Posts Tagged ‘rhythm’
Lesson: What’s Your Name? Speech and Body Percussion Piece
What’s Your Name? Speech and Body Percussion Piece Every year, new students enter our classrooms from all walks of life. The one commonality with all of them is a NAME. As an elementary music teacher, learning all of our students’ names can be a daunting task and we sometimes forget that the children are in…
Read MoreLesson: Super Heroes
Super Heroes Day 1 Teach “Canon” and sing as a two or three-part canon. (Music for Children I, #41 pg. 132 with adjusted rhythm to fit text) Day 2 As a class, have students brainstorm superheroes and create an eight-beat rhythm using superhero names. For example, Together, create body percussion to go with…
Read MoreNature’s Second Instrument: Rhythm
It’s time to have fun with rhythm! Explore possibilities of rhythm and form in Cyndee Giebler’s second installment on Elemental Composition!* Using just quarter notes, two eighth notes, and quarter rests, discover Cyndee’s ideas for using a simple 8-measure composition as inspiration for providing a ready-made musical context for just about anything you and your students…
Read MoreWhat’s Cool for Back at School?
What’s Cool for Back at School? Lynn Osborne shared this lesson in our “Back to School Lesson” contest from last year, and was the first runner up from our entries. In this lesson she shares her process for getting to know what her students like about school and a variety of ways to explore sing, say,…
Read MoreDrip, Drop, Pitter, Patter, and Explore!
Drip, Drop, Pitter, Patter, and Explore! Spring is in the air, or so we hope! The weather is often a topic of conversation, and the sounds of spring offer a wonderful opportunity to sing, say, dance and play in the music classroom. Music educators usually agree that some important goals for the youngest learners through…
Read MoreLesson: Be Our Guest!
Be Our Guest! Exploring Vaughan Williams through Kitchen Utensils A food-themed exploration of Vaughan Williams’ “March Past of the Kitchen Utensils” through movement and play! YOU’RE INVITED! As educators who use movement to initiate music learning, we often explore a variety of themes to make connections with our students and to make these experiences lively…
Read MoreLesson: Harvesting Creativity
Harvesting Creativity: Using Folk Repertoire as the Seed for Making New Music As Orff inspired music teachers, we all believe that one of the ways students demonstrate musical literacy is by creating new music. In order to have students in upper grades feel confident in their creative skills, though, it’s important to have younger students…
Read MoreLessons with Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree
Lessons with Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree is a charming children’s book about a too-tall Christmas tree that keeps getting whittled down, providing Christmas joy for a variety of humans and animals alike, from a wealthy man to a mouse. I actually don’t remember how I learned about the book, but it…
Read MoreRhythm Lesson: Queen Caroline
This piece can be used off and on throughout the elementary school years. It has a “perfect rhythm.” Kindergarten and 1st Grade, beginning of the year: 4 Voices: Whisper Shout Talk Sing – Create a story about a king and queen. 1) All the people in the castle were whispering about the queen’s hair (whisper…
Read MoreGood, Better, Best
Good, Better, Best A Rhythm and Movement Lesson for Grades 4-6 Download a printable version of Michael Chandler’s lesson here. Objectives: Working with beat and divided beat through movement, body percussion, and instruments. Choreographing simple movement to elemental forms. Rhythmic and melodic improvisation and composition with elemental forms. Arranging and orchestrating a performance piece. Materials: Unpitched…
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