Music Week 27

In 3rd-5th grade we did Rhythm Rockets a game to reinforce rhythmic values and to help us with our next project. I distrubuted Rhythm Rockets cards and clips to each student. We reviewe note values and also reviewed the rhythm sheets we used at the beginning of the year. I clapped a rhythm 2 or 3 times and the students had to place the clip on the rhythm they heard. I also had the students clap rhythms back. At first, the game was meant to be a quick review and we were to move on the song Shortnin' Bread but I added an elimination round to see who was really paying attention.

All of the classes K-5 were learning the song Shortnin' Bread. Taught the song by rote and incorporatee boomwhackers according to the musical score. Depending on the level of the students, some were only able to learn the vocal part. Surprisingly, the Kindergartners did extremely well. They were used to playing them because we worked with them so much at Christmas time.

Kindergartners also learned the Line Up song if we had time. 1st and 2nd grade also reviewed their solfege hand signs with the song Pease Porrige Hot.

Also, don't forget to visit the Hip-Hop rubrick page(to the right) if you have a student in 3rd-5th grade. The rubrick has the point break down for the classes that participated in the project.

Next week, I will try to get a podcast of class activities.

Hip Hop Rubrick

Please click on the page that says Hip-Hop Rubrick to find out how your child project will be scored. This will affect their grade either positively or negatively.

Concert March 25

On Thursday, March 25, 2010 we will have our Music In Our Schools Month concert in the Williams Elementary cafeteria. We will begin at 6:30pm and will feature our band and chorus.

Music Week 26

We finally finished working on the Hip-Hop projects. I began transferring files from the mac laptops to my flash drive for grading.I will post a rubrick for my grading soon.

Third Grade classes learned a Boomwhacker Song-Down By the Station. Here is how we did it:

-NeedLow C red, Dorange, E yellow, F lime Green, G blue-green, High C red (one per student)
-Formation:C's on one side of room, E's and G's on the other side of room, D's and F's in center

Process:
Teach song by rote
Teach body percussion pattern. Transfer to tubes
Sing song with tubes
Add cabasa
Teach coda. Add to song

Can also be taught to 2nd or 4th grade

In 1-2 we did a book: Froggy Gets Dressed. A story with musical sound effects. The song was:

Flop, Flop, Flop went Froggy
Flop, Flop, Flop 'cross the floor
Floop, Flop, flop went Froggy
It's timed to get dressed once more

I Selected students to play the Orff xylophones, drums, guirowhile I read the story.

Kindergarten is still talking about the difference between speaking and singing voice. We learned Bee, Bee Bumble Bee Rhyme. We also read Froggy Gets Dressed but I taught K movement.

Music Week 25

We are getting closer to finishing our Hip-Hop projects in 3rd-5th grade.


In K-2 we learned a song called Bounce High, Bounce Low. The idea was to learn the song and be able to bounce a ball on strong beats and catch it on weak beats. We took turns saying different names in the class.They were to bounce the ball to the next child when it came time to say the next name. Everyone got a turn. I wrote strong beat and weak beat on the board and we talked about the difference. We said that the strong beat is the beat that is empasized in each measure. The ball that we were bounce was to help illustrate that every time ball bounces on ground that is strong beat, weak beat is when we catch it. I drew rhythms for Bounce High on the board and we worked on identifying strong/weak beats.We also focused on so, mi, and la again with Rain Rain Go Away.

K also review speaking and singing voices with Hickory Dickory Dock . We listened to different versions of Hickory and Ring around the RosyListen and Sing, Sing What Shall I and they had to figure out if the song was speaking or singing. Finally we did Hickory Dickory with Boomwhackers.

Music Week 24

This week we tried to finish our Hip Hop projects. I tried to make sure that each group had:
Bass Track
Drum Track
Guitar Track
Vocal Track

I adjusted the levels and each group was supposed to record. Classes that could not follow directions had to do a worksheet packet.

In Kindergarten we learned Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? I said the rhyme and had the children echo. We repeated several times and substitute name of student. There were a few times we repeated the rhyme and change the way voice is used(speaking, singing, whispering, shouting) Next, we did Ring Around the Rosy. We did the ashes part to see if students can tell if whispering, singing, or shouting. We also played the old game. Finally, we worked on Hickory Dickory Dock. We talked about the difference between speaking and singing.

1st and 2nd also learned Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? We then learned Bobby Shafto and learned how to do the solfege handsigns for Bobby Shafto. Finally, we reviewed the signs for so, la, mi