5th Grade Guitars: A Recap

As the school year winds down, I want to share some photos of your 5th grade students in action with their beloved guitars! They've come a long way in such a short amount of time. We've learned to play several basic chords over the past couple of months, and right now we are presenting our final performances of a 3-chord song.

Students are choosing their own 3-chord song to play and will be assessed based on keeping a steady tempo, correct chord fingerings, and timely chord transitions.

My hope is that by mastering a few basic chords, students will be able to go out and find songs they love and want to play and will have the knowledge to get started on their own! I'm so happy that it's already happening- students are bringing in their favorite songs to play during recess or to play for the class. I am so proud of them!

One last round of centers for 2nd grade!

1/18/16***See my new website and check out the blog post on Crazy Cube compositions at https://artsintersection.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/composition-cubes/

We thought we'd try to squeeze in one last round of centers before we leave for the summer!

2nd grade has been learning about the pitch "re" through songs and activities, and now they are off exploring this concept in our centers!

In the reading center, we are playing some SMART Board games to match up written melodic patterns with what we hear and what we see.

In the writing center, we are using melodic crazy cubes with pentatonic pitches (do, re, mi, so, and la) to compose our own piece of music to a given rhythm.

In the listening center, students are listening to "Carillon" by Georges Bizet. This song features a "mi-re-do" ostinato that we have listened to in class. Students are completing a graphic organizer based on their listening and writing a paragraph about what they heard.

In the games center, we are playing Candyland! Not just regular Candyland, mind you, but musical Candyland! When students draw a card to move forward, they then have to draw a musical challenge color-coded to match their card. They may have to sing something, answer a question, read a rhythm, or any number of musical tasks. I think it's safe to say that this is a favorite.

And finally, in the instrument center, students are using what they know of "mi, re, and do" to figure out how to play simple melodies on Orff instruments. They are learning to play "Hot Cross Buns" and "Let Us Chase the Squirrel."

Hello? Who's There?

My kindergarten friends have been working on some vocal exploration. We've worked to recognize high and low sounds, melodies that move up and melodies that move down, and now we're trying to create those sounds with our voices! Unfortunately, with so many kiddos in such a small space, it can be a challenge. Lucky for us, thanks to some Pinterest inspiration, we have brand new phones that we can use to hear our own voices! In literacy, these types of phones are often called "phonics phones" or "whisper phones" as they help students recognize sounds in phonics and can also be used so students can whisper and read to themselves. We are going to use them for the development of our singing voices!

We first looked at some shapes and squiggles, and tried to mimic those shapes with our voices. We even used pipe cleaners to create our own squiggles.

Then, we used our whisper phones to, well, not really whisper, but move our voices into both high and low registers. I am looking forward to using these new creations more in the future and seeing if it helps make a difference in our ability to match pitch in our singing!

Recorder Karate Green Belts!

4th grade is cruising right along in their Recorder Karate quest! We've been working on a new pitch, low E, and we're in the process of earning our highly coveted Green Belts! Mr. Wittenberg's class completed this task today, and here is a video of everyone playing their Green Belt testing song, "Boat Song," together!

Congratulations!