Kindergarten watched a puppet version with the music.
1st grade listened to excerpts while I read the above linked book and then colored pictures. (I can't find where I got the coloring pages from!)
2nd and 3rd grade focused on The Elephant and used yarn to create a string bass. It is a really cool idea! I don't remember where I heard it from, though. If you take a piece of yarn and tie a knot to put your finger through, then put your finger to your ear and stretch out the yarn then it will sound like a bass when you pluck it! It was a lot of fun and a great way to review the string family.
They also completed a listening/coloring sheet about Fossils that I stole from Elementary Music Methods.
4th and 5th grade learned some percussion rhythm games. First was the cup game. I sang the scene from the movie "Pitch Perfect" to gain some cool points and then taught them the game. We also learned to play Sevens. When looking for a good way to teach each of these games, I discovered a site called LDS Splash. Their youtube station is a great resource for games for kids.
The Cup Game:
Sevens:
This one isn't percussion, but it is so much fun! I called it "Ptooey"
A couple of weeks ago, I did a 'Styles' unit with all of my students.
Upper grades listened to examples from their textbook of various styles of music. I challenged the students to come up with what it is about a song that makes it fit into a specific style.
Here are some of the elements they came up with:
- Instruments
- Tempo
- Rhythm
- Lyrics
- Composer
- Performer
- Where the song came from
- When the song was written
Kindergarten focused on what was the same and what was different about the same song done in different styles. Did you know Little Richard did a kid's CD? It is awesome!
Here is a clip of his version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" from an episode of Full House.
1st Graders took the idea of same and different styles of music a step further by adding different instruments to the songs to change the style of the song.
