Warm ups:
The first thing we do every day in class is warm up our voices and our bodies! These exercises are usually very short and are designed to bring students' focus to a particular skill we are learning in class. These activities usually include singing, rhythm and movement.
The first thing we do every day in class is warm up our voices and our bodies! These exercises are usually very short and are designed to bring students' focus to a particular skill we are learning in class. These activities usually include singing, rhythm and movement.
Vocal Activities:
We use our voices to explore songs from different cultures and often different languages to learn a variety of concepts such as:
-the difference between 'high' and 'low' sounds,
-echo singing
-the five voices (speaking, whispering, shouting, singing, thinking)
-use of solfege
-singing in unison
-singing partner songs
-singing rounds/harmony
-Major vs. minor
We use our voices to explore songs from different cultures and often different languages to learn a variety of concepts such as:
-the difference between 'high' and 'low' sounds,
-echo singing
-the five voices (speaking, whispering, shouting, singing, thinking)
-use of solfege
-singing in unison
-singing partner songs
-singing rounds/harmony
-Major vs. minor
Rhythm Activities:
With a variety of visual, aural and kinesthetic opportunities, we focus on:
-Steady beat
-Sound vs. silence
-reading iconic patterns to depict short vs. long sounds
-reading standard notation (notes) to depict different lengths of sound
-same vs. different patterns
-student created patterns
With a variety of visual, aural and kinesthetic opportunities, we focus on:
-Steady beat
-Sound vs. silence
-reading iconic patterns to depict short vs. long sounds
-reading standard notation (notes) to depict different lengths of sound
-same vs. different patterns
-student created patterns
*Please note: Students are not required to do backbends in music class! This picture demonstrates a movement activity where students worked with partners to create letters of the alphabet. Can you tell which letter they have created?
Movement activities: Sometimes we work by ourselves, with a partner, in a small groups or even the entire class participates in lessons where we use our bodies to show our skills:
-Body percussion patterns (ways you can show sound without voice)
*(pat, clap, stomp, snap,)
-Locomotor vs. non locomotor
-teacher led choreography
-student created choreography
-fast vs. slow (tempo)
-mood (how does the music make you want to move?)
Movement activities: Sometimes we work by ourselves, with a partner, in a small groups or even the entire class participates in lessons where we use our bodies to show our skills:
-Body percussion patterns (ways you can show sound without voice)
*(pat, clap, stomp, snap,)
-Locomotor vs. non locomotor
-teacher led choreography
-student created choreography
-fast vs. slow (tempo)
-mood (how does the music make you want to move?)
Playing Instruments:
Probably the coolest thing about music class, and the thing that most of my students look forward to most, is playing the instruments! We use quite a variety of different instruments based on grade level and ability:
-unpitched percussion (instruments that have 2 or fewer tones such as drums, maracas and jingle bells; (I have a large variety of unpitched instruments in my classroom!)
-boomwhackers
-barred instruments (xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels)
-recorders (these are usually reserved for 4th graders)
-piano keyboards (I reserve these for 3rd and 4th graders)
Probably the coolest thing about music class, and the thing that most of my students look forward to most, is playing the instruments! We use quite a variety of different instruments based on grade level and ability:
-unpitched percussion (instruments that have 2 or fewer tones such as drums, maracas and jingle bells; (I have a large variety of unpitched instruments in my classroom!)
-boomwhackers
-barred instruments (xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels)
-recorders (these are usually reserved for 4th graders)
-piano keyboards (I reserve these for 3rd and 4th graders)