The Nutcracker

11/26/15*** See information on this post on my new website at https://artsintersection.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/trepak-russian-dance-listening-activity/

Many of our Franklin students have been studying different pieces from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." Here's a quick update on some of these activities:

Kindergarten
Kindergarten is listening for patterns in the "March" from the Nutcracker. We're identifying an ABA pattern in what we hear and we're moving to show that we recognize this pattern. (Click here for a video clip of "March" from the Balanchine "Nutcracker.")

1st Grade
1st Grade is also listening for ABA patterns in "Russian Dance (Trepak)", and is using shapes to create their own ABA listening "maps." Here, you can see how some of us designed our ABA patterns:

Next, we choreographed our ABA piece of music, with the boys making up dance movements for the A section and girls making up movements for the B section.

3rd Grade
3rd grade learned a little about the composer, Tchaikovsky, who was Russian, and students were interested in learning a little about the Cyrillic alphabet with the help of a translation website (below).

Cyrillic Translator (type your text in the box and click "convert")

We studied the "Dance of the Reed Pipes" with the help of a listening map, and then we compared and contrasted two famous performances of this piece, one choreographed by Balanchine, and the other by Baryshnikov (click on the choreographer's name to see each video clip).

All About Leroy Anderson!

2nd and 3rd grade has been taking part in a composer study on American composer Leroy Anderson. Visit the links below to see some of his music performed and to read more about this composer!

Videos and Performances

The Typewriter video

Sleigh Ride video

Syncopated Clock video

Plink Plank Plunk video


Biographical Information

Leroy Anderson Biography (DSO Kids)

Leroy Anderson's Official Website

 Once Upon a Sleigh Ride: The Music and Life of Leroy Anderson (PBS website)

Instrument Investigation Research Begins

As we prepare for our Children's Concert field trip next month, we have been reviewing families of instruments in the orchestra, how to categorize them, and now we are focusing in on specific instruments. Students are working in pairs to research an assigned instrument. They will answer questions about their instruments, create a question to research and answer, and then will present their research to the class. Students will be assessed on their written work, as well as their presentation.

Students, here are some resources you can use in your research. Keep up the great work!

     San Francisco Symphony

     Classics for Kids

     Dallas Symphony Orchestra

     New York Philharmonic

     Arts Alive


Here we are in action...

*Music Teachers: This activity was adapted from this worksheet available for purchase here at Tracy King's PayLoadz.com store.

Dancing Oobleck!

Mrs. Spratt and I were talking about oobleck before school today (it sounds strange, but it's true): she told me that her class was making oobleck this morning, and I told her about this awesome video that I had seen called "Dancing Oobleck." So I stopped in for a bit during their science time to watch the class in action. It was SO COOL (and a little messy). After the kids finished making their oobleck, we sat down to watch the Dancing Oobleck video! I told the class I would post the video here so they could find it later. Below are the links to the video itself as well as to the website where this project was originally posted. What a fun way to learn! Thanks for letting me stop in, 3S!!!

Dancing Oobleck project

Dancing Oobleck video

And, why not, here's a book about oobleck by Dr. Seuss (you can find it in our school library)

3rd Grade Centers

3rd grade centers are almost wrapped up! Here's what we've been up to...

We've been working at the SMART Board on rhythmic note identification and even some rhythmic math (adding note values).

In the green (writing) center, we've been working on a rhythmic composition including quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, quarter rests, and half rests. Soon, we'll be performing our compositions!

In the listening center, we've been listening to "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker and completing listening logs based on what we hear.

In the purple (games) center, we've been playing Smack It! (pictures coming soon!) When we play Smack It, we review the note names for lines and spaces of the treble clef. Then, with one person calling out note names, we compete to see who can smack their bean bag down on the correct line or space. This gets intense!

And finally, we are playing our beloved recorders in the yellow (instrument) center. We're reviewing the main rules of playing the recorder (left hand on top, cover the holes completely, whisper warm air, and think "too"). Then, we are playing the note B in many different exercises, and even improvising some rhythms on the note B.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recorder Time!

The 3rd graders were introduced to their recorders this past week! We reviewed the basics of notation by doing an activity where we created a staff and other musical notation out of yarn, and then we met our recorders! So far, we have just learned the basics of playing the recorder, which are...
     1. Left hand on top
     2. Cover the holes completely
     3. Blow gently
     4. Think "too"

Once we get a little further into playing recorders, students will be able to bring them home to practice once in awhile (I'll bet you can't wait for that, parents!). For now, students, keep practicing those line and space note names (click HERE for a video that will help you)!

3rd Grade Orchestra Field Trip

This morning, our 3rd graders went on a field trip to the Wheaton College to see a Children's Concert performed by the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra. This was a great way to wrap up our unit on the instruments of the orchestra and our instrument investigations! Students were all on the lookout for the instruments they've been researching!

The concert featured the instruments of the symphony orchestra, conducted by Dan Sommerville, and was hosted by magician Michael Folker, who helped illustrate through magic the colors of the orchestra.

We learned about how different instruments and families can portray different emotions through the colors of their sounds, about how composers use major and minor tonalities to affect the way we feel when we listen to music, and how rhythm gives life to music.

Here is a list of the pieces we heard (click on the blue links to hear/view)...

     Sabre Dance (by Aram Khachaturian)

     Opening theme of Thus Sprach Zarathustra (by Richard Strauss)

     Storm movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 (Pastorale)

     March Militaire (by Franz Schubert)

     Violin Concerto in G minor (third movement), Op. 12, No. 1 (by Vivaldi)

     Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (by Johann Sebastian Bach, as orchestrated by Stokowski)

     (Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was originally composed and performed on the organ- click here to see an organ performance.)

     Variations on America (by Charles Ives)

Waiting for the concert to start!

Conductor Daniel Sommerville and the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra

Magician Michael Falker

"Variations on America"

3rd Grade September-in-Review

Peter and the Wolf

We reviewed Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf to familiarize ourselves with the tone colors (or voices) of different instruments of the orchestra.

Prokofiev was a Russian composer. In the video of "Peter and the Wolf" from the 1946 Disney film Make Mine Music, we see examples of words written in the Cyrillic alphabet (the Russian alphabet). Here is a website where you can translate English words into Cyrillic- see what your name would look like! (click here).

September 11, 2012: Variations on "America"

This week, we begin our study of instruments of the orchestra by listening to a piece that we will hear on our field trip to the Wheaton College Conservatory's Children's Concert: Variations on "America" by Charles Ives.

We are discussing what "theme and variation" means. We began by discussing an example of theme and variation in the art world: work by the artist Andy Warhol. (For an activity guide on the art of Andy Warhol, click here).

We listened to "America" (also known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee"), sang the song and learned a little about the history of the melody (did you know it's the melody of the British National Anthem, "God Save the Queen"?)

Here is a recording of the piece: Variations on "America". How many variations do you hear?

"Variations on America" listening map

September 6, 2012: Beat vs. Rhythm

We started out the year reviewing and practicing the difference between beat and rhythm. A beat is constant throughout a piece of music, while the rhythm is a combination of long and short sounds and silences. We learned a poem called "Way Down South." We added a steady beat to the poem using the contrabass bars (in the middle) and the bass xylophones and metallophones. We then talked about improvisation (making it up as you go) and added an 8-beat improvisation section to our poem on the alto/soprano metallophones and xylophones. Finally, we added small percussion instruments playing the rhythm (the pattern of the words) along with the poem. Not too shabby for only a few music classes! Here are some of our results...click on the links to see videos of these classes! Hope you enjoy!

Way Down South- 3J

Way Down South- 3M

3rd Grade: Instrument Investigations

3rd grade students have spent the past couple of weeks on "instrument investigations." 3rd graders are working in pairs to research an assigned instrument of the orchestra. Those students have become the "expert" for their class on that particular instrument, and are presenting their findings to the class. Students have had access to instrument posters, books, music dictionaries, orchestral websites, and even some actual instruments in the music room, but because students are asking such great questions and seem so excited about this assignment, some have also taken them home to continue their research outside of the music classroom.

Here we are in our investigation stage:

And our presentations....

A few groups included the following video in their presentations on the flute. I had never seen this video before today, and I think this is so incredibly creative! Students, see if you can recognize different themes from "Peter and the Wolf!"

      Beatboxing "Peter and the Wolf"

Here is another video that a couple of students from Mrs. Spratt's class introduced featuring the double bass.

     Adam Ben Ezra covers "Drifting" on the double bass