Sunday, August 28, 2011

Who's This Dude?

Just thought I'd share with you what Who's This Dude? is since it will be in my lesson plans every week...

I have a bulletin board outside my room and every week, there is a new picture of a famous composer. Every student in the school has the opportunity to participate in the guessing of who it is. I put up a new clue every day of the week until Friday. They're coded or as if the composer himself were saying them in little speech bubbles (I'll post a picture later). In order to win, a student must find me and whisper it in my ear. They don't want to share with their friends because only one person gets a small prize for getting the Dude right AND their name on the announcements the next day! Last week's winner was a 5th grader on Monday - it was Beethoven. I found out later he did a project on Beethoven at the end of last year. He better know who it was! :)

At the end of the week, we will talk about the composer's life, some of their accomplishments, but most importantly, listen to their attributions to our society through music! I hope this will be one more enriching musical experience for each and every student in the school! See if you parents and teachers can guess who my Dude is for this week! But SHHHHH, don't tell your kiddos!! That's cheating!!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Aug. 29-Sept. 2, 2011

Hello! This week we're going to be focusing on making some sounds and making sure our voices are making the right sound in K, 1 & 2 and a little bit in the other grades. I can feel the 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders wanting to sing so badly! We need to make sure we can handle instruments in class first before we can handle pieces of music and textbooks carefully.

K, 1st & 2nd Grades
MON. - Review all Hello & Goodbye songs, do solos if they want them
TUES. - Telephone Game, High & Low sounds using cards for high & low sounds (bear, pony, drum, chicken, etc.)
WED. - Work on more high & low sounds, move to the beat, slow or fast, walk in a circle, move arms, etc.
THURS. - Review beat songs, work on matching pitch (with piano, with my voice, with neighbors) 
FRI. - High & low sounds w/ rhythm scarf - Dark Eyes, The Bear, Saint-Saens' Aquarium)
 
3rd
MON. - Review rhythm, time signatures, measures, practices of finding wrong measures
TUES. - Compositions
               -2 measures in partners, 4/4 time, play for class
WED. - Finish compositions
THURS. - Beginning to articulations - legato & staccato
FRI. - Drawing pictures of articulations, Hall of the Mountain King, Holst's The Planets

 
5th & 6th
 MON. - Finish sharing compositions
TUES. - Articulation to Rhythm (legato, staccato with examples)
WED. - Articulations cont.'d (accents, slurs) play on drums, add to other rhythms & articulations
THURS. - Composing Tests
                        Groups of 3, 4 measures using all tools learned ->Worksheet
FRI. - Playing Tests

Monday, August 22, 2011

Aug. 22-26, 2011

This week is the start of a new week and new teaching units for each class. The younger grades will be learning new songs all week so we can start and end the class the same way for the rest of the year. We will learn 3 hello songs to greet one another and 2 goodbye songs to say “Adios, Amigos!”

We’ll start the 3rd, 5th & 6th grade units off with a short pre-test at the beginning of class which is described in the lessons. We’ll be building from learning the concepts, practice, activities, reviews, then finally application and creation of their own examples to test their classmates by the end of the week.

Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd Grades
MON. - Review class procedure, seating charts
             Learn the Hello Song found in textbooks

TUES. - Review Hello Song
                Learn “Bien Venidos” - welcome song in Spanish

WED. - Review Hello Song, Bien Venidos
             Learn “Adios, Amigos” - goodbye song in Spanish

THURS. - Review all songs learned so far
                Learn Bonjour, Mes amis - hello song in French
               
FRI. - Review all songs learned so far
            Learn Happy Trails - final goodbye song

3rd, 5th & 6th Grades
MON. - Pre-test - heads-up 7Up game - note values
               Quarter notes
                Half notes
                Whole notes
-labeling parts of the notes, values, clapping different combinations of rhythms, familiar songs consisting of these note values, playing rhythms on different instruments such as drums or boomwhackers

TUES. - Quarter, half, whole notes continued practice
              5th & 6th start work on 8th notes

WED. - 3rd - 8ths review and practice on Boomwhackers
           - 5th & 6th - Combination of rhythms, working on syncopation with drums and Boomwhackers

THURS. - 3rd - Combo like 5th & 6th from Wed., tap or play rhythms for everyone
               - 5th & 6th - Review of time signatures, measures, meanings of measures, what the                 numbers mean, problem measure examples (worksheet)

FRI. - 3rd - Review all, time signature, measures, Textbook Scavenger Hunt
        - 5th & 6th - Compose with all tools with a partner
                                       -Choose a time signature for all
                                       -Use designated note values
                                       -4 measures
                                       -play with a friend, 2 compositions together
         
ALL GRADES - Who's This Dude? of the week Spotlight - Beethoven!

The First Day!


I’m so excited for the first day! I hope all the kids are, too. I’m looking forward to getting to know each one of my students, their likes, dislikes, gifts, but more importantly, their love of music! We’ll have TONS of different musical activities going on through the year and this will be a way to keep everyone informed of the awesome things going on. Here’s the schedule for the day:


Kindergarten, 1st,  2nd and 3rd Grades
Overview of class routine
Overview of rules
The Name Game - each student gets to choose an adjective to help me remember their name, then they have to remember the last person’s adjective and name

5th & 6th Grades
Overview of class routine
Overview of rules
“Music Is...” - One student will read the quote on the wall. Each student will  then write down what music means them. We’ll put these up in the classroom, then at the end of the year, we’ll revisit this and rewrite another one. My goal for this year in all the classes is gained music appreciation. What better a way to illustrate music appreciation than through the student’s words themselves!
Fun Things - Student gets their number called and tells their name & one fun thing you did for summer or an interesting fact about themselves.