Halloween Ideas

On Monday, I dropped by to visit Wendy Fischer at Muir Elementary. Her classroom is on the stage. The lights were dimmed with just some colored stage lights on, spooky sounds playing, and a fabulously decorated Halloween backdrop. (I should have taken a picture, but she decorated her white board with a Halloween theme.) Wendy was wearing Halloween colors, earrings, a headband: she looked like Halloween. How fun for those students!
I asked Wendy if I could take video of some of the fun things she was doing. (She didn't know I was going to show up ahead; she was really just prepared and loves what she does.) She obliged, so here are some video clips. I also want to note, Halloween is a great time to teach so many concepts masked as simply having fun. For example, many of our students don't hear minor songs very often, and what better time to teach minor v. major than Halloween?

I believe this is a Shel Silverstein poem. What a great idea.
A few musical concepts that can be extraced:
-steady beat
-strong and weak beats/meter
-crescendo 

Management Tip: use the music as your management tool. Quickly start the song after it ends to prevent children from talking or getting distracted.

This last one I wasn't able to share a video clip of, but here is the music.

This song is in harmonic minor.

Riddle Riddle Ree

Yesterday at the training I did Riddle Riddle Ree as an attention getter. I didn't plan that, so it wasn't in your packets. (I learned this from Susan Kenney, and she attributes it to Grace Nash.)

Here are the words and actions:

Riddle riddle riddle ree
Do what I do after me.

Stamp clap stamp clap
Sway sway (hands overhead swaying to the right, then left)

Touch your toes touch your nose
Round in a circle each one goes

Bow nice bow twice
Bend down low and plant some rice

Lift your arms up to the sky
Shake them out as moonbeams die

Clap your hands stamp your feet
Cymbal crash and that's complete.

I'd like to point out a few things about how I taught Riddle Ree yesterday. It was ~4pm, and many of you were visiting or coming in still. I don't have a loud voice, so attention getters like this are great for me. 

To start riddle ree, I didn't give any prior directions, I just began the poem. I expected that it might take half of the poem to get your attention. I expected that initially one or two might join in, and as you heard what was happening the rest of you would gradually join in. I expected that you might be confused and not know what to do right away. I trusted that what I was doing would be interesting enough that your brains would figure it out, and that you would join in my "game" over continuing your conversation.

When we teach music without a lot of verbal instruction, we lose management problems. Instead of struggling to wait for children to stop talking, we are all engaged and in a positive learning experience. We can cover more material in less time if we can learn to talk less as teachers, and if we use the music itself as our management tool. 

I would introduce Riddle Riddle Ree to children the exact same way. So often we think we need to explain everything before we do it. One of the great beauties of music is that music is inherently organized. We'll feel a bit confused initially, but it's a good confusion, and our brains will learn and grow from working through the confusion to create order. 

I did quickly go into the "round" version of Riddle Ree. I would not have done that so quickly with children, but I wanted you to get to the experience.

Give it a try, and let us know how it went!

Max Found Two Sticks Lesson

            Many of you have asked for the lesson plan to accompany

this fun book!  Here is the lesson I wrote up for it.  This lesson

is intended to be taught mainly to upper grades.  You are

welcome to make any adaptations to the lesson you would like.

Have fun and enjoy this one!                             

Max Found Two Sticks

By Shannon Elmer

 

This lesson is intended to be taught to grades 3-6

 

Standards:  Playing

Objectives:

• Practice the skills of beat accuracy while playing.
• Practice playing rhythmic patterns simultaneously against beat or rhythmic patterns played by others.
• Build skill in playing rhythm patterns using a variety of classroom instruments.

Supplies:  Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney, a classroom set of drum sticks or rhythm sticks, drums, buckets or the floor can be used to drum on (preferably starting with the floor)

Process: 

Read Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney to the class.  Ask the students to listen for non-sense words that might represent rhythmic playing.  Ask them to also listen for the different objects Max plays on.

As you read the book, emphasize the non-sense words and read them rhythmically.  Often 3 dots…represent a pause of a rest, longer words represent ta’s and shorter words ti-ti’s or ti-ri-ti-ri’s.

 

For Grades 3, 4, and 5…

Once the story has been read have the students answer the questions you asked them.  Pull out some of the non-sense rhythm words.

• Pat…pat-tat
• Pitter-putter…pat-tat
• Tap-tap-tap
• Tippy-tip…tat-tat
• Dum…dum-de-dum
• Di-di-di-di-…dum-dum
• Dong…dang…dung…
• Ding…dong…ding
• Cling…clang…da-BANG!
• A-cling-clang…DA-BANGGG!
• Thump-di-di-thump…

1.  Model the appropriate way to say the rhythms for the students
2. Have the students say it back to you.
3. Model the appropriate way to play it by patting or clapping.
4. Have the students play it back to you by patting or clapping.
5. Pass out rhythm sticks
6. Model the appropriate way to play with the rhythm sticks
7. Have the students play it back to you with the rhythm sticks.

 

For 6^th Grade only (you can try with the other grades but this is really difficult)

After following the above lesson outline, pair two rhythms together having half the class play one and half the class play the other.  (I highlighted the pairs for you) For example:

• Pat…pat-tat        and        pitter-putter…pat-tat

Make sure you switch jobs so every has a turn trying each rhythm.  Also, it works well to have the kids say the words that match the rhythm when playing.  It helps with retention and accuracy.

Pair remaining rhythms together.  The only ones that don’t work are the ding, dong ones because they are the same, And the final one Thump-di-di-thump…I would have one half do it first and the other half echo them. 

Leaf Man, Part 1...Music and the Refrain

Here are some clips from the Leaf Man Lesson that was briefly taught at the September Training.  Thanks to Marci Low for allowing me to play with her cute kiddos!

Singing Sol and Mi

Sol and Mi Compositions

Working as a group to compose using sol/mi and ta/ti-ti.  Some needed a little more guidance than others.

Final Performance, 1st verse and Refrain

Interesting?!

Talking Piano

I'm going to be demonstrating talking piano at the training today. It serves a dual purpose: many music concepts can be extracted from it, while it also serves as an excellent managment tool.

Talking piano not only gets wiggles out, but teaches children (to):

• move in space with self control
• to listen and react to patterns and changes in music
• hear and respond to cadence (V7-I)
• music has a steady beat (sounds may be steady and equal in length)
• quarter notes (ta)
• eight notes (ti-ti)
• sounds may be long or short (skipping)
• respond to mood of the music
• music starts and ends in silence
• dance integration

The video clips below are my first time meeting and teaching this class. As an established teacher of a classroom you may choose to move through the phases of talking piano at a different pace, depending on how much you need to focus on management and how expectations may already be established. I'll point out one of those examples relating to sitting down later in this post.

Stand up, sit down

stand up = ascending broken V7 chord (g-b-d-f), ending on G at the top

sit down = V7 blocked, with re as the top pitch(f-g-b-d), to blocked I chord in second inversion(e-g-c). The inversions are important, because they help children to hear the descending cadence more clearly.

Walk, run

Notice at the end of this clip, the students tried to hustle back to their assigned seats on their colored squares for sit down. This is an example of prior established expectations. The students were used to sitting down in their assigned seats, and didn't realize my expectation was different. I didn't realize immediately what was going, either, but later on I figured out what was going on. I simple explained to the students that in talking piano, "sit down" means you sit down right where you are, and they didn't need ot go back to their assigned seats unless I specifically directed them to do so. 

skip

A few keys for success:

• positive, specific reinforcement: to achieve a desired action or behavior, I chose to focus on students already doing that action or behavior. As soon as I praised that student with the specific details of what I was expecting, other students followed suit.
  **This management strategy helps to set expectations without having to state a long list of rules while you lose students attention. It also keeps things positive, and allows children the chance to make corrections without feeling like they did something wrong. Students who didn't quite understand the first time get to figure things out on their own. It gives students the opportunity to think for themselves. It takes away right and wrong, and the feeling of being unsuccessful, becuase instead of pointing out everything wrong, you're focusing on the positive.
• Pacing: Sometimes it's hard to know when to move forward, ignoring disruption, and when to stop and address it. There's no hard fast rule for this, but in general try to use the music as a mangement tool. If you keep the music going, keep the students brains engaged, management problems disappear. If what you are doing isn't working, try the opposite. 
• Practice: the more you try things like this, the more natural it will become.
• Transitions: once students are familiar with talking piano, you can use it for transitions from one activity to another, to line up, or just to get their wiggles out.

Extensions:

• talking piano provides a great foundation for notation.
• Dance integration: pathways, movement in space, etc.
• major and minor: play the rhythms to designate mood, and match movement to that mood

There Was An Old Woman All Skin and Bones

Here's a Halloween idea that can be done as a short segment during a class, or you could really dig into it and spend more time. (I taught this spur of the moment, so I wasn't as prepared as I would have like to have been, as I'm sure you'll see.)

Here's the music.

If you'd like to dig in more, you can let the students accompany the song using a minor chord on pitched instruments, la, do, and mi (b, d, and f, for example). You can also let the students use un-pitched percussion instruments and play them as they sing the refrain with you. 

I don't usually sing this story exactly the same way twice. You could have fun with it, letting students write their own words to the melody, or even go further and make up a new melody using the same form (verse and refrain). 

You could dig more into expressive qualities of music as well. The boo at the end could be a sfz, you could vary the dynamics and tempo to create more meaning and excitement. 

Happy Halloween!

If you use this, comment here and let us know how it went, and what you did with it.

What about those sixth graders?

Some of you have expressed that you would like more ideas of what you can do with sixth-graders. I feel that upper grades, and sixth grade especially, need opportunities with instruments in their hands. For newer teachers, management can be intimidating with instruments. The biggest key to success in that regard is to set clear expectations and maintain those expectations. For example, if the students are playing when they should be silent, have them practice playing and stopping together, listening for the silence. Make it exciting to hear that contrast from sound to silence. If they still can't get it, let them take a turn watching their peers until they are ready to join in and try again. (I actually call it a watching turn.) I'm happy to demonstrate or expound on this more if any of you have questions.

I popped in to see Gayle Bleak at Valley View the other day. She just so happened to be teaching sixth graders. They were playing various instruments to accompany a song. You can see on the board here she has the instrument groupings written out, the form of the song, pitches, the lyrics, and some rhythms. I didn't see the lesson prior, but I can only assume they spent some time delving into the form of the song, possibly learning to sing it, exploring and practicing the rhythms, etc.

I asked Gayle if we could record to share the idea with all of you fabulous teachers and she obliged.

Here are the students playing percussion instruments to accompany Siyahimba.

After the students finished putting the percussion instruments away, they got our their recorders. Gayle made sure to practice procedures such as rest position, warm-up position, and review the note fingerings before having the students accompany the song. I'll attach that video clip in a separate post, because I haven't yet figured out how to do two videos this big in the same post. :)

6th grade Valley View recorders

Finally!  I apologize for taking so long to get the information up here.  I was having some issues with my internet at the office and I couldn't load everything, but now it is all worked out! I hope that for those of you who were able to come to training last week you found good information and some fun lessons you can use.  As always, I don't require to use anything I present, infact, I don't even expect you to use them.  But I hope that you will find something new and give it a try.  Good teaching is all about experimentation and trying new things.  That being said...Here are the lessons for you.

Beat you Walk, Rhythm you Drop

This lesson is intended to be taught to k-6 with modifications if necessary.

Standards:  Playing, Creating

Objectives: 

• Experience feeling and moving to a steady beat
• Explore beat in a variety of songs and activities using body percussion or walking.
• Recognize and respond to beat and divided beat patterns grouped in meters of 2, 4 and duple meters.
• Create a simple beat or rhythm pattern using classroom instruments.**

Supplies:  Drum or other UPP classroom instrument(s)

Tell your students you are going to play a game today called Beat you walk, rhythm you drop.  The end goal of this game is to get the students to appropriately recognize and respond to the difference between beat and rhythm.  You may want to define the difference between beat and rhythm if you have not already done so.  Here are my favorite definitions:

• Beat…Beat keeps time for us.  Like a clock or a heart or a drum.  Beat keeps time.
• Rhythm…Rhythm is what tells the story of the song.  If often sounds like the words of the song or chant or even the simple melody. 

Once the difference between the two has been stated teacher plays some different patterns on her drum and asks the students to tell her if what she is playing is a beat or a rhythm.  Once the teacher can see that the majority of students understand the game begins. 

Game:  Have the students spread out around the room.  They can walk any path they want to in the room as long as they don’t bump into anyone else and their feet stay on the floor (you might have a few more rules depending on your kiddos).  On the drum teacher plays a combination of steady beat patterns and rhythmic patterns in different meters.  Keep the meters simple to begin with and only through in a few compound meters.  Students continue to walk to the steady beat around the room as long as there is a beat being played.  Once the beat changes to a rhythmic pattern all students need to drop to the ground (not flat on the floor, but more in a crouching position).  Teacher starts up again.  Try to trick the kids by starting with a rhythm and see if they are listening. 

You can also play this game by having the last person to drop get out, but I find it hard to keep them all engaged when playing it this way. 

**For the creating objective you can have a student use the drum and take over the teacher’s job or have them play a different UPP. 

This will quickly become one of their favorite games to play and they will ask for it often.  It’s a great warm-up at the beginning of class and a great time filler at the end of class.

Will you be my Echo Friend?

*Notation will follow on another post*

This lesson is intended to be taught k-6 with modifications when needed.

 Standards: Singing, Playing, Reading, Creating

Objectives: 

• Sing simple songs appropriate for children’s voices
• Recognize pitch patterns in familiar song
• Explore beat in a variety of songs and activities using body percussion or walking.
• Understand the relationship between beat and divided beat in the creation of simple rhythm patterns.
• Recognize and respond to beat and divided beat in meters of 2 and 4
• Experience the use of pitch, rhythm, and metric icons together as a visual representation of music.
• Create simple actions or body percussion patterns to accompany familiar songs.

Process:

1. Present the visual representation of the song and have the students echo you as you sing the different segments on a neutral syllable like “loo”.   
2. Echo sing the patterns using solfege syllables.
3. Speak the rhythm mnemonics using the syllables you prefer.  (not necessary for k-2)
4. Echo sing the whole song

After students have successfully learned the song, teacher adds a four beat pattern following the song using only ta and ti-ti (can add ti-ri-ti-ri for older students).  The students echo the patterns the teacher demonstrated.  Try this a few times. 

Students can then divide into partners. 

• Everyone sings the song together.  Partner 1 creates a 4 beat pattern using ta and ti-ti and partner 2 echoes that pattern.  This happens 4 times. 
• Sing the song again and now partner 2 has the chance to create the patterns and partner 1 can echo. 
• Try this several times with new and different partners. 

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

*Notation will follow on another post*

This lesson is intended to be taught 3-6

 

Standards: Singing, Playing, Creating

Objectives:

• Develop music appreciation by experiencing a variety of folk and traditional songs.
• Develop in-tune singing through healthy use of the natural voice.
• Practice the skills of beat accuracy while singing, playing and listening.
• Practice layering various percussion and melodic instruments to accompany a song.
• Create a simple rhythmic phrases or ostinato patterns to be played against a steady beat.

Supplies:  Mostly the use of Body Percussion, but may add any UPP instruments.

 

Process:

1. Teach the song It’s Raining, It’s Pouring to the students by rote imitation.  This song uses sol, mi and la which may be a good jumping off point or review for the kids. 
2. When students are solid with the song you can start adding ostinato with body percussion.  Each ostinato added is built on a steady beat, some slow and some fast but each of them is a beat. 
3. Begin with DRIP DROP.  Have the students imitate what you are doing by using 2 fingers and clapping against your palm while saying DRIP DROP.
4. Show them PITTER PATTER by snapping your fingers and have them repeat it.
5. Show SPLISH SPLASH by stepping to the words in place.
6. Show RAIN by patting your leg and making a big circle over your head.
7. Have the students each choose one of the ostinatos to perform on their own.  Switch at least four times so everyone has the chance to perform each ostinato. 
8. Review the song and add into the ostinatos.  Now you have 5 parts and will need to keep switching. 

 

Enrichment:

If you have a class that really grabs on to this lesson and is excelling you can do a couple of other things with it. 

• Have the students choose UPP instruments to represent the sound of the ostinatos and then perform.
• Divide the students into groups with 5 students in each group.  Each student is responsible for either singing or performing and ostinato.  Then pass responsibilities around the circle. 

EX:  S1…singing the song, S2…pitter patter, S3…drip drop, S4…splish splash, S5…Rain---then pass to the right.