snow day reflections

We have yet another snow day – this makes 7 or 8 in the last 6 weeks – so I am doing a little bit of reading and planning. I’ve been reflecting on the past couple of months. It seems as though we haven’t progressed very much, what with winter field trips, winter carnival days, special guests, snow days, etc. I always assumed January and February were the months where you could really catch your drive and get lots done becuase there aren’t any major holidays, but this has not been the case for us! However, here are some of the things that my classes have been working on:

Grade 1: We’ve been learning (after much preparation!) to label tah, ti-ti, and just last week – sah. Where I live, kindergarten is not part of the public school system, so students only recieve their first experience with music in grade 1. In September 2011 kindergarten WILL be in our school system. I’m looking forward to that!

Other things we’ve done:

• Poem & Song (with non-pitched percussion instruments & sign language) for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Read, “Orchestranimals” by Vlasta Van Kampen & listened to audiobook
• The “Elevator Song” – melody direction (high pitches, low pitches, experiencing major scale aurally & visually w/ boomwhackers, playing pitched instruments)
• Sound story – “The Little Boy Named Espimandos”

Grade 2 – We’ve really been focusing on rhythm reading, writing, and performing – and then we added in solfa on top of that. The kids love it! They take such pride in their compositions!  We’ve also been doing a lot of singing & movement games

Grade 3 – We have been working on a sound story – “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat” by Eugene Field. Then, we learned a song based on the story and now we have begun working on an Orff orchestration to accompany the song. We’ve also been learning about the pentatonic scale, and how to set up our xylophones and metallophones into F pentatonic.

Grade 4 – We have been working on an Orff orchestration to “Little Green Bug” from “An Orff Mosaic from Canada” by Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming.  On top of singing this silly song and learning all of the instrument parts that go along with it, we’ve been writing our own silly lyrics based on the original song.

Grade 5 – We began 2009 with a short unit about Franz Liszt. We researched a little about his life, and then we listened to his music. We watched the video, “Liszt’s Rhapsody” – and then we had a lot of fun with Bugs Bunny & Tom and Jerry’s animated versions of the Hungarian Rhapsody.

Then, we reviewed our treble clef note-reading, learned about major scale patterns, and the tonic & dominant notes in C major and F major. We sang, “Chumbara” and “Everybody Loves Saturday Night” and played the I and V chords on Xylophones and keyboards. Now we are moving into playing entire chords with small groups of students.

Grade 6 – We have been working on a “decades of music” unit. We’ve been visiting stations in the music classroom that have been all about music in the 50’s all the way to the music of today. We’ve been to listening stations, watched videos, read articles, played instruments, and visited websites to help us experience each decade.

As I look back, I can see that we have been accomplishing much in the music room – just at a bit of a slower pace than I’d expected. March Break is in 2 weeks – after which our snow days should begin to taper off, and more work can be done! 

Maestro’s Obstacle Course by Cheryl Lavender

“Maestro’s Obstacle Course” is a game from the book, “Help! I’m a Substitute Music Teacher!” by Cheryl Lavender. (On a side note – definitely buy that book!!! I haven’t had to have a sub yet, but if I do, this book has excellent ideas to leave behind for a substitute teacher who is not experienced in music. Where I live, there are only 2 music substitutes available for our area, so they are very hard to get!!)

Here are the basics to the game:

1. Split the class in half: one half will be the “orchestra” and the other half will become human”obstacles” around the room.

2. One student will be the “Maestro” and lead the “orchestra” and one student will be blindfolded.

3. “Maestro” needs to lead the blindfolded student around the human obstacle course by cueing specific members of his “orchestra” to play. Each individual instrument will have a specific action assigned to it (i.e. claves = walk forward, cymbal = turn left, ect). This is all done with the instruments giving directions, and no talking.

That’s just a basic outline – obviously the book is much more detailed. It’s a lot of fun – the kids really love it, it’s easy to set up, it encourages listening and proper instrument technique, and it’s a great segue into teaching timbre!