"Apple Tree" Orff rotation

My 1st graders are working on playing the steady beat on an instrument. Eventually I will assess them on playing a steady beat bordun. We practiced this by rotating through a series of instruments and playing the steady beat while singing the song. I set my rotation up so that every student would have an instrument all the time. This seems a bit crazy, but I found that it worked better than when I used to just line all of the students up behind the xylophones and metallophones only. When I did it that way, only 5 students could play at a time and the other 20 quickly got off task. This way, everyone has something to play every time and stays focused.

I set the instruments up so that there was a barred instrument every 2 or 3 instruments. I also used a variety of drums and woodblocks to have different timbres. We played through the song one time and then chanted "One, two, three, four. Mallets down get off the floor. Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Hurry don't be late!". By the end of the chant, each student was at the next instrument and ready to play. We rotated through about 8 instruments and the students never got tired of playing the same song over and over again.

Tempo Centers

I created another new center this fall. This one is for tempos. The words we were working on were: Largo, Lento, Andante, Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, Allegro con brio, Presto, Ritardando, and Accelerando. I used this with 4th grade.
Here are the centers I had:

1: Fishbowl: I found some fishbowl bulletin board decorations on Amazon to make this center. I simply wrote the definition in the bowl and the term on the fish. The students had to match the correct term and definition.

2: Listening Lab: I have always wanted to incorporate some kind of a listening lab into my centers, but was never really sure how. This year, I got a new portable Bose speaker that will play music from my iTunes using Bluetooth. I let the students have my school iPod, which is full of over 800 songs that are completely clean and school appropriate. The goal was for the group to select a song to listen to and then guess what the tempo of that song was. Once they had made a guess, they used a metronome to check their answer. One of my metronomes allows you to tap the beat and will then register the tempo you are tapping. They used a sheet I created with approximate BPM of each tempo marking. Once they learned how to use the metronome and iPod, the kids seemed to really like this center, and the music was soft enough that it wasn't distracting to the other groups. 

In case you are wondering, it was Minion Day at school on this day!

3: Cup Stacking: I know that I always use this one, but the kids like it and it's easy to make. I wrote the tempo terms on the bottom of each cup, and in order to use the cup to make a tower, the student must correctly define the term. 

4: Metronome Masters: I think that teaching the kids what a metronome is and how it works is a big part of learning about tempo. At this station, each student had a job. Student 1 created a tempo pattern using ta and ti-ti flashcards. Student 2 selected a tempo marking. Student 3 set the metronome to play at a beat somewhere within that tempo's range. Student 4 performed the rhythm on rhythm sticks at the appropriate tempo. 

*Note: This one was a bit hard because the students really struggled to play each flashcard at different tempos and didn't know whether or not they were correct. It was especially hard because everyone wanted to use the fastest tempos! I"m not sure how well this center worked, but at least it exposed them to the difficulty of playing at very fast and very slow tempos and taught them how to use a metronome. I guess that's something!

5: Tempo Showdown!: Showdown is a game that I got from the idea of Kagan structures. To briefly explain, Kagan structures are different methods/activities that help students practice information in small groups. 

Here is how Showdown works: Every student has a marker board and a marker (or a piece of paper would work if you don't have marker boards). I created a set of cards using notecards that contained the tempo definition on one side. The students placed the cards face down in the middle of the circle. One student flips a card over for everyone to see. Each student writes the correct answer on his/her marker board. When everyone is done, one person yells, "Showdown!" The groups shows their answer at the same time. If everyone is correct, they give each other a high five/fist bump. If someone is wrong, they help find the mistake. 

Here are the centers directions I posted on each file folder, the Tempo sheets that are included in each folder, and the Listening lab sheet to fill out. 

Surround the State in Song

"Surround the State in Song" was a great event again this year! I've posted about this every year, but if you don't know what "Surround the State" is, it is a 5th and 6th grade honor choir hosted by the ND ACDA chapter. Students from all over the state attend a day-long rehearsal at 5 different locations around North Dakota. They rehearse the same songs and perform a concert at exactly the same time, 4:00. This way, the students are literally surrounding the state in song! What a cool concept!

I took 7 students from my 5th and 6th grade chorus. We also have choir members from a private Catholic school and some of those students attended as well. Here are some pictures from our day.

A little break between rehearsals!

Don't they look good?!

The members from our choir! So proud of these young people!! :)

Kahoot!

I have recently been introduced to a great on-line game called Kahoot! (www.getkahoot.com). It is an interactive game that allows me to create quizzes using multiple choice questions. You can also create discussions or surveys, but I've never used those.
I start by creating a quiz. So far, I have made a dynamics quiz, a tempo quiz, and a music symbols quiz. You are allowed to insert images as well which makes it great for identifying symbols. The students each need their own computer or iPad to play the game and must have your code to enter. The question will be displayed on my Interactive Whiteboard (you could just use a projector) and the students click the correct answer on their devices. They are given points for answering correctly and quickly. The top 5 scorers are tracked after each question. It also tracks what answers were given so I can see if there is one question that all of the kids are struggling with. The students go nuts when they see we are playing this game. They absolutely love it! I know they use it in their regular classrooms as well.

Eagerly waiting for the next question!

If you look at the girl on the bottom left you can see what the student screen looks like. It just has the colors and shapes, no words.  

Here is what it looks like on my board. 

Star Spangled Banner

The 4th graders sang the National Anthem at one of our home volleyball games after completing their unit on the "Star Spangled Banner". They did a great job!