Tempo!

Over the past week, each grade has been discussing tempo.

• My 4th and 5th graders played a relay style game to match the English definitions to the Italian musical terms (for example: Walking to Andante). 
• My 3rd graders played Heads Up, Tempo Up where they basically played Heads Up, 7 Up, but each student was assigned a tempo so when you had to figure out who put your thumb down, you also had to define their tempo.
• My 2nd graders are just starting to learn that when you are discussing if music is fast or slow, then you are talking about the song's tempo. In order to reinforce what tempo refers to we played a Hot and Cold style game where one student hides their eyes and another hides a stuffed animal in the room. Then the rest of the students  got to yell "TEMPO!" to signify that the game had begun and then had to stomp their feet to help the student #1 find the stuffed animal. The faster they stomp, the closer student #1 is to finding the stuffed animal.

• Sadly I don't have a specific activity that stands out with my 1st graders. I have been finding it difficult this year to stay focused on the lesson plan and keep the students interested and learning. 
• Kindergarten is having fun finding the steady beat in songs and speech pieces (like the Bubble Gum Beats mentioned previously). Now they are taking it a step further and playing with the speed of the steady beat. We had a lot of fun showing fast beats with bongos!

Pop Quiz!!

This is my third year teaching and the first year it occurred to me to follow the music textbooks that came with the job. So far, they have provided an excellent guide and resource. One thing I do not like about them, however, is that they are textbooks. That just doesn't feel right in a music room sometimes. Especially the tests for each concept. For the lower grades I've come up with a way to use the audio from the tests in the book without it really feeling like a test.

I love being surrounded by people who think I am a good artist. 

There are a lot of opposites in music, so I gave the students two movements - hands on your head for choice #1 or hands in your lap for choice #2. Then I played the listening examples that came with the book and the students showed me their answers. 

First grade has been talking about tempo, so this is my example of their aural test.

After playing the example and seeing how everyone answered, we discussed what we just heard. Then I would play the example again. Every student would show me the right answer after hearing it the second time. This was a quick way for me to see that not everybody understood the concept, so then I let the students explain it in their own words and that was enough so that everyone got the right answer the second time. I'm debating on coming up with more movement options as a way to give my upper grades a multiple choice test. Mwahahaha...

Oh Neat! A Steady Beat!

It is very difficult to tell someone how to feel a steady beat. By first grade, students seem to understand the idea of your heartbeat, or pulse. They also understand what it means to say that a steady beat stays the same while a rhythm can change between long and short sounds and silences. However, kindergarten is a whole different ballgame. We have been practicing playing rhythms sticks while saying simple chants. For example:

 "1, 2, 3, 4. Mary at the kitchen door. 

5, 6, 7, 8. Mary at the garden gate"

With the rhythm sticks we can practice saying the poem fast and slow and change the steady beat. I needed a way to test their individual understanding while still keeping the whole class involved, so we made Bubble Gum Beats!

"Bubble gum, bubble gum, chew and blow.

 Bubble gum, bubble gum, scrape your toe.

 Bubble gum, bubble gum, tastes so sweet. 

Get that bubble gum off your feet!"

One at a time, students came up to the board and pointed to each bubble to show the steady beat. The rest of the class had to follow along, so if the student at the board went faster, the class had to go faster. It was a lot of fun!

October, November

This year I have decided to change the bulletin board in my classroom every two months. Since we started in August, I figured it was about time to make some changes. I decided to pull a twofer and have a half board for October and November. I enlisted the help of my 4th and 5th graders to make it possible.

4th Grade helped mt make "Boo-tiful" Melodies.

While 5th Grade was Thankful 4/4 Rhythm!

Close-up of the 5th Graders. They had to make each finger equal one measure in a 4/4 time signature.

First Six Weeks Complete!

Well... I stole yet another idea and gave it a musical twist. Over at Kingdom First Homeschool, they had the idea to write letters on a chalk board and have the little ones trace over it with paintbrushes dipped in water. I thought that this sounded pretty easy, but still fun! This past week, my first and second graders got to practice drawing their eighth, quarter, half and whole notes using this method.

Last week was also the end of our first six weeks. I can't believe how quickly time is flying by! My older grades had to take an End of Unit test out of the textbook to show what they've learned. Some of my 4th graders weren't quite sure how to use textbooks in music class...

...hehe

ABC easy as 123

Despite the fact that I am a music teacher, at one of the schools I teach at I am required to teach core curriculum material on Tuesdays. With the older students, we make up songs to help them remember the facts that they've learned in class. (side note: "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor?" is one of the most fun melodies to make songs to!) With the younger grades, however, I am forced to get a little more creative.

This week, kindergarten focused on letters and colors.

Each student came up to the board to write a letter. Then they had to think of a word that started with that letter and I wrote the rest of the word out for them. You'd think writing on the board was candy with how excited they got.

1st grade took it a step further by having to write out the word themselves.

They picked out a letter magnet from a hat and then had to come up with their own word. We ended up with a lot of names. I may have to challenge them more by not allowing that. (mwahaha)

A 5th grader saw the magnet letters and decided to leave me a little note at the end of the day. :)

"Are We Going To Play Instruments Today?" UPDATE!!

New Idea For Older Grades: I let them make their own band! 
3-5 kids at a time were allowed to pick non-pitched rhythm instruments to play while I played a CD with a rock-style accompaniment. The bands took turns playing "on stage" while the other bands played the role of the crowd cheering and clapping when each performance was over.

What I hope they feel like.

As I said, I just did non-pitched percussion instruments this time and let the students play "free-style". Now my new goal is going to be to get the students comfortable being able to read music. It would really add to the experience if they could also play pitched instruments. Plus, putting order to the whole thing will let the students be able to actually be apart of a legit band!

Added bonus: It teaches the students how to be a good audience. It is a perfect moment to take the time to explain how you should always applaud after someone performs and how in some situation you can even cheer! We just have to remember our voice choices and not scream.