the symbols spaced out around my room kept the kids from getting too congested in one area. For the more advanced kids that already knew the symbols, I had them try to fill out their sheets without looking first, and then walk around to check their answers.

Here are the sheets I made. They can be edited to include any other symbols you would want to use. I've also seen this done with rhythms.