Classroom Photos

It has been a while since I posted some photos of the music room. Here are some fresh photos!

Halloween Fun

Students have started listening to their winter concert songs for our concert on Thursday, December 7th. The concert will take place at Shapleigh Middle School with K/1 at 6 PM and 2/3 at 7 PM.

After working on our winter concert music students have been doing some fun Fall and Halloween themed activities.

2nd graders made rhythms out of their favorite candies and then performed it for the class.

3rd graders are adding instruments to Halloween poems to make "spooky sound stories".

Normandin 1

Normandin 2

Wilson 1

Wilson 2

Wilson 3

Wilson 4

1st Grade Long-Short

Last week 1st graders learned about the sound opposites forte (loud) and piano (soft). They watched and danced to the song "Forte Piano":

This week students are learning about long sounds and short sounds. The song "Pizzicato" uses very short sounds. We learned a cute little poem about a froggy in disguise eating flies. I read the poem along with the rhythm of the music and students responded with "catch flies!" They played the guiros and tone blocks. Poem credit= Activate Music Magazine.

Staulcup's Class

Greene's Class

Then students learned the rhythms "beat" (quarter note), "beat-t" (paired eighth notes), and "rest" (quarter rest). They used our new foam hearts with rhythms on them to compose 4 beat rhythms. Then they got to combine their hearts with 2-3 friends to create a "super long rhythm".

Music Share Week

Music share week is this week and we are having so much fun! Students and I love seeing all the creative performances. Below are some photos from the week:

Mallets Grade 2

2nd graders have been playing the mallets the last few weeks in music. They started off playing a 5-note scale down to the book "Old Black Fly": G, F, E, D, C.

This week they played up the scale and back down again to the book "Cockadoodle Doo! Barnyard Hullabaloo." Students play the barred instruments, egg shakers, and drums. They learned 3 different parts and rotated around the instruments after every 4 pages in the book.

JR's Class playing up and down the 5-note scale

Kindergarteners Hatch out of Their Eggs!

Kindergarteners are learning about "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" this week by composers Mussorgsky and Ravel.
Here is the link to the youtube video students watched for their first listen to the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAtAvF2cepg

Students discussed what it would be like to be a chick inside an egg ready to hatch. How would they feel? What might they do to try to break free?

Then students learned the story about Charli the chick and how he and his friends broke out of their eggs and then hid inside them again to surprise their mama and papa when they got back from the lake.

Here are some classes performing the cute version of this piece from "Fun with Composers Volume 2." We added instruments to part A and scarves to part B.

Words= 
PART A= "Let me out! Let me out! Icky sticky, icky sticky, I am feeling icky sticky!
Let me out! Let me out! Icky sticky, icky sticky, I am feeling icky sticky!
Peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, PUSH! *Repeat*

PART B= Where is my mama, where is my papa? Where is my mama, my papa? Oh there!
Quickly, oh quickly, get back in the eggshell. Quickly, oh quickly, they'll love the surprise!"

FORM= AABA

 Mrs. MacDougall's class

Ms. McCluskey's class

Cultures Unit Grade 2

Grade 2 is doing a cultures unit in their classrooms so we are doing the same countries in music class!
Our first stop is China! Here are students doing a Chinese ribbon dance. Students also got to play the woodblocks and the Chinese gong!

Mrs. DeLuca's Class Ribbon Dance

Ms. Sallade's Class

Mrs. Downs' Class

We visited Antarctica in music and did some fun activities revolving around penguins. Students played instruments while reading rhythms during the poem "Four Little Penguins". The penguins keep counting down until all the penguins were playing underneath the ice!

Mrs. Down's Class

Winter Snowflakes Orff Grade 2

2nd graders are learning a fun song this week called "Winter Snowflakes". They learn to play three different parts: The Orff barred instruments (xylophones and metallophones), egg shakers, and finger cymbals. On part A all students play and sing the song. On part B the student sitting at the small glockenspiel gets to improvise and play whatever he/she wants, making sure to land on note "C" to end the improvisation. Then all students rotate to the left and play a new instrument!
(Lesson idea found here, thanks O For Tuna Orff!)

Ms. Sallade's Class

Ms. Sallade's Class

Winter Concert 2016 Video!

What a fun concert we had on December 8th! Students gave it their all as they sang and danced for a full house! Below are a few photos and a link to the concert for your viewing pleasure.
See you next year for another groovin' winter show! :-)

K/1 and 2/3 Concert Link: https://vimeo.com/195653938

Grades 2/3 "Better Bundle Up"

Grade 1

Grade K

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Spooky Sound Poems Grade 3

3rd graders added instruments to spooky poems to make them sound poems! They worked in small groups to decide what words to play instruments on and what instrument sounded like what word.
Here is a video of us playing a pre-made sound poem as a class to get ideas:

Here are two groups' sound poems:

Students had fun working in small groups to create a unique, spooky sound poem!

Drumming Unit Grade 3

3rd graders have spent the last two weeks learning about body percussion and drumming. Here are some videos of 3rd grade classes performing the poem "If you See a Monkey." They work on using the high notes on the edge of the drum and the low notes in the middle of the drum.

Students also learned about what an "Ostinato" is. It is a rhythmic pattern that is repeated. In this case, the ostinato is the poem that they repeated 3 times.

Mrs. Normadin's Class

Ms. Peternell's Class

"Tiny Surfer" Performed by Mrs. Wilson's Class. This is a different poem that also uses "high" and "low" notes on the drum.

Composing their own ostinato of their favorite candy.

Long-Short Grade 1

1st graders have been learning about sound opposite in music. First they learned about forte-piano and now they are learning about long and short sounds. In the video below students play short sounds using their rhythm sticks and make long sounds using their scarves. They pretend they are pulling taffy like you see at Goldenrod on Short Sands in York, ME!

Mrs. Dorazio's First Grade Class

Lesson Idea Credit

Music from SoundPlay Book

Start of the 2016-2017 School Year!

We are off to another great school year!

Our Winter Concert will be on Thursday, December 8th this year for grades K-3.

We have some exciting new instruments in the music room such as lollipop drums, a Chinese gong, and some longer and lower boomwhackers!

"Get in Gear for a Musical Year!" Bulletin Board in the music hallway.

We are lucky to have a new interactive board in the music room!

Some new longer and lower boomwhackers and our Chinese gong.

Chicken on a Fence Post- Improvisation

April is jazz appreciation month so 3rd graders learned about jazz history and a song that involves improvising (making music up on the spot that fits the song). The song is called "Chicken on a Fence Post" and teaches students the quick "beat-e-t-a" 16th note rhythm. There is a part A and part B. During part B the xylophones improvise on the words "fence post yeah!"

I got the lesson idea and notation from the wonderful blog: bethsmusicnotesplus.com. 

Mrs. Perry's Class

Mrs. Wilson's Class

Two fun videos from October

Catching up with my blog, here are two fun videos from October!

"Stirring the brew" song passing egg shakers to the beat by Mrs. Howe's 2nd grade class.

"Pass the Pumpkin" game by third graders with instruments and passing a pumpkin to the beat around the circle. Whoever the pumpkin lands on is out and moves over to the instrument rotation.