Thursday, October 30, 2014

Level 3 "Thrills"

Level 3 student have been studying the form of Michael Jackson's 1982 hit song, "Thriller".  Instead of working with pictures on a page, we studied the form using movement.  I found the choreography on music educator Tracy King's blog mrskingrocks.blogspot.com.  The students and I had a great time learning the moves, performing as a large group (almost 100 kids at a time!) and learning the form to this popular song!  Check it out in the links below.

** Disclaimer:  These videos may not be viewable in some countries due to copyright laws.  I downloaded the song from iTunes and am not using it for any profit; just for educational purposes. **

PM Literacy Classes
AM Literacy Classes

Friday, October 17, 2014

Miss Mary Mack is Back!

Have you noticed your 3rd grader playing some hand clapping games?  We have been working on learning some of these in Music class.  I have been able to not only teach the kids some of my old favorites but also learn some of their favorites!  I learn a new hand clapping game almost every day from the students.

Since we started learning these games, we've started to wonder how many kids are playing these on the playground during lunch recess.  So far, we have found ZERO!!!  So now we are wondering how we can get students on our playground to play these fantastic games and keep oral tradition alive here at Lincoln.  We watched this Sesame Street video as to how to teach one another how to play and then went out to give it a try!  We'll do more research in the coming weeks and will report it on our website missmarymackisback.weebly.com.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Things are getting Spooky!

October is a spooky month, so why not celebrate with some spooky songs in music!  First grade is currently working with a song called "Mrs. White had a Fright" to learn about music syllables (rhythm).  We are working with this adorable set of ghost pictures made by Emily at The Sweetest Melody (click here to link to the TPT store).

Level 3 is working on reviewing sixteenth notes and sixteenth/eighth note combinations with Aileen Miracle's Ghost Rhythms (click here to link to the TPT store).

On the less spooky side, Second grade is singing a song about Columbus and adding in the notes they know on the xylophones (so, la and mi) while singing the song.

I'm hoping to post some pictures and video of the fun soon.