3rd Grade: Ukulele This was an exciting rotation for 3rd grade! They started playing ukuleles! After learning about the different parts of the ukulele and basic ukulele care, they started playing. They began by learning the open strings, how they're numbered, and what pitches they play. The students caught on quickly and enjoyed playing a game called Cool Hand Uke. In the game, a volunteer from each of our house teams came to the front of the room. I called out the pitch of one of the strings and the first student to play it earned a point for their house! 2nd Grade: Melody Second graders dug into their unit on melody by learning about three ways that a melody can move from one note to the next. A step is when the melody moves from one pitch to the next higher or lower pitch, just a step away. A skip is when you skip over one pitch to get to the next (for example, moving from A to C). Repeating notes are just what they sound like, when you play or sing the same pitch again. To learn about these ways of moving, students looked at the music notation for songs that used mostly steps, skips, and repeated notes while listening and singing and moving to see how the direction of the sound matched the notation. Students also learned a little about Beethoven, the composer of the famous "Ode to Joy" melody. We used this melody as an example of a song that uses mostly steps. 1st Grade: Notes and Rests First graders began a new unit that focuses on one of the important symbols in music: the rest. A rest indicates silence in music, which can be just as important as sound! They learned about the symbol, then played a game similar to Freeze Dance. They danced to music, but whenever the music stopped, they had to freeze their bodies in the shape of a rest to show the silence in the music. They had a lot of fun with this! Then they learned the song "Sound and Rests." First we watched an animation while listening to and singing along with the song. This song is similar to "Bingo" in that we sing the letters of "silence," but in each verse, one of the letters goes silent. The students noticed how the letters turned into rests in the animation. Then we practiced singing it again, but making "rest arms" by crossing the forearms every time there was a rest in the song. Finally, each student got a card that showed one of the letters of "silence" on one side and a rest on the other. In groups, they stood in lines to spell out the word. As they sang, they had to know when to put their letter up in the air and when to flip their card over to the rest when their letter went silent in the song. It took a lot of focus and attention! Kindergarten: Dynamics
Kindergartners have continued to learn about dynamics, or how loud or soft music sounds. They've learned two dynamic markings: forte (loud) and piano (soft). This lesson began by choosing forte or piano dynamics for each line in the chant "Boom Chicka Boom." We performed the chant with a backing track and talked about how changing dynamics can make the music more interesting. Then, students moved to a song with changing dynamics, using actions that showed how loud or soft the music was. We then focused on a favorite song that the kindergartners learned earlier this school year, "Stinky Pirates." They enjoyed reviewing the song and actions, which they remembered very well! But to make this familiar song more interesting, we added dynamics. We looked at the form of the song, which has two sections, sung verses and spoken choruses. Students chose a dynamic level for each of those parts and sang it with those dynamics. Then we added two percussion patterns to the song, which they tried to play with the same loud and soft dynamics for the different sections of the song. Half of the class played rhythm sticks and the other half played bucket drums. Then we switched. Playing two different patterns at once is a challenge, but they were excited to give it a try!
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