One of the coolest things in teaching is when you can take a class further than you thought you could; explore new territory together unexpectedly. What’s even cooler is when that happens two weeks in a row! It was loads of fun to work with the Gr. 5′s on this recording today for so many reasons:
1. They played a song, meant only really for a demonstration purpose, so beautifully that it just begged to be made into a canon. That was last week and they play wonderfully.
2. This week, we beefed up the rhythm, played it in canon again and created a ABA form with the original song sung in the middle.
3. Simply recording and playing back their song to the students provided so many moments of careful reflective thinking. I asked the question, “How well did you fulfill the requirements of the piece?” There was a lot of feedback. The recording below is NOT our first one – we didn’t really want to share that one with you!!! It is also not our last. We’d like to do it better. The students have decided that next time they will improve their singing by singing in tune for both verses of the song, not just the second. They will also play more in sync with one another.
A nod goes out to the amazing Catherine West, whose song we are playing and singing. She’s brilliant, for sure!
Happy listening!
The Flea in canon
Yup. It’s true. Those Gr. 3′s can sing in French. I’m sure glad I taught them the song before I showed them the text. We had good fun reading the French with our English rules! Great job today, Gr. 3′s!
Mrs. Steinbach’s class sing “La cloche”
Ms. Hale’s class sings, “La cloche”
The Gr. 6′s are just at the beginning of a big unit which will eventually focus on music, drama, visual arts, social studies (Native Studies) and literacy. I’m so very fortunate to be able to work closely with Miss Davidson to plan and teach together. It’s great! Here is the start of our musical journey.
Spirit of the Sun
Thank goodness for the holidays and an entire morning at Starbucks devoted to pumping out new lesson plans! I love the creativity that comes from having a little time away from the classroom. Here’s what’s on tap for tomorrow’s Gr. 1 lesson in response to the fact that we have no snow to speak of around here. We’ll be using this chant as an accompaniment for a short 4 phrase dance the kids will create to encourage the snow to fall. Looking forward to seeing how it all comes together!
I love, love, love it when an arrangement comes together. We had one of those amazing moments this morning with the 7/8 class who has missed so many music classes lately. Today was our chance to solidify our parts and put it all together. I’m not going to lie – I was totally expecting a crash and burn from these guys the first time we put all the parts together but it WORKED!!! Scroll down for the sneak peak…
And the Gr. 6′s from Miss Davidson’s class rocked it out today it what will likely be our concert closer. I don’t want to give it all away but we were all pretty pumped…
Lastly, the Gr. 1′s are working on a few short songs and a dance that will all be a lead in to the Gr. 5 piece, “White on White.” Here’s that sneak peak…
Looking forward to showing you these songs in their entirety on December 14th!
Sneak Peak – Christmas Dinner Gr. 7/8
Sneak Peak – Sing Noël – Gr. 6D
Sneak Peak – White on White – Gr. 1′s
As a half-time music teacher, there just isn’t time in my schedule to teach every class in the school, unfortunately. I wish I could! The ELP classes are one example of kids I don’t get to see. However, since they are still such great little musicians, we are all very much looking forward to hearing their song at the concert in December. Here it is along with a recording of me singing it, if any of those sweet 4 and 5 year olds want to practice with mom or dad at home.
The Elves
I was witness to three great things in the past two weeks that have me completely inspired as a music teacher.
First, three Gr. 7 boys made up the coolest coda for their group presentation. Really, my expectation was that they would play the bass xylophone part one more time and call it a day. Not these guys. They went above and beyond, creating something that we are now going to extend into a full class song. So the four of us spend a lunch hour just jamming together, trying to figure out what other layers we could add to the alto xylophone part they’d already composed. So far, we’ve got a rocking bass line and a pretty cool soprano xylophone melody. We’ll have to see where it goes from here! Those students in the class who have heard what we’ve worked on so far think it’s great. Here’s a short clip of some of what the four of us were working on:
Gr. 7 boys’ song
Next, I had the great privilege of attending the Sharing the Learning Summit from the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program. To be involved in a program such as this one, where teachers learn from other teachers about things that teachers want to learn about, was great. We presented our project from last year: The Integration of the Arts through Critical Thinking. It was a ton of work last year but worth it to see how much teachers really grew in their understanding of the Arts and their comfort level in integrating the Arts across the curriculum. At the conference, we heard amazing speakers like Annie Kidder, Ann Lieberman, and Andy Hargreaves. At what is so often such a busy time of year, it was so nice to sit back and be inspired by some great minds in education.
Lastly, yesterday the Gr. 6′s made my day when they said, “Let’s see if we can play the song without her.” Unbelievable. They can and did and when they got into a little trouble in the canon, they looked at each other, figured it out without saying a word and kept right on going. The teamwork in the room was both obvious and incredible. I was so proud. I’d play you a recording but it’s our concert song and we’re saving for next month. Here’s a sneak peak of one of the Gr. 6 class long before they could put it all together. But it’s just a sneak peak so you don’t get to hear much!
Sneak Peak – Gr. 6
With nods to both Shakespeare and to my wonderful mentor, Catherine West, I bring you today’s Gr. 1 music class. First, we reviewed our song, “Double, bubble,” which led us right into imagining all the crazy things we could boil up in the witches pot. A short chant rounded out the lesson and the period was so much fun. Have a listen!
Double Bubble – Gr. 1
“The Googies are coming, the old people say
To buy little children and take them away.”
So begins Shel Silverstein’s poem from, “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”
Both the Gr. 4/5 and the Gr. 5 classes worked with this poem, saying it chorally and creating rhythmic patterns as accompaniment. To say that these classes have made extraordinary progress this term would be an understatement. I’m really proud of the way they have worked so hard to learn the new rhythms: tina-ti and ti-tika. Bravo!!!
The Googies – Gr. 5
The Googies – 4/5
Spooky Halloween sounds abounded today as we added some sound effects to a simple tune I wrote. These Gr. 1′s loved using the hand drums, the guiros, the cabasa and the maracas today. Well done! I’m excited to combine this song next week with all the creepy things we thought of boiling up in the witch’s pot! Eyeballs, zombies, legs and even whole people – nothing is safe from these kids’ imaginary brew!
Double Bubble – all Gr. 1′s
We have jumped, signed, sang and played do, re, mi so many times, I don’t think these Gr. 3′s will ever forget these notes. Today was our first foray into playing the notes on pitched percussion. What fun we had! Great job with your improvisations, Gr. 3′s!
Mrs. Steinbach’s class’ do, re, mi improvs
Mrs. Crawford’s class’ do, re, mi improvs
