A Game Called Listening

We played a game with 3rd & 4th grade that was sort of like a musical treasure hunt. One student went to our starting position and closed their eyes. Then four other students had to get them through the classroom to the finish line simply by playing instruments. If they played a drum, the student moved forward. Tambourine was a step back. Maracas were left and a Triangle was right. I don't have any pictures of the game in action, but it was a lot of fun!

Here is a random picture of our "Today in Music We Learned" board. Some days it feels like the students get it more than others. I can't help but cringe a little if the student writes "singing". We learn so much in every class!

Posters for our K, 1st & 2nd performance coming up in March!

February

My kindergartners will be singing "New Way to Walk" for their spring concert. When I told them to come up with a new way to walk, they organized themselves and made a train! 

February is focusing on the Classical Period. The students were very excited to see Beethoven on the board.

My kindergartners and 1st graders helped me decorate my "We <3 Music" board.

From a kindergartner.

I was very impressed with this 1st grader because we just learned the official notes for quarter and eighth last week!

Pitch, Please!

Kindergartners discussed high and low pitches. Jenny over at The Teaching Studio came up with this great idea of having students pick out pictures and deciding if they represent high or low. For example, an ant would be low because they crawl on the ground and an airplane would be high because they fly. The students then went to the piano and played the corresponding high or low pitch.

My 4th and 5th graders did centers to reinforce the the treble clef and staff. One was a matching game.

I put electrical tape on the floor to make a staff and students used paper plates to spell out words and have relays.

Another center was with the glockenspiels. I gave the letter E and the students had to figure out how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by ear and then write it on the staff.

All in the Family

I was much older than I would like to admit before I realized that you can look at any instrument and be able to tell what orchestra family it would fit into. I thought you just had to know that a trumpet was brass but a saxophone was a woodwind. Because of my ignorance, I try very hard to make sure that students learn what characteristics an instrument needs to belong in each family.

We made anchor charts for each family. I wrote it, but had the students tell me what to write.

My older grades did a review of instruments by playing a guessing kind of game. They had an instrument on a sticky note on their head and had to ask their partner yes or no questions to try to figure out what instrument they were.

My 2nd graders discussed each family and then color coded a seating chart for an orchestra.