K4 High and Low

K4 students have spent the first four weeks of school learning about musical opposites, such as loud and soft, fast and slow, and high and low.

To learn about high and low, we first learn this short song:

Then K4 students learn to sing the song, and show high and low in their bodies!

Then I read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, using a low voice for Papa Bear, a medium voice for Mama Bear, and a high voice for Baby Bear.

Finally, we listen to the piece "Fairies and Giants" by Edward Elgar and when we hear low sounds, we march like Papa Bear, and when we hear high sounds we flutter like a butterfly!

Thriller!

In the month of October, my challenge to the Stormonth students is to learn the "Thriller" dance!  Here are two videos that can help you to practice this dance at home. 

Step By Step:

The whole dance:

In the Hall of the Mountain King

One of my favorite pieces of music to play in the fall is "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg.  Most students recognize the piece from Little Einsteins or from Halloween shows on TV, but they are not familiar with where it originated.  

In 2nd grade, we find where Norway is on the map, and then we watch this short story of Peer Gynt.

Many students realize that the moral to the story of Peer Gynt is the same as the familiar story, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

Next, we learn the rhythm of the main theme of "In the Hall of the Mountain King."  I found this great graphic from Beth's Music Notes

Once we learn the repeating pattern, we get out the shaker eggs and play along with the song.  Students are then able to feel the pattern becoming faster and faster, louder and louder.  This gets really exciting!

After we put away the shakers, I have the students make two concentric circles.  The circles alternate walking on the steady beat of the pattern.  By the end, they are running and trying to keep up with the music!

4th Grade Recorders

The 4th graders will get started on recorders soon, and many have been asking where they can find a recorder online.  Here is a link to a website I use often, and the recorder brand that I recommend:

White Recorder

Blue Recorder

Green Recorder

Pink Recorder

1st Grade Dancers

The Stormonth students have been dancing at the end of each music class as a special treat.  Here are some great pictures of 1st graders dancing to "Watch Me!"

Time Signatures

3rd graders are working hard on reading music, and today's focus was time signatures.  Students learned about duple and triple meter, and watched this video to make a connection to songs they know:

Then they worked with a partner on the activity "Rollin' Rhythms."  I have some cool musical dice that they rolled to create different patterns that would fit into 4/4, 3/4, or 2/4 time signatures.

1st and 2nd Grade Rhythm Work

Today, 1st graders learned the poem "Cobbler, Cobbler" and used beats strips and their shoes to write out the rhythm of each line.

2nd graders put their rhythm reading to work by learning three different patterns and layering them together.  When they mastered these rhythms, we played along to the song "I Can See Clearly Now" by Jimmy Cliff.

Fourth Grade Centers

This week in fourth grade students are reviewing note and rest values by working through four centers.  Each center uses note and rest values in an activity or game.  First we have "Musical Twister!" Musical symbols are written on the game board and spinner, and the caller calls out the body part and symbol, and students have to find that symbol with that body part.  The last one standing is the winner!

Next, we have "Musical Go Fish!"  Just like the regular "Go Fish" game, students need to get four of a kind, instead of pictures however, students have to get four of a kind of notes and rests.

Our third center is "Domi-notes!" This game is just like Mexican train that you would play with dominoes, but students need to add up note and rest values on their cards to add on to the train.

Finally, we have the Lego center.  At this center, students use Legos that have different notes and rests drawn on them to build four beat patterns.  Once they build four patterns, they write those patterns down on a worksheet.  When their patterns are written, they are then able to get a drum and play those rhythms for their group! 

Thank You for Being a Friend

This week students are starting to practice the song "Thank You for Being a Friend" by Andrew Gold (the Golden Girls theme song!) for an assembly coming up on September 18th.  This assembly is to celebrate "Thank a Police Officer Day," and Stormonth will be inviting local police officers to our school to thank them personally and sing them this song.  If your child would like to practice this song at home, here are the lyrics (we will only be singing the first verse and chorus) and a video!

Thank You for Being a Friend

Thank you for being a friend

Traveled down the road and back again

your heart is true you're a pal and a confidant

I'm not ashamed to say

I hope it always will stay this way

My hat is off, won't you stand up and take a bow

And if you threw a party

Invited everyone you knew

You would see, the biggest gift would be from me

and the card attached would say,

Thank you for being a friend

Thank you for being a friend

Thank you for being a friend

Thank you for being a friend

Welcome Back!

I am so excited that the 2015-2016 school year has started, and the kids are definitely ready to start moving and grooving!  

For the first week we will be going over procedures and also playing some musical games and dancing in the older grades.  If you'd like to dance at home, here is a great video of our first dance of the year, "Watch Me."