Music education ideas, activities, games, and songs | Technology tips for the music classroom | Resources for the elementary music room.
October 12, 2013 Fourth and fifth grade students are reviewing "rhythm" (the short and long patterns of the beat) in music class...
High Shoals Elementary School Music Blog, Oconee County GA, Orff Music Instruction
Sing, sing, sing! I want my students to experience beautiful, in-tune singing and I am always on the lookout for songs with solos. I know students are more successful in pitch matching when they sing unaccompanied and have opportunities to sing alone. While I use several songs with solos in the primary grades, I don't use as many in the older grades. Here is one that has been very successful with my older students. I often start with several knots tied in the rope so that a few students are singing the solo, (which cuts down on the initial fear factor for the singers.) I learned this song from my wonderful Level III teacher, Liz Arcaro. Once a student has sung a solo (or duet, or trio, depending on how many knots I tie in the rope,) they go to a barred instrument and accompany with a simple bourdon on C and G. What are some of your favorite songs with solos?
Song Index
Once in a while I do a blog post more aimed at a music teacher audience, and this is one of those posts. This is the hello song that I sing to start every music for kindergarten and first grade. …
Here is a quick and easy play-along for the start of the 2014-2015 school year. The song is "Love Runs Out" performed by the group One Republic. There is much good news with this popular song, not the least of which it is in G dorian mode. Our Orff instruments are all set for this - all you'll need is B-flats and you're good to go! The other good news is the lyrics have no "bad words" so you're safe to use it completely in tact in your classroom. Please be sure to PURCHASE THE SONG before using this play-along. A $1.23 investment isn't much. Once you have it, you can use it as-is, there is no need to alter the key or tempo using a program such as Audacity. This song follows a very simple I, IV, V chord progression, but in case you're not quite clear on the chord changes, I've posted the beginning play-along below. Once you try it out, I'm sure you'll notice where the changes occur throughout the song. Feel free to add or subtract instruments at will. This is a fantastic review for students to see and hear the difference between BEAT and RHYTHM. The hand drum part (or any type of drums will do) clearly plays the steady beat. The other parts are playing a rhythm pattern (some more intricate than others). I did this with my students by having three groups that used the Boomwhacker colors - Green (the G minor chord) Red (the C major chord) Orange (the D minor chord). This was easier for them than having each student play all the chord changes. I placed the three colors on the board and pointed and called out the changes as the recording played. There is a part in the actual recording where the bass line moves from C to B-flat and then to G, but I have only written "the basics" here for you. Have fun!
One of my most favorite classroom activities to do is Composition. I just love, after teaching students the basics, watching them go through the creative process. I just love watching them as they realize that they can create a melody that sounds pretty. The smiles that come with this activity are so worth it! For […]
Students in first and second grade are learning about Rondo Form. A song is in rondo form if it has an A section that is repeated several times, with new sections in between each A section. An ex…
October 12, 2013 Fourth and fifth grade students are reviewing "rhythm" (the short and long patterns of the beat) in music class...
Peer Gynt
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Preparing for Your First Elementary Music Teaching Job. Organized Chaos. Top 5 suggestions to help you get ready over the summer for your first elementary music job.
My third grade classes have been focusing on folk songs. We have added Orff accompaniment, learned the cross-over technique, and performed line dances. They really enjoyed our activity with the song John Kanaka! First we talked about the history of the sea shanty: Then, we learned the song and discussed how the steady beat of the song might have helped sailors get their work done more efficiently. As we listened, the students identified the macro and micro beats and we practiced by using a pat-clap-pat-clap pattern. Next, the students transferred the macro/micro beats to a hand clapping game. First we practiced with paper plates: Holding the plate flat with their left hands, students pat the plate with their right. Then, they clap their right hands beneath and plate, pat the plate again, and clap their hands above the plate. They continue this pattern throughout the song feeling the macro beat (patting the plate) and the micro beat (clapping hands below and above): plate, below, plate, above, plate, below, plate, above. After they had a the movements down, we added tambourines and turned it into a circle dance! We got really fancy and rotated our outer circle on the fermata! Great job, third graders!
November 20, 2013 We have been learning all about "tempo" (the speed--fast or slow--of the beat) and "rhythm" in ...
Some of you are "lucky" and are still on winter break. . .. I'm not one of those "lucky" ones. But, it's all in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?! It was a really fun first day back. The kiddos were really excited to share about their break and ready to get back into the swing of things. Speaking of getting back into the swing of things, we brought this favorite back in 4th grade today. We used it in 3rd grade for low la but are bringing it back now to prepare syn-co-pa (feels like I've been prepping this forever. . . . .). Here's the song: This is a fun boomwacker part that we added with it in 3rd grade: And here's a really EASY Orff accompaniment that my 3rd graders this year did for our Parent Engagement Night: As I mentioned, we're prepping syn-co-pa so here's a new PowerPoint that I made: First, we have lyric slides: Then there are some low la prep slides that I included for next year's 3rd grade: After preparation comes practice, so here are a couple of the practice slides we'll use for review with 4th grade as a warm-up when prepping syn-co-pa: Here are the rhythm preparation slides: And here are the practice slides: After syn-co-pa is presented we'll sing it on solfége, using the stick rhythm and maybe even play "Remote Control" with it: And we'll practice reading the solfa on the staff, with the rhythm. Again, we might use an inner hearing game for this: I mentioned in an earlier post that I know I need to do a better job practicing reading Absolute Pitch Names, so here are those slides: Once we've read syn-co-pa in numerous songs we'll finally get to these cards. I made them for the Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer game but never got to them. Things happen and the kids we're prepared enough, so we "rolled with the punches" and had to change our pacing: I'm presenting at CMEA (Colorado Music Educators Conference) at the end of the month: one session called "Upping the Ante" and another one called "Manipulative Mania". This is for the "Manipulative Mania" session, sponsored by ROCKE (so, all you Colorado folks, you can buy this at CMEA this year!). I LOVE the way this turned out and we'll be using this as an assessment in a few weeks. Here's the beat board, the oars act as barlines: The students will have four canoes and they must put them in the correct order to match the song: Using the back side of the canoe, they can compose their own 4-beat rhythms on each canoe using a vis-a-vis marker. The boards can also be used with other die cutes such as fish, boats, seashells. Here's a couple fish thrown on: If you would like a copy of the PowerPoint above, it's available at my Teacher Pay Teachers store and includes the non-holiday song sorting game from the Rudolph file. I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY Click here MUSIC EDUCATION RESOURCES IN THE SHOP SHOP Music Resources Add to cart $5.25Rated 0 out of 5 Vocal Explorations : Fall Themed, Animated, Worksheets K-3″ Add to cart $4.50Rated 0 out of 5 Upper Elementary Music Class Chant,Game and Rhythm Lesson: “Get to Know Ya” L2 Stock […]
It's back to school time! Yay! I am so happy to see all of you again! I am looking forward to a fun school year with you! Here's what's up so far! Grades 4 & 5 (Rooms 13, 17 & 19) are starting the year with the song "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye. We began by watching a cover of the song by the group Walk of the Earth, where each member plays one part on the guitar. From left to right: Player 1: Uses the guitar as a percussion instrument Player 2: Plays the ostinato (a repeating pattern) which is actually just IIV to I chords Player 3: Plays the guitar melody Player 4: Plays the off-beat chords (on beats 2 & 4) Player 5: Plays accent chords Then we watched another version of the song: Gotye saw that so many people were doing covers of his song that he made a compilation video of a whole bunch of YouTube videos from around the world! Next week we will be learning to play this song on the Orff Instruments: From: http://musescore.com/user/24296/scores/49627 Grades 1/2/3 are learning the Tritsch Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss. We have coupled it with Deborah Ziolkoski's story and movement about the ringmaster and tightrope walker from Fun With Composers. We are learning about ABA form in music (same/different/same), and a little bit about the life of composer Johann Strauss. Here is a recording of it - ask your child to show you the story and movement! Did you know that the Tritsch Tratsch Polka is also used in the video game Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games? It can be found in the Synchronized Swimming section! Pretty cool, huh?
Ah Poor Bird
Well... back to school after spring break.. sort of. I've been out for 3 months, back for 2 weeks just half days and surgery again next Thursday- hopefully a minor one, this time! What a crazy school year! As promised, here are some of the center ideas I've been working on... These are a set of cards you can download, print, cut out and use to work on "musical math" or create a game where students work in groups and time themselves to see how quickly they can figure out the correct answer! Could also be used as a whole class competition; divide class in half and see how quickly students can get the correct answer. Play using "hangman" and see which group wins. Let me know how you use it!
November 20, 2013 We have been learning all about "tempo" (the speed--fast or slow--of the beat) and "rhythm" in ...
Sarasponda
Chrome Music Lab- Andrew Keegan shares 5 lesson ideas to try to save you time. Full of practical ideas to share with you students.
What do you like to do when you listen to music? Practice writing sentences by answering this question and more about music in this creative writing worksheet.
Warning: this idea is 100% completely stolen from my good friend Tanya LeJeune!! Be sure to view her blog by clicking here!!! I saw Tanya present this at the Colorado State conference a number of years ago but it wasn't until this year that I finally made a formal "remote" for the game (before making these manipulatives I would simply write the words on a board). You'll notice in the picture below that there are two remotes: the one on the left I use with 1st and 2nd grades & the one on the right is used with 3rd-5th grades. This is a late practice activity and students will be most successful when they are familiar with the song(s) that this is played with. Basic principal of the game: Have the practice song written on the board in stick notation with the solfege written below the rhythm and the text to the song below the solfa (similarly to the way Jill Trinka notates her songs in her books). I have the remote hanging on my magnetic board. The students read the song by performing it on each of the "channels" (the buttons- ie. they sing it on the words all the way through the song, then they sing it on the rhythm all the way through the song, then the solfa all the way through the song and then (for grades 3-5) the absolute pitch names). After that, if the game is new to the students, I explain how we are going to "channel surf"- this a concept that we are all familiar with. ;-) This means that as the song is sung I am going to have them switch from singing the song one way to another (i.e. they may sing phrase one on the words of the song and then the second phrase on solfa and so on.) I tell them which "station" they will start on and give them a starting pitch. Then, using another magnet (mine is a Fantasia Mickey Mouse that a former student gave me), I place the magnet next to the starting station and as the song is sung move the magnet to other channels as the phrases change. Here are a couple variations to make it more difficult: instead of using stick solfa, have the song written on the staff with the text below. have the song written on the staff but without the text. have them sing all of the song from memory. This one is fun to do with a song/game that the kids ask to play over and over again that they know VERY well. There is one thing that I have haven't touch on and that's the "mute" button: works just like a real mute button and is wonderful for inner hearing. I usually use it as an independent button (not in combination with other buttons), but you can do it in combination with the other buttons as a way to really challenge students. Thanks again Tanya for sharing this game!!!
Song Index
Create a sub plan so that you are good to go in the event of needing a substitute teacher as an art teacher or music teacher can make your life easier. There are many tips on putting together a sub plan and here are a few to get your started.
Ama Lama
Song Index
Song Index
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Song Index
Song Index
