April in Music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (after Spring break - April 20):

• Kindergartners focused on music notation this month - both rhythm and pitch.  We got there by taking the poem "Engine Engine Number Nine" and experiencing it with speech and a movement game.  We read a graphic representation of 'train whistle' messages and discovered that rhythm is created when sound is interrupted with silence - creating different lengths.  Students discovered and notated the number of beats in the poem.  We used the beat to help us figure out the rhythm (whether there was one sound on a beat or two) and notated it at the SmartBoard with pictures of trains (one large for one beat of sound and two smaller train engines to represent two sounds on a beat).  Later we took the rhythm and created a song using two pitches [Sol and Mi].  After experimenting (many student leaders) to create new melodies for the poem, we notated a favorite one on a three line staff at the SmartBoard - putting the trains into the spaces for Sol and Mi.  Another day students accompanied the song the beat with xylophones.  Students have also had some experience writing down Sol - Mi - La melodies on a 2-line staff.

• First Graders - Fifth grades learned 5 songs for with an environmental emphasis for an all-school sing-along for Earth Day.  
• Song of the Earth
• Care for the Earth - some 5th graders helped to accompany this on guitar or ukulele
• Ecology Round - a 4-part round  - 5th grade song leaders helped to keep us all together
• The Garden Song - chorus and 2 verses
• This Pretty Planet  - a 3 part vocal canon (staggered entrances, but all ending at the same time at the end of a phrase) - made possible with the help of 5th grade song leaders.

March in Music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (March):

• Kindergartners took a break from our instrument focus to do lots of singing and moving.  We learned a new singing/movement game- Down in the Valley  and had fun singing Throw It Out the Window a song that plugs in the words to nursery rhymes and always has a funny twist when the rhyme is interrupted with "throw it out the window".  Another silly song we explored was the Vowel Song . . . or Apples and Bananas.  So fun to sing with the guitar and a bit of silliness.  We also learned another singing/listening game, Who Has the Penny.  In this game a penny passes from one person to the next around a circle as the penny passing song is sung.  On the last word of the song everyone in the circle closes their hands.  One person is at the door and sings, "Who has the penny" using a S-M-S-M melody.  The person with the penny echoes with "I have the penny."  The guesser takes their first guess from that distance away from the circle.  If they don't get it, then they move next to the circle and sing the question again.  If they need a 3rd guess then then step inside the circle and sing the question one final time.

• First Graders and Second Graders reviewed their performance, Earth Matters, with 'Popcorn and a Movie' - as they watched the video of their performance with some focus questions about the performance, and had a pop corn treat.  Students did a self-evaluation of their contributions to the Sight, Sound and Sensation (feeling/expression) of the performance.  Students also had a day of choosing songs to sing.  They also revisited some favorite singing / movement games.  Then we got back to reading and writing rhythms with traditional notation.  We took our 2nd 'snap-shot' (assessment) of solo/tutti rhythm reading.

• Third Graders continued focusing on learning to play the recorder and reading traditional notation.  In this rotation they reviewed B - A - G notes and fingering and were introduced to a new note, low E.  Students reviewed the three notes by extending the familiar Hot Cross Buns into a longer form of Theme and Variations on Hot Cross Buns.  Check out our audio recordings on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.  Students were introduced to a new melody based on a nursery rhyme, See a Pin.  With this piece we explored two tonalities - one centered on Do (major sounding) and one centered on La (minor sounding).  This piece introduced the new Low E.  Playing an E has added the right hand covering holes, too.  

• Fourth Graders got back to working on pieces for their upcoming Colorado Connection Concert.  These will happen before spring break and parents will be notified of their child's performance date and time 3 weeks ahead.  In this rotation students were introduced to the last new song to be added into our concert, Colorado!  We continued working to get all the pieces ready to share.

• Fifth Graders spent their week in this rotation learning all of the parts to a piece called Driving Force by my friend, Danai Gagne.  We all learned the accompanying drum pattern and the soprano recorder part for the A section of the Rondo.  The A section introduced students to a high c fingering.  Students also partnered up so that one in their pairing learned the B section of the Rondo and the other the C section.  The whole piece is a Rondo Form:  A B A C A.  The B and C portions required students to learn a high E fingering on the recorder and introduced a half-hole technique for getting to the upper octave.  By the end of the week we had woven all of the parts together - including the drum accompaniment.  A video recording is available for your viewing/listening on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.

February in Music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (February):

• Kindergartners finished their introduction to the different timbres of the melodic percussion (tone bars) - xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels.  After playing each 'family' separately to explore their characteristics and size, we put two of them together to accompany our singing.  Students played a beat bordun (open 5th) on the Bass Xylophones in a pattern:  Tah, Tah, Tah, Rest (which matches "Bow Wow Wow" from the song they accompanied.  The glockenspiels played the oppositie - Rest, Rest, Rest, Tah - filling in a splash of sound on the beat the BXs were not playing.  Students were introduced to the musical notation for Tah and Rest (quarter note and quarter rest). 

• First and Second Graders prepared songs and pieces to share with families and invited guests and shared them at their Specials Program:  Our Earth Matters.  The first graders added nstrument parts to a Traditional Native American piece called The Earth is Our Mother, and the second graders added accompaniment parts on the Orff instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels and metallophones) to a piece by Colorado composer, Elizabeth Gilpatrick, called Care for the Earth.  These two pieces were woven together into one ABA musical whole at the performance.  Students prepared three other piece to share at the program - all on an environmental theme.  Throughout the process students also learned about performance etiquette.

• Third Graders continued learning to play the recorder.  In this rotation they reviewed the basics of how to hold the recorder, how to blow the recorder and how to start and stop a sound (tonguing).  We reviewed B and A - fingering and notation, and added their third note - G.  Students learned at least three songs using those three notes.  So their own personal recorders were sent home along with a packet containing music, fingering chart and some extension activities.  Students are encouraged to practice at home and log their time on the linked google form (Practice Logs) on this blog, 

• Fourth Graders got back to working on pieces for their upcoming Colorado Connection Concert.  These will happen before spring break and parents will be notified of their child's performance date and time 3 weeks ahead.  In this rotation students were introduced to the last new song to be added into our concert, Colorado!  We continued working to get all the pieces ready to share. 

• Fifth Graders returned to focusing on melody in this rotation.  The reviewed treble clef notation and had a 2nd take on the 50 in 5 challenge (timed note naming challenge).  Several students bettered their scores and more students were placed in the Hall of Fame for various times.  Our big project was being introduced to a melody as we created a choreography for the phrases and then learned to play the simple melody (really just the melodic skeleton of a piece) on tonebars set up in a pentatonic scale.  Using some fancy technology to notate the changes as we made them, students made small changes to the melody to make it their own class composition - double or quadrupling notes to change the rhythm and adding passing tones.  We played the piece in unison and in a melodic canon - dividing both by range and by timbre.

January in music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (January):

• Kindergartners reviewed what they knew about small percussion instruments, using their sounds to enhance a book, "Worms Wiggle" and explore movement verbs matched with those instrument choices.  They were introduced to some new singing games:  Bow, Wow, Wow and Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone?  We also did some mallet exploration in preparation for playing and being introduced to the tone bars.  Students so far have played xylphones, focusing on mallet hold and equating what is played to the movement vocabulary we have used - walking, running, jumping, hopping and sliding.

• First Graders - Fifth Graders all took part in our first ever all-school Sing-along Assembly Thursday, January 11th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other difference makers.  They learned 5 songs for this.

• First and Second Graders then started focusing on performance etiquette and preparing songs and pieces to share with families and invited guests at their upcoming Specials Program:  Our Earth Matters.  The first graders will add instrument parts to a Traditional Native American piece called The Earth is Our Mother, and the second graders will add accompaniment parts on the Orff instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels and metallophones) for a piece by Colorado composer, Elizabeth Gilpatrick, called Care for the Earth.  These two pieces will weave together into one ABA musical whole.  There are three other pieces the students are working on to share at the program - all on an environmental theme.  For more information about the specials  program - check on the 1st and 2nd grade programs page in this blog.

• Third Graders have begun learning to play the recorder!  In this rotation they have learned some very important basics:  
• How to hold the recorder - with left hand on top
• How to blow the recorder with a gentle, warm airspeed like teasing a candle
• How to tongue - starting and stopping the sound with a gentle 'd' 
• Fingering and notation for two notes - B and A
  Once students have learned 3 songs with three notes (not two) then personally owned recorders will be coming home along with music to practice and instructions on logging home practice.

• Fourth Graders got back to working on pieces for their upcoming Colorado Connection Concert.  These will happen before spring break and parents will be notified of their child's performance date and time 3 weeks ahead.  In this rotation students were introduced to Square Dancing - which is the Colorado folk dance.  They learned the calls and moves for one long square dance, plus the few calls in The Symbol Song.  In addition, we started learning a new piece for recorder, Ride the Iron Horse which introduced us to two new notes - low d and high d.  We also got a start on a really cool piece called the Gold Rush Rap.  Some students volunteered to start learning the rap parts for this.

• Fifth Graders returned to focusing on melody in this rotation.  The reviewed treble clef notation and had a 2nd take on the 50 in 5 challenge (timed note naming challenge).  Several students bettered their scores and more students were placed in the Hall of Fame for various times.  Our big project was being introduced to a melody as we created a choreography for the phrases and then learned to play the simple melody (really just the melodic skeleton of a piece) on tonebars set up in a pentatonic scale.  Using some fancy technology to notate the changes as we made them, students made small changes to the melody to make it their own class composition - double or quadrupling notes to change the rhythm and adding passing tones.  We played the piece in unison and in a melodic canon - dividing both by range and by timbre.

December in Music

____ Here's what happened in music recently (December):

• Kindergartners continued learning about the unpitched small percussion instruments we have in the music room - finishing up with the Membranic(skins or drum) family (with a Circle pass and the Listen game) as in previous weeks.  We have been using these instruments with some movement response games, too.

• First Graders - Fifth Graders have all been learning 5 songs that will be a part of our first-ever all-school Sing-along Assembly.  This will be happening on Thursday, January 11th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other difference makers.  

November News

____ Here's what happened in music recently (November):

• Kindergartners continued learning about the unpitched small percussion instruments we have in the music room - studying both the Scrape and Ring families (with a Circle pass and the Listen game) as in previous weeks.  We have been using these instruments with some movement response games, too.

• First Graders spent the first half of the week focused on reading and writing rhythm patterns with tah (quarter note), rest (quarter rest) and tee-tee (pair of eighth notes).  The second half of the week we focused on melody patterns - reading and writing - with Sol-Mi-La on a 2-line staff.  These patterns come out of the Apple Tree song from the last rotation.  Friday we had a 'Talent Time' in class musical sharing and some choice time of favorite singing/movement games.

• Second Graders continued learning with our pie theme - with a focus on rhythm the first part of the week and shifting to melody on Thursday.  We reviewed Great Big House in New Orleans with our 'pie response' challenge.  We sorted pictures of fruits and vegetables used as pie ingredients (rhubarb, strawberries, blackberry, boysenberry, peach, lemon, cinnamon, apple, cherry, pumpkin, etc) - based on the rhythms.  Students then worked in small collaborative groups to create a word chain with these words/rhythms.  Using 4 of the 2-beat building bricks (with the last one being pie), at least one of the word/bricks had to be a berry so that students had a pattern with 2 eighth notes (tee-tee) in their word chain.  Once the word chains were created and practiced - student said them and then transferred them to a small percussion instrument with each group playing the same kind of instrument.  We put the whole piece together in a Rondo form (A B A C A D A) with the A section being a spoken poem - I like Pie.  Some classes made a recording of their work which you can find on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.  After this project was completed, we switched our focus to melody and hearing and writing melodic patterns with Sol-Mi-La on a 2-line staff.   

• Third Graders performed their Rock Concert for parents.  We added in the extra 'special' parts with each student choosing to either take on a Narrator part, stage hand role or help to create the 'volcanic eruption' for Earth Changes.  On Monday we sifted out who would do what and practiced those new parts.  Tuesday and Wednesday we reviewed each of the songs and pieces in order, including the student created portions of the Rock Rondo.   Thursday we had our live audience of parents, grandparents, siblings and friends.  A video recording was made of the sharing for any of you that were not able to be a part of the live performance - or to watch back with your child even if you were there.  You'll find the recording on the In the Spotlight page of this blog.

• Fourth Graders reviewed the State Song, "Where the Columbines Grow" and added a new song, "Cripple Creek" which they are singing in two voice parts (our most complicated).  This new piece not only has two voice parts, but also a soprano recorder descant that required us to learn a new note on the recorders - F#.  This rotation we also wrapped up the 4 separate train themed recorder pieces small groups were working on - making a video recording that will be incorporated into one file eventually with a voice over of a train poem.  That way we can share these pieces with parents separate from our in school sharing of the Colorado Connection Concert happening in the spring.

• Fifth Graders - Two groups (Purple and Green) focused on Rhythm through Rhythmic Canons.  We warmed up with some rhythmic echoes, then switched it to an instant canon by staying 4 beats behind while the leader went on.  We learned a rhythmic canon - discovering the form by listening with the notation fragments in front of us - and transferred it to hand drums.  These activities led students to creating their own Rhythm Canon compositions.  We also played a listening challenge with their pieces - Stand Up if You're the Composer.   The Blue and Orange groups will get a chance to do this after our Freedom Assembly in January.  In the meantime they are working on songs for that assembly.

Remember there are 3 different rotation schedules running concurrently in specials ___

• The Kindergartners come to music every 3rd day - twice in 6 days, with one extra time for each All Day Kindergarten_
  So this post covers Rotation 9-11 in music (with the Day Kindergartens having a few extra classes).

• The 5th graders come to music for a week every 4 weeks (1 week of music, 3 weeks somewhere else) so this post will tell you about 'week 4/5A of music.

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Grades come to music in a 3-week rotation (1 week of music, 2 weeks in other specials) so this post will cover  instructional week 5 of music (although one group is just starting this).  

October happenings

Remembering there are 3 different rotation schedules running concurrently in specials ___

• The Kindergartners come to music every 3rd day - twice in 6 days, with one extra time for each All Day Kindergarten_
  So this post covers Day 6 - 8 in music (with the Day Kindergartens having a few extra classes).

• The 5th graders come to music for a week every 4 weeks (1 week of music, 3 weeks somewhere else) so this post will tell you about 'week 3' of music (although two groups are still there)

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Grades come to music in a 3-week rotation (1 week of music, 2 weeks in other specials) so this post will cover  instructional weeks 3 and 4 of music, although two group have yet to start week 4.

____ Here's what happened in music recently (October):

• Kindergartners began learning about the UnPitched Percussion instruments we have in the music room.  They are learning about them in timbre or tone color groupings.  In these rotations (#6-8) they were introduced to the  Click instruments (wood block, temple blocks, tap-a-taps, slap stick, rhythm sticks, claves, tone block, castanets and tongue drum, aka slit log drum), the Jingle instruments (tambourine, cystrum, jingle bells, Indian dance bells, caxixi and sleigh bells) and the Rattle instruments (maracas, chiquita maracas, rain stick, handle castanets, clatterpillar, vibraslap, cabasa, shekere, nut rattle, and seed pod ) With each of these families students were introduced to the proper playing technique and the instrument name.   Each student took a turn playing every instrument as they were passed around the circle.  Students were asked to match the beat as they played.  We also played a game called "Listen" which requires students to determine which instrument they are hearing without being able to see it and then name it.

• First Graders used an Apple theme to focus on rhythm and review melody this week.  We reviewed familiar melodic patterns of Sol-Mi-La and discovered a new singing game, Apple Tree which introduced students to a lower pitch - Do.  We played the singing game three different ways - trading places with part of the 'tree' when trapped, or adding new trees into the orchard as an elimination game, or seated in a circle as a beat passing game.  We read and created new sound/silence patterns within an 8 beat frame - using paper plates to mark out the beats.  Those plates that had an apple on them, we said 'yum' on the beat and those that didn't have an apple had a silent beat (rest).  Students changed the pattern by adding or subtracting apples.  After we had played our Apple Tree game multiple days, we added a beat bordun reading some of those sound/silence patterns.  First Graders rediscovered the rhythm tee-tee (2 eighth notes sharing a beat) as we decoded the rhythm of Apple Tree.  Following a time that we read Dr. Seuss's Ten Apples Up on Top, we 'upset the apple cart' and used our apple/rhythm cards to create new tah and tee-tee patterns.  Then we flipped the cards around to read a scrambled/mixed up version of the lyrics.  On Friday classes sang some favorite Disney songs and we learned about the term opera, by putting on a version of The Three Piggy Opera based on Disney's Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? 

• Second Graders learned two new Americana singing games with a Pumpkin Theme - Great Big House in New Orleans and Pumpkin (PawPaw) Patch.  Pumpkin Patch is a  singing game in a long-aways set.  Each student got a turn at being in the lead (head couple) spot.  With Great Big House in New Orleans we learned all three verses and traditional movement and then extended our learning and experience by adding instrumental accompaniment parts including a cross-over pattern.  We extended the form with a contrasting speech section - "Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pie!  I just love that pumpkin pie.  Love the whipped cream piled up high.  I just love that pumpkin pie!"  Students used the rhythm of this speech pattern to improvise melodically on glockenspiels as we created a longer form.  We also added a rhythmic speech/percussion ostinato with spoons.  In addition we played a response game with the names of different kinds of pies.  On Friday classes chose which songs to sing from a menu of favorite Disney songs.  We also revisited our The Three Piggy Opera based on Disney's Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? 

• Third Graders reviewed the songs they have learned to date for their upcoming "Rock Concert" including the Rock Concert Opener and Reprise, Earth Changes, Rock Rap, This is My Favorite Rock and Obwisana (the rock passing game from Ghana).  We began developing a new piece - Rock Rondo.  Each student learned a melody on xylophones which will be the A section of the Rondo.  We brainstormed a list of rock words to fit various rhythmic building bricks (2 beat patterns).  Students worked collaboratively in small groups to create a two-part rhythmic speech pattern.  Each group took words from 2 bricks to put together into a small phrase.  After creating both an "a" and "b" phrase, groups were given a small form (abab, aabb, aaba, or aaab).  They performed their speech pattern for the class and the listeners identified the pattern they heard.  The next day students reviewed their created sections and practiced saying it one time and then playing the rhythm on rocks.  We wove this into a rotating rondo with the xylophone part learned earlier in the week.  We will share this piece at our Rock Concert, too.  Friday we took a break from our Rock Concert songs to sing songs by student choice from a menu of Disney Favorites. 

• Fourth Graders reviewed the songs they had previously been introduced to for their Colorado Connections Concert, Symbol Song and Cheyenne Hand Game.  In addition to reviewing the Soprano Recorder piece Stegosaurus Stomp, students chose between 1 of 4 pieces to learn on recorder - all with a Railroad theme (Colorado Connection).  Each piece has different challenges but each one has the notes E, G, A and B.  This pieces will not be a part of the live performance but we play to make video recordings and weave them into their own movie clip with a train poem to link them together.  On Friday students either had a make-up Talent Time (missed for the Digger Dash) or chose songs from a menu of Disney songs.

• Fifth Graders reviewed Recorder playing skills as we learned a piece Mrs. Petty wrote called Quickie Quodlibet.  A Quodlibet is a musical form where each new part is introduced as a solo and then stacked or layered with the parts that have come before.  Students learned one 4-measure part as a whole group, by taking it apart and putting it back together:  Rhythm, Pitch, Pitch or letter names + rhythm, then that with added recorder fingering.  Students then chose to work in one of 4 groups [4 corners] to either continue working on the first melody or take on the challenge of decoding another 4 measure melody.  On the second day we stacked those 4 melodies together.  On day 3 students began their first undertaking as a composer this year.  Students worked either alone or with a partner or two to create their own Soprano Recorder melody in 4/4 time and G pentatonic (same tone set as the model piece).  After sharing those compositions, students stacked their melody with another composed melody.  The notes we were working with were low D and E, G, A, B, and high D and E.  Each new melody had to have at least 3 pitches and one measure used a 2nd time - but did not have to use all of the pitches.  Students took the task seriously and seemed to enjoy their role as composer/creator.