Monday, November 25, 2013

Pease Porridge Hot Rhythms

First Grade students have been working on learning about Quarter Notes, Eighth Notes, and Quarter Rests this month in music.  We recently learned the chant Pease Porridge Hot, then practiced writing our rhythms.










Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Turkey Dinner - Thanksgiving Rhythm Assessment

Turkey Dinner is a Thanksgiving Rhythm Assessment for sixteenth notes that I'll be using with my fourth grade students next week.  Students have been performing songs with sixteenth note patterns such as: Ghost of John (ostinato), Tideo/Jingle At The Windows, Chattanooga Choo Choo, and No One's In The House But Dinah.  The melody of Turkey Dinner matches that of Frere Jacques and is based on lyrics created by fellow elementary music teacher, Cynthia Tomes (thanks Cynthia!!).  In this assessment, students will sing the melody as an A section while the B section will be rhythmic patterns.  Students can perform rhythms individually, followed by group echoes.  When the student is done performing, they could select a barred instrument (set to pentatonic scale) or rhythm instruments upon which to play the remaining patterns.    Click here to get the SmartNotebook file.

Step by step lesson plans are shown below.



Friday, November 1, 2013

This week we learned about Musical Dynamics in Grade 3, 4, and 5.  Some of the classes completed a Musical Dynamics Worksheet to help them solidify their understanding of dynamic levels.
Click Here for the Document.