A Soup Opera

Each year in 3rd grade we do an Opera Unit. We spend time learning about the jobs involved in creating an opera such as set designer, lighting technician, choreographer, general director, etc. At the end of our unit, each class designs their own opera to be performed in our room. In the past, we've done "Hansel and Gretel", but this year we did "A Soup Opera". The students get to choose what job they want to have. I let the costume designers pick costumes out from my costume closet, the set designers get to use things in my classroom or bring items from home, and so on. We try to create the entire opera within the classroom. Everyone takes their jobs very seriously! Then, we perform it for classroom teachers and anyone else we can find that wants to watch. Here are some pictures from this year's performances.

My First Opera: Hansel and Gretel

The 3rd graders just finished learning about the opera, "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck. After reading the story we play this interactive online game to design our own opera where we learn about all of the different jobs and roles involved in putting together a full opera production. Then, we create our own real opera in the classroom.


Each student selects a job from the following: Singers (Hansel, Gretel, Mother, Father, Sandman, Dew Fairy, and Witch), Set Designer, Costume Designer, Librettist/Prompter, Choreographer, Lighting/Effects Technician, Props Manager. All students are also members of the chorus and play the roles of angels and/or gingerbread children.


Costume designers select costumes from my costume cupboard for each of the characters, set designers are given cardboard boxes to decorate (I just happened to have several available from my 1st and 2nd grade program last week), the prop managers must find things in my classroom that can be used for the play, choreographers create dances for each of the songs we will be using, lighting/technical directors use flashlights and found sounds to create special effects, and the librettist takes a copy of the "Hansel and Gretel" storyline and writes singing parts for each character who then sings the lines in his/her own way (one student sang all of her lines to the Peyton Manning "Nationwide" tune!).


At first glance, this project seems a bit overwhelming and disastrous! The hardest part was for me to step back and let the students do all of the work. However, my 3rd graders completely ran away with this project! Each of the students took their job very seriously and some of them even worked on things at home!  I gave them 2 class periods (45 min. each) to work on their given jobs and then we had a dress rehearsal and then our final performance. Students invited family members to both the dress rehearsal and the final performance and we had over 15 audience members at each! It was amazing! My only regret is that I didn't record the performance or take more pictures. Luckily, my principal snapped a few for me!

Father, Gretel, Hansel, and Mother.

Gretel teaching Hansel how to dance in the song "Brother, Come and Dance with Me".

Preparing for Act II.

Taking their final bows!

Concert Season!!

Here are some pictures from all of the wonderful concerts we have had this December. I'm always so proud of the kids and this year I had 100% attendance at all of my concerts!! Not a single kid missed! All 43 kids at the choir concert, all 46 at the 3rd grade musical, and all 38 at the 4th grade musical...that's 127 kids!! WOW!!!

5th and 6th Grade Choir Concert

Singing "Carol of the Elves" by Janet Gardner

42 kids!! The biggest choir I've ever had!

3rd Grade Musical- "The Grumps of Ring-a-Ding Town"

Hear the merry bells ring!

Being "Grumpy"

We're ornery and crabby!

Mrs. Gault's Class

Mrs. Schepp's Class

4th Grade Musical-"The Grumps of Ring-a-Ding Town"

We all do better when we work together!

Snowmageddon! HELP!!

Mrs. Foster's Class

Mrs. Grochow's Class

They wanted to do a grumpy picture, too!!

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!!

Hansel and Gretel

Kids love opera, right?! By the end of my opera unit, my 3rd graders are usually buzzing about it. Most kids (and adults) just don't understand what opera is. When I ask my students what it is, they always respond that it's "girls who sing really loud and break windows, boring, or annoying". I do Engelbert Humperdink's opera, Hansel and Gretel, because the kids are familiar with the story and have fun acting it out. It's not some strange, complex tale in another language!

When I first introduce opera, we play this interactive online game: Design your own opera and talk about all of the jobs that are involved in creating an opera. Then, we act out the opera on our own. I let several students be costume designers. Their job is to pick out costumes for everyone from my costume closet. I let some kids be casting directors, and they get to pick the lead characters. My kids who aren't completely sold yet get to be set designers and lighting technicians. They help me choose props for our set and turn the lights on and off. And finally I have my performers. Everyone plays the part of an angel or a gingerbread child. I play music from the opera and the kids act it out. They don't do any actual singing, but some do have fun pretending! It's not a huge fancy production. Just a small informal play in the classroom, but the kids love it! One class this year wanted to do it 3 times! We usually invite their classroom teacher in to watch, but I've even had students invite their parents in the past.

Hansel and Gretel

Father and Mother

My angels with boas instead of wings!

14 angels guarding over Hansel and Gretel during "Children's Prayer"

Dynamic Centers

I am becoming obsessed with centers! I have started using them with almost every new topic I teach! The 3rd graders are studying dynamics right now. After a day of standing at the board going through the symbol, the Italian term, and the definition, I watched my 3rd graders quickly lose interest and focus. Let's be honest, kids have a hard time "sitting and getting" anymore. It's our job as teachers to keep them engaged, and standing in front of a board going through names and definitions is simply not going to work for some classes.

The next day we split into 6 groups to work on dynamics. Each group has a folder with directions and a cheat-sheet listing the symbol, Italian word, and definition.

Center 1: Flashcards and Worksheets
This center originally started out as a station where the kids would create their own flashcards to practice with. However, I quickly realized that if each kid needed 8 notecards, I was going to be going through a LOT of cards! So now it is a worksheet station. Worksheets are good because the students have to work independently and it gives me a good idea of who gets it and who doesn't. They don't turn them in, but I always check them before they leave.

Center 2: Cup Stacking
Kids are totally into cup stacking right now, so this is a great way to help them learn almost any concept. I have a symbol on the bottom of each cup and the kids take turns naming and defining the symbol. If they get it right, they get to use it to make a tower. If they get it wrong, it goes back into the pile. Kids love to come up with different ways to create a tower, so they never seem to get bored.

Center 3: Eggcellent Dynamics
I already had the eggs out for the 1st and 2nd graders to practice solfege with, so I thought, why not use them to practice dynamics, too. Each egg color represented a different dynamic. The group was given a basket of eggs and had to create a pattern in the egg carton. Then, they played each pattern on a given instrument, making sure to play each egg at its designated dynamic level. The book, Kids Can Compose has a worksheet that I used to have the kids color and label their patterns when they finished.

 



Center 4: Match Mine

I got this idea from www.confessionsofamusicteacher.blogspot.com  (this teacher also has a ton of great ideas for centers, by the way!). Each student has a folder with a 9-grid square inside (this is a sheet I also use for music symbol Bingo where the students create their own Bingo card). One person, the sender, fills out his or her card with all 8 dynamic symbols we are studying and one free space. He then tells the other kids where he placed his symbols by giving clues like, "I placed the symbol for forte in the top left corner" or "The symbol for medium loud is in the bottom right corner". This way students need to know the definition, the name, and the symbol. When all 8 symbols have been revealed, the sender checks each players card to see if they got them right.

 

 

Center 5: Dynamic Definitions

Using a bulletin board kit I got at Target, I created a matching game for this center. On a bunch of flowers I put each music symbol and on another set of flowers I put the definitions. I created 2 sets, so depending on the size of the groups, the kids either partner up or work individually. They need to match each flower symbol to its definition and then sort them from softest to loudest.

* In hindsight, I would have created this game a bit differently. I have 3 different colors of flowers, so what I wish I had done was put all of the symbols on one color, all of the definitions on another color, and all of the Italian terms on the third color. This way they would have to match all 3 concepts. I still have more flowers and plan to add the Italian terms, but they just won't be color-coordinated.

Center 6: Swat the Symbol
I use this game for so many things-Music symbols, note naming, sight reading-you name it, the kids love it! I made a flipchart on my Promethean board with all of our dynamic symbols and the kids have to race to the board to swat the correct symbol with a flyswatter. If there are 4 people in a group, 2 people race, 1 person in the caller, and 1 person is the judge. The caller must say either the definition or the term. I would not recommended letting 3 people race. It gets a bit too crowded for that! This game gets to be a bit competitive, so keep a close eye on this group!

That's it! Those are my Dynamic Centers! Depending on the size of my class, I might use all 6 or I might use only 5. I like to have 3-4 people in each group, but no more than that. We have 30 minute classes, so I usually spend 10-15 minutes at each center, finishing 2 per day. This means it takes about a week to do all of them. Any students that aren't working well in their groups (or who are off-task) always have the option of working independently on a worksheet or activity. Centers take a little bit of work to prepare, but once they are created, I laminate everything and set-up is a breeze for the rest of the week!


Valentine's Day Fun!

I am a little behind this month, but here is my massive post of all of the fun Valentine's Day activities we did last month. It was a little crazy because I also had my 1st and 2nd grade musical and a music contest in February, but we did manage to get some Valentine-themed lessons covered.

"A Song for My Sweetart"
This is a lesson idea from the book "Kids Can Compose". I always have one of those giant bags of mixed candy on hand for Bingo prizes and such, and luckily the last bag I bought was FULL of Sweetart candies. The Sweetarts came in packets similar to Smarties, so it was easy to distribute them to each of my groups. Everyone simply got one packet to share.

The 4th graders are just starting the treble clef, so we used this lesson simply to practice the space notes. I would call out a note and they had to put their Sweetart candy on the correct space. I wanted them to also practice putting notes on the staff from left to right so that when we start reading music for recorders they are used to that. I found that several of the kids were just squishing them together in one spot or stacking them vertically, so I had them divide their staff into 4 sections. Then I would say, "notate an A in box 1, a C in box 2", etc. This made things much easier for everyone. After a while, I let them partner up and quiz their partners. The students who already knew the note names were partnered together and allowed to do lines and spaces or use ledger lines.

In 5th grade, each student was partnered up and given a glockenspiel and a cup of Sweetarts. They then had to compose a 4-8 note melody and play it on their instrument. Each group had to perform their melody for me before they could eat their candy.

Giant Beat Strips
This is an idea I got off of Pinterest from www.abbottmusic.blogspot.com . Kindergarten just learned about ta and ti-ti, but we were still reviewing how a ta is one sound and a ti-ti is two. To reinforce this concept and tie in Valentine's Day a little bit, I used giant beat strips with large hearts on them and split the class into 4 groups. Everyone took their shoes off and put them in the middle of the room (this part can get a bit wild!). I then clapped a rhythm pattern and they had to race to made the rhythm on the hearts. A ta was notated with one shoe and a ti-ti with two. It took a while for some of the kids to catch on, but once they did, we were able to cruise through the entire class. Although it was just a tad crazy (and stinky!), it was a LOT of fun!

Racing Heart Rhythm Race (or something catchy like that-I couldn't think of  a good name!!)
Last year I cut out a bunch of paper hearts with the intent of using them for a lesson and never did. So this year, I took those hearts and wrote a whole bunch of 4-beat rhythm patterns on them. I designed this to be used with 3rd-5th grade, so the rhythms contained mostly 16th note rhythms (which 3rd grade is working on now) and dotted quarter note rhythms (which 5th grade is working on). There were 2 of each rhythm. I scattered the hearts all over my floor and split the class into 4 teams. I would call out a rhythm and one person from each team had to race to find the correct heart. Since there were 2 of each, two teams could score or one team could get 2 points. The first team to 6 points won. (Side note, I would recommend laminating the hearts. The students tend to get a bit grabby when they get over-excited!). This was a great game and you could make it even harder by only clapping the rhythms and not saying them out loud. I often did that as a tie breaker or for extra points.

 

 

Valentine Post Office

I posted about this game last year. It is a game I downloaded from Teachers Pay Teachers and it works great with K and 1st. I grouped my classes into groups of 2 and gave them each a Valentine bag with rhythm cards inside. They take out the cards and I clap or play a rhythm and they have to find it and put it in their bags.

Musical Form

Here is an activity I did with my 3rd graders to work on musical form.  First, we created patterns using our ZooPal plates and ABC letters. Then, each group composed 3 different rhythms to accompany each section. Having the visual of the characters on the plate, the rhythms below, and the ABC letters above really helped reinforce the idea that all of the A's need to be the same, all of the B's the same, etc.

A Rondo pattern of ABACA

 

Another of my favorite form activities is using lessons from Artie Almeida's book, "Parachutes, Ribbons, and Scarves, Oh My!". We studied AABA form and listened to "Gallop". I finally got to use the pool noodle ponies I made this summer. The students took turns galloping around the room during the A sections and grazing in the pasture during the B sections. Other times the boys rode during the A's and the girls during the B's. So much fun!!