Thank you Guest Musicians!

A HUGE round of applause for our Guest Musicians!

Enid Williams, Dr. Andrew Briddell, Ryan Casey, Arick Ecker, Jamie Sercombe, Jamie Cash, 

Kaci Bailey and John Weekes!

Such a great learning experience for 2nd graders to see music important in lives of adults!

 

We have some great videos from our time together as well...

Sounds Abound! Sound Poems/Stories for each grade level

All of the students have been experiencing classroom instruments in sound poems/stories/songs.
It's been a big hit! (pun intended!)

2nd Grade: "The Spider and the Fly"
By Cristi Cary Miller

First Grade: "Something Went Bump"
By Teresa Jennings

"Ananse Was A Spider"
By Cristi Cary Miller

"Did You Hear That Sound?"

By Teresa Jennings

Kindergarten: "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything"
By Linda Williams

Kindergarten: Solfege, Boomwhackers and the "Sound of Music"

The Kindergarten Kids have been learning to sing with solfege, practicing the hand signs, and transferring their new knowledge to playing Boomwhackers (pitched tubes).
Clips that I show from a favorite movie of mine, "The Sound of Music", are perfect for the solfege unit.


















Our Solfege Hand Sign Wall

Playing solfege songs with Boomwhackers!

Kindergarten kids engaged in "The Sound of Music"

Kindergarten kids practicing hand signs with "Do, A Deer..."

African Music Unit...Enjoyed By All!

First graders have enjoyed experiencing African singing games, instruments and stories!
We made the connection to singing games American children play, and talked about how really all you need to have fun is a circle of friends, a rock, and in our case, shaker eggs!

Instrument Families of the Orchestra in a Fun, Engaging Learning Experience

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Instrument Safari

In second grade music classes we are learning about the instrument families of the orchestra. This website presents the concept in an engaging and fun way.  

Students are welcome to explore this at home, and can register for a free account.

By creating their own "secret name", password, and hint, students are able to experience all of this for themselves. This is an advantage because we take turns when we are learning as a class.

And Just Like That, We're Back! Welcome to Music Classes!

And....We're Back!

Primary Expectation Video

CE Expectation Video

Our first music classes include getting to know each other, viewing the expectation videos 

(see above), and "setting the stage" for our year together!

Coming Up:

2nd Grade will be starting to work on The Instrument Families of the Orchestra Unit.

1st Grade will start the "African Music" Unit.

Kindergarten begins "Nursery Rhyme " Unit.

I am excited to be starting Year 5 in McFarland! 

It is my goal to teach the children  musical skills and above all the love of music activities 

to grow life long enjoyment of music!

First Grade Class Composing in Groovy Jungle

After learning experiences throughout the year on the software "Groovy Jungle", 

each first grade class created a composition that every child contributed items to.

It was fun for the students to choose elements: 

Melody, Rhythm, Chords, Arpeggios, Bass Line, and Animal Sounds

Everyone enjoyed listening to the composition multiple times!

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears in Kindergarten Music

Kindergarten kids enjoyed playing instruments along with the story "The Three Bears Picnic".

Other activities included different versions of the traditional story, a movie, and this music video of the Goldilocks Song by Debbie and Friends.

Caution: This song WILL get stuck in your head!  :)

Note Trainer Competition Reward Game Day- Mrs.Adams' 2nd grade Class

Mrs. Adams' Class was the winner of the Note Trainer Competition with 100%!

Their reward was a Music Game Day with various stations that they could rotate through.

The class did a fabulous job with the games, and I think they really enjoyed their reward. :)

Treble Clef Learning in 2nd Grade

Second grade students used class time to work on a variety of apps to aid in note reading skills.

Note Trainer is a class competition that we have held for the past few weeks. Resources in the room were available early on, and gradually taken away to help students be more proficient in their note identification skills. The competition wraps up this week and the winning class (highest percentage) will be rewarded with a Game Day in Music before the end of the year.

 Silly Staff is a game that I invented to help with Note Reading and Notation. It is a fun team game that I actually use as a formative assessment. Participants notate the word, or read the notes and write the word. Their brains process the information in a different way. How they play tells me a lot! And meanwhile, they are having fun!

First Graders Learn About Treble Clef Lines and Spaces

Freddie the Frog and Eli the Elephant

provide a fun way for the students to learn about the Treble Clef!

Further exploration for them:

Freddie the Frog Website

Another fun way to learn!

Music videos of "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE"

Plank Road Publishing (K8 Music)

The culminating activity for the unit was the Bean Bag Toss game!

Students are in teams, and each contestant tosses the bean bag onto the treble clef staff rug. Points are given for correct note identification. Students had a lot of fun playing this!

Kindergarten Kids Learn About The Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint Saens

by Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas

Heritage Music Press

The Kindergarten kids have enjoyed learning about the different musical themes for each "animal" in Camille Saint Saens "Carnival of the Animals". We worked with a Smart Board interactive program to listen to the musical theme of each, guess the animal, and then reveal.
We also used a movement video and each child will have a coloring sheet book to bring home and share with you!

Second Graders Learn About Melody

Second Graders have been exploring Melody with a "Behind the Scenes" video and Music Ace Maestro Lesson and Game.

Making Group Melodies in First Grade

The First Graders watched the Wee Sing Marvelous Musical Mansion video after their program.
This has been a great favorite of my first grade classes for many years. One part of it is a song that tells exactly how to create a melody. This year, inspired from that song, I created the Melody Group Project lesson, Here are some photos from groups working together and being proud of their melody!
We used the xylophones to hear our ideas while creating, and then to play our melody for the class.
It was a lot of fun, and goes into my plans for next year!!