Where in the World is Mr. Maraca?? RUSSIA

 This time Mr. Maraca is visiting Russia! This month in composer corner students are learning about Sergei Prokofiev, so I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce the country of Russia, they're similarities and differences not on in music, but their country and economics as well.

In the first slide I use animation to go one line at a time with the students. Each sentence is a clue to let the students figure out where Mr. Maraca is.  Finally the word RUSSIA presents itself at the bottom (after all clues are given) so that they can guess!

One of the most important things I like to discuss with the students are the similarities and differences in our American culture with the other countries. This doesn't always mean we are only talking about the music background, but sometimes about their economy and culture. One of the National Standards for Music education is: 9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture. In order to do this successfully I think that it is important to show the students other historical facts about those countries to help them understand where music comes into play.

 After students learn about the culture/economy we discuss some of the famous genre's of music and the famous composers.  Here are a few of the composers we spoke about.

Many countries have their own form of instruments. This slide shows historical Russian instruments, and then we decide as a group which of the 4 traditional family of instruments they belong in.

Peter and the Wolf is a famous children's symphony that is written by our composer of the month, Sergei Prokofiev. This symphony introduces the instruments of the orchestra to the students through music and through a story that Prokofiev wrote. Students have a chance to watch the Disney version of this in class.

After watching Peter and the Wolf we do a matching game to see who was paying attention! Which instrument goes with which character? Each character in Peter and the Wolf is assigned a specific instrument that always plays when their character is on screen.





Those are only part of the slides for Russia, however if you would like to get the entire PowerPoint please visit my store at Teachers Pay Teachers

Going on an Egg Hunt!

In preparation for the Easter holiday I found a great unit by a fellow musician called Goin' on an Egg Hunt by Adron Ming III.  It is a song and game for k-2nd that I adapted to fit the kindergarten students here at Snyder.  In the game students use a call and response to echo a chant about finding Easter eggs.

The lyrics go like this " Going on an Egg Hunt, Lookin' all around me, gotta find a bright one. Something green!"  The color changes at the end of the song for which ever egg the students are hunting for.

 I have been looking for a way to start stick notation with the kindergarten students, and this was the perfect opportunity.  Stick notation is the first step in getting them to read music. Which is part of the National standards that all students in music have to follow. Standard 5. Reading and notating music. Every time there is a single stick we say "TA", I have the students clap the rhythm and say it.  The fun twist is that around the room are Easter eggs that they have to find. Once they find it they read and clap the rhythm then run back to me and clap/say it. The picture to the right shows the first rhythm they learned, Ta, Ta, Ta, Ta









When the stick notation is connected then we say ti ti. ti ti's are twice as fast as ta's and always come in pairs (at least at the kindergarten level.)

Finally if they get it right and they are the first ones to get it right then they get to choose an Easter egg from my Easter basket and keep whatever prize is in it.  The picture below shows the Easter basket I used and how they chose their prizes!