3rd and 2nd Grade: Lyra Review and Wilder House Reward Third and second graders had the opportunity to see the Lyra Baroque Orchestra when they visited our school on February 18th. The students talked and wrote about their impressions and what they learned from the concerts. I also collected their questions to send to the members of the orchestra who generously offered to answer the questions that students get time to ask at the end of their performances. Then we had the Wilder House reward! Wilder House was the champion of quarter 2. Their house leader, Nicole Wilder, chose a dance competition as the reward. She loves to dance, and as a musician, she often performs for wedding dances with her bands. Wilder House members were the judges of the competition and decided how the competition would work. In most classes, groups of students choreographed their dances to songs that Wilder House members chose from Nicole's list of the the dance songs that her bands get the most requests to perform. It was a lot of fun to see the students working together and coming up with some very creative ideas! 1st Grade: Rhythm In first grade, we began class by talking about Lyra Baroque Orchestra's visit on the 18th. Overall, it seemed that the students really enjoyed the presentation and learned a lot! Then we dove back into our unit on rhythm. In this class, we focused on the concept of ostinatos, short repeated rhythmic patterns. We practiced some simple ostinatos with the silly song "Mr. Austin Otto," then reviewed the more challenging clapping pattern that the students had performed with Lyra during their visit. That was an ostinato, too, but they didn't know what it was called at that time! We played a Jeopardy-like review game, then the students took a short quiz on all that they've learned about rhythm in this unit.
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5th and 4th Grade: Wilder House Reward Day
We began this class talking about Michael Jackson, our musician of the month. We will be learning more about his life, music, dancing, and influence on the world as we continue through the month. After that, it was Wilder House Reward Day! Wilder House was the champion of quarter 2. Their house leader, Nicole Wilder, chose a dance competition as the reward. She loves to dance, and as a musician, she often performs for wedding dances with her bands. Wilder House members were the judges of the competition and decided how the competition would work. In most classes, groups of students choreographed their dances to songs that Wilder House members chose from Nicole's list of the the dance songs that her bands get the most requests to perform. It was a lot of fun to see the students working together and coming up with some very creative ideas! Five members of the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, based in St. Paul, visited our school and presented and performed for kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students. Each year, Classical Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) provides schools around the state with the opportunity to schedule a visit from one of their Class Notes Artists. These small ensembles of top level Minnesota performers represent a wide variety of musical genres. The ensembles provide educational and engaging presentations made especially for elementary students.
Lyra Baroque Orchestra performs music of the baroque period (approximately 1600-1750), performing on instruments used during that period. This ensemble includes Marc Levine on baroque violin, Tulio Rondón on baroque cello and viola da gamba, Cléa Galhano on recorders, Joe Jones on baroque bassoon and dulcian, and Donald Livingston on harpsichord and percussion. The musicians presented and taught about music of this period from different parts of the world and different cultural traditions, and told students about their instruments and how they communicate while performing. The students enjoyed participating by clapping and patting rhythm patterns, dancing in their seats, and asking questions. I was so proud of the polite attention and interest they showed our visitors and the excellent questions that they asked! You can learn more about these musicians and their presentation by visiting MPR's Class Notes Concert Preview page. 5th and 4th Grade: Ukuleles Fifth and fourth graders have shown great improvement in their use of the frets on their ukuleles in this rotation! They're developing great habits in their hand positions and I see so many of them being able to notice when the sound isn't quite right and making the right adjustments to improve. I listened to each student playing a pattern that involved two frets and I was very impressed with what I heard! 3rd Grade: Melody Third graders had fun playing our Orff instruments for a couple of activities in this rotation. First, they did an improvisation activity. Improvisation in music is making up music on the spot. In this case, students used xylophones with an extended pentatonic scale for their improvisations. Pentatonic scales are commonly used in improvisation and in folk music around the world because the five notes of this scale just sound good together in nearly any combination. We used a bass xylophone and bass metalophone to create an ostinato (repeating) accompaniment that provided a solid beat. Then each student improvised their own pentatonic melody on an alto xylophone one at a time. We rotated roles so everyone was able to improvise and play the accompaniment. After the improvisation activity, we started working on an instrumental accompaniment to the song "Tideo." They're really getting involved in singing, playing, and dancing with this folk song! 2nd Grade: Visitor Preparation and Melody Second graders prepared for their upcoming visit from the Lyra Baroque Orchestra by watching a video of the group performing and learning a rather complex rhythm ostinato pattern that they clapped along with. They then learned about the instruments that each of the five performers play, which include recorders, harpsichord, baroque violin, baroque cello, viola da gamba, baroque bassoon, and dulcian. We also had an introduction to our next unit on melody with the song "Joyfuy, Joyful," which uses Beethoven's famous "Ode to Joy" melody. The students learned to sing the song, moved with the melodic line, and noticed how the notes move up and down to create the tune of the song. 1st Grade: Visitor Preparation and Rhythm Like second graders, first graders prepared for the upcoming Lyra Baroque Orchestra visit by viewing videos of the group performing, learning to play the ostinato pattern of one of the group's pieces on rhythm sticks, and learning about their baroque instruments. They also practiced reading and playing rhythms using graphic (picture) notation and each student had a chance to improvise (make up on the spot) their own 8-beat rhythm pattern! Kindergarten: Visitor Preparation, Instruments, and Dynamics
Kindergartners finished their unit on instruments. We sang "Air Orchestra," the students took a quiz using Plickers, and they played a couple rounds of Instrument Crane (a game in which they have to determine which family an instrument belongs to). Then, they used what they've learned about instruments and instrument families to identify the instruments of the Lyra Baroque Orchestra in preparation for the group's visit to our school. We watched videos of the orchestra musicians demonstrating their instruments and playing together as a group. 5th and 4th Grade: Ukuleles The fourth and fifth graders made a big step in their ukulele playing in their last music class as they learned how to use the left hand to play on the frets! This can be a tricky skill to get the hang of at first, but they're working hard and building good habits. Using this frets will allow them to play all the notes on the ukulele. I've been going around the room to check in with each student as we learn each new skill and I'm so pleased to see their focus and improvement every time! 3rd Grade: Melody Third graders did one more round of all of our Staff Champion games to see if they could beat their top scores. It's amazing to see the progress they've made in reading music over the last few weeks. This is such an important music skill and they're doing so well with it! Then they took a quiz on what they've learned about note reading and intervals in this unit. Next, we reviewed the pentatonic scale. This scale has only five notes, but is used in folk music (and other genres) around the world. It's so common because those five notes nearly always sound good together! The students sang a fun American folk song in a pentatonic scale called "Tideo," which they really seemed to enjoy making up their own dance moves for! Then the classes just had time to start an activity in which each of them will have an opportunity to improvise (make up on the spot) a melody using a pentatonic scale on a xylophone while other students play a xylophone and metalophone accompaniment. We'll finish that next time, and revisit "Tideo."
1st Grade: Rhythm First graders kicked off their new unit on rhythm by watching a fun episode in our Quaver music curriculum that demonstrated what rhythms are, how they work, and rhythms in music around around the world. We practiced reading some rhythms using pictures of words to help students understand the rhythms, such as dog for a quarter note (one sound in one beat) and puppy for eighth notes (two sounds in one beat). Then the students used picture notation to write their own collaborative rhythm. After practicing saying and clapping the rhythm, students played it on rhythm sticks. I've been impressed with how well they're able to play rhythms accurately and with a steady beat already! Kindergarten: Instruments Kindergartners focused on the percussion and string families of instruments. They reviewed the three ways that percussion instruments are played (hit, shaken, or scraped) and learned about the main parts of the orchestral string instruments (violin, viola, cello, and double bass). The parts are very similar on each instrument! Then we watched one of the world's greatest violin players, Izhak Perlmann, perform a solo with an orchestra. We all agreed that he's very good! Finally, we reviewed all that they've learned about the instrument families by singing "Air Orchestra" while acting out instruments from each family, playing a review game (a little like Jeopardy), and playing a game called Instrument Crane in which students had to name the family of different instruments. 5th and 4th Grade: Ukulele Fifth and fourth graders are enjoying their ukulele unit, continuing to improve on the open strings and reading music. The classes continue to improve their high scores on our warm-up note reading game, Staff Champion. Ms. Murnane's and Ms. Smith's classes hold the record of being able to name 10 notes in 30 seconds! The students are getting more and more comfortable handling, holding, and playing the ukuleles. They've learned four short pieces that use only one open string and are beginning to learn one that uses all four open strings. This means they are able to read the notes while they play! Students have also continue to hear about well-known ukulele players. This time, we watched a video of Tiny Tim playing his most famous song, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." Tiny Tim was most widely known for this kind of performance, but he was also a very influential experimental musician who inspired many other famous musicians, including The Beatles! 3rd Grade: Melody Third graders continue to work on improving their skills reading notes on the treble clef staff and learning about intervals. We worked more on "The Star-Spangled Banner" in this rotation. In the last class, we focused on understanding the lyrics. This time, we looked at the music and identified steps, skips, and repeating notes to understand how the melody moves. This song is challenging to sing because it includes many large intervals! After analyzing the music, we learned more about the background of the song. The lyrics were written by Francis Scott Key, who was a lawyer. During the War of 1812, he was sent to negotiate with the British Navy for the release of an American prisoner. He was able to convince the British to release the prisoner, but then they were told that they wouldn't be allowed to leave the British ship where the negotiations took place because the British were just about to attack Fort McHenry! Francis Scott Key had to wait on the British ship while Fort McHenry was bombed for 25 hours. During that time, he wrote a poem that would become "The Star-Spangled Banner" about his experience watching the battle and trying to see if the American flag was still flying at the fort. After the battle, Key and the prisoner were allowed to leave. Although the words were written in 1814, the song didn't become our national anthem until 1931.
1st Grade: Lines and Spaces This was an exciting and challenging day of music in first grade! Students have been working hard on their songs that use the three pitches they've learned–mi, sol, and la. After a short warm-up and assessment singing those three pitches, they sang "Shiloh," the song they learned in the last class that uses only those three pitches. Then we added three different Orff instruments (like xylophones) to create an accompaniment with the song! Students learned phrases to help them remember each instrument's unique rhythm, clapped the rhythms, and played them on the instruments. It's not easy to have several students playing three different rhythms AND listening to a song with another rhythm all at the same time, but I was very impressed by what they accomplished in their first try with layered rhythms! Kindergarten: Instruments Kindergartners continued their unit on the instrument families, focusing on the brass family. They learned about the parts and the sounds of the trumpet, trombone, tuba, and French horn. They showed what they've learned about both brass and woodwinds with an activity in which each student had a prop and a movement for either the trumpet or the flute. When they heard their instrument in a recording, they stood up and did their thing! Students representing the trumpet used a rhythm stick to pretend to play as a trumpet and marched with the music. Students representing the flute used ribbons to float through the air like the sound of the flute. Here's a video of The Canadian Brass that students watched in class. |
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