Winter Choir Concert 2015

Dear parents,

We are busily preparing for our upcoming Cluster Concert and Holiday Breakfast concerts! The students have been working on three songs and are excited to share them with you next month. The more we hear music and read over lyrics, the better we learn a song so to help your child, lyrics are available below for all our songs. Each song is hyperlinked on the cover page to a website where you can listen and sing along. Links are below each image.

Angels in the Snow

Click the largest snowflake on the first page for the music!

First Flakes

Click the snowman on the first page for the music!

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Click on the hippo on the first page for the music!

Getting to Know the Composers

     This year, I decided to do a composer of the month series with my 4th and 5th graders. Each class, we listen to a seminal composition and challenge our ears to hear pictures in the music. For September, we chose George Gershwin. Throughout the month, we've been getting to know about him, contemporary musicians that worked with him, and even making take-home books to share what we've learned.
   
     To start off the month, we read a brief biography from Kathleen Krull titled "Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times, (and what the neighbors thought). Each biography gives a comprehensive overview of both the composer as a musician but also as a normal person. Many times students struggle to connect with composers because they only know their music, not their hobbies. Each entry explores the necessary details of their birth and death dates, how they were introduced to music, and followed by information about their best-known works but also shows they actually had interesting and sometimes wacky lives in the process.

Next, we reviewed thing we learned and populated a list on the board before we listened to "Summertime" from Porgy & Bess. My 4th graders do a jazz centered focus during Jazz month in April so this year's 5th graders recognized Ella Fitzgerald's voice on the recording. Little did I realize that it would turn into a historical timeline discussion of how their lives overlapped and where did I fit into the picture? So it wasn't on the lesson plan. Big deal. The fact the kids wanted to expand their understanding was well worth it! 

After we had listened to a few key compositions, we did a make-and-take flipbook. Jena Hudson over at Sew Much Music has these *adorable* flipbooks for all different genres and historical periods!

American Composer Flipbook Freebie

     Each flipbook has 6 pages for students to fill in historical era, important works, birth and death date, interesting facts, and more! Several students mentioned they're excited to take it home and teach their families about Gershwin and share his music with them. Man, I love it when teaching gets contagious!

To top it all off, the incredible Sara Bibee has Composer of the Month series which make wonderful mini bulletin boards. These are going to be fantastic to put up each month. There's even an updated version that has QR codes for students to scan and go on a musical scavenger hunt. Hmm...which version to choose?! :)

I can't wait to see what we discover with our composer for next month!

Work Hard, Play Hard!

This year I took on a new challenge in my career, a percussion ensemble. Having been a percussionist for the last 16 years it is truly part of my core. I've wanted to create an ensemble for the last 4 years of my career, but it never felt right until I had enough time truly learning my students and knowing with confidence their level of musical ability. In September, I invited representatives from 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade to push themselves to a level of musical repertoire and ensemble not reached in the general lessons. These students accepted the invitation and have blossomed tremendously into incredible young musicians and even more than the musical aspects, have developed accountability and leadership skills that reach beyond the ensemble itself. It is with excitement I plan for the next year with these students and see the next step of this group: mentoring the new invitees and truly building feeling of student ownership!

Here's some of the highlights:

Friday rehearsal for Brisa Cambiando. Check out that focus! 

Practice makes perfect!

I took some old advice from my 8th/9th grade band director for this one. She would always have us sing and pat through our parts on the bus right before we got to contest to help get us in the right performance mindset. I love seeing so much focused concentration from them - its a testament to how much they've really grown since September. 

Work Hard, Play Hard! (End of year party at JumpStreet)

This past week we gave our spring concert during the End of Year Awards Assembly. Performances can make you nervous, but the kiddos came up with their own way to shake out the nerves! 

All I can really do is snicker...

and record it! 

After all the rehearsals, parties, and antics to break up our nerves....I couldn't be more proud of these kids and what they've accomplished. 

Spring Rondo

Brisa Cambiando

Love these kids to death. Can't wait to see how they continue to grow next year!

More Music Technology - At Home!

A great way to expand music curriculum is with providing students access to great at-home websites they can use to continue exploring different concepts such as pitch names, orchestra families, ear training, and composition. I've used similar websites with my piano studio to help with note recognition on the staff and identifying keys on the piano. Most of the time, students will even pop in after school asking to play against me on the big board! There are a ton of different resources for kids to explore in all different skills - no worry about getting bored. Not to mention, its a fun way to let students review concepts as we come down to the final days of school.

Here's a list of some favorites I've used over the years:

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Safari: http://listeningadventures.carnegiehall.org/ypgto/index.aspx

Incredibox Vocal Arranging: http://www.incredibox.com/

Raindrop Melody Maker: http://www.lullatone.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/raindrop.swf

Opera Maker: http://creativekidseducationfoundation.org/kids/opera/base.htm

San Francisco Symphony: http://www.sfskids.org/

Dallas Symphony Kids: http://www.dsokids.com/

Note Name Speller: http://www.classicsforkids.com/games/notename/notename.html

Chuck Vanderchuck: http://pbskids.org/games/music/

Instrument Storage Room: http://www.sphinxkids.org/Instrument_Storage.html

Music Tech Teacher: http://www.musictechteacher.com/music_quizzes/music_quizzes.htm


Hope there's a website or two that's new to you to explore. Have fun!

iPads in the Music Room

3rd grade has been spending some time checking out the Garage Band app on the library iPads! They've been having a blast creating their own melodies with string sections, guitar riffs, and drum kit. A class favorite has Smart Drums where they can combine various instruments and experiment with what happens when they move and instrument closer to one of the settings like this: 

 Here's some of the ladies recording each other's compositions and then editing it in the Audio Recorder. 

The boys really have a knack for some keyboard chops!

Fifth grade students have been using an app called Animoto to create video presentations for their composer research project. They've spent several days researching all sorts of information about musicians ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Bob Dylan to Carlos Santana and just about anyone in between! With this app, students have been collecting images that represent aspects of their musician such as portraits, awards, album covers, famous concerts, etc. Once they built a picture timeline of their musician's life, they needed to create effective captions to explain what each image represents. 

Here's a student brainstorming creative captions about the electric guitarist and rock musician, Jimi Hendrix!

Sample finished project about George Gershwin!

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!

A Trip to the Islands

Over the past 10 years I've had a few spontaneous introductions to Polynesian music and cultures. Whether it is the catchy melodies or rarity of this culture's music where I've lived, the experiences have stuck with me and always brought a smile to my face. I've had a chance to experience first-hand some moments of Polynesia thanks to a Samoan acquaintance and a music tour in Hawaii. However, last year I got curious how I could share these moments with my own students.

While visiting Oahu last year, a trip to Polynesian Culture Center was an absolute must. They are a tremendous resource of authentic exposures to cultures such as Maori (New Zealand), Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and Hawaii. The Maori culture was probably my favorite just for how involved their activities are and the ability to try things out for myself. I got to try twirling poi for myself (despite constant tangles) and sit down with others to attempt a traditinal stick game called Tititorea.

Its always important to toss the stick vertically and catch with open palm toward your partner. It helps avoid getting accidentally hit in the face. 

Poi Twirling! Originally used to train wrist and finger dexterity, now just a really fun hobby. :)

A quick jaunt across the Pacific (or just the pathways) took me to Tonga. There are so many different instruments part of the Tonga culture, I honestly lost track of what was what. However, I do have some pictures of the shells and slit drums they used to begin their demonstration. For a full Tonga musical experience, there is a link to a Ma'ulu'ulu in my TPT product. 

Large drums with a slit in the top played with oversized drumsticks. I'm pretty sure it is called a Nafi, but the generally accepted word for wooden idiophones is Lali. 

After experiencing the previously mentioned performance and more that I unfortunately didn't get pictures of, I wanted to find a way to share these Polynesian cultures with my students. Polynesian music has so much fun energy to it and isn't readily heard unless you're around the culture itself. I got to looking around on the internet and wasn't finding much Polynesian music for kids. That's when I decided to highlight 4 of the primary cultures in Polynesia; Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, and Maori. Each of these cultures are highlighted with 3 fun facts and some form of music. Included in the bundle are 3 songs (Maori: Epo i Tai Tai e, Samoa: Savalivali. Hawaii: Mele Kahuli), 2 choreographed songs, hyperlinked recordings of all songs, performance videos of these cultural ceremonies and more!

Click HERE to be taken to my TPT store and check it out!

My first graders spent this last week learning the Maori song "Epo I Tai Tai E". While I'd usually use this for syncopation with older students, the opportunity to keep a steady beat in different places on the body and expose younger students to a totally new language was well worth the challenge. We echoed the lyrics through rhythmic chant before echo singing the melody just to get a clear pronunciation. All choreography is included in the lyrics pages of the bundle. 

Check out my 1st graders learning the choreography while rhythmic chanting!

Once we learned the actual song, we had to take a break to try out Poi Twirling! I happened to buy 3 sets while out in Oahu and watching the kids' excitement learning basic moves like jump rope, backwards jump rope, and helicopter was too much fun. :)

Polynesia has so much to share and its energy is infectious. Hopefully your curiosity has been sparked to learn more about the islands and possibly try your own hand at their dances!

Oh, and a BIG THANKS to Lindsay Jervis for having me as a guest blogger and helping promote Polynesian Music on her page as well.