Snowman Songs

The 1st graders composed their first instrumental pieces using high (B), middle (G), and low (E) pitches. They notated whole notes onto a 3 lines staff, making sure their notes went left to right. They had to use a combination of at least 6 pitches in their piece.Once they were finished, they played their compositions on a choice of hand bells or boomwhackers. I had several sets set up around the room so that students could play their composition, and then go back to their spots to make any changes to the piece that they thought might sound better. Once they were satisfied with their composition, each student got to perform their piece for the class.


*This lesson was adapted from The Snowman Song lesson found in the book "Kids Can Compose" by Nicole LeGrand.

Solfeg Games

Here are two games I use for practicing our solfeg patterns for So-Mi and So-Mi-Do.


The S-M game uses a pack of ice cream bulletin board cut outs I bought from Amazon. On the ice cream I drew three lines and then drew different S-M patterns on them. They had to match them to the cone that had the matching pattern.

The So-Mi-Do game was very similar, only I used a picture of a fly that I found and I wrote different SMD patterns on those. Then I made copies of my SMD flashcards, shrunk them, and printed them off on colored paper. Working with a partner, the students had to flip over a flashcard and swat the fly that matched the flashcard with a fly swatter. This was a lot of fun!

Pajama Party!

In March, the 1st and 2nd graders had their program. This year we did "Pajama Party" by Cristi Cary Miller and Jay Michael Ferguson. I have to say this is one of my favorite programs so far! Here are some pics of the kids backstage in their pjs!

Turkey Tunes

Every music teacher knows that Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for us. Musicals, concerts, programs...you name it, we have at least 3 to direct! So of course I am just now getting around to updating my posts. I had a meeting the week of Thanksgiving and wanted a fun activity for the sub to do with the 1st graders that would be easy, so I created these Turkey Tunes (although I know they aren't really tunes, they're just rhythms...but let's not get too technical!). You could add solfege syllables to each rhythm and then perform it on a pitched percussion instrument or boomwhackers, then it really would be a Turkey Tune!


I created turkeys and then several feathers containing tas, ti-tis, and rests for the kids to put on the turkeys. Working with a partner, they created a rhythm pattern and then clapped it. After a while, they got a worksheet and copied down one of the rhythms they created. Then, they got to color their turkeys. It was a simple, easy rhythm lesson and the turkeys looked really cool!!

"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.

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.

Carnival of the Animals

It's "Carnival of the Animals" time again in 1st grade! We have spent the last couple of weeks reading the book and listening to each animal. A few years ago, I posted what I do for each animal. You can see that post here: Carnival of the Animals. I've kept most of the activities the same, but I did make a few changes after seeing some posts on Pinterest. Here are the ones I changed.

Tortoises: For the tortoises, we did a slow motion cup stacking activity. Each student got 5 cups and had to stack them slowly into a tall tower. The second time we listened, they partnered up and had to stack a 10 cup tower.  This was a lot of fun!

Aquarium: The first time we listened, we picked out the long sounds in the piece and then discovered that they were whole notes. Every time we heard one, we made a long sweeping motion with our arms. The second time we listened, the kids partnered up and got to blow bubbles on the whole note parts (because bubbles kind of look like whole notes and fish blow bubbles!). Their partners helped by making the long sweeping motion with their arms. Each student blew two bubbles and then switched off with their partner.

Birds: Normally I did ribbon dancing for the aquarium, but since I wasn't doing that this year, I added it in to the bird piece. They used the ribbons to make the birds fly up and swoop down low.

Here are some pictures from our other animals.

Elephants:

 

 

Hens and Roosters:

The hens talking



The roosters showing their muscles to try to attract the hens!

  

Cuckoo in the Woods