Over the past two weeks, Level 3 students have started drumming in the Music room. We have learned to play open tones on the drums and have tried our best to avoid the 'poison patterns' (thank you Aileen Miracle!). Soon everyone will have learned "Annie Ate Jam" (from Hands On!) and how to play bass tones and open tones on the drum. Be sure to ask your child about it!
Students! If you read this blog entry, come and tell me the secret password sometime this week (September 7-11). I'll have a prize if you do! This week's password is 'Italy'. See you soon!
Friday, September 4, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Welcome Back!
Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a relaxing summer filled with loads of fun. I had a wonderful summer traveling and spending time with my family and friends. On Monday, we are back to school and back to making music!
This year, I will be checking in with you to see if you have been reading the blog! There will be little mini-incentives for checking out the blog and telling me about what you saw. I will let you know exactly when it starts. It's so exciting!
Here are our objectives for the first few weeks of school:
Kindergarten: I can keep a steady beat.
1st Grade: I can sing alone and with the group.
2nd Grade: I can read and perform rhythms with ta and ta-tee.
3rd Grade: I can sing So-Mi-Do melodies.
4th Grade: I can play 3 note recorder songs.
5th Grade: I can describe and analyze music.
I can't wait to see you! Enjoy the last few moments of summer vacation :)
This year, I will be checking in with you to see if you have been reading the blog! There will be little mini-incentives for checking out the blog and telling me about what you saw. I will let you know exactly when it starts. It's so exciting!
Here are our objectives for the first few weeks of school:
Kindergarten: I can keep a steady beat.
1st Grade: I can sing alone and with the group.
2nd Grade: I can read and perform rhythms with ta and ta-tee.
3rd Grade: I can sing So-Mi-Do melodies.
4th Grade: I can play 3 note recorder songs.
5th Grade: I can describe and analyze music.
I can't wait to see you! Enjoy the last few moments of summer vacation :)
Friday, April 10, 2015
Jazz in Level 3
We have been studying form and order again in Level 3! This time, we worked with one of my favorite jazz pieces called "Potato Chips" by Slim Galliard. I used a sequence I learned from Marcie Kumor at an institute day several years ago with the students to create our motions to go with the form of the song. Students had to remember what music went with what stick patterns. Students also had to improvise a section of the music by using the names of different kinds of chips (i.e. crunchy cheesy, cool ranch, sour cream and onion, etc.). You can hear several of the students (and sometimes me) speaking the different chip names during the videos. You'll also see some stick tricks which were tricky but super fun to learn!
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Thanksgiving Dinner Fun
It's the week of Thanksgiving and we are all dreaming of the plate we will construct for Thursday's dinner. Whatever your favorite, everyone's plate looks just a touch different even when the same dishes are on the table. Level 3 students used Thanksgiving Dinner Rhythm Cards (click here for the TPT link) to create a rhythmic Thanksgiving dinner to perform for the class.
Students performed their Thanksgiving dinner rhythms for the class on the drums. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Some groups went back for seconds (it's hard not to on Thanksgiving!).
Students performed their Thanksgiving dinner rhythms for the class on the drums. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Friday, November 21, 2014
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
UPDATE!!! Miss Mary Mack IS Back!!!
We have exciting news to share about our question 'How can Lincoln's 3rd Grade keep hand clapping games alive on our playground?'
We have been collecting data during lunch recess about hand clapping games. Our questions included the following:
We have been collecting data during lunch recess about hand clapping games. Our questions included the following:
- Do you see anyone playing hand clapping games?
- Number of kids playing in the group
- Grade level of kids playing
- Use of nonsense words
- Use of challenging movements
The first two times we went out, we saw not a single student playing hand clapping games. The 3rd grade started to play games we learned in class out on the playground during lunch recess and would you believe, that we are starting to see these games catch on? This week, we have seen as many as 10 groups playing and the students playing are from all grade levels! This is exciting to see on our playground!
We've learned that hand clapping games are fun, but we do not know enough games to keep them from growing stale. Each group of 3rd grade students (4-5 in a group) have been given the task of creating a new hand clapping game to present to our playground. We have been working hard and are ready to show our work!
3rd graders are busily prepping for a practice presentation at the end of this week. Hopefully, we will all hear some good feedback as to what is going well and what needs some attention. We will present our new games to some experts on December 4th. Our experts include music teachers, local college music professors, playground supervisors, and administration. Wish us luck! Check out some pictures of our work in progress:
We've learned that hand clapping games are fun, but we do not know enough games to keep them from growing stale. Each group of 3rd grade students (4-5 in a group) have been given the task of creating a new hand clapping game to present to our playground. We have been working hard and are ready to show our work!
3rd graders are busily prepping for a practice presentation at the end of this week. Hopefully, we will all hear some good feedback as to what is going well and what needs some attention. We will present our new games to some experts on December 4th. Our experts include music teachers, local college music professors, playground supervisors, and administration. Wish us luck! Check out some pictures of our work in progress:
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