4th Grade Week 3 -- Woodchuck Chuck

In week 3 of 4th grade music, the students learned a "setting" based on the tongue twister "Woodchuck Chuck." A setting is like an arrangement where some the elements may involve body percussion, but not necessary melody. The second and third parts of the piece where made up of fragments of the main theme -- how much wood could a wood chuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? The fragments, students learned, are called ostinati, from an Italian word meaning stubborn for the way they repeat themselves. We then used a couple of student compositions from last week, to develop some polyrhythmic settings of our own.

Thanks to Mr. Bassett for supplying a picture of me with the students -- something a rarely am able to snap myself.