4th Grade Week 9 -- Singing our songs

I was thrilled with the results of last weeks assignment! The kids really did a marvelous job creating songs that were funny and quite singable.

Class began this week with singing the children's work (include the four songs shown above -- clicking on the scores makes them larger). The rest of the time was spent reviewing each completed song in every class using a laptop computer and ELMO projector. Students were able to see and hear their compositions, make adjustments and provide both practical and aesthetic evaluations of their peers work.

In all 45 songs were produced -- nicely done 4th grade!

2nd Grade Week 9 -- Developing our sense of pitch

For music this week 2nd graders moved to the auditorium again so that we could make use of the Orff Xylophones. We extended last week's improvisatory session where these instruments were used for their "sound effects" quality and began to talk about specific pitches and pitch sequences. By the end of the lesson each class had constructed a unique 4 line piece that they could read as well as play.

4th Grade Week 8 -- revising our melodies

This week in 4th grade music class was run as a lab to give kids a chance to revise and rework their melodies. Many students were still challenged by the idea that each syllable should be assigned one note. Others had constructed melodies that contained intervallic leaps too challenging to be sung. When it comes to singing. notes that are close to each other in terms of intervals are usually best. Once again the students had the Orff instruments, pianos and my expertise (such as it is) to make use off. Some very nice pieces are beginning to develop!

Homework -- finished revised songs by Friday.

Recorder Ensemble -- "This Land Is Your Land" Parallel Thirds

Once you know the main melody take a crack at the parallel harmony line. I need at least a couple of you to play it for the concert.

Recorder Ensemble -- "This Land Is Your Land"

Hey recorder cats -- sorry it took a bit to post this. Traffic on my hosting site was very heavy this weekend. At any rate here is the third and final song you will need to learn for out concert on March 25. Everybody should at least be able to play the melody.

2nd Grade Week 8 -- "Rain"

The goal in week 8 was to introduce pitched percussion into the equation so that the kids can see that there is a simple relationship between melody and rhythm. To that end I brought out the Orff instrumentarium that Friends of Third bought several years ago. Although most of the kids had seen the instruments in Kinder and First Grade, this was one of the first opportunities they have had knowing a bit about steady beat, rhythm and improvisation. This came in very handy as each class developed an improvisation piece around the idea of a rain storm.

4th Grade Week 7 -- Beginning our Final Project

I was extremely pleased with the poems/lyrics the kids produced this week. Nearly everybody completed the assignment. Now the next step is to set these words to music. To do that we are using a hexatonic (6 note) scale to remove the unpleasant sounding notes. The kids will then use their developing understanding of rhythm and contour to create melodies.

There is no music class next week, so the kids will have plenty of time to tinker. Hopefully each class will produce at least one song they can see themselves performing,