Fourth and Fifth Grade Students can:
Play ukuleles together with others while
1.
Having correct posture
2.
Holding the instrument well
3.
Placing fingers in the right frets
4.
Reading tablature songs
5.
Performing a prepared piece
This week the fourth
and fifth grade students continued their work on playing the mystery tablature
songs together, culminating in a group performance for the rest of class.
In the process,
students worked cooperatively with others to understand how and where to place
their fingers in order to play the songs they were given. There are students in
every class who still need help understanding where to place their fingers and
I found myself making the rounds to students around the classroom doing
check-ins with the groups as they were working together.
It’s really great
when a student in a group has such a good understanding of the concept that
they can help others. I found that many times the group was in good hands and I
could move on to the next group. Conversely, there were a few groups where all
of them needed help visualizing where to put their fingers on the fingerboard
of the ukulele.
The discovery here
is that while working last week, one or two in each group may have been able to
play enough of the mystery song for them to figure it out, that doesn’t mean
that all within the group mastered the ability to transfer what they see on the
paper to the instrument they have in their hand.
So this week has
really helped to sort that out. Most kids in every class now have a clearer
understanding of where to place their fingers on the neck to produce a sound
described by the tablature on the paper.
All in all, many
groups had fractured performances, which is why this didn’t end up on SeeSaw.
More often than not, students dropped out, made mistakes, or went at different
speeds than the other kids in their groups. My message to the kids was that two
months ago, nobody knew how to do any of this, so this is all progress in my
eyes and that they were to just do the best that they could.
Was the goal
accomplished? The learning targets are stated above. Personally, I was really
looking for students to get more familiar with placing their fingers on the
fingerboard of the ukulele. That familiarity was important for the next step,
which will be playing chords. So for the vast majority students, yes, we
accomplished the goal. I saw a handful of students that sat and did not play
while their friends went ahead and performed. I will be keeping an eye on those
students in coming weeks and trying to give them some extra help.
(O’Mara and Buckley)
Third Grade Students can:
Play ukuleles together with others while
1.
Having correct posture
2.
Holding the instrument well
3.
Learning to strum chords for the first time.
This week was to be our introduction to strumming chords on
the ukulele. I was absent on the day I was supposed to see O’Mara. However,
Buckley’s class did well. We discussed strumming and finger placement for two
chords. We started out with the C7 chord and moved to the C chord. Those two
chords require one finger to be placed on a single string at a specific place.
After over half the class needed my help on the C7 chord, only a few needed
help with the C chord. We played along with the songs: Lime in the Coconut, Bow
Wow Wow and Rain Rain Go Away.
(Potocki and Wellborn)
Third Grade Students can:
1.
Play xylophone music cooperatively with others.
2.
Play correct notes at the right time.
Wellborn and Potocki are continuing to work on their
xylophone and glockenspiel music for the concert. The Wellborn class played all
the way through their song this week three times along with backing music, but
they still has several wrong notes that need to be fixed and need to work to
play independent of that backing track. The Potocki class also made it through
their piece. We should be able to have Mrs. Enghusen’s class come over and sing
with us next week.
Second Grade Students can:
1.
Use a chord drone to accompany a song. (Taxi
Taxi)
2.
Use color instruments to accompany a song. (Taxi
Taxi)
3.
Learn the form of an alley dance (AB). (The
Noble Duke of York)
This week second grade students worked through two very
different skills. The first was taking the first steps toward using the
classroom instruments to create accompaniments for songs that we use in music
class. We used the song introduced last week, Taxi Taxi, to introduce a chord
drone and color instruments. A chord drone is when the 1st and 5th
note of a key-center (C and G in the key of C) are played over and over on
quarter notes. When played while we sing a song, it provides a very stable
foundation which can be built upon. We also added a little color by having
glockenspiels add a little zing on rests of our music.
The second skill was to perform an alley dance to the song
learned last week, The Noble Duke of York. The challenge here is that there are
specific motions for the dance and everyone has a responsibility in order to
keep the dance running smoothly. Students really need to focus to keep it
running well. This week we learned the form. Next week, we will concentrate on
doing it well and consistently with a focus on appropriate actions.
Dow’s class missed this lesson as I was absent for their
class. I may do this lesson for them next week. We shall see how that goes.
First Grade Students can:
1.
Identify So-Mi in a song. (Teddy Bear)
2.
Imitate rhythm patterns
3.
Accurately sing So-Mi patterns back to the
teacher
4.
Improvise movement to an accompaniment (What
Shall We Do?)
This lesson above was only actually done by the Stroeve
class this week. The first graders had a field trip on 1/17 (Rumple) and I was
absent on 1/22 (Arcangel). On 1/23 (Antich), I decided to delay the
implementation of the lesson by a week, and went to a lesson I use as a back-up
for occasions like this, using songs that are instant favorites for kids this
age. All three involved singing with motions. I’ll likely use that lesson – or
parts of it - again with Stroeve’s class on 1/25 to allow the classes to all be
on the same lesson by the following week.
I’ll discuss the above lesson next week.
Kindergarten Students can:
1.
Identify High and Low notes. (Handy Dandy)
2.
Listen attentively to a book (The Snowy Day)
3.
Move rhythmically with the teacher and then by
myself. (Ten Little Fingers)
This week brought the return of the rhythmic rhyme Ten
Little Fingers. I wanted to see if the kids would improve in the performance of
Same-Different-Same after being introduced to it last week. We spoke the rhyme
with actions, then did actions only, then spoke the rhyme with actions again.
Part of the objective was to get the students to accomplish this rhyme
independent of the teacher, and another part was to start embedding this idea
that music has form into them.
We also used the song Handy Dandy to have students show with
their actions whether they were hearing a high note or low note. We sang a
short song walking about the room, froze and listened for a sound. They then
had to respond by showing a high or low shape. Performance of this task was
improved after students were allowed to work with a partner. This interaction
allowed them to have a check on their own response.
We finished with reading the book The Snowy Day, which will
return next week. Today was simply for them to hear it once. The book is filled
with actions taken by the main character and next week they will be responding
by pantomiming actions in response to the story. Actions like this are a way
for students to show their artistic response at this age. This same skill
develops into musical improvisation in the future.
