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Monday, September 27, 2010

What I'm doing - Sept Wk 4!

4th and 5th grade
I'm doubling this lesson with both grades since it's working nicely!!! The only thing from GamePlan that I'm really teaching is the 5th grade "New Hampshire Hornpipe" activity from 5th grade. I will catch back up next week when the kids bring their recorders!
We start with Artie Almeida's Rhythm Rockets and play the partner game where they race against their partner for the correct answer. The kids have a lot of fun with this!
Then I play the Hornpipe recording and we tap two fingers together for beat 1-6 and clap beat 7 and 8 in the A section. B section just as written! After listening and doing those motions sitting down I ask kids if they can tell me what they think the form is! (ABA) - I talk briefly about the introduction and coda too.
Then I prepare their movement. I make a big deal about having to think ahead as they take 6 steps to CLOSE their feet on beat 6 so there's no forward motion as they clap their hand on 7 and 8. Some kids still struggle with that! They take a normal step on beat 6 so their body momentum has to step on beat 7. It's not a big deal to me if they do, I just want them to be self aware of what their body is doing and they can demonstrate to me they are in control! :) They have a lot of fun with the "statues" in the B section! I've seen some pretty creative statues at different levels!
After moving with the music we sit and I show a PPT of "Mr. E" a story about the staff (I can't share it but you can get the info at www.mylesmusic.com!)
Any extra time is spent reviewing Patriotic music.

3rd grade
This is the only grade that I'm really teaching out of GamePlan! The "Tennessee" lesson process is awesome! Kids have enjoyed singing the ostinato and I put groups of 4 at a time on the instruments to play the ostinato while we sing.
La Raspa has also been fun! Here's an extention I did today with a group that I couldn't trust to have partners for the B activity. (They would swing each other and probably take out an arm socket in the process!)
During the B we took 16 beats and walked around the carpet and when I said "BACK" they had to walk 16 beats back to their place. I called out a couple of the kids that purposefully wouldn't get back to their spots and they sat out for an AB rotation.
The "Mary Lost Her Coat" poem with body percussion ostinato was also a hit. I let several kids make up 4 beat ostinatos and keep it going while the rest of class said the poem and then we all tried the ostinato with speech. After several volunteers I had the kids individually come up with their own 4 beat body percussion ostinato to keep the beat at the same time. It was interesting to see the kids that could keep the beat and say the poem and those that struggled. Activities like this will need to be repeated in this grade!

2nd Grade
We learned "Draw a Bucket of Water" from Share the Music 3rd grade and had fun with the Play Party.
Solfege warm up and learned "Harvest Song" from GamePlan
I showed a PPT of MK8 "Autumn Leaves" and tossed out fabric leaves during the interlude! We sang the song again and added 'leaf choreography' during the song!
We ended class with the Move/Freeze game from GamePlan! What a fun activity! I remember doing something like this at summer camp when I was little!

1st Grade
I tell the story of "The Lovely Princess" (from a Bob DeFrece workshop) to work on vocal exploration and then teach "Alabama Gal" from the book "Jump Jim Joe" by the Amidons.
We review our Syncopated Clock activity from last week and end class with the story of "Freddy the Frog" with the book. It's a great book to introduce the concept of the treble staff.

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