Multi-cultural Fun- Trip to Japan

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Every Year my fourth graders do a multi-cultural performance and showcase dances and instruments from around the world.  On Thursdays I hope to feature some of the activities we use.  All of the activities are used to teach either a rhythmic or melodic concept as well as connect my students to music from across the globe.  They are not always initially taught in fourth grade, but sometimes earlier and then brought back for other concepts.

The two examples today are usually taught in 3rd grade when we are working on ti-tika and then the song, Oki Na Taiko, is brought back in fourth for low so.  I bring back the chant just for fun as a random rhythm in fourth when we are doing Taiko drumming at the same time.

Oki Na Taiko is a song I use to teach ti-tika as well as low so.  After the song is taught, we do a rondo with different taiko drum patterns I have gotten from various sources over the years.  We watch a video of taiko drumming on YOUTUBE and look at the technique. The video linked here is a Japanese 6th grade class drumming. We then use 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot and rhythm sticks to drum.  I hope to soon make stands and make the drums look and feel a little more authentic.  The kids LOVE drumming, but you have to make sure only 5-7 people are drumming at a time if your room is anywhere near other classrooms because it gets LOUD.  I tend to do: A is drumming, B is Singing in Japanese, C is Singing in English, and D is singing in solfegge.  I have four rows in my room so it works perfectly with the rondo format so everyone gets a chance to drum.



Omotchio is a chant I got this summer from fellow Kodaly Graduate Jaime- Thanks! The chant imitates the process of making Mochi. Mochi is a type of sweet rice paste that is made by pounding the dough with large hammers and then kneading it.  Check out this Mochi Making video to see some really fast mochi making.  Be sure to watch until the end!

The hand clap game imitates the motions seen in the video, and the translation describes the dough making process.  This is a very fun, yet complicated, hand clapping game that the students seem to really enjoy.  It also looks really impressive when done in a program!  I taught this in fourth grade today and one of my Japanese students was very exited to help demonstrate because he has done the game in Japanese school before.   Very Cool! (He also affirmed that I was pronouncing the words correctly, which was good (-: )

Here is the game:  Children are in partners

One Child claps the beat vertically the whole time
Child B follows these actions:
Phrase 1: Claps the beat alternating below and above A's hands.
Phrase 2: Claps "Pet" below A's hands, "tan" between A's hands, then "ko" below A's hands.
Phrase 3: B begins with hands together.  The right hand makes a circular mvmnt btwn A's hands on "Konete"
Phrase 4: B follows this pattern with A's hands- below, between, above.  above, between, below.  below, between, above, between, below, between, above.

Valentines Day Activities!

Here are a few activities I do for Valentines Day every year.
The 5th and 6th grade lesson is a 3 part lesson, the others I can squeeze in one class, or expand.

5th and 6th Grade Valentines Day!   Writing a Valentines Day Song :)

Lesson 1:  I have 6 Valentines day rhythms on the board.  Sayings like Be My Valentine, Box of Chocolates, and Here's a Dozen Roses For You! Each is put to a rhythm that is four beats long. Check out the dropbox link to get the rest and the rhythms I use.

Students sing "I Got a Letter" and make their 4 bar phrases an interlude to make a rondo.  They write their four bars on a worksheet and I save it for the next week.

Lesson 2:  Student get out their worksheets again, and this time, I give them the chord progression (we are learning about I, IV, and V chords now) and they add solfegge to each measure.
My Chord Progression is: I IV V I but you could do whatever you want.  We sight read a few as a class, still in rondo form with "I Got a Letter"

Lesson 3:  Student convert their songs to the staff.  (This could also be for homework... if you give homework).  Finally we project a few and read them from the board.  I have a document camera that works great for this.   :)



1st and 2nd Valentines Day! Quarter Notes and Eighth Notes

The First and second graders sing "I Hope!" from Game Plan-Grade 1 and one student walks around with an envelope full of Valentines day words.  There are words like "Chocolate, Valentine, Candy Hearts, Be mine, etc"    If a student is tapped on the last beat of the song, they get to pull a word out of the envelope and decide which rhythm it matches.    

I  have a big chart in the middle of the floor where they can place their word.   There are at least two words for each rhythm.  Depending on where 2nd grade is, I add more rhythms to practice quarter rest patterns as well.  Click here for a worksheet your students can do with this activity. 

These activities can definitely be altered for other grades as well.  Feel free to add your own phrases, and change the lessons up a bit :)  All of the Valentines Day words and the worksheet are in the same dropbox file:  

Enjoy and Happy February! 

Don't Laugh At Me- Sung by Peter Yarrow

Ok. My plan for the blog is to really expand and do themed posts on certain days.  Monday will be and idea from my classroom based on an American folk song, Tuesday a story book, Wednesday a product review, and Thursday a multi-cultural song or idea.  At least one post a week will have a pop song written in solfa to guess or use in your classroom :)

This week, because I just thought of this idea yesterday, I switched the product and the Story Book. Check out yesterdays post about beat blocks.  I will try to post Friday about a Folk Song, to make up for Monday.

The story book I chose for this week is "Don't Laugh At Me" Sung by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame).  He also did a forward.  The book is by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin.  The ISBN is 978-1-58246-058-1.   The book comes with a 2 track CD- one with Peter Yarrow singing, and one that is just instrumental for you or your kids to sing along with.   I love books that you can SING with your class, and ones that they can go home and find on Youtube or Amazon.  Take a look at this youtube video of Peter Yarrow singing.

This is a GREAT anti-bullying book.  It talks about how people may look or feel different but that we are all special for being good at different things.  This book has made some adult aids in my room cry at times.  The kids are ALWAYS really responsive to it.  One First Grader even told me "In the yearbook last year I saw that you had pink hair in a picture and I didn't laugh at you, even though it was different" :) That was for Pink Ribbon Day in October.

Anti-bullying has been a theme this year at our school during what we call Wilson Way Days.  These are days where we meet as cross-grade level groups and have a lesson, and then split up in the afternoon for SPARKS activities (the kids get to choose a community-member led activity that interests them such as duct-tape crafts, science experiments, or a foreign language.)   This book fit in great the weeks leading up to and after our 1st Wilson Way Day in December and I showed it to every grade 1-6.

The song is such a powerful lesson for kids.  :) Check it out!

Lego rhythms

I'm back! Holiday shows and musical casting happened, but I am going to be posting at least once a week. OMEA is next week so I am hoping to post a lot with ideas from workshops.  My goal is also to start to get theme posts going as well. 3 posts some weeks: the 1st an idea from my classroom (game, Smartboard file, song); the 2nd a product review (books, manipulatives, instruments) and the 3rd a storybook review. There may also be a pop song challenge at the bottom of some posts written in solfegge so see if you can figure it out! I give these to kids, sometimes as just solfegge, sometimes with rhythms, or sometimes from hand signs. They love it!

On pinterest a few weeks ago I found a Lego rhythms smart board file where students wrote rhythms using animated Lego blocks.

 I got to thinking, why can't we use real Legos? Low and behold, a few days later I found this etsy site:  Beat blocks   She uses baby Legos and modge-podges rhythms onto the front. Kids can then stack the lines of songs and know if all their phrases are the right length etc. 1 bump on top of the block is one beat, two humps is two, etc.  Sets are $20 each or you can buy a template and modge-podge yourself. I can't wait to get mine and try them out. If the kids love the Smartboard version, they have got to love the real thing.

**Update- she has also added Diatonic note and solfege blocks to build songs based on their melody.  :)

Note: this post is NOT sponsored. I just think this product is super cool so I am featuring it :)



Pop song challenge: l s m r m s m      l s m r       l s m r m s m      m r r d d

Hint: it's part of a song by an American Idol.

Can't Dance Josey

CHICKEN ON A FENCE POST

This is just one of my favorite songs to do with 3rd grade for tika-tika (4 beamed 16th notes) as well as in 4th grade for low so.

I have two games with this song- one is text improv, where students think of a silly excuse not to have to dance with someone- NO EXCUSES about physical appearance are allowed.  Things just as silly as Chicken on a Fence post.  Examples may be: The barn was painted orange, the sky is blue, hogs in the cornfield, etc.   This one we play the 2nd week the song is known.

The other game is a concentric circle game, played after the song is known well.  Inside both circles is a rubber chicken (or other object race to). I send two students to opposite corners of the room to hide their eyes.  I then choose two secret bridges by swinging the arms of 2 connected students in the inside and 2 on the outside. The students in the circles walk the beat (inside left, outside right) as we sing the song.  When I hit a drum, the students in the circles freeze, bridges arms go up and the students who had been hiding their eyes race to get to the chicken first.  They can only get to the middle by going under the previously chosen bridges.   This is a super fun game that the kids LOVE.  They are always excited in fourth grade when it comes back.


ALSO: Just for fun, read the solfa below and see if you can figure out what pop song it is!

d d r m s s
 l l l s m d
 l l l s m d r r
d d r m s s
 l l l  s m d
l, l, f m r d t,

Music Tag

Hey friends,
I just learned this game this past week from my fellow music teacher Dee Dee and I love it! It can be used in so many different ways!

MUSIC TAG! 

Music tag works just like real tag in that there is an IT trying to catch other people.  However, in music tag ALL are singing and can only move on a certain part of the song- whatever concept you may be working on. Today we played with Long short (or dotted quarter eighth note) and the students could only step when this rhythm came up in the song.  I have also played where students sing and only move on the LAs in a song. The kids love it.

I do it so that if you get tagged you become the new IT- and if you move at the wrong time you are OUT.  You could also do, if you get tagged, it is your job to play the element on an instrument.  I have heard of only moving on the strong beat, only on the half notes, only on the do's, etc.  Just make sure the song you choose has enough of the element to make it fun.  If there is only one in a four phrase song, students are standing much more than they are playing tag.

Have a great week- I hope to have another post up by the end of the week!

3 Fall High/Low Activities

Here are a few ways I practice High/ Low with my first graders (no kdg so we are still working on High/Low pitches and then into so-mi)

1. Train ride into spooky places- Using my Power Point Pitch Exploration Book (get it on my wix site- click the WIX tab above, then click For Colleagues, then click Blog Files- the file is called SMARTboard pitch exploration book, but it is a PPT file) we ride our train into spooky places to visit ghosts- and then we have ghost conversations.  I learn the Ghost Conversations from Lillie Fierabend at a TRIKE workshop a few years ago.  Two ghost puppets are used and students use their "ghost voices" (oooh in head voice) to have convos with the teacher.  We also follow the Ghosts flying path with our voices, or a falling leaf.  Students can then draw their own line on the SMARTboard to follow. There are so many great Halloween and Fall vocal exploration files on TPT - check out some of mine bundled HERE.

2. Leaves are falling- I love this song! We talk about fall and how the trees change colors and students get to choose HIGH or Low at the end.  I have two special leafs - one says HIGH and one says LOW and a student hides both behind their back.  At the beginning of the last line the student shows the class one or the other and the class sings the octave note to match.  Such an easy, fun game- kids LOVE being the leader.

*Stick Notation picture to be added soon, but here is the words with solfa*

Leaves are Falling on the ground, Red and Yellow, Orange and Brown
      s      s     m   l    s    s       m        s      s      m   l          s        s       m

Will the leaf be high or low? Show our voices where to go!
   s     s    m   l     s     s     m      s        s     m  l       s      s   d (or d')



3. Hiram and Lois- I also have "pilgrims" named Hiram (a boy with a high speaking voice) and Lois (a girl with a lower speaking voice) puppets.  We use them for a lot of songs, but I introduce them with "Quaker, Quaker" and usually change it to "Pilgrim, Pilgrim". We talk about the old english just a little.  I start out as both voices, then all do both voices and eventually I hand off a puppet to another student to be either Hiram or Lois.  I Love the unexpected genders with these names- which I got from Sandra Mathias.  Usually students expect the boys voice to be low, and the girls to be high- but we all know that is not always the case with real people so this is one way to show them- and the names are too perfect not to change!

I usually start with Line 1 high, line 2 low, 3 high and four low, but then sometimes I switch it up when I am still the only one performing. 

What are some of your favorite Fall Activities???