Looking for fun songs and activities for your music lessons? In this article, I’ll give you a “peek at my week,” detailing one song, game, book, or activity from each of my lessons this week.
In first grade, we’ll be practicing long and short-short, which they just learned last week (in preparation for ta and ti-ti, or quarter and eighth notes). At the end of the lesson, students will learn the dance, “Highway No. 1,” which is one of my favorites! The recording is by the Shenanigans and can be found on Amazon and iTunes. It tells students within the recording what to do and when.
When I visited Australia, I actually got to ride on Highway No. 1! It is a highway that goes around the perimeter of Australia. Here’s a picture of it.
When I teach it, I’ll be sharing this picture with my students and telling them about my trip!
With second grade, we’ll be practicing la and two-beat meter. We’ll also be learning an alternating bordun with the song “Apple Tree,” which means students will play D, then A, D, then A, to the steady beat.
In first grade, I teach the bordun (playing D and A together to the steady beat), and in third grade, I teach the crossover bordun (playing D, then A, then D’, then A, to the steady beat, crossing over for the high D), so I like to make sure students have had experience with the alternating bordun in 2nd grade.
With third grade, I’ll be presenting 4/4, or four-beat meter. The students will be practicing meter by bouncing tennis balls.
When they hear patterns of two (the C major chord in one hand and then the C major chord two octaves higher in the other), they will bounce and catch. When they hear patterns of three (C major in one hand, C major in the other two octaves higher, on beats 2 and 3), they will bounce, catch, then tap their shoulder or head. When they hear patterns of four, they will bounce, catch, tap, tap.
This is a great way to get them to really listen for strong beats and weak beats and get them to internalize meter. Here’s a picture of my student-teacher doing this activity with second graders to practice two-beat meter.
With fourth grade, I’ll be doing differentiated centers for tika-ti. I did a pre-test with fourth graders in the last lesson, to figure out how well they could hear patterns with that rhythm, and in this lesson, we’ll have six centers from which students can choose.
Three of the centers will be differentiated, which means there will be three levels for those tasks, and students do the task for the color card they’ve been given (blue for level 1, green for level 2, and pink for level 3).
One of the new centers I’ll be trying uses the website www.therhythmtrainer.com. Students will work at Chromebooks. The Level 1 students will dictate rhythm patterns after listening to a pattern, in “slow mode.” Students at level 2 will choose all the rhythms they know, then work in B mode.
They’ll listen to four patterns played slowly, and choose which one matches, which is a bit more difficult than the task given to level 1 students. Level 3 students will do the same as level 2, but in fast mode. I’m excited to see how students do with this task and improve their rhythmic understanding!
Fifth graders are preparing for their upcoming program, which is based off the book, “Down in the Subway.” They will be performing songs such as “Water Come a Me Eye,” “Day-O,” and “Four White Horses.” They will be learning the hand jive for “Four White Horses,” which can be found on YouTube, by searching for “Four White Horses hand jive.” It’s a challenging hand jive, which students really enjoy!
I hope this has been helpful as you plan for your music lessons this week. Happy teaching!
