Friday, January 29, 2016

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!


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