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!"

A Visit from The Dallas Opera

On Tuesday, 4th and 5th grade students were treated to a performance of Donizetti's Elixir of Love by the Dallas Opera. The plot is a classic love triangle: Adina is a wealthy landowner who is the desire of 2 different men. Nemorino, a poor famer, genuinely cares for Adina but doesn't feel he can ever get her attention. Belcore, an overly confident Army sergeant, is looking for a lady and proposes to Adina only 5 minutes after meeting her! Fearing he may lose any chance he has, Nemorino purchases a love potion from Dr. Dulcamara. Little does he know how this potion will affect him, Nemorino quickly drinks it and hopes that it will cause Adina to love him. Adina originally chooses Belcore, but after finding out the lengths Nemorino went to for her affection, she realizes his true intention and agrees to be with Nemorino.

To prepare for this performance, students studied the plot, characters and discussed who they would choose if they were Adina. They even developed ways to infer more information about the plot by noticing body language, facial expressions, and props. Luckily our performance was in English but sometimes you need more than just the lyrics to help understand a performance.

Here's a few highlights of the performance:

Dr. Dulcamara comes to town peddling his potions.

Here Nemorino...the Elixir of Love...it will give you what you need!

Finally Nemorino and Adina are together, but Belcore doesn't seem happy with the Dr!

If you are interested in seeing the performance again, the Dallas Opera has two more performances on Saturday, January 31 and again on Saturday, March 22. Tickets are $5.00 each and can be purchased online at dallasopera.org/family. 

For even more opera, check out the simulcast of La Boheme at Cowboys Stadium on March 21. This is a completely free event and you can even sign up for a student workshop before the performance to learn more about the plot and characters, just like we did for Elixir of Love. More information can be found at http://dallasopera.org/simulcast/

Carnival Time

Over the last four weeks, first grade students have been exploring musical elements such as pitch, dynamics, and tempo with Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. It is a 14 movement work, but we highlighted 7 movements to explore further. Each day we started off with a short excerpt from Barrie C. Turner's book that helped guide our ears toward the day's movement selections.

Each lesson we focused on a different musical element, beginning with a steady beat led by our puppet Roger, the Royal Lion. Now, Roger loves to dance but he only knows 3 moves: march a steady beat, roar on a glissando, and nod proudly on accented notes. 

For tempo, we met Pokey the Turtle to explain a slow tempo and lead us through mirror movement dances. Students followed Pokey's lead and then buddied up to lead each other through an improvised turtle dance. Be careful to not go too fast...you want Pokey to be able to dance too!

To contrast Pokey's slow movement, we met Jack the Mule. Mules aren't fast, you say? Well, Mr. Saint-Saens loved to play jokes and his carnival is one big joke! That's why the mules are fast. 

Story carpet time with Jack :)

For pitch, we met Ellie the Elephant and found out that she, like Pokey and Roger, loves to dance! Ellie dances a waltz with the double bass. A waltz is a dance in a meter of 3 so students learned how to conduct a meter of three and took turns wearing the elephant conductor hat to lead their class in a body percussion pattern of 3 (pat-clap-clap). 

Exploring a low pitch (double bass) with the Elephants! 

For our last element, we talked about texture. Does the music feel bumpy? Smooth? Gentle? Slimy? We chose the Kangaroos and Swan to represent bouncy and smooth textures, respectively. As you listen to the Kangaroos, you can hear them pause and look around for a new place to hop. These pauses gave us a fun opportunity to try out some directional movement and hop like kangaroos to different places around the room. Be careful to pause and look around when you hear the kangaroos do the same though!

The swans glide so gracefully across the water. We created our own ribbon dances to imitate their graceful movements and fill the room with beautiful colors. 

As a finale to all this fun, back in 1976 the San Fransisco Symphony teamed up with Warner Bros. and the Looney Tunes gang to have Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck present their own take of Mr. Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals. The whole production can be found in 3 parts on YouTube. 

(A HUGE shoutout to Sara Bibee for her tremendous guided unit! https://www.facebook.com/SaraBibeeMusic )

Recorder Exploration

At the tail end of the fall semester 4th grade kicked off their recorder study and got to know B, A, and G. 5th grade jumped back in with a review of Low E and Low D. Fast forward a few weeks of break (with hopefully a lot of at-home practice!), and we join back together to keep exploring! I have my students work on two different types of repertoire: practice songs, and belt tests.
          
Back during my first year of teaching, another teacher introduced me to Recorder Repast (published by Sweet Pipes). This collection of songs is a wonderful resource for selecting our practice songs. We spend about 10-15 minutes dissecting the music and identifying parts to watch out for. This past week, I shared the biggest secret of analyzing music with my 5th graders - look for patterns! If you can identify parts that repeat, the amount you need to actually learn is a lot less daunting. (Thanks to my percussion professor, Dr. Rick Dimond for pointing that out my freshman year!)

Here's one of my 5th graders labeling repeating patterns in Juba (working on High D).

We may go a little bit overboard with analyzing, but I'd rather point out anything that could trip someone up and leave them a whole menu of options for their own markings. I always tell the students that any music they get is their own copy and to make notes on it as they need to help be a successful performer.

After analyzing, I try to give students about 20 minutes to work through the song on their own and then get in small groups of about 6-8. During the final 10 minutes of class, we take turns performing as a group for each other and then the "audience groups" give 3 comments about the performance. By performing the practice songs in small groups, this helps students work through any performance anxiety before they have to perform their belt tests as a solo.

Small group performance #1

Have stage fright? Just turn your back to the audience!

Since I've mentioned "belt tests", here's what I mean: after students and I work through their practice repertoire, they are responsible for assimilating the knowledge they've learned so far. They receive a song from the Recorder Karate book and independently analyze it just like we did for their practice songs. Students choose to either work alone or with a buddy to figure out their test song and then perform it as a solo for me. Once they pass the test, they receive a colored piece of yarn to tie around the foot joint of the recorder as their "karate belt". 

After they complete all 9 belts, they are a RECORDER KARATE MASTER!

Percussion Ensemble

Ahhh...January! A fresh start to the new year and all rested up ready to dive into new experiences with the students. Well, not quite *all* rested...

This year saw the formation of a select performance group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students chosen to participate in Percussion Ensemble. I am so excited to spend my Friday afternoons with this group of talented students and share my passion for percussion! It has been a long 5 years since I was involved with any sort of percussion performance and now I have the opportunity to open this world to my own students.

We had our first performance on December 16th and they did absolutely fantastic! They performed 3 selections as a large group and four of the members were featured on Carol of the Bells. They only had about 9 rehearsals beforehand and a huge learning curve, but performed like young professionals. I heard nothing but rave reviews from the concert audience!

Now that we've started off the new semester, we've added 3 new members to our group and have dove right into our spring concert selections. The students musical maturity has definitely grown through the year and they are eagerly figuring our their new parts and exploring new instruments such as gankogui, goat hoof rattles, and other ethnic sounds. 

Think they're excited for the new songs???

Here's a sneak peak at what it takes to put this all together...

Creating their own choreography...

Working in sectionals...

and of course, lots of fun!

Cougar Choir rocks the Cluster Concert

Last night, the Cougar Choir performed at the annual cluster concert at Dan F. Long Middle School. They've been working on a variety of traditional Christmas carols from around the world in preparation for their performance at the Holidays Around the World Festival coming up on Tuesday, December 16. 

They've been INCREDIBLE troopers learning a whole new repertoire in the last 6 rehearsals and even taking on the challenge of learning multiple languages including Japanese, German, Spanish, and a little bit of French. Check out their performance of Kiyoshi Kono Yoru (Silent Night in Japanese) and O Tannenbaum in the traditional German. 

I'm SO proud to be their director!

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!