So this week we have been learning about Camille St. Saens and the Carnival of the Animals. I have enjoyed myself this week. We've had some great conversations about the music and I absolutely love the smiles it brings when I say try being a slow moving turtle or a kangaroo. My kindergarten students were just so adorable. Loved that I had a 1st grade boy ask "how the composer made it actually sound like the animals". This lead to a great discussion. Also had a few ask why there was no singing, another great discussion.
Grades k-2 have used a PowerPoint presentation to learn the piece and each animal got them engaged with their listening ears. We used our bodies not our mouths. My 1st and 2nd graders at Holden are loving their Carnival of the Animals coloring book.
My 3rd graders have been working on a few worksheets. 2 groups did one called "what did you hear" where they had to record pitch(high or low), dynamics(loud or soft, and what instruments they hear. 2 groups are making predictions for each animal and then recording what they actually hear. Then comparing their answers.
Little background on the composer: (yes the kids learned all this)
Camille St Saens was a French composer. He shares a birthday with me: we were both born on October 9th. He had a lot of piano playing friends and he himself began playing piano before he was 3. His Carnival of the Animals consists of 14 short pieces all about a differnt animal. It is like a trip to the zoo.
Is anyone wondering about 4th grade: they did a little bit with this piece but we are in our recorder unit right now. We've started our recorder karate unit. We learn a song in class and then students play by themselves for a belt. We have a chart hanging in the room with results and hopefully will have a bulletin board soon for data. We've learned the notes BAG.
Overall, it's been a great week!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Monday, January 5, 2015
Hello 2015!
What a great start to 2015! Tried a few new lessons today and they went extremely well.
Grades k-2 did a lesson called brown bear based on eric Carl's book brown bear brown bear: what do you see. First we read or should I say sang the book. Then we passed out my animal friends and I didn't realize I had so many. I even went through the growing pile at home that my daughter never touches. Then we played the brown bear singing game. Each child got to sing a solo. It was super fun to hear their beautiful voices!
3-4th grade are finishing up music centers we started before the holidays. We even added a new one called "treble twist up". It's a version of the game twister with a musical twist. Loved watching them play today. 4th grade is working on reading those notes on the staff so we can start recorders next week. Our centers right now are:
1. Worksheet- they complete a note name test
2. Color- they complete a winter color by music symbol worksheet
3. Treble twist up- a fun note name game
4. Musical pairs- a card game that helps learn treble and bass clef notes
Extra-
5. Talk about tunes- a discussion game
6. Read me a song- if we don't have time to start a new center or the whole group isn't finished they get to get a book from our library and read
7. Rhythm center- a matching game where they have to read rhythmic patterns
8. Musical pairs- matching game
9. Abc sing with me- mostly used with grade 2 but it's a fun singing game that uses rests and synergizing
Now I'm exhausted because we just had 2 weeks off. It's a good exhausted though!
Grades k-2 did a lesson called brown bear based on eric Carl's book brown bear brown bear: what do you see. First we read or should I say sang the book. Then we passed out my animal friends and I didn't realize I had so many. I even went through the growing pile at home that my daughter never touches. Then we played the brown bear singing game. Each child got to sing a solo. It was super fun to hear their beautiful voices!
3-4th grade are finishing up music centers we started before the holidays. We even added a new one called "treble twist up". It's a version of the game twister with a musical twist. Loved watching them play today. 4th grade is working on reading those notes on the staff so we can start recorders next week. Our centers right now are:
1. Worksheet- they complete a note name test
2. Color- they complete a winter color by music symbol worksheet
3. Treble twist up- a fun note name game
4. Musical pairs- a card game that helps learn treble and bass clef notes
Extra-
5. Talk about tunes- a discussion game
6. Read me a song- if we don't have time to start a new center or the whole group isn't finished they get to get a book from our library and read
7. Rhythm center- a matching game where they have to read rhythmic patterns
8. Musical pairs- matching game
9. Abc sing with me- mostly used with grade 2 but it's a fun singing game that uses rests and synergizing
Now I'm exhausted because we just had 2 weeks off. It's a good exhausted though!
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