After solving the puzzle cards for the Ghost of John, we would spend some time planning our very own background music for a class song. I had the students complete a Visible Thinking Routine called "Step Inside" to get them stepping inside and thinking like a real arranger and a real audience member. First, as an arranger, we thought about what kinds of sounds we might want to include into our class song. We then thought about what we might want to feel as an audience member if we were listening to a song called the Ghost of John. Check out their ideas below! The left side of the ghost reflects the arrangers ideas, and the right side reflects the audience reactions.
After we identified what kinds of expressions and moods we wanted to create, we tried different instruments and made suggestions for each instrument. For example, one group chose the tambourine to represent the "shivering" sound. Another group chose woodblocks to represent the "skeleton bones". The students also had to make important decisions like when the instruments would play and exactly how the instruments would play!
Overall, the students really got the feel for creating and arranging music. It's definitely a difficult job, especially with 25+ students in a class, but definitely a very rewarding experience!
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Just like a map or GPS tells us where to go or what we will see, a musical map shows us what we are going to hear and how the music will sound! The music map below shows that the song "Ghost of John" will go up and down and will have long and short sounds. It also tells us that the melody will have lots of steps, skips, and a jump. However, the pieces of the map are in the wrong order. The students job is to listen carefully to the melody, and put the "puzzle" pieces into the correct order! Puzzle maps are the perfect way for me to access how well the students are hearing the songs and identifying the parts of the melody. The students worked in small groups, 2 or 3 students, to figure out the puzzle cards. What a fun way to introduce a song! We will now take a few class periods to decide on and record appropriate background sounds to go with the melody. Each class will arrange their own song. We will then record them, and put them on the website! Beginning in Kindergarten and 1st grade, students at Hamlin have begun to realize how music is full of pitches that are high and low. They have also learned that music is full of patterns of long and short sounds, also called rhythm. When you combine pitches and rhythm, you now have created melody. 2nd grade is a perfect time to begin learning how to play and create melodies. "Paw Paw Patch" is a folk song that has a simple melody. First the students figured out the order of short and long sounds, and then they moved the icons up and down to reflect the high and lows of the melody. The kids LOVE working at the smartboard to solve musical "problems". We also added a fun circle dance to this folk song!
I always like to start the year reviewing the steady beat. We play any and all kinds of instruments to the beat of music. We've done sticks, drums, and now...boomwhackers! Lil' Liza Jane is a classic folk song. The kids first learned a circle dance with a partner. Then, we added instruments. As mentioned earlier, the boomwhackers were chosen to keep the beat, while the shakers played a rhythm from the words of the song, "Lil' Liza Jane". The challenge was to keep the beat steady, even when the shakers were playing the rhythm. Putting two parts together allow the children to play as an ensemble, where they must maintain their specific part while other parts also play. And of course, the parts should all fit together to sound good!
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March 2019
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