Musical Learning in October

Click HERE to dance along

In October, Kindergarten students continued to explore non-pitched percussion instruments through their farm unit, and then celebrated with a barnyard dance to Aaron Copland’s Hoe Down.  There were ducks and horses and cows and sheep moving everywhere! Then we used these instruments to sing and play a song about the changing colors of autumn.  By the end of our song, the wind had blown through the room, and we were covered with green and yellow and purple leaves! 

The Singing Puppy

Grade One students began the month with popcorn.  Students performed the rhythm of our song by “playing the way the words sound”.  They also began to learn about the form of music, which is the idea that music has sections that are the repeated through a song, as well as sections that only happen once.  Three different teams with different instruments represented the form by taking turns to play their own special section.  Students have also begun to learn the beginnings of melodic notation by representing high and low sounds through movement, puppetry, singing, notation and playing the xylophone.  It has been exciting to watch each student become a composer, writing and performing their own unique music!

Grade Two students have finished telling the story of Liza Briggs, a sleepy girl who forgets to feed her pigs one morning.  In addition to using notation to learn the song, students used the West African djembe drum to play a repeating pattern to accompany our voices.  Performing two pieces of music at the same time requires intense listening, and it was wonderful to hear how the singers and drummers worked cooperatively to fit their music together like snug puzzle pieces! Students have also been deepening their understanding of rhythms by reading notation as a group, writing and performing their own pieces, and finally using a short rhythmic phrase to improvise a melody on the xylophone. 

Grade three students learned a version of the old campfire classic Don’t Throw Your Junk in My Backyard.  This piece gave them the opportunity not only to sing two complimentary songs at the same time, but to also learn their first xylophone accompaniment with a changing harmonic pattern.  Classes learned this piece so very well that I was able to sit down at the piano and play along, changing the dynamic from teacher and learner into competent musicians just sitting around making music together!  The students have also spent some time considering several famous pieces of music, Also Sprack Zarathustra, Fur Elise and the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.  (Click on the titles to listen to the music!)

They listened as musicians, determining the emotion or mood inspired by the music, and what the composer did to make them feel that way.  Then they went a step further and visualized an image prompted by this music.  Students were very keen to share their work with each other and they immediately noticed a wide variety of responses.  How lucky we are to be a part of such a rich and diverse learning community!