Ice Cream Improvisations

The 1st graders have been talking about how melodies can move up, down, or stay the same. After talking about that we discussed improvising, and how we can make up our own melody as long as we form some sort of plan about how we want our music to move: up, down, or stay the same. I found a great flipchart on Promethean Planet created by Rebecca Dennis titled "One For Ice Cream".  While we were improvising we had to follow 3 rules. Rule 1: We could only use the notes CDEG. Rule 2: We all had to follow the same rhythm. We used flavors of ice cream to create an 8-beat rhythmic pattern (ex: chocolate, rocky road, chocolate, mint). Rule 3: We always ended with C (and mint).

At first a few students were a bit nervous about playing because they were afraid it wouldn't sound good. I stressed that the fun part about improvising is that you can never be wrong! It's your creation. After that, they all had a blast and enjoyed coming up with new, creative ways to improvise their melodies.

ABA Form

Our 2nd graders have been studying form. To help reinforce the concept, we used Zoo Pals and flashcards to compose a piece in ABA form. The first day they performed their rhythms with body percussion. The second day, they had to compose their own 4-beat rhythm patterns for each section and then performed them on instruments in front of the class.

Choir Holiday Party

My 5th and 6th grade choir students had a GREAT concert performance last week, so this week at rehearsal we celebrated by having a little party. It got a bit loud and wild, but we had a lot of fun! Here's what we played:

Paper Plate Pictures
The students had to hold their paper plate on their head and draw
1. A floor
2. A Christmas tree on the floor with decorations
3. A fireplace with a mantel
4. A stocking hanging from that mantel
5. A star on top of the tree
6. A present under the tree

When they were finished, we scored their drawings.
2 pts if their tree touched the floor
2 pts if the stocking touched the mantel
1 pt if the star touched the tree
1 pt for every ornament that was on the tree
1 pt if the fireplace was NOT touching the tree (that's a fire hazard!)
2 pts if the present was under the tree

The students had a blast and there were lots of giggles as they looked at their drawings.

Minute to Win It Snowball Toss

Students sat across from each other. One person held a cup and the other had to toss as many snowballs (mini marshmallows) into the cup as they could in 1 minute. The winner made 57 marshmallows!!

Minute to Win It Shovel the Snow

Every student had a cup and a straw. Using only their straw, they had to get as many marshmallows as they could into their cup in 1 minute. Finally, the room was silent!! Our winner had 21!

At the end of our party, I handed out ornaments that I made for each of the students to hang on their tree. How cute are these!?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is by far one of my favorite holidays during the school year. There are so many fun songs and games you can do to reinforce music concepts, I often can't fit them all in. This year I added a few new games/activities to my list. Here are a few of them.

 

5 Little Pumpkins:

The 4th graders performed "5 Little Pumpkins" on the Boomwhackers. I found the lesson at http://elementarymusicresources.blogspot.com. The lesson was created for a SMART board. I have an Activ Board, but was able to copy and paste the picture of the music notation and that was enough to teach the lesson. The color-coded pumpkins made it easy for the 4th graders to read their parts because we haven't covered all the note names of the treble clef staff yet (that comes in the spring with recorders). Here is a video of them performing their song after only 2 practices!

Candy Wrapper Rhythms:
I found a great Activ Board flipchart using candy wrappers to compose. I used that flipchart to create my own games and rhythm assessments for multiple grade levels. Over Valentine's Day and Halloween I always ask students to bring me their candy wrappers so I can add on to my collection. I then laminate them so they are more durable. For one activity, I put students into groups with a bag of candy wrappers. Depending on the rhythms they know, we talk about the different rhythms each candy has. For example, a Snickers could be a Ti-Ti. A Milky Way for my younger students would be ti-ti ta, and for my older students could be tika-ti. In their groups, I clap an age-appropriate rhythm, and they work together to create that rhythm using the wrappers. After a few practices, I hand out a worksheet and they each compose 2 measures of their own. Below is the worksheet I use and some pictures of the kids working in their groups. I also play a game the day after Halloween where they have to sort out their candy into different candy bags based on the rhythms. The first team to correctly sort all of their candy wins.

 

"Pantomime" by Kabalevsky:
I attended a music workshop this fall where Sharon Bursch (author of the Freddie the Frog books) presented. She introduced me to this activity. 1st, we discussed what pantomime means and how it differs from acting. Then, I gave an example of how to pantomime carrying a large pumpkin. We discussed what I did and then, while listening to "Pantomime" by Kabalevsky, the class pretended to be carrying tons of large, heavy pumpkins across the room. It was amazing to see the expressions some of them used. Some of them even had pumpkins too big to carry, so they had to drag them by the stem! Very creative! I did this with all of my classes and they all loved it. Here is a picture of my 5th graders.

Happy Halloween!