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 Very "SPECIALS" Night

Last night Thompson Elementary hosted it's first Open House for Specials (Music, Art, PE). Providing exposure for our curriculums, parent education, community involvement, and interactive learning all came together in a fabulous carnival style event.

Each department (Music, Art, PE)  designed 4 interactive stations that summarize large concepts for students to lead their families through and serve as the expert. After all, parents and even homeroom teachers aren't the people who are in our classes learning these skills. Why not give the student the spotlight and let them teach others! It was such a joy to see students taking such pride in being the expert on these skills and showing younger siblings and parents how to do the same things they do.

To guide them through these stations, each student was given a ticket card to be signed off after station completion. Given a goal of 2 music, 2 art, and 2 PE students eagerly found favorite stations and took on challenges. If the ticket card was filled out completely, they were entered in a prize raffle for items such as baseball & bat set, soccer balls, art supply buckets, family 4-pack tickets to Dallas Opera and Plano Symphony Orchestra, and more!

Here's a few highlights or jump to the bottom for the digital scrapbook!

Folding Origami Cats 

Mystery Melodies - play the notes and try to identify the well-known tune. 

Spot Shot - pick a spot and make a basket :)

Saxophones are tricky! Does it belong to the brass family or the woodwind?

If you're interested in designing a similar style event, I'd be happy to share any information in how this was planned! 

Click here for the Digital Scrapbook!

Let's Move!

This past week, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students got their wiggles out with creative movement exercises. Due to our unexpected snow and ice days, students didn't always get recess and this makes movement day even better! (Sorry for the lack of pictures, but its hard to capture energetic bodies without a blur.)

1st grade students met Joseph Haydn and studied his Surprise Symphony. This was a great opportunity for us to review quarter and eighth note patterns as well as discuss dynamics of piano and forte. As students listened and identified the surprise, we brainstormed movements to help demonstrate forte and piano with our bodies. For piano movements, they came up with tiptoe, sneak, and creep. For forte, we used march, stomp, and jump. It was so much fun splitting up into dynamic groups and moving through space as we listened critically. Thanks to Cori Bloom over at Rhythm & Bloom  for coming up with such great listening and movement lessons!

2nd grade students kept with the winter listening and movement theme by getting to know Claude Debussy's The Snow is Dancing from the Children's Corner collection. It was so exciting to be able to teach this lesson on days when we actually had snow (which doesn't happen in Dallas!). Lessons are always better when we can pull in different subjects to create an integrated lesson and this was a perfect one to brainstorm action verbs to describe how the snow actually moves. We used some included movement words such as gliding, dropping, twirling and brainstormed to add waving, melting, and swaying. Watching the students dance through the space like little snowflakes was such a beautiful experience. As an ex-dancer, it is truly breathtaking to watch the unbridled creativity of a child's mind as they move. Again, thanks to Cori Bloom for creating this one too!

3rd grade students explored a folk dance to go with their sixteenth note study with the song Paw Paw Patch. This is such a fun song and lends itself to a great folk dance. I'm pretty sure my student's favorite move is "Peel the Banana" and not just for its silly name! Check out how much fun they're having below.

"Make a Bridge"

"Around and Thru!"

Peter & the Wolf

Every year, I do a series of lessons on Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with 2nd grade students. It's a great way to become familiar with more specific instruments of the orchestra, enjoy some memorable characters, and hear a great story all in one! This year was extra special since the Dallas Symphony Orchestra included Peter and the Wolf in their educational concert series. What a way to end the unit!

Over the last few weeks we've read the story, made composer flipbooks, analyzed musical themes, watched the animated version, worked with partners for a matching game, and finally loaded up to hear it LIVE with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra! Here's some of the highlights:

There are numerous publications of the story, but this is one of my favorites. Not to mention, the artwork is beautiful. 

Each student got to know Sergei Prokofiev a little bit better by making a composer flipbook to take home. Each book had 6 tabs that revealed different facts about Prokofiev. Did you know that he loved to play chess? In fact, one of his best friends was a world chess champion! It's always easier to connect to a composer when you realize their whole life wasn't just music. Thanks to Jena Hudson for creating these fantastic books! Check out her other composer book sets at Modern Composer Flipbooks

Here's an extra little gem we didn't get to in class, but definitely worth the watch! Sergei Prokofiev plays his character themes for Walt Disney at one of the collaboration meetings for the animated movie. It's not often you see the behind-the-scenes moments so take a look. Walt Disney and Sergei Prokofiev

Speaking of the animated movie, we loved it! It is about 14 minutes long and part of the Make Mine Music collection. Of course there are other versions, but this is the best I've seen. Plus, my Disney fanatic side can't help but love hearing the voice of Winnie the Pooh narrate such a classic story. :)

The whole video is available online at: Walt Disney's Peter and the Wolf

To recap, we discussed the main characters and thought about how we would describe them. I always enjoy integrating different subjects to create a more rounded and thorough understanding. Check out some of the adjectives we decided for each character.  

After hearing the whole composition, it was time to dig a little deeper with the characters. Being able to sit quietly and really listen for musical elements is a tricky skill and takes a lot of practice, but these listening glyphs make it a lot easier. Students had to listen for dynamics, tempo, pitch, instrumentation, and then decide their own thoughts about the music. (Why couldn't my listening tests in college have been this way!?)

You can find them here: Peter and the Wolf Listening Glyphs

Lastly, we worked in small groups to match characters to the instrument of the theme. Sometimes it got a little tricky like when you hear both strings AND timpani for the hunters or when you're trying to distinguish a bassoon from an oboe, but they pulled it off!

Thanks to Tracey King for making such cute matching cards! You can find them here: Peter and the Wolf Bundle

Now that we've learned ALL about Prokofiev and his most famous composition, Peter and the Wolf it was time to load up the buses and hear the Dallas Symphony Orchestra perform it! It was such a treat getting to listen to a real storyteller narrate while the dancers from Dallas Black Dance Theater performed as the characters. For many of my students this was their first time hearing a symphony and from their reaction, I think they're going to be asking their parents to take them again.  

"Thank you for taking us to the symphony, Mrs. McKinnon!"

Composers Everywhere!

Right before Thanksgiving, first and second grade students became composers using the pitches and rhythm they've learned so far. Second grade students reviewed their understanding of Sol, La, and Mi in small groups to "Roll-A-Song".

Students used two dice to help them find out the rhythm (quarter note, beamed eighths, or quarter rest) and the melody (Sol, La, or Mi). They then used their knowledge of where Sol, La, and Mi live on the staff to correctly write out their song. When students were finished, they needed to give their song a title and sing it!

Completed display of some 2nd grade original songs!

First grade had been working on Sol and Mi. We have practiced where those notes live on our bodies when we sing melodies. They also reviewed that a quarter note gets one sound and that beamed eighths get two sounds. We used little leaves and pumpkins to represent the notes. 

The leaves represented the quarter note since "leaf" gets one syllable. The pumpkins were our eighth notes since "pumpkin" has two syllables. It was kind of tricky to remember that when we wrote eighth notes, both pumpkins had to be together but they did it! Such a fun way to practice writing music before we move on to the staff!!

Showing off their hard work!

Super proud of their composition after singing it!

Second grade did a little MORE composing to explore their new rhythms of half note and half rest. Students worked with a partner to explore rhythm combinations of quarter note, quarter rest, beamed eighths, half note, and half rest. Each rhythm value had a corresponding movement of "jump", "hide", "gobble" or "ru-un".Once students came up with a combination that had the correct number of beats, they demonstrated their turkey dance!

Deciding what to choose is tricky! What do you want to choose?

Goofy Turkey dancers!