Reviewing and Introducing METER!

Reviewing meter is a GREAT time to compose rhythms!

It has been a crazy busy couple of weeks in my world and almost none of the busy has had anything to do with school..... :)  Be that as it may, my students and I have been steadily working on reviewing all of the things that we learned last year..... reviewing previously taught concepts, practicing rusty skills and basically preparing and gearing up to really dig into the curriculum for the grade levels that we are in now.  One thing that we are reviewing in 4th and 5th grade and introducing in 3rd grade is concept of meter. 

I wanted to share something that I've created this year for use with my students that I'm certain you can use....... 


METER / Rhythm cards

I recommend dividing these cards into different sets. 

I currently have printed these cards into 2 different sets.  I have a set for 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4 meter and a second more advanced set for 2/2 and 6/8......

So far because we are still reviewing we have only gotten out the basic set. 

I also found that color coding the cards helps with organization. 

 

Please feel free to download these cards for FREE!
 
Meter / Rhythm cards


Whole note cards The whole notes are on longer paper 11x17 paper

 

Melodysoup YUMMY Award July 2013 - Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan *LESSON IDEAS*

It feels like I haven't given a YUMMY AWARD! in AGES!  And the truth it that it has been six months, so I am well over due!  This one was especially fun to write because the minute I put my hands on this book I had lots of lesson ideas.

I'm always looking for books that lend themselves to the development of music literacy.  I especially like books that provide a variety of uses for the same book.  Often these books will work with multiple grade levels depended on the simplicity or complexity of my ideas.  In any case, I found this book at TMEA and I've been looking forward to incorporating into my bag of tricks!

 

The Yummy Award for July 2013 goes to


Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan

 

Ideas for Younger Children:

I think that after the children are familiar with the book it would be fun isolate a page of the book and then either play or post a rhythm and ask the children to identify which set of words goes with the rhythm.  For example.  One short except from the book goes like this,

 "Chicky Chicky Chook Chook

Chick Chick Chick,

Chicky Chicky Chook Chook

 Peck Peck Peck."

I could post several  known rhythms like and then ask the students figure out where in the page those rhythms happen.

Wouldn't it be fun to have students write a rhythm we were working with on a small post it note and then place it in the places when that rhythm happens?   I think they would love it! 


We could extend our work by orchestrating our book for various instruments. Each page is composed around a different hard consonant sound.  Perhaps the "Ch" sound could be played on the sand blocks while the hard "k" sound was played on the woodblock.  The possibilities are endless!


Ideas for Older Children:

Wouldn't this be a fun way to approach rhythm dictation? If students were well versed in rhythmic patterns they might enjoy the challenge of figuring out the rhythmic pattern.  It's a new twist on the "what rhythm am I playing?" game.  Students attempting this would need lots of aural discrimination practice under their belt, but I think that they could puzzle it out. 

An extra challenge might be for older children to compose another page for the book.  I think this would be an excellent opportunity to create a class book filled with original compositions that we could then play and orchestrate.

What about melody?!!!  This book has such a wonderful rhythmic pattern that it might be the perfect opportunity to ask older students to take known pitches and compose an original melody.  Imagine this book played as an original composition!!!! 

MY! MY! MY! - This is starting to sound like an entire semester worth of study and it's just 1 book!  - LOVE IT! 

 

Want to see what other books have received a YUMMY Award?  Click HERE!

 



Composing Rhythms in 2nd grade

Like everyone else, I'm in the last few days of school.  My students last day is June 5th and we have a workday on June 6th.  One of my chores is to get my computers in order.  As part of that chore, I found these pictures taken earlier this year (sometime in February/March) My second graders were writing a rhythm composition using quarter, eighth and rests. 

I made a BIG deal about being composers, and gave them special paper.  We folded the paper four times so that we had 16 boxes (beats). 

I then told them that they could draw a quarter note in any 8 boxes of their choosing. 

Then I told them to write 4 sets of eighth notes in 4 boxes of their choosing. 

I made a BIG deal about the "blank" spaces and suggested that they could either fill in the remaining four boxes with quarter notes or eighth notes OR they could draw a rest in each empty box. 

They were so proud of themselves and took great delight in sharing their rhythm compositions with each other. 

 

 

Caution! Elementary Music Centers Under Construction - Part 5

Sometimes you just stumble upon the right thing and inspiration occurs!

That is exactly what happened when I visited Hobby Lobby over spring break. 

I looked over and noticed this bag of soft geometric blocks...... The price was reasonable and it seemed to be something that I could easily replicate if I liked it. 

I sorted the blocks and found that I had enough cylinder blocks to make one game and enough rectangle blocks to make a different game. 

Today I'm going to tell you about my cylinder game because that is the one that has worked best.  Based on the number and size of the blocks I decided to create a center that started with whole notes and used half notes, and quarter notes.  I also created blocks that were half rests and quarter rests.  

Then I took some 8.5x11 sheets of craft foam and got out my marker.  I measured and discovered that my masking tape was just about the same width as the cylinders, so I cut it into the correct length and started tracing. 

I realized pretty quickly, that I would need a way for these rolly polly cylinders to stay in place, so I added Velcro.  I put four soft Velcro "beats" inside each outlined "measure".  Then I put the scratchy Velcro dots on each block.  I'll admit that I was pretty skeptical I really didn't think that the Velcro would last past the first class.  I thought for sure that my students who are pretty hard on materials would tear this center up the first time I got it out. 

I'm so pleased to tell you that it WORKS!  These Velcro pieces have been handled with all of the energy my students can dish out, kindergarten through 5th grade, gentle and rough handling and we still have a perfectly intact center with all of it's parts.  I think that maybe the foam blocks and the foam sheet have an easier time adhering to the Velcro than if I had created this center using laminated tag. 

In kindergarten this center is a "pre-skill".  I want them to understand that it takes 1 or 2 or 4 blocks to fill in the square.  Although I tell them what the notes are and although they have practice with quarter notes, I'm trying to "play" them into the relationship between the notes.  The placement of the Velcro helps reinforce this.... it makes it difficult to overload a measure.  When the students arrange their "songs" to their satisfaction then they bring them to me and I read them.  They love love love love love it! 

1st grade is similar, but with more independence and with the expectation that they will read what they know. 

By 2nd grade, I can go two different directions with this center  I ask the students to either dictate a rhythm pattern from a known song, or I ask them to create something original.  If they create something original, then they have to copy their work onto a piece of paper that they then turn in for a grade. 

In 3rd, 4th and 5th, it would be nice to have sixteenth notes, but it also is really great practice for them to revisit some rhythms they've known for a while.  Also, with the older students, I challenge them to see how many different patterns they can create.  Since they don't stay in centers very long, this keeps the motivation high even at this simple center that doesn't have the same "curb appeal" that some of the others have. 


Caution! Elementary Music Centers Under Construction - Part 4

Caution! Elementary Music Centers Under Construction - Part 3

Caution! Elementary Music Centers Under Construction - Part 2

Caution! Elementary Music Centers Under Construction - Part 1

Reflections on Centers

September YUMMY AWARD! - Bling Blang by Woody Guthrie and Vladimir Radunsky

for September 2012

goes to 

Bling Blang by Woody Guthrie, Illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky

This book has so much to offer a music teacher in search of a book that will exemplify great literature and great music for kinder and first grade. 

First - The lyrics are very poetic and picturesque and when this book is studied in conjunction with Howdi Do and My Dolly you've got a really solid composer/author study.

If you are lucky enough to find a copy of Howdi Do WITH a CD, you'll get a recording of all 3 books.  Now - each recording is very different and not all of the recordings are created equal, but Bling Blang is awesome!  

Recording
In the recording of Bling Blang the violin creates a very convincing hammer and saw sound while the really nicely played tuba carries the melody.  There is an very proper and operatic baritone solo for all of the verses which serves as a great example of male singing.  The children who are singing in the recording are NOT the best example of children singing, but I rarely find recordings in which I like everything.... so I'll take what good stuff I can find.  overall Bling Blang is nicely done.   The recording also offers nice instrumental interludes that can serve as great preparation for playing rhythmic patterns.

Rhythm patterns:
Here are the ostinati that I use with this song.



First we "play" these rhythms with our hands and mouth sounds.  I don't know how to type the sound that kids make when they click their tongues, but all of my students LOVE doing it, so we use it as part of our pattern when we are using our hammers.  Then when we are using our saws, we switch sounds and rhythmic patterns.

Part work
I like to split the class into two groups with one group being hammers and the other being saws.  Then we pass the pattern back and forth, and work toward independence so that they can do the two patterns simultaneously (in harmony)  some classes can, some can't.....yet.....

Then we add instruments.  Woodblocks and tone blocks become hammers while guiros, cabasas, and sand blocks become saws.

Good Singing
We are working toward being able to accompany our singing with a different rhythmic pattern.  The book provides an awesome structure for the practice because just about the time that things start getting shaky or start to fall apart, it's time to regroup while we listen to the CD or the teacher sing another verse.

Early Writing
If your school, like mine, is working every minute to close that old achievement gap, this book is also a GREAT prompt for writing!  The last two pages of the book contain illustrations of houses created by children. We all know that the beginnings of writing are imitation, so I have my kindergarten students write the chorus and illustrate their writing with their own houses.  Then we put the book together and read it.  They LOVE reading their own music book and they practice their rhythms and singing the simple melody the whole time.

Baby Steps To Teaching Music Composition - part 1

As a song writer, I compose new music almost every day.    Ironically, despite the fact that I LOVE writing music, it is very difficult for me to teach music composition to my students.  In this area of instruction I consider myself a novice because I think I can do better.... MUCH better!   It's like an itch I can't scratch or a puzzle I can't solve.... I know how I do it, but it is difficult to find the right way to get others started.

Well today, I sort of had an epiphany.  Here it is....... Are you ready?  You've got to prime the pump!  

All of the awesome teachers reading this blog with go...."Yep..... we know.... that is not news!  Everyone knows that."  Well, I'm telling you that I knew it, and I've lived it in so many areas of my teaching, but I just didn't really get it where music composition was concerned.


Today was the first day of teaching in a new rotation, so I was THRILLED to be starting off a new lesson on a Monday, so I planned and prepared and prepared and planned.  Then when my 5th graders walked in my brain had one of those teaching "SHAZZAAAM!" moments and I realized that I could do teach a much more interesting lesson that would still hit all of my objectives if I just went with my moment of inspiration.

Here is what I did as I flew by the seat of my pants into a lesson I can't wait to teach again tomorrow!

 1. I first had my students fold a regular piece of copy paper into 16 squares.  I have them fold their paper in half 4 times.

In Houston because of the humidity, sometimes open reams of copy paper go bad and I find myself with 30 sheets of random colored paper.  It's perfectly fine, so I choose to up-cycle instead of recycle.
 It's amazing how much buy-in you can create for a project when there is colored paper and folding involved.

 2. Then I had my students  students create this chart as a review for rhythm duration and relationships.  Each square is equal to one beat.   Since this was 5th grade and I knew I wanted to compose with them, I really pushed them to work quickly.  I explained that this chart was only going to be for their reference, so they should be accurate, but that they didn't have to copy verbatim. I had other notes that this student didn't need.

THIS was my epiphany about priming the pump....
I took the time to remind them of what they already know

 In the old days, I might have stopped there and moved onto something else.... OR I might have turned it into a reading lesson......  Instead....

3.   I asked the students to turn their papers over and we created a small blank staff.  Then as a class we reminded ourselves of the notes we already knew very well how to play on recorder.... We've introduced some of the other notes, but these notes were the notes that the kids in this class felt like they knew....

This class feels comfortable playing GABCD and E.....
 I realized that when I compose music, I use words that I KNOW! 

4.  I had them quickly fold a 2nd piece of paper just like the first. 

5. Before they were allowed to write anything on their paper, we filled out a "blank song" as a class.  They were told to use the rhythms that they knew into the squares in any pattern they wished.  Their only limitations were to make sure that they had room for the notes they chose.... (i.e. no half notes beginning on beat 4).

It was fun to see them figure out that eighth notes were the same
 regardless of whether or not they had a bar or a flag. 

6.  Once we got to this next step they go really excited.  While they were working, I had quickly passed out their recorders so that they would have them on hand.   They assigned each rhythm a pitch......Almost all of them got to the point where they were trying to play what they had written.

7.  Next time they come to class they will have a chance to edit their work using their recorder.  Because we were beginning to run short on time by the time they were assigning pitch there wasn't time for very much exploration.  So next time they come to music, they can edit their work, share it with other students ad write it on the staff.  MAYBE we'll have time to add words.  


I'm looking forward to seeing how well this works with my class tomorrow.  I have high hopes! As I said, I still feel like a novice at teaching music composition, but I felt much more successful having taken the time to remind my students of what they already know.  Creating something original wasn't nearly such a leap when we remembered all that we knew before.  They were SUPER proud of themselves!
What fun!



The 16 square rhythm chart is a way to review rhythm that I borrowed from my colleague Pablo Ocañas.