It has been an exciting fun-filled month so far in the music room. Lots of learning and exploration in music. Also Band and chorus have begun. Students have enjoyed listening to the music of John Williams! We studied the form of one of his most famous works "Star Wars Theme" and pretended to be storm troopers and millennium falcons to show the A section and the B section of the song. |
We discovered that it is much more fun to "show what we know" through movement than to do a worksheet or written assessment. We also used a parachute to show the form of "Star Wars Theme." Many students tell me that we could do that everyday of music for the rest of the year and they would be very happy. It was so much fun!!!
We played with music in centers . We used coloring glyphs in which one had to color one's picture based on what one heard from listening to Hedwig's theme from Harry Potter. For example color the hat blue and yellow if the music is fast or purple and yellow if it is slow. We used play-doh to create musical notation. We played many instruments in our exploration center including: banjolele, ukulele, vibraslap, joia tubes, ratchet, flexatone, guiro and piano. We wrote sound stories bringing books to life by adding sounds to simple picture books. We also had a boomwhacker station where students worked together to play songs by color notation. Centers were a lot of fun. Please talk with your child about ways to be responsible specifically in the music room. It will reinforce what we talk about together while in music class. |
Abigail and Ava wrote a great sound story!!!
Two 2nd graders Abigail and Ava worked together during music class to write and perform a sound story called "In the Tall Tall Grass. They read the story, explored instruments, used a graphic organized and rehearsed all on their own! Way to go girls! Check out the very first performance of their story to the left.
Doing this kind of process enables children to explore both concrete and abstract thinking together. It motivates them to synthesize what they read in a different way than if they were asked what each word meant. They explored vocabulary with different senses and had a blast doing it!
Doing this kind of process enables children to explore both concrete and abstract thinking together. It motivates them to synthesize what they read in a different way than if they were asked what each word meant. They explored vocabulary with different senses and had a blast doing it!
| |
Check out the gallery of our first music center experience of the year below!
1st and 2nd grade have been exploring beat. Beat is the heart beat of music- just like your heart beat beats in you! We have practiced keeping a steady beat in our feet, our hands and through locomotor movement around the room. We also discovered our pulses and that our hearts can beat at different rates just as music can. 3rd grade and 5th grade have begun units on form. Form is a pattern in music. We have listened to many songs and discovered that most songs have and introduction, A, B and an ending. Students loved the song "I am an Alien." It had a form of Intro, A, B, A, B. Students discovered the words verse and chorus and decided which section should be called which word. 5th grade will extend the unit on form by creating boomwhacker compositions using rondo form -ABACA. We will perform these compositions once they have been finished. |
Happy music making everyone!!!