Last week, I had the privilege of attending a national music conference in San Diego, CA. It's through my main music organization called AOSA- American Orff Schulwerk Association. What is Orff, you ask? Well, it's an approach to teaching music that gives the creative power to the students. Orff teaching uses the media of speech, song, instruments, and movement to allow kids to explore musical ideas and develop musicianship. Basically, it's super hands-on and crazy fun. The conference was 3 long days filled with 12 workshop sessions, concerts, and meals share between hundreds of music teachers. In short, it was inspiring. I returned from that trip with so many new ideas to try in my classroom. Already this week, I tried a couple of new things out with success. Never a dull moment in music class!
This week in...
Kindergarten- we finished up our mini-unit on high and low sounds. We took a short quiz to show that we can hear the different between high and low sounds. For the quiz, we circle a picture of a mountain if we heard high sounds, and a submarine if we heard low sounds. We played a couple of fun Thanksgiving themed games that got us singing and wiggling around the room.
1st grade AND 2nd grade- we are getting so close to or winter concert! Wednesday, December 9th! All first and second grade classes have shown lots of leadership in preparation for this program, and we can't wait to share some fun poems and songs with you. Don't miss it!
3rd grade- this week, we began our work around the theme of our spring concert (Wednesday, March 9th): TREES! We listed all the kinds of trees we could think of. We saw images of many types of trees and showed body shapes to go with each image- a challenging task. We made tree shapes using high, medium, and low levels, and also smooth and pointy shapes. We made shapes alone, with partners, and in groups. We then learned about banyan trees. They are unique because the branches go out horizontally and then begin to drop wisps that eventually reach the ground and become new trunks! This means that one single banyan tree can have many, many trunks and look like an entire park or forest. We explored how to move like a banyan tree and had some really amazing moments of calm, focused energy. We finished by learning a Jamaican folk song called "Banyan Tree."
4th grade- this week, we did some groove walking! A groove walk goes with swing music. You step on beats 1 and 3, and clap/snap on beats 2 and 4. Step, clap, step, clap, etc. It's harder than it sounds! We explored groove walking in many styles (heavy, light, sneaky) and pathways (straight, curved, circular) alone and in groups. We also continued learning about the jazz legend Duke Ellington, or as he is better known, "Sir Duke."
Sir Duke
5th grade- we finished up composing some "what's for lunch" rhythms with drums. We now know how to create rhythms using quarter notes, eighth notes, two sixteenth notes with one eighth note, four sixteenth notes, and half notes. We are beginning to work on some fun drum circle music where we have multiple parts going on at the same time with different types of drums. It's fun to play these drumming patterns along with pop songs like "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Come With Me Now" by KONGOS, and "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors.
Happy Thanksgiving break!
Friday, November 20, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
This week (11/3-11/6)
This week in...
Kindergarten- we started working on high and low! We used fall leaves to help us learn about high and low sounds with the story There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves. We moved our bodies and sang while we pretended to rake leaves, jump in the leaves, roll in the leaves, pile the leaves, and more. We got to put leaves on a tree on the white board to match the high and low sounds on the piano.
1st grade- we are working hard on winter concert music for our performance on Wednesday, December 9th (5:30pm!) We read the story Bear Snores On, which we will feature in our concert. We learned about singing loud and quiet sounds in the song "Grizzly Bear" and learned a fun game to go with the song. We can't wait to share this and other songs with you at the performance!
2nd grade- we are working hard on winter concert music for our performance on Wednesday, December 9th (6:30pm!) We reviewed a couple of old favorites form last year, "Winter Wiggles" and "Snowman Jump" that will be fun additions to the program. We also reviewed the pieces we have been working on, "Gingerbread Breakdown", a fun rhythmic and body percussion piece, and also "Old Saint Nick." We ended class by learning a fun mixer dance called "Jump Jim Joe." See an example video here:
Jump Jim Joe
3rd grade- we have begun our Found Sounds Project!!! This project is super exciting because we get to make our own instruments using things laying around at home. Students should have received a blue letter explaining the details of the project- look for it in their Friday Folder. Also, if you click on the link on the left of this blog under 'Pages' where it says 'Found Sounds Project', you'll see the details there as well. We had 3 special guests come to music class this week from the Denver Playground Ensemble. They create all their own instruments from scratch. Students were able to see, hear, and even try out their instruments to get inspiration for the ones they will make at home.
4th grade- we started off with some singing warmups using solfege this week. We learned that there are notes lower than do, even though pitch hill has do at the bottom of the hill. We also learned a new note on recorder this week! We can now play B, A, and G (mi, re, and do.) We practiced playing and composing patterns with a partner to go with the song "I've Got to Rise" and shared them with the class.
5th grade- what's for lunch? Pepperoni pizza! We used that short question and answer to play some rhythms on drums this week. Students also improvised lots of different answers for "what's for lunch" and practiced playing those rhythms on drums. We worked on lots of Q and A in groups of 3 and then as a large group. To end class, we had the large djembe and tubano drums play the question (what's for lunch?) and the mini djembes play the answer (pepperoni pizza.) We jammed and rocked out using those rhythms to the song "Best Day of My Life." So much fun!
Kindergarten- we started working on high and low! We used fall leaves to help us learn about high and low sounds with the story There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves. We moved our bodies and sang while we pretended to rake leaves, jump in the leaves, roll in the leaves, pile the leaves, and more. We got to put leaves on a tree on the white board to match the high and low sounds on the piano.
1st grade- we are working hard on winter concert music for our performance on Wednesday, December 9th (5:30pm!) We read the story Bear Snores On, which we will feature in our concert. We learned about singing loud and quiet sounds in the song "Grizzly Bear" and learned a fun game to go with the song. We can't wait to share this and other songs with you at the performance!
2nd grade- we are working hard on winter concert music for our performance on Wednesday, December 9th (6:30pm!) We reviewed a couple of old favorites form last year, "Winter Wiggles" and "Snowman Jump" that will be fun additions to the program. We also reviewed the pieces we have been working on, "Gingerbread Breakdown", a fun rhythmic and body percussion piece, and also "Old Saint Nick." We ended class by learning a fun mixer dance called "Jump Jim Joe." See an example video here:
Jump Jim Joe
3rd grade- we have begun our Found Sounds Project!!! This project is super exciting because we get to make our own instruments using things laying around at home. Students should have received a blue letter explaining the details of the project- look for it in their Friday Folder. Also, if you click on the link on the left of this blog under 'Pages' where it says 'Found Sounds Project', you'll see the details there as well. We had 3 special guests come to music class this week from the Denver Playground Ensemble. They create all their own instruments from scratch. Students were able to see, hear, and even try out their instruments to get inspiration for the ones they will make at home.
4th grade- we started off with some singing warmups using solfege this week. We learned that there are notes lower than do, even though pitch hill has do at the bottom of the hill. We also learned a new note on recorder this week! We can now play B, A, and G (mi, re, and do.) We practiced playing and composing patterns with a partner to go with the song "I've Got to Rise" and shared them with the class.
5th grade- what's for lunch? Pepperoni pizza! We used that short question and answer to play some rhythms on drums this week. Students also improvised lots of different answers for "what's for lunch" and practiced playing those rhythms on drums. We worked on lots of Q and A in groups of 3 and then as a large group. To end class, we had the large djembe and tubano drums play the question (what's for lunch?) and the mini djembes play the answer (pepperoni pizza.) We jammed and rocked out using those rhythms to the song "Best Day of My Life." So much fun!
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