School Bus Rhythms

Second Graders are GREAT rhythm readers!  They can read, write and perform rhythms using quarter notes, eighth notes and quarter rests.  This week we used School Bus Rhythms to practice identifying rhythms.  Second Graders were able to do two rhythms at once!  Awesome!

ABC Singing with Kindergarten

I know!  I know!  Kindergarteners already know the ABC song.  You're right!  So we take it to the next level.  We use alphabet charts and poker chips to create variations of the ABC song.  We choose a few letters to cover and then sing the song.  The trick?  We only hum when we get to a letter that is covered by a chip.  This is much harder than it seems, but this Kindergarten class performed like pros!  Way to go!

Chicken on a Fencepost

You probably know the American folk song, "Chicken on a Fencepost".  My students LOVE this simple song and the accompanying game.  In this post we'll talk about some great activities to use with this song.

First, you probably know this song in a format similar to this one:

I teach this song by rote and often use it to introduce 16th notes.  During our first class period with this song we just learn it by rote and I tell them that the next time they come we'll use our detective skills to figure out the rhythm of the song and perform a play party game if we have time.

The next class period, we review the song.  We pat the steady beat while singing and practice clapping "the way the words go" or the rhythm.  Next, we use a visual aid to help us notate the rhythm.  In the picture below, you see a Smartboard file in use.

I don't have this file available for download, but it would be easy enough to replicate.  Create a 4x4 table and put a chicken in each square.  As students figured out the rhythm, they dragged the correct note and dropped it on top of the chicken.

In addition to projecting the file and figuring out the rhythm this way, I've also projected a plain page with the 4x4 chicken grid and had students draw over them onto the board with a dry erase marker.  We've also done it on paper when technology wasn't available.  You can download this farther down in this post.

As time allows (and I usually make sure we have just a few minutes) we get into concentric circles and practice walking and singing the song.  I never actually plan to teach the entire game the first time.  I know.  I'm such a meanie.  What I want to do is build anticipation.  Before we leave on day 2 I introduce them to my friend, Captain Cluck.

Captain Cluck is a rubber chicken that I bought from Oriental Trading.  There's nothing really special about him, except he is the Captain of the "Chicken on a Fencepost" game.   Okay...he is totally special and sits at a place of honor on my shelf and sometimes on really bad days I'll talk to him like he can hear me, but I try not to share that with the kids.  They already think I'm crazy.

So, the kids leave singing this fabulous folk song, excited to come back to music to learn the rest of the play party game and play with Captain Cluck.  Music teacher win!

The Game

I think there are probably several variations of this game out there, but this version is my favorite.  The starting formation is to have students in two concentric circles.  I tend to make the center circle much smaller than the outer circle.  In the middle of the center circle is where Captain Cluck resides.  

In addition to the two concentric circles, I pick two foxes to stand on the outside.  Basically they are "it" and try to get through the gates that will pop-up during the song and grab Captain Cluck.

I have students join hands (Always say "join hands" not "hold hands" when talking to your students.  Trust me on this one.).  I have the foxes cover their eyes or step outside the room if the setting allows while I walk through the circle and touch a place for the gate to open on each circle.

The foxes come back and we begin singing and walking in our circles.  When we sing the last "OH!" the students' hands that I touched raise them high to create an open gate in each of the circles.  The foxes race to get through each gate and grab the chicken.  I usually let each fox them pick someone to take their place and we play repeatedly until they are delirious or their classroom teacher comes to pick them up.

Here is a great video of a group of educators playing this game.

It is great fun and I know your students will love it!  I use "Chicken on a Fencepost" with 4th, 5th and 6th graders.  You can download the worksheets that I use with my students for deciphering the rhythm of "Chicken on a Fencepost"  HERE.

Back to School with Newspaper Dancing

Hurray!  We are back in school and back to making music!  This week my students learned how to do the newspaper dance.  We started with a section of the paper, unfolding it and laying it flat.  This was our "dance floor".  Students then could dance in their space.  Before we started, each group decided what they considered to be "dancing".  Most groups said that to be dancing you had to move your arms and legs in some fashion.

And so the dancing began...

Now, as fun as that was...it was just getting started.  Next, we stepped off the newspaper and folded it in half and stepped on again.  After a while, students had to move in very creative ways to stay on the newspaper.

We had a great time defining "dance", practing making the fraction 1/2 and movin' and groovin' to some great tunes.  With older students we created math sentences like "We are standing in 1/8th of the space that we started on."

Some of my favorite tunes to use with this activity:

"I Like to Move It" by Crazy Frog

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver

"Get Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith

"Happy" by Pharrell Williams

"Best Years of Our Lives" by Baha Men

"The Twist" by Chubby Checker

"Goofy Goober Rock" by Spongebob

"Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles

"Everything is AWESOME" from the Lego Movie

"Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks and Dunn

Are you looking for movement ideas for that first week of school?  How about ribbon dancing?  You can create really inexpensive ribbons or streamers with plastic table cloths and pencils (or chopsticks or dowel rods or something of similar size.  Check out THIS blog post to learn how to make them.  Then check out these:

This collection includes cards with pictures and cards with word prompts to use with your students.  Pass out your scarves, ribbons or streamers and start the music.  Then hold up the cards and let students choose how to interpret them.

I also love to use other sets of movement cards that don't always have one correct way of being interpreted.  I have several sets of Freeze Dance and Creative Movement cards that you might be interested in.

Congratulations to these AWESOME musicians!

Excellence in Music

Black Belt Recorder Karate Masters

Band and Choir Service Awards

Instrumentalists of the Year

Not pictured are 8th grade musicians.  Their awards were distributed at 8th Grade Graduation.  Congratulations!!!

Making Melodies

Choir members are becoming GREAT sight readers!  This week we played a singing/sight reading game that involved putting together melodies like puzzles and then sight reading them to figure out the name of the tune.  Some of them were hard!  Really...who is thinking about the song "Deck the Halls" in May!?!  lol.

Old MacDonald Re-Mix

Second Graders have rewritten a classic!  We analyzed the lyrics to Old MacDonald and found patterns.  Then we created new lyrics that worked with the patterns we found.  Here are some great examples:

Mr. Peyton had a school. EIEI-O
and at his school he had a door. EIEI-O
With a knock knock here and a knock knock there
Here a knock, there a knock, everywhere a knock knock
Mr. Peyton had a school. EIEI-O
-by P. L.

Mrs. Kincaid had a class. EIEI-O
and in her class she had some kids. EIEI-O
With a yak yak here and a yak yak there.
Here a yak, there a yak, everywhere a yak yak.
Mrs. Kincaid had a class. EIEI-O

Mr. Cosmo had a school. EIEI-O
and in his school he had a soda machine. EIEI-O
With a bbbkkssh here and a bbkkssh there
Here a bbbkkssh, there a bbbkkssh, everywhere a bbkkssh.
Mr. Cosmo had a school. EIEI-O

Parachutes and Preschool

 

 

Preschoolers experimented with parachutes and performed patterns of up and down.  Students had a great time moving rhythmically to "Old Dan Tucker".