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!

Research Project

Each year, 5th grade students do a large research project on different composers and musicians who made significant impacts in the course of music history. They work in partners to complete a guided research question list and then spend a few days composing an essay and preparing a presentation to share their new knowledge with their classmates. Each pair of students receive a cover page to start their project and share 3 reasons as to why their musician is on the research list. 

Musicians range from the "big wigs" of Mozart, Beethoven and Vivaldi to more contemporary artists such as Gershwin and Stravinsky and even popular musicians such as Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Bob Dylan and more!

Students will conduct their research through approved texts and websites, video interviews with the musician (if available), and school/public library databases. They are allowed to bring their own technology devices of smart phone or tablet to supplement available resources. Once they complete their research, they will design a presentation to share with the class. This presentation can be as creative as they want to make it: poster, PowerPoint, Prezi, youtube video, iMovie, etc. As long as the visual aid is informative and is well put together, the sky is the limit!

5th grade has been receiving their packets and assignments this week and will jump into formal research on Thursday. Let's get going!

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!"

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!