Aiken Drum

Mr. Maraca is a big hit with my older kids (4th-6th).  I show the powerpoint of where he is and they all guess and it's a lot of fun, and a lot of learning.  With my younger kids though I can't have them sit through a powerpoint! So Mr. Maraca is more of a class mascot and we learn songs appropriate for where Mr. Maraca is "Vacationing"

Right now Mr. Maraca is in Scotland checking out castles, and going to visit Nessy, the Loch Ness Monster.  Kindergarten through 3rd grade are learning traditional Scottish Folk Songs.  In class we started learning about the Scottish folk song Aiken Drum.










As the Scottish Folk song tells us Aiken Drum is a man that lives in the Moon.  As every good Scotsmen knows, if you live on the moon your clothes are made of food! The students had a chance to compose their own lyrics to "Aiken Drum", sing through the song together and draw their own pictures of what Mr. Aiken Drum looks like to them.

I like to play multiple versions of songs for the students to compare and contrast different styles. We sang our Aiken Drum version with piano accompaniment.  I also showed them this video with guitar and drum playing:

Finally I chose a few of their pictures to display, and one class has been recorded as well! I think Mr. Maraca would be very proud of all the Scottish Folk Song singing we did in class this week!

To hear Mr. Patterson's 2nd grade class sing their version of Aiken Drum click the link below:

Mr. Maraca

May I introduce to you Mr. Maraca!

Mr. Maraca is our classroom music multicultural liaison.  The students will get a chance to see Mr. Maraca in different countries, and learn brief information about those places, and their cultures.  

This month Mr. Maraca is in Scotland. 

After reviewing the information about Scotland the students watched a video of Great Highland Bagpipers playing Scotland the Brave and sang along with the lyrics.