Tomorrow is the day! I finally get to meet all of you amazing music teachers! I am excited to get to know you and look forward to working with you throughout the school year!
Here are the lessons that I will present at the beginning of the year training on August 24th, 2015. You will receive hard copies of everything but just in case you misplace them, lessons will be posted here each month! Following each lesson I will add a screen shot of the music so you will have that as well. Have fun and see you in the morning at 9am in the Kendell Building!
Up The Ladder Down the Ladder
This lesson is
intended to be taught K-6 with modifications per upper and lower grade levels.
Standards: Singing,
Creating, Listening, Playing
Objectives:
·
Practice
singing with sensitivity to pitch accuracy by carefully listening to self and
others.
·
Create
new words and rhymes for favorite classroom songs
·
Experience
aural patterns and phrases in music.
·
Learn
to listen carefully to others (beat, pitch, tempo) when engaged in music
activities.
·
Explore
beat in a variety of songs and activities using body percussion or walking.
Supplies:
Hand Drum
Invite
children to sit in a circle on the floor or in chairs if you have them. Begin by showing them a simple pattern (K-1
only 2 claps 2 pats..2-6 2 claps, 2 pats, 4 snaps alternating
hands). Make sure they watch the pattern
the whole way through the first time then ask them to join you in repeating the
pattern. Have them repeat the pattern 4
times in a row and ask them to identify how many steady beats are in this pattern
(8).
K-2…Speak the words in small sections and ask the
students to be your echo. Put all the
words together and then add the pattern back in with the words. Switch to singing the verse and ask the
children to follow along and sing with you keeping the pattern at the same
time. Model how to speak your name (My
name is _______) and have the students echo you. Give a few students the chance to share how
they say their name. Explain that four
students will speak their names in between each verse (You will want to move
around the circle either clockwise or counter clockwise.) Put it all together and have fun!
3-6… Sing the verse while performing the
body percussion pattern and have the students join you when they figure it
out. Sing the verse a few times through
until solid. Model how to speak your
name (My name is _______) and have the students echo you. Give a few students the chance to share how
they say their name. Explain that four
students will speak their names in between each verse (You will want to move
around the circle either clockwise or counter clockwise.) Put it all together and have fun!
·
Second
time change My name is ________to I like _______. Use the same modeling process as before and
do a group practice. (everyone says it
at the same time) Make sure the students understand how to fit what they like
into the four beat pattern. Perform
again!
·
Third
time change the speaking part to I come from _________. This is super fun and creative! Ask the students to think of a place they
come from that starts with the same letter as their first name. This place doesn’t have to be real, or even a
place they have ever been or will go. It
can be made up but it has to fit into the 4 beat pattern. You will notice that they struggle with this
one when speaking, but they love it!
Pop
Up!
This lesson
is intended to be taught K-6 with modifications per upper and lower grade
levels.
Standards and
Objectives: Singing,
Creating, Listening
·
Students will practice singing with sensitivity to pitch accuracy
by carefully listening to self and others.
·
Students will recognize pitch patterns.
·
Students will
participate in a variety of simple songs and singing games.
·
Students will
create simple singing conversations using 2 or 3 pitches.
·
Students will experience aural patterns and phrases in music.
Seat the children around the room in a circle on the floor or in
chairs if you have them.
Begin class by having the students echo your simple vocal patterns
on the syllables sol and mi. Sing syllables only on ta’s and ti-ti’s. Encourage them to use the solfege hand signs that correspond
to the syllables even if they are new to it and not quite
confident.
Round 1: Tell the students you are going to play a game called “POP UP”
today. (This is a great game to help you get to know names and to help
them solidify sol and mi at the same time.) Begin by singing the song and
‘popping up’ one student at a time.
Encourage the children to echo you after each student is popped up.
When all students have been popped up, pop everybody down.
Round 2: This time teacher only pops up 1 student followed by an echo from
the class. The student then chooses someone they would like to pop up and
the class echoes them. This round continues until the last student has
been popped up. They get the special job of popping everyone down.
Round 3: This time runs the same as round two, minus the echo. Not
only is there no echo, but you are encouraging each student to act right away
and keep the beat as the game continues. If there is a pause between ‘pop
ups’ then everyone sits down and the round starts over. The kids love to
see how many tries it takes them to complete this round.
*Notes* Kinders will not be able to keep the beat with or without an echo, but
love playing this game through round 2.
First Grade will struggle with round 3 so repeating round 2 with extra
emphasis on keeping the beat is a good idea. Upper Grades, (3-6) during this game they may never pop someone up
that is sitting to the right or left of them.
They must always look somewhere else.
Mortimer
This lesson is
intended to be taught K-3.
Standards: Singing, Creating, Listening, Playing
Objectives:
·
Explore
the range of high and low pitches in my voice.
·
Learn
to differentiate between the singing voice and the speaking voice.
·
Create
vocal characterizations as part of a story song or book.
·
Learn
to listen carefully to others (beat, pitch, tempo) when engaged in music
activities.
·
Extend
knowledge and skill of beat and rhythm as applied to the use of classroom
instruments.
Supplies: BX, BM, mallets, Cow bell, Tambourine, MORTIMER.
·
Tell the children you are going to read them a
story that has ups and downs in it. Ask
them to listen for those ups and downs.
·
Read MORTIMER to the students. The class will automatically join on some
vocal cues (Be Quiet, Mortimer!) Be sure
to sing Mortimer’s song each time it appears in the book. Class may also join
in singing with you.
·
Ask students to identify the ups and downs for
you (thumping up the stairs and thumping down the stairs)
·
Demonstrate how to play up on the barred
instruments and also how to play down.
You can help them relate direction by size of keys if that helps. (little is up and big is down). Have one or two students play the thumps up
and down each time they happen in the story.
·
Read the story again asking the students to join
in on “Be Quiet, Mortimer” using appropriate voices for the characters (mom,
dad, loud, low, etc. ) Ask them to sing
Mortimer’s song with you each time it comes up as well as thumps up and down.
·
Add cow bell and tambourine (or you can change
these as per your needs in your room).
Invite 1 student to play the cow bell on the words “Cling, Clang” in
Mortimer’s song. Invite other students
(you decide the number) to play tambourine on “Rattle bing, bang”. Practice a few times and then perform the
story again with thumps, cow bell and tambourine.
·
If you feel your students are capable you can
add the BX part on the steady beat. If
not, you can play it for the song or leave it out.
Why Shouldn’t My Goose/Donkeys and
Carrots
This lesson is intended to be taught
4-6.
Standards: Singing
Objectives:
·
Develop
and appreciation for singing using a variety of songs and singing games.
·
Practice
singing with sensitivity to pitch accuracy by carefully listening to self and
others.
·
Sing
successfully as a part of a partner song and two part round or cannon.
Teach children Why Shouldn’t My Goose. Sing it one time all the way through
and then teach in echo style if needed.
Sing several times adding the steady beat with body percussion or with a
bordun on the BM. Students can also walk
and sing at the same time.
Divide the class in two parts and
sing in a two part round. If they are
successful you can try a three part and four part round. Just make sure they feel successful with what
you try and are not overwhelmed.
*Sometimes it helps to have individual groups face each other when
singing their own parts.*
Teach Donkeys and Carrots in
the same way as the previous song make sure the students are moving to the beat
somehow.
Divide into groups and sing in a
two/three/four part round or cannon.
Now is the tricky part….Divide the
class in half and have part sing Why Shouldn’t my Goose and the other
part sing Donkeys and Carrots. Trade
jobs and try a few times. Super fun!
Out in the Garden
This lesson is intended to be taught
1-6 with modifications per grade levels.
Standards: Singing, Playing
Objectives:
·
Learn
to differentiate between the singing voice and the speaking voice.
·
Experience
feeling and moving to a steady beat.
·
Explore
beat in a variety of songs and activities using body percussion or walking.
Begin by
having students walk around the room to the steady beat. You can create this beat with a drum, a
xylophone, a triangle or simple body percussion. Vary the beat fast and slow and make sure
they are responding appropriately.
Introduce
the Rhyme by speaking it with expression.
Have the students join when they have learned the rhyme. Ask the students to speak the rhyme while
moving to the beat in a circle. You can
move clockwise and counterclockwise. Do
this several times.
Introduce
the Ostinato by speaking it with the body percussion pattern, be sure to use
expression in your voice. Have the
students follow along and perform the Ostinato several times.
Divide the
class in half and have half speak the rhyme while the other half performs the
Ostinato. Make sure to trade jobs and
give everyone the opportunity to try both.
*NOTES* For younger grades you can introduce silly
rhyming by reading “Stand back,” Said the Elephant, “I’m going to Sneeze!” Adding
the Ostinato and combining it with the silly rhyme may be difficult. But you can always perform them
separately.
