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
No comments:
Post a Comment