Holiday Tree

5th and 6th grade are learning to read actual notes! No longer will they be working with ti's and ta's! In order to get them ready for this next step we learned about what the notes are, and how they go together.

Each student created their own holiday tree! The tree had to be made up of notes, but they could decorate the rest of the page however they wanted.

Working from the top of the tree down we see at the very top of our tree is a whole note which equals 4 beats.  Coming off the whole note are two tree branches, each branch receives one half note (1/2 + 1/2 = 1). This process is similar until we are at the bottom of the tree where all the students have 1/8th notes on the bottom.  The tree can be used to remind the students as we go forward 2 different pieces of information. 1.) How many beats each note receives. 2.) What 2 notes equal each other (1/4+1/4=1/2).

This is also a great cross-curriculum lesson with Math. As we are learning about what notes equal each other we have to practice adding our fractions!

For Example:

1/8 note + 1/8 note= 1/4 note
1/4 note + 1/4 note= 1/2 note
1/2 note + 1/2 note= 1 whole note

1, 2, 3 compose with me!

2nd grade is starting to become young composers! As part of their music curriculum each month there is a composer that they learn about.  This month happens to be Ludwig Von Beethoven.  In the spirit of learning about composers, the students have started writing their own compositions as well!

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in Germany and started composing his own music at the age of 7! Beethoven's Dad, Leopold, was his first teacher who started Beethoven out learning the piano and violin.

To get the students use to reading music, and introduce them to the instruments they are doing picture compositions.  Each block of the composition the students have to draw one of the instruments that they are learning about that week.  Then they work with a partner (each with their own instrument) and they create their own composition that they then will give a title.  After every student has written their own composition they have 5 minutes to practice and then we have they're own mini concert in class. 

As an add on extension plan, the class following their compositions the students go to the computer lab and create their own music compositions on a website called musicgames.co  Here they can layer instruments on top of each other and hear their own compositions come alive!