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! 

10 Little Leprechaun's!

In the spirit of St. Patrick's day my Kindergarten students continue work on the series "there was an old woman who swallowed a..." This holiday she swallows a clover! 

Eventually the students will have sung through the entire series of "There was an old lady" and then the students will have a chance to start "composing" for the first time. The students will be given a picture where they can draw anything they want in the old lady's mouth and show what she swallowed this time!

 After the book has been read they learn the 10 little leprechaun's song and then we play a game of hot and cold! One student is the Leprechaun and another tries to steal the Leprechaun's Gold and hide it.  If the Leprechaun can find it then the Leprechaun wins if not then the student that hid the Gold wins! The rest of the students sing the song to let the Leprechaun know if he is getting close to finding it or not. If the students sing LOUD then the Leprechaun is very close, if they sing quiet then the Leprechaun is far away!

 As an added extension idea the students have a chance to start to get an idea of music notes and what they look like by looking at the pictures that symbolize what the notes are. (They will start to learn notes in 1st grade)

If you would like to check out the entire PowerPoint and game please visit my site at Teachers Pay Teachers

Form and listening maps!

To continue with teaching the students the importance of learning that music has different forms, I've decided to bring out a fun concept that I learned in college, Listening Maps!

  Listening maps are great tools, especially for the younger kids that can't read music yet.  A listening map is essentially a visual representation of a song.  It can show how the music goes up or down in sound, or if there is a steady beat. Your job as the reader of the listening map is to follow along.

 The second great thing about the listening maps is that it shows when the music changes. When the pictures change, the music changes. From earlier lessons (Such as Music Form) The students already learned that when the music notes change to a different pattern then the form changes. In this slide we see the pictures are different the previous slide therefore even if the students can't hear it (yet!) they will be able to SEE it change!

Since we will be doing these listening maps near Easter I decided to write the map to a song called "The Ballet of the Unhatched Chick" by Mussorgsky (Get the youtube clip here Chicks!) In order to get the students even more engaged I made a bunch of Chicks on a Stick! This tool will be used to help them follow along with the map on the projector screen, and lets face it have some fun too!! I fully believe that students learn better when they want to learn, and when something is fun they want to do it!

These were super east to make, and pretty cheep! If you go to AC Moore or any other craft store right now they have things out for the Easter holiday.  These foam chicks came 5 to a pack, and the pack was only a dollar! The googly eyes and Popsicle sticks were only a dollar as well. Super cheep, super easy to make, and loads of fun!


If you're interested in the whole 24 slide PowerPoint, complete with 2 listening maps, please visit my store at teachers pay teachers 

Happy Listening!

Music Form!

Next week in order to get ready for the Luck of the Irish Limericks the students need to learn about different forms in music.  What is ABA form? ABCA? AABAA? etc.

To do that I've created a PowerPoint that will show the kids how to take patterns, which they can already see thanks to their awesome classroom teachers!!!, and turn them into musical form.

 The first things that the students have to be aware of is that music is in fact made up of patterns! Patterns that repeat and patterns that sound different! Their job is to listen to the music and see if they can hear the patterns.  That comes later though, the first step is to make sure the students can see the difference. Having something tangible to see, at first, is a lot easier to get the point across then starting straight out with listening.

First the students start with something that they already know how to do, spot the pattern! After the pattern is identified they then have to guess what would come next in the pattern!






Then we turn the pattern into what the musical form would be. Whatever the song starts with we call "A" if the rhythm repeats then we say "A" again, when the sound, or rhythm changes then we give it the next letter in the alphabet, or in this case "B" When we hear the same thing we hear at the beginning we go back to that letter "A" So, this pattern, ball, ball, racket, ball, ball, would be A, A, B, A, A!

When looking at this piece of music we want to look at each bar of music (this is a great time to reinforce what bar lines are!!) The first bar of music is always "A" so we know we can give that the letter A. When we look through the rest of the music we have to see if any other bar of music looks the same. When we find the notes that are the same we give it the same letter, A. The first DIFFERENT bar of music we go to the letter B, so on and so forth







Here's what the patterns look like in the song all together. You can get the full 21 slide PowerPoint at my store at Teachers Pay Teachers







After seeing how form is different it's time to hear how form is different.  After the PowerPoint I play different songs, such as Old MacDonald, Here we go LoobyLoo, etc. and whenever the "A" section is on they dance or move one way, and whenever the "B" section goes on they have to move or dance in a different way.

Finally the students then take the song, "Scotland's Burning" and compose their own lyrics to it, with their own movements to show the different movements between A,B,C form.

Luck of the Irish-Limericks!

So for St. Patrick's day coming up I thought it would be fun to work with our national standards on composing music.  My students are learning to be lyricist, for Irish related Limericks! 

 The first question that came to mind was "What is a limerick?" To answer that question I've given an example of a limerick (one that I wrote which stars my husband and his cat).

 Second I wanted to explain to the students what a limerick was, since they do not get this in Language Arts class I wanted to make sure they understood the poetry end of the assignment.  Then I bridge the transfer of knowledge by showing how Limericks have specific forms, just like music has forms (ABA) for example.

Then the students listen to my limerick that I wrote the words to, and the music I set it to. They will have to be able to find words with the right amount of syllables, to the right amount of beats in the song so that they match up!

Finally the students will have a chance to compose their own lyrics, and plug it into the music.  My goal will be to make a bunch of Shamrocks and have the students glue their music to the centers of the shamrocks and then use these for a bulletin board in the classroom! I'll post pictures as soon as they're done!







If you would like to see the entire powerpoint, or would like to use it in your classrooms, please visit my store at Teachers Pay Teachers

5th & 6th Grade Chorus at the Jackals Arena!

Exciting news from the 5th and 6th grade chorus programs here at Snyder Elementary!! Our 2 chorus groups will be combining for a one night only performance at the Elmira Jackals Game on March 23, 2013! The chorus will be singing God Bless America, before the hockey game starts!

All students in Chorus will be able to get in for free! If families would like to come and see the game and hear the chorus sing the Elmira Jackals are offering discounted tickets for only $10.00/ ticket.

I hope everybody is as excited as I am about this opportunity for the students! I can't wait to see everybody there! If you have any questions please feel free to email me at agillette@sayresd.org.  A permission slip and information will be going home to the chorus members by the end of this week!