Week 5 - November 7 - December 2

In the GRE specials schedule we have a 3 week rotation - 3 weeks equals 1 instructional week for me with all of the students.  That's why this post is called - Week 5 (November 7- December 2)

Here's what happened In our fifth week together___

• Kindergartners continued learning about the small percussion (unpitched percussion) instruments we have in the music room.  In this rotation they were introduced to the  Rattle instruments (maracas, chiquita maracas, rain stick, handle castanets, clatterpillar, vibraslap, cabasa, shekere, nut rattle, and seed pod ) and the Scrape instruments (ratchet, cabasa, sand blocks, rasp, guiro, cricket, frog guiro, and Peruvian gourd scraper).  With both families students were introduced to the proper playing technique and the instrument name.   Each student took a turn playing every instrument as they were passed around the circle.  Students were asked to match the beat as they played.  We also played a game called "Listen" which requires students to determine which instrument they are hearing without being able to see it and then name it.  Our last day in the rotation we played a favorite game, Beat Detective, and Listen with two instruments from each of the percussion families we've studied so far.

• First Graders focused on rhythm by pulling rhythmic patterns out of our apple song Apple Tree, Apple Tree.   We did our first sampling of rhythmic dictation - hearing a rhythm and writing it down.  We reviewed this skill early in the week with craft stick manipulatives and wrote with pencil and paper on Day 4.  Rhythms included tee-tees (pairs of eighth notes) tahs (quarter notes) and the one beat rest.  We added a new singing game into our apple repertoire with Wind Up the Apple Tree.  In addition, we used our sound / silence patterns - read graphically with paper apples on paper plates (tah/yum!) or silence (empty paper plate) to accompany our singing game Apple Tree, Apple Tree.  Every student got a turn to accompany the singing on a bass xylophone.

• Second Graders  focused on rhythm by pulling rhythmic patterns out of songs we have worked with recently - such as Great Big House in New Orleans.  We did our first sampling of rhythmic dictation - hearing a rhythm and writing it down.  We reviewed this skill early in the week with craft stick manipulatives and wrote with pencil and paper on Day 4.  Rhythms included ta-ahs (half notes), tee-tees (pairs of eighth notes) tahs (quarter notes) and the one and two best rests.   We sorted pictures of various fruits and vegetables that are made into pies underneath their matching rhythm cards - for example, apple:  tah tah.  Then we used these words to create a word chain / rhythm.  The word chain was made up of 4 rhythmic building bricks (2 beats long).  It had to have at least one berry and end with pie (e.g. pumpkin, peach, blueberry pie).  Students worked with a partner or in groups of 3 to create their pattern, using the pictures as prompts, and then transferred the pattern to small percussion instruments.  Together we created a Rhythmic Pie Rondo.

• Third Graders reviewed all of the songs for their Rock Concert and added in the last few extra things to bring their sharing together.  Students chose between being one of the narrators or creating a volcano with colored scarves and movement.   Parents were invited in to see the Rock Concert performance during our 4th day of music this week.  You'll find video footage of the performances on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.

• Fourth Graders reviewed their Colorado song, Cripple Creek which is sung in two parts and learned a new note (f#) on the recorder in order to learn to play the descant part for that song.  We also reviewed the Cheyenne Hand Game with Native American instruments, Symbol Song, and Stegasaurus Stomp for Recorder.  We started on a new piece for Recorder as well, called Ride the Iron Horse which uses two new notes - low d and high d.  It is a challenging piece with multiple pitches stacked together to imitate the sound of a train whistle. 

• Fifth Graders experienced Grace Nash's canon, Season to Behold through many musical avenues - singing, with hand drums, recorder and with layered tonebar ostinati.  A recording of their culminating musical whole can be found on the In the Spotlight page.  The ostinato parts reinforced the relationships between different note values and the La centered melody had a minor feeling even though it was a pentatonic melody. 
• Except that the Red Group (5Hawk and 5Lautenbach) switched week 4 and week 5 instructionally since I was out of town for a good portion of their week 4 attending the American Orff-Schulwerk Association Professional Development Conference

Week 4 - October 17 - November 4

In the GRE specials schedule we have a  3 week rotation - 3 weeks equals 1 instructional week for me with all of the students.  That's why this post is called - Week 4  (October 17-November 4)

Here's what happened In our fourth week together___

• Kindergartners began learning about the small percussion (unpitched percussion) instruments we have in the music room.  They are learning about them in timbre or tone color groupings.  In this rotation they were introduced to the  Click instruments (wood block, temple blocks, tap-a-taps, slap stick, rhythm sticks, claves, tone block, castanets and tongue drum, aka slit log drum) and the Jingle instruments (tambourine, cystrum, jingle bells, Indian dance bells and sleigh bells).  With both families students were introduced to the proper playing technique and the instrument name.   Each student took a turn playing every instrument as they were passed around the circle.  Students were asked to match the beat as they played.  We also played a game called "Listen" which requires students to determine which instrument they are hearing without being able to see it and then name it.

• First Graders used an Apple theme to focus on rhythm and review melody this week.  We reviewed familiar melodic patterns of Sol-Mi-La and discovered a new singing game, Apple Tree.  We played it two different ways - trading places with part of the 'tree' when trapped, or adding new trees into the orchard as an elimination game.  When we played it in the elimination version, the last one became the first farmer in a new game, Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow.  We read and created new sound/silence patterns within an 8 beat frame - using paper plates to mark out the beats.  Those plates that had an apple on them, we said 'yum' on the beat and those that didn't have an apple had a silent beat (rest).  Students changed the pattern by adding or subtracting apples.  After we had played our Apple Tree game multiple days, we added a beat bordun reading some of those sound/silence patterns.  First Graders rediscovered the rhythm tee-tee (2 eighth notes sharing a beat) as we decoded the rhythm of Apple Tree.  Following reading Dr. Seuss's Ten Apples Up on Top, we 'upset the apple cart' and used our apple/rhythm cards to create new tah and tee-tee patterns.  Then we flipped the cards around to read a scrambled/mixed up version of the lyrics.  On Friday classes enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.   

• Second Graders learned two new Americana singing games with a Pumpkin Theme - Great Big House in New Orleans and Pumpkin (PawPaw) Patch.  Pumpkin Patch is a  singing game in a long-aways set.  Each student got a turn at being in the lead (head couple) spot.  With Great Big House in New Orleans we learned all three verses and traditional movement and then extended our learning and experience by adding instrumental accompaniment parts including a cross-over pattern.  We extended the form with a contrasting speech section - "Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pie!  I just love that pumpkin pie.  Love the whipped cream piled up high.  I just love that pumpkin pie!"  Students used the rhythm of this speech pattern to improvise melodically on glockenspiels as we created a longer form.  In addition we played a response game with the names of different kinds of pies.  On Friday classes enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.   

• Third Graders learned the rest of the new songs that will be shared in their Rock Concert sharing for parents - Rock Rap and Earth Changes.  In the next rotation we'll be having a parent sharing during a music time to showcase the music connections with the corresponding Science Unit.  We continued working on the pieces we started last 'week' - Obwisana (Rock passing game from Ghana), This is My Favorite Rock and Rock Concert.  On Friday classes enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.   

• Fourth Graders worked further on the Colorado Connections music - adding two new pieces into their repertoire:  Cripple Creek and a Native American piece, Cheyenne Hand Game.  Cripple Creek is a piece we are learning to sing in harmony - so we divided into a Red team and Blue team.  We used those same teams for the Cheyenne Hand Game which is a stone passing guessing game where one team tries to pass a stone around the circle in a beat pattern in view of the other team without getting caught.  The guessing team plays Native American instruments (corn rattles, rasps and Taos drums) and sings.  At the end of 4 times through the song - sung with vocables - the singing team has one guess.  If the stone passing team is not caught they get one point.  If they are caught, the teams trade places so that the other team is in scoring position.  On Friday classes enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.   

• Fifth Graders learned the vocal canon Old Abram Brown by Benjamin Britten.  Rather than singing it in a canon, though, we sang it in the original way with a quarter note pulse, and then stretched it out to a half note pulse (augmentation) and also sang it twice as fast at an eighth note pulse (diminution).  We divided into 3 groups and tried doing all 3 versions simultaneously with enough repetition of the original and diminution to make it come out evenly with the augmentation.  We used this as a model to launch us into another collaborative composition (this time in groups of 3).  Each group created or choose a 4 beat rhythm pattern and then doubled note values for the augmentation and cut each note value in half for the diminution.  Once the building blocks were figured out, each group structured their performance by deciding on a form/structure and choosing sounds or timbres for each voice.  Each group shared their performance with the rest of the class and we reflected on the compositions and performance using our 3 starts and a wish reflection.  On Friday classes enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.   
• Except that the Red Group (5Hawk and 5Lautenbach) switched week 4 and week 5 instructionally since I was out of town for a good portion of their week 4 attending the American Orff-Schulwerk Association Professional Development Conference and I wanted to be there for this project.

"Week" 3 - September 19 - October 7

A quick reminder that with our specials schedule we have at Gold Rush, 3 weeks equals 1 instructional week for me with all of the students.  That's why this post is called - Week 3

In our third week together, our Musical Headline was Melody

• Kindergartners were introduced to the concept and contrasts of high and low.  They used their voices in the story of Wiggle and Waggle, going up, down, and staying level on one note.  This was reinforced with movement activities using high movements, low and middle level movements.  We did vocal echoes with the slide whistle and described the melodic direction with our thumb "sound arrows".   Students took turns creating two pitch melodies (high/low) using either shoulder/waist body conducting or solfege hand signs.  We reviewed names with a vocal Name rondo - "What's Your Name?  Puddin' 'n' Tame.  Ask me again and I'll tell you the same" as the A section; contrasting sections were created with,  "Name, Name, What's your name?  (4 solo singers answering by singing their own name)".  In addition to this focus on high and low pitch, we took turns at our singing/creativity game, Jack in the Box, and further worked with beat with a new game called "The Beat Detective".  Some classes also learned the singing game, Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone?  which involves group singing, some solo singing and listening.  This song has a lot of the Sol-Mi or high-low patterns we were focusing on.

• First Graders reviewed the concept of Sol-Mi-La pitches.  We did this with vocal warm ups using solfeggio and hand signs.  Students took turns creating new melodies using the hand signs to direct singers to sing their newly created melody.  Students were introduced to melodic notation using a 2-line staff.  We notated a favorite singing game, Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone? before playing the game.  We also did a listening/movement games called Melody Statues.  We spent one class period playing the barred instruments (xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels) going Around the Instruments in a rotation to play patterns as an echo to singing based mostly on Sol and Mi.  Students learned a brand new song called Autumn Leaves which uses mostly Sol, Mi and La, but also introduces Re and Do.  I wrote the song especially for our first graders.  In addition to singing it, they 'dressed it up' with movement and instruments.  There are some videos posted on the In the Spotlight page of this blog if you'd like to see some student performances of the piece.  The groups that had a 5th day in this rotation also had a day to choose some songs to sing, and we put together a Three Piggy Opera based on the old Disney version of The Three Little Pigs.

• Second Graders first reviewed the pitches of Sol-Mi-La with vocal follows and echoes.  Classes competed to score the most points in the "Simon Solfege Challenge".  After warming up singing with solfeggio syllables and hand signs, students were challenged to sing a note that was only shown, not sung by the teacher.  If successful, then another note was added.  We are having a class competition to see which class can score the most points.  We reviewed melodic notation - expanding the 2-line staff to the traditional 5-line staff used to notate melodies.  We learned a song, "Autumn is Here" with all the pitches/notes of a Pentatonic Scale (Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La and Do').  In addition to singing the song and accompaning their singing on xylophones and glockenspiels using a beat bordun (open 5th - Do/So), as the song was better known, they got to try it in a round.  Additionally, they 'figured' out the melody - one phrase at a time - until they could play the whole melody on the barred instruments.  Students rotated from one instrument to another so that everyone got to play the melody on every size instrument.  We also tried it as an instrumental round - woods (xylophones) and metals (glockenspiels and metallophones).  The groups that had a 5th day in this rotation also had a day to choose some songs to sing from a menu of Disney choices.

• Third Graders were introduced to the lines and spaces of the treble clef.  The song, "The staff has five" introduced them to the letter names of both the lines and spaces.  As homework, each student created a new saying to help them remember the pattern of the lines from the bottom to the top - E, G, B, D, F.  A few of the new sayings and artwork illustrating the saying were shared each day.  Students voted to choose 3 class favorites which will be displayed outside the music room to help everyone's learning  We also did some mirroring and true right/left reversal pairings with partners in preparation for playing the recorder.  In preparation for an upcoming classrroom/music room connection concert, our Rock Concert, we got a start on a song called Rock Concert and a rock passing game from Ghana, Obwisana.  More information about the Rock Concert will be coming as we get more songs prepared to share with you.

• Fourth Graders reviewed the lines and spaces of the treble clef staff that they were introduced to last year, and using the pattern of the music alphabet were shown how to recognize the notes above and below the staff.  They took the 50 in 5 challenge for the first time - a timed note naming challenge with 50 notes on a page.  Students will have four times to try the challenge within the school year.  As doing the challenge is also practice, it is expected that each time students will improve their score and time.  Fourth graders also reviewed recorder technique and reading B, A and G with a song with a Colorado Connection - Stegasaurus Stomp.  Fourth graders also got a good start on learning what will become their opening song for a later parent sharing of Colorado Connection pieces, The Symbol Song.  There are parts of the song that everyone sings together and 5 verses which will be performed by smaller groups.  Each student chose which of those 5 verses they'd most like to learn.  

• Fifth Graders focused on melody by reviewing the names of the lines and spaces of the treble clef, plus the notes extending outside the staff to a space above and below the first ledger line.  They took the timed 50 note naming challenge for the first time this year.  In addition, students reviewed basic recorder technique and fingering.  We began with the notes most used in 3rd and 4th grades - B, A, G, E - and then expanded to C', D' and E' (the ' indicates the higher octave).  We learned a piece for recorder and drumming called Driving Force.  This piece is in a Rondo Form - A B A C A.  All students learned the A section and then chose to undertake learning either the B or C section of the music.  We also spent a day learning the drumming accompaniment parts.  At some point in the near future we'll have the whole piece put together.  At that time, we'd like to do a Skype session face to face with the composer in New York City.  

In the next rotation, "Week 4" (October 17-November 4) the musical focus will again by rhythm and form.  

Week 2 - Aug 29 - Sept 16

Here's a look at what happened in Music August 29th - September 16th - Week 2 instructionally for specials.

Our musical headline was beat or pulse (specifically experienced through sound and silence) and beat groupings known as meter.

• Kindergartners experienced beat by walking and running in even steps as they took turns in "Let's Go Walking".  The sound of the tambourine matched their footsteps and each student's names were added to a chart, designating how many claps (or syllables) are in their name.  In addition, students explored the movement space with different steps, accompanied by drum or recorder.  This was woven together with an anchor song, This is My Place, This is My Space.  We tried out additional verses and beat ideas for our Circle song, and played a singing, creativity solo game called Jack in the Box.

• First Graders experienced beat as we shook hands in greeting with a welcome song, "Good Afternoon".  We worked with the musical symbols for one beat of sound and one beat of silence (Tah and Rest).  We did this with movement and notation.  Using the beat (sound/silence pattern) of our feet in the singing game, Jump, Jim Joe we took a first turn at accompanying ourselves on the xylophones.  Students learned about care of the instruments in how to remove bars.  Using mallet play and mirroring, students (re)discovered the correct mallet hold.  We played a bordun accompaniment while singing Good Afternoon.  Additionally, each student created a 4 beat tah / rest pattern for the class to read (clap and say).  Each student had a turn as a soloist to read a pattern alone, and then the whole class performed the pattern.  (Solo - Tutti).

• Second Graders learned the welcome song and greeting routine (building and erasing the line) with Good Afternoon.  Revisiting a singing game that they learned in the first rotation, Cut the Cake, students figured out how many beats the song lasted.  Using the beat as an organizer, students then figured out the rhythm of the song - (comprised of tahs, tee-tees and 1 beat rests).  We played that singing game many times of the course of this week, too.  Second graders also played some rhythm games / challenges using these notes and rests:  The Poison Pattern (an echoe / listening game), Double Trouble - (a Rhythm Reading Game/Challenge) and Add a Beat.  Each person in the class chose a card at random with either a Tah (quarter note), Rest (quarter rest) or Tee-Tee (pair of eighth notes).  These were laid out in one 24 beat line.  Students clapped and said the pattern and then transferred it to hand drums.  Students also experienced the Rhythm Erase challenge with a 16 beat pattern of Tahs and Tee-Tees, based on a rhythm that they wrote down (in 4-beat increments) from dictation.  On Friday the classes that had all 5 days in this rotation (Gold and Red) enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.

• 3rd, 4th and 5th graders all started the week with a day of Drum Circle work - revisiting the Rhythm of "Good, Better, Best" from the 1st rotation - reviewing Bass and Tone, and single and double strokes.  We added 2 different rhythmic ostinati and put them on different drum sizes/voicing - Low Drums (Try, Try, Try again) and High Drums (_ _ Don't Give Up).  We also added the iron bell and shakers on the beat to complete the ensemble.

• Third Graders reviewed tah/rest notation with reading and writing patterns.  They zeroed in on beat and meter through listening to determine the meter or beat groupings of 2 Strong/Weak)  3 (Strong/Weak/Weak)  4 (Strong/Weak/Weak/Weak) and 5 (Strong/Weak/Weak/Strong/Weak).  They experienced the beat and meter in conducting patterns, and in movement/listening games like Meter Match-Up.  Third Graders also identified the meter in given musical examples, showing their answers with colored squares to indicate the pattern of strong and weak beats.  Third graders also explored meter in regards to time signatures and the way bar lines group beats into measures with 2/4, 3/4,  4/4 and 5/4.  We played meter listening games to reinforce the concept of meter or beat groupings and did some work at the board putting in bar lines to match a given time signature.  On Friday the classes that had all 5 days in this rotation (Gold and Red) enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.

• Fourth Graders worked with beat/pulse with sound and silence and beat groupings.  We did several movement games matching a drum, such as Add and Subtract.  Matching a drum beat, students step 8 beats.  Each time the pattern repeats, one step is taken away and in its place a clap is added without moving.  This continues until all beats are clapped and then the steps begin to be added back in.  This week 4th graders also had the challenge of discovering all of the possible 4 beat combinations which could be made with one beat symbols for sound and silence.  (There are 16 of them).  They first worked in class independently or with a partner and then finished the work as homework, bringing it with them to music the next time.  With this in hand, the class notated them at the SMART board and then put them into a single 16 measure string - considering musical flow, strong beginning and ending, etc.  Students read the patterns from start to finish with clapping and saying, then transferred it over to hand drums.  One day was spent on a listening/movement assessment of beat, phrase and meter awareness which I refer to as A Circle of Beat Leaders.  Each student has a turn to lead a demonstration of the beat that their small circle follows.  The idea is to listen to discern the underlying pulse in the music being played and show it in body percussion.  On Friday the classes that had all 5 days in this rotation (Gold and Red) enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.

• Fifth Graders also focused on beat experienced through sound and silence.  Fifth Graders completed their first composition project and performance in this rotation.  They experienced a graphic notation of sound and silence using cups on the floor arranged in a 4 x 4 configuration which could be read from 4 different sides or perspectives - each with a different beginning and ending point.  It was a challenge to play them each simultaneously (Tutti).  After experiencing this as a class composition, students divided into groups of 4 to create their own original sound/silence 4x4 composition and structure a performance of the piece.  Students had the opportunity to create the form for the performance and choose sounds or instruments to play their part on - focusing on the musical elements of Form and Timbre.  Each group performed their piece for the rest of the class, giving me a chance to focus in on each student reading their sound/silence pattern.  This collaborative composition will be used for Base Line Data as students continue to compose and create music throughout this school year.  On Friday the classes that had all 5 days in this rotation (Gold and Red) enjoyed a Talent Time (chance to share performances) and then chose music/movement games and activities.

In the coming rotation 'week 3' (September 19- October 6)  the musical focus will be Melody.

Week 1 - August 8-26

The first three weeks of school have come and gone!  With the specials schedule that we have at Gold Rush, that equals 1 instructional week for me with all of the students.  That's why this post is called - Week 1.

In our first musical week together, our focus was building community and establishing ways of working together in learning and making music.  As this is my fourth year at Gold Rush, it is taking me less time to work on names.  It is still a challenge to instantly recall over 600 students plus teachers, but I think it's really important so I work hard at that.

• Kindergartners learned a Circle Song - "Such a Making a Circle" that helps give us a routine for starting each music class.  We changed the words for different 'beat' ideas - like clapping, stomping, patting, etc.   Students experienced beat by walking and running as they took turns in "Let's Go Walking".  The sound of the tambourine matched their footsteps and each student's names were added to a chart, designating how many claps (or syllables) are in their name.  In addition, students explored the movement space with different steps, accompanied by tambourine or recorder.  Since not everyone got a solo turn for "Let's Go Walking" that will continue until everyone is on our clap chart.

• First Graders experienced matching their footsteps to the sound of the temple blocks in a listening/movement/reaction game called move and stop.  They learned a new song called "Welcome Back to School".  We added some movement - including traveling on some phrases, not moving, but adding body percussion - filling in the gaps in the song, and greeting one another with a hand shake or waving.  Over the course of the week we used this song as a mixer and added an extended ending with body percussion in a 4 beat sound and silence pattern.  We worked with the musical symbols for one beat of sound and one beat of silence (Tah and Rest).  We did this with movement and reading and writing music notation.  We also learned a Play Party (Americana singing/movement game) called "Jump, Jim, Joe".   

• Second Graders also matched their footsteps to the sound of the temple blocks in the listening/movement/reaction game called move and stop - exploring various steps and rhythms like skipping, galloping, jogging, walking and a slow sneak.  They revisited the song "Welcome Back to School" as a mixer, greeting different partners each time.  When we added the body percussion sound/silence pattern to extend the song with a partner, we figured out how the pattern would be written down with musical symbols for sound and silence (tah and rest).  We worked further with tah - rest patterns in movement, and with notation - both reading patterns and writing them down with stick notation.  Near the end our week together, we learned a new Play Party (singing/movement game) called Cut the Cake.  We'll do more work with that song in our next rotation as we focus on rhythm.

• Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders all began with the movement/listening/reaction game Move and Stop - exploring the space, with various steps and tempos.  Our first day together we sorted ourselves on a continuum based on our preferences (ranging from a strong like to strong dislike) to various prompts - such as singing, drumming, moving to music, listening to music, performing, working in groups, and working alone.  We discovered that no two people are exactly alike.  We had a circle talk about what rules or structures help us as learners to enable our best learning and working together.  We also played a listening/movement game called Beat You Walk, Rhythm You Drop.  The majority of our work together for week one involved creating musical components to go with a poem:
  Good, Better, Best - Never let it rest - 'Til your good is better and your better is your best.
  The first time, after warming up with Move and Stop in two teams - one moving only to quarter notes (tah/walk) and one moving only to eighth notes (run / tee-tee), students were asked to work with a partner to create a 4 beat pattern body percussion pattern using only those notes.  Somewhere within the 4 beats there needed to be a partner clap of some kind.  The four-beat pattern was then extended to 8 beats.  We shared those patterns so that we could extend our movement vocabulary by watching others' ideas.  The first 8 beats were stationary and only used movements done from the knees up.  Next students created an 8 beat traveling pattern (away/toward or around/turning) to do with their partners.  The poem was added to go with this created choreography.  The next day after reviewing the poem and created choreographies with their partner, students stayed with their partner, but the whole class was divided into 3 larger groups.  Following a mini-lesson on creating a Word-Chain with Rhythmic Building Bricks, the larger group worked to create two or three phrases (made up of two 2-beat blocks or one block repeated) and to structure that into a 16 beat phrase using an elemental form - aaab, abab, aabb, aaba, abca or abac.  These became contrasting sections within a larger Rondo form in a speech piece.  The next day after reviewing each of these previously created components (the choreography, and the word chain), students reviewed the poem and learned to play the rhythm as a hand drum piece.  Some groups even tried it in a Rhythmic Canon (an echo that interrupts).  The small groups then worked to transfer their word chain rhythms over to untuned percussion instruments such as claves, jingle bells, maracas or rasps.  We put together the word chain rhythms with the poem text played on hand drums.  The final take was structuring a was to bring all of these parts together.  Each class's final 'performance' was their own structure / form for linking all of these components.  Although most were not recorded as I did not have my school ipad yet, a few examples may be seen on the In the Spotlight page. 

In the coming rotation 'week 2' (August 29-September 15)   the Musical Headline will be Beat or Pulse.  We will continue to work with sound/silence plus beat groupings (Meter) and also evenly divided beats, and mixing those together for Rhythm.