Drumming with Kindergarten

Sara Silver teaches music at Antelope Elementary and she only teaches kindergarten.  How fun is that!  Kindergarten is maybe my all time favorite.  Some say teaching kindergarten is like herding cats,  but I just love those little slobbery kiddos!  Sara does such a great job with them and she is great at using the Making Music songs. 

When I visited Sara's classes she had been working on steady beat with the kids as well as loud/soft.  She taught them Grizzly Bear from Making Music and they practiced steady beat and their dynamics.  Grizzly Bear is a perfect song for dynamics! 

Sara had also been teaching the kids about drums from around the world and she had several displayed at the front of the class.  She used this as a reward for the kids.  If they participated and listened well then everyone got to play the drums.  When it came time for them to play they each took a turn playing the steady beat on the drum while the class sang Grizzly Bear. 

 

 

After everyone had a turn drumming they did some more practice with steady beat. But they also practices listening skills.  Sara used a fun song from Making Music and the kids danced away!  I was so impressed with how well they listened and stayed in control.  Sara has done a great job with management in her kindergarten classes and they will do anything for her. 

 

 

Steady beat is one of the most important music concepts and skills you can teach your students.  It should be practiced every time you see them.  Students should practice the beat on their body, then move their bodies to the beat and then practice that beat on instruments.  Sara did all of those things!  Great job, Sara! 

Nilla Wafer Top Hat Time

Krista Baer at Burton Elementary has been working on a composition unit with her students.  It was so fun to pop in for the day and see what they had been up to.  For Krista's older classes they began by watching a silly video by Rhett and Link called Nilla Wafer Top Hat Time.  These guys write songs based on 5 word suggestions from fans.  Thus the silly title of the song...

Krista made her own Nilla Wafer top hat and suggestions for song titles were put in the hat.  The kids pulled a title out of the hat and then had to write a song based on what they got.

 Krista made sure the kids followed a specific outline: 1)  Write your lyrics  2) find a beat to put your lyrics to  3) compose a melody 4) add any instrument you think will fit in your song.  Krista made sure to let the kids know not to worry about the length but to make sure they had all the elements including beat, rhythm, melody, accompaniment in their piece.  When the kids had finished composing their pieces Krista recorded it for them.  Here are a couple of songs.  I was so impressed!

I wasn't sure of their specific song titles...but this one is all about cheese.

  Listen to how many kinds they name!

Narwhals and Unicorns....These guys started with a super long story format about how a Narwhal and a Unicorn meet up and discover that they are really brothers.  When it was suggested they turn it into a poem this is what they came up with.  So cool. 

A bunny named Berkley meets an untimely demise....

For Krista's lower grades she went through the same process but together as a class instead of small groups.  The classes decided on a subject and did a paired writing where they created the lyrics.  After the lyrics were written Krista gave them a starting note and then each student got to choose whether the next note was higher, lower or stayed the same.  Here is an example of what they came up with...

Sorry it is so dark...they had the lights off so they could see the words and notes on the projector. 





STAR WARS!

Thanks for sharing your talents and your talented students with me Krista!  What a fabulous day!



Puppet Theater

Renee Tanner has been doing a lot with puppetry in her music class. She made this fabulous puppet theater out of foam board. She said it was inexpensive, easy to make, and holds up well. I think it looks fabulous, too!

This is the back view:



Here is the front view:

Singing with Jeanette Eggett

Last week I got to watch Jeanette Eggett in action. She did some really great things with singing that I wanted to share with all of you teachers. (Like Gayle, she also didn't know I was going to record ahead, but gave me permission to share.)

Old Man Winter: The students learned the song by itself first. Once they knew the song, Jeanette introduced an ostinato while the students sung the melody. She took the opportunity to teach music vocabulary with this experience, such as harmony, melody, and ostinato, and round.

Here are the students singing in a round by themselves.

After singing the song, she taught her students an ostinato (different than the one they sung) on the recorders. I took a video of her procedure for passing out recorders, but didn't post it here. Let me know if that is something you'd like to see, and I can send it your way. Here are the students playing the ostinato on their recorders while Jeanette sings Old Man Winter.

Jeanette used the same song with younger grades, but she brought in some different teaching ideas. Here she has the students move up and down with the melody/pitch using their bodies.

At the end of her lesson for the younger grades, Jeanette used Old Man Winter for listening and movement. She played music on her recorder and asked her students to listen and respond. If it was unfamiliar music, students matched their hands to the music. When they heard Old Man Winter they were to freeze. Once they had that down, the repeated the process moving and dancing with scarves.

I also just had to include this. Mrs. Eggett sings "Hello, Music Students" at the beginning of each class. They respond "Hello, Mrs. Eggett." It's all sung on sol and mi, and provides a fabulous reference point for teaching pitch or rhythm to lower grades, or to use to ask students as a melodic framework to ask questions about learning and have students respond while singing. Used in the question and answer format, it also provides a structure for students to improvise and create. 

In this video clip, Jeanette used it for vocal play. Simple, fun, and adorable.

Vocal play is one of the steps to in tune singing. Check out how Jeanette uses vocal play in this clip to lead to pitch matching, in tune singing, and audiating (the students hear the notes in their heads). 

The Fabulous Gayle Bleak

Gayle is one of those teachers you sit back, watch, and have a smile on your face the entire time. She brings such joy as she teaches. She didn't have the advantage of knowing I was going to record her, but she did give me permission to use the recording. I didn't know I was going to record either, but I couldn't resist. I kept the camera mostly on Gayle in case any of the students had turned in the form saying they didn't want to be recorded. 

Here Gayle is teaching a first grade class. I wish I would have started recording sooner, because she pulled out Sassy the puppet to help review sulfege, and it was truly magic. Just look at those students faces! If any of you need an idea to engage your lower grades while you are presenting a concept, a puppet is a sure win.

The book Gayle reads is called The Penguin that Hated the Cold. 

Here's a link to it on amazon: click here

One of the things that is really great about how Gayle teaches is her classroom management. Here are some of the great things I noticed:

• specific positive reinforcement. She doesn't just say "good job," but she specifically says what the students were doing well. If most of the students are doing the desired behavior, and only one or two weren't, she'd still comment on the positive. Usually that positive reinforcement (which is also stating an expectation) was enough to bring in the stragglers without having to single them out.
• Pacing. Gayle moves quickly from one thing to the next. Even when she praises, she doesn't spend too long, and it keeps the students focused and prevents behavior problems. 
• Students feel valued and safe to answer questions. She asks students for ideas. When Marley came up with a song, she used Marley's song again and had everyone sing it. Even though it might not have been the song Gayle had intended to use, she found room to make it work. 
• Movement. Gayle used solfege hand signs to keep the students moving while they were singing during the story. She brought movement into every single concept she taught.
• Less Talk, More Doing - We all are guilty of talking too much when we teach. Especially if we are using movement, students will copy what we do and figure it out. 

Doing The Penguin

This was adorable. When I mentioned that smile on my face, this was definitely part of that. Are you grinning, too?

This song is in the Making Music books. It's on the second Kindergarten CD. If you don't have the cd's or the books, we have some you can check out.

After the penguin dance, the students reviewed ta and ti-ti notation. (She had a 4 beat measure of each written on flash cards.) They listened for the ti-ti's in Chinese Dance, from the Nutcracker. She also had a picture of a flute and of the string family, so the students could see the instruments they were hearing. Gayle brought in movement with the listening: students moved their feet to the ti-ti rhythm during the ti-ti section, and moved in flowing moments to the flute sections. Gayle did a more complex version of this lesson with her second grade. Let one of us know if you want to know more. 

(For her second grade, she used the Chinese Dance, but divided students into 3 groups instead of all of the students moving at once. One group played ta or ti-ti on rhythm sticks, one moved with the strings played, one moved when the flutes played. If I remember correctly, the flue group got to dance with ribbon streamers that Gayle made herself.)

Here's a youtube video with the Chinese Dance.

The Animal Fair

I was at Taylor Elementary last week, and Sarah Hatch did this fun song with her kindergartners. I asked her if I could take a video and put it up on the blog.
I love the actions Sarah used, and that she pitched the song in a high range for her students.

Here's a link to the lyrics of the song: *click here*

Look What I Found On The Web!

I was surfing the web tonight for some ideas I need for some upcoming presentations and classes.  Of course I frequented my favorite blog... www.ofortunaorff.blogspot.com and look what I found!  She listed USOE's website as a very helpful website for ORFF based lessons!  Very Cool!  Of course these lessons are what you have in the 100 Favorite Songs binder in your classroom.  I hope you are finding it a good resource and if not, take a look at it and check it out.  It has some fantastic music in it and some great lessons to with it!