Kindergarten- we met a new animal on our farm- sheep! We got to play egg shakers while singing "Listen to the Sheep" and we moved and danced around with the shakers. We read a story called Hattie the Hen and practiced moving our voices high and low with the story.
1st grade- we got to practice our xylophone playing even more! We are working on telling stories using the xylophone going up and going down. We practiced the story "Jack and Jill" and also "Wiggle and Waggle." We are getting really good at holding the mallet correctly and making fun sounds on the instruments.
2nd grade- we are reviewing the notes la, so, and mi using lots of songs and games. This week we learned a song/game called "Bluebird, Bluebird" and also played the birdie game. For the birdie game, Ms Buckley hides a small stuffed birdie underneath one of 3 cups. Each cup represents a note (la, so, or mi.) While Ms. Buckley is hiding the birdie, everyone closes their eyes so that no one knows where he is hiding. Then, Ms. Buckley sings a pattern using the notes la, so, and mi. Whichever note the pattern ends on is the cup where birdie is hiding. This requires students to use their ears to help them decide which note was sung last (la is the highest, mi is the lowest.) It's a fun ear training game that the kids enjoy. :)
3rd grade- we are getting fancy with our xylophones! We are playing borduns (a simple steady beat accompaniment pattern), tunes (the melody of our singing) and we are improvising our own tunes! We are using the song "Willowbee" as our foundation since we already know that song from two weeks ago. We are getting really good at creating our own melodies on the xylophone.
4th grade- we have begun playing recorders! It's always fun to start students off on recorders. They have a bad reputation but are such lovely instruments when played well. We used the following tongue twister poem to start us off:
How much dew does a dewdrop drop is dewdrops do drop dew?
They do drop as do dewdrops drop if dewdrops do drop dew.
We then figured out how to say that poem using only the word "doo." Then, we whispered the poem on the word "doo." Eventually, we whispered "doo" into our recorders, which is how you make a nice sound on it. Super fun! We even had conversations with a partner but could only use the word "doo." It was pretty amusing. :)
5th grade- we are continuing our drumming practice by creating rhythms using Chad (quarter note), Ghana (eighth notes), Tanzania (sixteenth notes) and our newest rhythm, Cameroon (two sixteenths and one eighth note.) We learned a song called "Togo", which lists even more African countries. After the song was finished, we would echo 4-beat rhythms on drums. We then got into 4 long lines/teams (I called the teams canoes) with one leader (the captain) at the front. The leader would get a drum and would be in charge of performing a 4-beat rhythm. Everyone in their canoe would copy the rhythm. We rotated so that everyone had multiple turns to be the captain.
No comments:
Post a Comment