2nd Grade goes cloud watching

The 2nd grade singers went cloud watching this week in the music room.  

I found these fantastic music clouds on Cherie Herring's blog Just a Little More (click here for link) and placed them on my ceiling this year.  The students cloud watched for the melodies I sang (all included So, La and Mi- the three notes we have been studying this trimester).  Then the students partnered up and cloud watched together, taking turns finding and singing the melody or rhythm found on the cloud.

Cloud watching in Music

1st Grade Composers

First grade has been listening for high and low sounds as well as short and long sounds this month.  This past week, students attempted to write music on their risers using paper plates.

The Writing Process

Checking work with the team

High and low are a skip apart on the music staff, so the students used their risers as their staff.  Each group did a beautiful job skipping the step between our high sound and our low sound.  Some students wrote the song "See Saw" while others invented new songs during our writing activity.

Roller Coasters in Music?

Who doesn't like a roller coaster?  Even if you don't like to ride them, looking at them and following their track is super fun.  So, when it came time to start listening for High and Low sounds, the 1st graders and I began with vocal roller coasters!  These roller coasters are visuals with curvy, curly lines for us to sing.  Each one has a sound, word, or series of words to sing while following the track of the roller coaster.  My favorite is the "Oh YEAH" roller coaster!  We will continue to explore the vocal roller coasters while the 1st Graders are learning to listen for high and low sounds in songs they know.