1st grade Same-Different

1st graders learned about same-different this week, which leads into musical form. They learned either "Tick Tock" or "Bell Horses" as part A, then had races with drum rolls as part B.

Staulcup's Class doing A-B racing.

3rd Grade Drummers

3rd graders did a lesson on body percussion last week. This week they started drumming on the konga drums.

They used our new rhythm dice to compose a rhythm that they performed for the class. I created the rhythm dice by writing a rhythm on each side of a foam cube (beat-e-t-a, beat-t, beat, & rest).

Hartley's Class performs "Tiny Surfer"

Normandin's Class performs "If you See a Monkey"

2nd grade Boomwhackers

The 2nd graders are starting boomwhackers this week. Boomwhackers are plastic tubes that make different notes/sounds based on how long or short they are. The longer the tube the lower the sound.

Here is Ms. Sallade's class performing a fun song called "Wait to Eat the Donut." When their color boomwhacker comes onto the screen they play they rhythm "wait to eat the donut".

Here are some students from Mrs. DeLuca's class performing rhythms that they composed using our new rhythm dice (I wrote rhythms in sharpie on each side of foam cubes).

The third and final week of our boomwhacker unit is boomwhacker stations! We have 5 stations that last 5 minutes each. Students work together for two stations and individually for three. 

Ms. Down's Sstudent playing his "beat, beat-and" composition using colored squares.

Mrs. DeLuca's student playing his composition.

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:

Pete the Cat Composition

Some kindergarten classes played instruments to Pete the Cat's "I Love my White Shoes" then were able to compose their own shoe rhythms! One big shoe= Beat and two little shoes= beat-t.

We practiced as a class first on the SMART board.

Clapping their rhythm

Composing

So fun!

June Ukulele Karate

We are wrapping up ukulele karate for this school year. More and more students are earning their black belts! It has been such a fun unit and I am very impressed with how driven students have been to keep working toward earning their next belt.

Two boys who earned their black belt in Peternell's Room