Catching Up!

Life went a little off course last week and now we've got STAAR testing so needless to say, I've missed my kiddos and can't wait for Thursday when I get to be with them again! In the meantime, here's a few things we were working on the last 2 weeks.

2nd grade learned the folk song "Sarasponda" accompanied by a stick game. Some folk songs have a clear history, but this one was unique because the origins are unknown and its full of nonsense words! David Row over at Make Moments Matter does a wonderful job creating bundles that explore the history and little known facts about songs various folk songs. We took 2 days practicing the stick game and got the hang of it after a while. Check out some of my students showing off below...

Third grade found out what a Rondo form was when they met Antonio Vivaldi and his Four Seasons.  In this particular piece, there are 5 different sections each with a distinct sound. As students listened, they were challenged to sort out the cards into the correct order

Sometimes it got a little tricky since there was a "Singing Birds" and a "Return of the Singing Birds", but that wasn't enough to stop us from figuring it out! After we got the cards laid out, we noticed in a Rondo form the A section happens every other time. That's what makes it a Rondo! Next class, we took this new knowledge and explored it even more by creating a movement rondo. Students created their own movements to represent each section of the music and took turns performing their creations for each other. 

(Thanks to Cori Bloom for making such phenomenal resources for listening!)

April is Jazz Appreciation Month so I asked 4th grade to dump some thoughts out on the board about Jazz. What do you know? How does it make you feel? How does it sound? What questions do you have? They certainly had a lot to say!

Over the next few classes we'll be exploring more about jazz, improvisation, and who some of the jazz greats were. We've already explored some improvisation with our recorders and had some really great melodies come out of it. Can't wait to see what else we'll dig up!