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! 

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.

Pumpkin Pumpkin

Pumpkin Pumpkin is a lesson that I use with my Kindergarten and First Grade students.

The main focus of this lesson is to get the students to:
 listen to high and low sounds (sol-mi)
start them reading rhythms (ta and ti-ti)

First the students learn by rote the Pumpkin Pumpkin Song:

After the students know the song we form a circle, and choose one child to go into the middle. We then play the Pumpkin Pumpkin game:

Have the students in the circle face away from the student in the middle and side-step around the circle while singing the song.  On the words "just like that," they should clap the rhythm.  On "that," have the students jump around to face the student in the middle, making the scariest faces that they can.  The student in the middle (or teacher) chooses the scariest face to be the next person in the middle.  You can speed up the game by having more than one child in the middle at the same time.

Some kindergarten classes find it difficult to side-step in a circle around the student in the middle.  instead of walking around the circle, have them form the circle, turn away from the child in the middle, and outline the contour of the melody in the air to show the high and low sounds as they sing the song.  At the end of the song, they should jump around and make the scary face, as described in the game above.

After we've played the game many times, we show the students the Pumpkin Pumpkin pointing  page and have them point to the higher and the lower sounds.  While tracking the "notes" the students sing along.  This activity will reinforce that music is read from left to right, and they will see how the "notes" go higher and lower.  At this point we use the 2 line floor staff and use pumpkin cut outs for the students to place the pumpkins where they should go, low or high.  We sing through the song as I point to each of the "notes" Then I choose a student "conductor" to take my place and point at the pumpkins.

Afterwards to assess if the students know which are the higher and lower sounds, I have them close their eyes and use arm motions to show the higher and lower sounds.



                                                                                 

Extension Ideas!!
1.)Use this song to teach the concept of rhythm: Have the students clap the words of the song as they sing instead of raising and lowering their arms.  This will help to reinforce that rhythm in music is "the way the words sound" When you transfer this to the Pumpkin Pumpkin pointing page, they will see what the rhythm looks like.



2.)Create new verses for the song. Ask the students for other spooky things that they could turn into instead         of a jack-o-lantern. For example:
                                                       -Turn into a black cat just like that!
                                                       -Turn into a scary monster just like that!

3.)Add an instrumental accompaniment.  Pat a steady beat as you and the students sing the song.  Transfer the pattern to a barred instrument to play a simple bordun on C and G.  Have the students accompany the singing.

Pumpkin Carols!

Pumpkin Carol Sing-Along!

While sifting through the things the previous teacher left I found these Pumpkin Carols! I'm planning on singing through them with the kids the week of Halloween! Feel free to borrow them!

Hidden Message #1

Clue: This is an auxiliary percussion instrument.

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