Thursday, January 31, 2013

It's Always a Good Time Part 2

The 5th Graders and I are proud to present 'Good Time' by Owl City/Carly Rae Jepsen.  No, we did not have celebrities in our midst, but we did recreate this song using classroom instruments.  Our inspiration came from this Jimmy Fallon video.

Jimmy, The Roots, and Carly

We thought, if they can do it, WE CAN TO!!!  It was a bit rocky and took a ton of cooperation, experimenting, and collaboration before we came to these recordings.  These videos take a long time to upload, so please be patient with me- I'm adding them to the blog as quickly as I can :)

Harte-Naus
Klingberg
Pindar


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Centers in 1st Grade

The 1st Graders have been working through centers this week.  There are 4 centers the 1st Graders are working through including Listening, Reading, Composing, and Instruments.

At our Listening Lab, students used iPods for the first time to listen to 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' performed by Ella Fitzgerald.  Students learned how to use an iPod and completed the listening log.

 Teaching each other how to use the iPods.

One of my favorite answers of all time!


In the Reading center, students had to match the letter notation with the staff notation.  This helped us practice our So-Mi reading skills!
 It looked a little chaotic at first.

 Success!


In our Composing center, students used the Brown Bear, Brown Bear folders to compose melodies using So and Mi on both lines and spaces.

Singing with handsigns and melody names.

The Instrument Center was the most interesting to everyone- write a So- Mi melody using cottonballs then play your melody on the instruments.  The students had a great time creating and playing music.

So- So             Mi-Mi           So 

Written on the left, instrument on the right.

Students are having a great time with our centers and cannot wait to do them again.  Thanks for checking out the blog to see what Lincoln musicians are up to this year!  

ZAP IT!

 
2nd and 3rd Grades learned how to play the game Zap It! over the last few weeks.  Mrs. DeFrang (music teacher at Franklin) taught me this game and I am so thankful that she did because we LOVED IT!!!

We learned to play in our riser groups.  Each riser received a Popsicle stick with a rhythm printed on the end.  Each riser had to perform their rhythm by clapping and saying the rhythm (we used quarter note and rest, eighth notes, and half note).  IF the riser group clapped their rhythm correctly, they kept their stick.  If not, I took their stick back.  Tricky, eh?

But that's not all!  Students then began to pick their own sticks from the cup to perform in their groups.  If a student pulled a stick that had the words 'Zap It!' on the end, I collected all of their sticks.  *insert maniacal laugh here*

We had so much fun that we will play again.  Next time, the 3rd grade will add dotted half note to their game to make it even tougher.  *maniacal laugh*

Friday, January 11, 2013

Holiday Sing Photos!

We had a GREAT time singing together the last day of school in 2012! 











I hope you all have had a great vacation.  It was so wonderful to see you all this week!  Get ready for much more music making in 2013!

So and Mi come to 1st Grade

1st Grade has been exploring high and low sounds and this week, we renamed our two notes So and Mi (a minor third or G and E on the piano).  The students practiced reading So and Mi from written music, practiced writing So and Mi on the music staff  and even did a little ear training too!  In our ear training, we listened to a So-Mi pattern and wrote it using Zoo Pals (paper plates) and our risers.  Yes, it's true: Music can be written using many different things.  Check out their fantastic work!

 Writing 'So-So Mi So-So Mi' 

 Writing 'So-So Mi So Mi'

Some riser groups got to write their So and Mi patterns on the staff in the middle 
of the Music Room carpet.




Kindergarten composes High and Low sounds

Did you know that the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? was written by Bill Martin in the year 1962?  Mr. Martin's book is 50 years old, just like Lincoln school!  This week, the Kindergartners and I read this wonderful book together.  I was so pleased to hear many of them reading right along with me!  After we read the story, we talked about some of my favorites from the book:  the purple cat, yellow duck, blue horse, goldfish, green frog, and red bird.  The class was divided up into 5 groups and given one of these file folders.

 I found the images on Pinterest

 Blue Horse File Folder

Inside of the folder.  Some folders have high and low on spaces, 
other folders have high and low on lines.

The students then worked together to compose music for their part of the story, using high and low sounds. To compose, the students were allowed to choose where their sounds would be placed- either high or low! After all of the pieces had been placed, students sang their compositions with me while following the picture notes placed on their 2 line staff.  Check out their super work!

Writing with our riser buddies

 Goldfish, goldfish

So PROUD of our work! 

We made AB Patterns too! 



 So proud!

 Many hands make light work