Second Graders Learning About Orchestra Instrument Families

"The Remarkable Farkle McBride" by John Lithgow on PlayPosit began our new unit:
Instrument Families of the Orchestra

We will be using various resources to enhance learning.

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Instrument Safari

 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.

(Unfortunately because it uses Flash, it doesn't work on iPads)

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.

First Graders Have Fun With Classroom Instruments

First graders have been learning about our classroom instruments: 

How they look, sound, and name.

Also they're learning the correct way to play these instruments.

I used an interactive lesson that I designed to teach about this topic.

The Instrument Naming Game was a fun experience!

Now we're adding instruments to songs, and excited to use instruments created in STEAM class too!

Kindergarten Kids Explore Solfege

The Kindergarten Kids have been learning to sing with solfege, 

which are the Kodaly syllables and hand signs for singing. 

Activities have included a selected clip from "The Sound of Music"; 

playing with Boomwhackers (pitched tube instruments).

They will soon experience the book "Tap The Magic Tree" and Apple Tree, a circle game with a sol-mi-do song;

and the interactive white board program "Maestro Maestro" (sol-mi-do singing while learning instrument families).

Kindergarten kids have been singing many "I Sing, You Sing" songs, as well as seasonal songs from 

K8 Music/Plank Road Publishing. There is always movement incorporated. We also explore the software "Groovy Shapes by Sibelius on our Smart Board, which introduces many music concepts in engaging ways.

Nursery Rhymes in Kindergarten Music

Kindergarten kids have been having a great time learning Nursery Rhymes...

(some in multiple versions!)

Stories, Songs, and movement!

Wooly Cat's Musical Theater provides some fun twists on the familiar rhymes, while "Gettin' Down With Mother Goose" has fun songs to add.  Books by Iza Trapani, Kim Eagle and others round out the resources for this unit!

1st Graders Experience African Music Unit

Using songs, games, instruments, and stories that African children experience has proven to be a lot of fun for my 1st grade learners!

We talked about "call and response" 

and related it to the "I sing, You sing" songs we did through all of Kindergarten music. 

We had lots of fun with the game Obwisana and especially enjoyed using the shaker eggs!

The Lion Game was another fun experience, and one that can easily be played with a circle of friends and a rock or something else to pass.

We learned how to make an African drum and heard other instruments along with the story "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters" in the Reading Rainbow video with host Levar Burton.

Experiencing the African instruments that we have in our classroom was a lot of fun!

We're ending the unit with a Sound Story... "Ananse and the Sticky Glue".

2nd Graders Exploring How Music Can Help to Tell a Story

Music That Helps To Tell A Story is one of my favorite units!

I decided to start our year of learning with this.

2nd graders began by adding instruments 

to the familiar story "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" to create a sound story.

Our next activity was to listen to the Book/CD of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokoviev.

Students were able to identify the instruments used to portray the character themes. They will be able to make connections with this knowledge in our next unit.

Currently they are viewing "Peter and the Wolf" movie by Chuck Jones, which was an Emmy Award Winner. Again, students are making wonderful connections with things they've already learned!

I'll be using a Kahoot to check for understanding at the end of our Peter and The Wolf activities.

We will be doing more in depth discussions of the role music plays in films.

We'll also explore what kinds of clues music can give to help a story.

I'll be adding music from the Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky to my reading of 

"Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.

This book is familiar to many students, and they compare their prior experiences with this book with the experience of added music.

Finally, they will hear music from the same orchestral work in Fantasia 2000 and discuss how the same music helped to tell two very different stories.

I plan to use FlipGrid again for feedback from the students.

A New Year...A New Music Room

 SO EXCITED
To welcome students into our new music room-
To teach in ONE room and have all my resources there!
SO THANKFUL
To the community of McFarland-
To have the privilege to teach in the McFarland School District!