3rd/4th Grade Halloween Music

   I started doing music in my son's fourth grade class as well.  Interestingly enough, while I struggle to keep the 3rd grade class from getting too excited and out of control, I think I will struggle to get the 4th grade excited.  I have been going through the same stuff as 3rd grade. 

Name That Tune

   For our theory lesson I introduced the staff and a scale.  We talked about each note being named after a letter, how when notes go up the sound goes up, and how when the note goes up a lot the pitch goes up a lot.  Then I had the basic notes to some familiar tunes like Twinkle, Happy Birthday, and Row Your Boat written out.  We wrote out the names of each note then we did a kind of name that tune with them.

   We did a lot of listening this month.  We listened to Toccata and Fugue, Night on Bald Mountain, Funeral March of a Marionette, and Danse Macabre.

Toccata and Fugue

   We started out by describing an organ.  I should have brought in a picture.
   Then we talked about what a Toccata is and what a Fugue is:
   Toccata is typically a keyboard piece that is written for a virtuoso to show off the dexterity of their fingers.
   Fugue is where a theme in introduced and then worked into different 'voices' on different pitches throughout the piece.
   I made clips from Toccata and Fugue that typified each and played them.  I think they picked up on the toccata idea a little better than the fugue.  I think for next time I should write out the fugue theme so they can see it as well.

Night on Bald Mountain / Ghosts Suckers Craft

   I told (a watered down version) of the story.  The full history is a little dark and scary.  I told them how it was a tone poem about a Russian version of Halloween where witches gathered and flew around a bald mountain.

   We then made ghost suckers they could fly to the music.  I gave them a tissue (I bought the extra strength kind) and had them color and/or cut the edges.  You leave the middle empty so you can make a face.  Then I gave them a sucker and a piece of yard and had them tie the tissue onto the suckers.  I played the music in the background and when they finished they could fly their ghosts around to the music.  The kids loved the suckers.  A few of them had fun flying to the music.

Funeral March of a Marionette

   I really wanted to make some kind of puppet for each of them that they could use with the music.  I went to the store and bought some (a lot of) candy that I could use for the head, feet, and hands.  For the body I used some fabric scraps  Popcicle sticks and yarn for the controls.  I finally came up with cool prototype but after only getting three done in one hour I decided that I wasn't going to make 60 of them.  I gave up.
   So I took in two puppets my Dad had brought back from Germany for me.  We talked about how the contrasting ideas of puppets and funerals was just a little comical and how the music was both comical and serious in turn.  I made a clip of the basic march, 'stopping by the inn,' return to marching, and arriving at the graveyard.

Danse Macabre / Skeleton Arms

   Danse Macabre is one of my all-time favorites.  I first heard it as the theme for a English comedy/mystery show 'Jonathan Creek.'  The show was cute but the music was great.

Bernt Notke: Surmatants (Totentanz) in St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn.

   So when I was researching I was intrigued by the original 14th century idea and art of Danse Macabre.  The basis is that death comes out on Halloween at midnight and calls the dead out to dance.  At dawn they have to go back.  Several things combined to come up with Danse Macabre.  First of all there was a really high death rate in the 14th century.  Some estimates were as high as 50%.  Death was something everyone was dealing with.  The churches would teach the people about the importance of being ready to go at any time.  At the same time people would naturally feel a desire to enjoy what time you had.  Combine all that with the idea that death was the great equalizer and you came up with Danse Macabre.  Saint Saens must have been pretty impressed with it too because he wrote the song about it a couple centuries later.

Lübecker Totentanz by Bernt Notke (around 1463, destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942).

Those were all the same long painting.  I love the clothes.  They were just a bit icky to show to the kids though.

    This is the picture I showed them.

The Abbot, woodcut from the Dance of Death series, 1523–26, 6.5 x 4.8 cm by Hans Holbein the Younger.

    I probably did too much of an intro for the kids.  I lost them a little during the history.  Plus for the third grade I mispronounced both Saint-Saens and Danse Macabre.  I need to make sure and look those up each time.

   So I made skeleton arm die cuts and I made clips of the two main themes.  When the first theme played I would have them do a thumbs up with the hand and when the second theme played they would do a thumbs down.
   The three other clips I played for them was the call of Death, the Xylophone bone sounds, and the dawn.
   Next time I want to do two hands each.

3rd Grade School Theme 3

I made sure I was on time this time.

'Willoughby Wallaby Woo' by Raffi
    The kids were still excited to sing this again.  I do need to find a better way to pass out the rhythms sticks.  It is a little cumbersome and it takes a long time.

Quarter Note, Eighth Note, Whole Note, Half Note
   We just did a super quick review.

Andante, Allegro
   I introduced the concept of Andante and Allegro.  I had printed up a page that defined Allegro as 'fast, quickly, bright' and Andante as 'at a walking pace' or so I thought.  When I asked to kids which one they thought was faster they all replied Andante.  I look at the board and I had printed the definitions backward.  So I quickly ripped the page up and put the right definitions with the right words.

'Pomp and Circumstance' by Edward Elgar / Animal Parades
   I never knew before this song had Allegro sections.  Obviously we never played that part at graduation obviously.  I also learned that this march is only one of a series of military marches he wrote called pomp and circumstance.  I think it is the only one commonly played.  Another thing I didn't know was that pomp stood for the inspiring marches and hoo-rahs that got everyone excited for war.  Circumstance stood for the realities of war that were less than pretty.
  Listening to the song in its entirety, it felt very pomp and not very much circumstance.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to put together a animal parade to it.  I used Audacity to clip the song into 11 parts.  It went Allegro, Allegro, Allegro, Andante, Andante, Allegro, Allegro, Allegro, Andante, Andante, Allegro each section building a little to a big ending.  I printed up two pages of animal pictures and made a long strip of paper with the sections labeled along it.  Only one kid caught that I had misspelled one of the Andante sections.  Smart kid.
  So I wasn't going to make the same mistake as before so I made them stay in groups according to where they were seated.  This worked and it didn't.  There were quite a few kids who didn't get to choose an animal to put in a section because the other kids in their group completely took over.  My own daughter was in tears at the end but that doesn't surprise me much because she is a little melodramatic.
    As I played each section the kids chose an animal to put in that part of their 'parade.'  So the kids liked this activity a little too much.  Some kids were really listening and choosing an animal.  Others, I have no idea what they were doing.  I noticed the teacher dealing with problems in different parts of the room.  It was extremely hard to get them calmed back down to play the next section.  If I do this again I will cut it down to six sections instead of 11.  It is pretty much a repeat anyway.

A note about audacity.  It is a really cool program you can download from the internet.  You also have to download the Lame Encoder so that you can make MP3s of your final product.  I am not sure what you are supposed to do with the program but I use it to clip music to only the sections I want to use.  It works fabulously and is much easier than trying to fast forward and pause music.

3rd Grade School Theme 2

Second time at 3rd grade I was late.  Timing is not my thing.  The teacher was not happy.  I got a little flustered and didn't start with Willoughby like I had wanted and went straight into note review.

Quarter, Eight, Half, Whole Note Review
     Tapped out some rhythms with the rhythm sticks

At this point I was going to play a song for them but one of my kids had moved my CD and I didn't have it.  I had to go on to the next thing.

Put together measures.
   So I had them get into groups and told them to get scissors.  BIG MISTAKE.  The minute I said to get into groups the kids jumped up and went all over the classroom to find their friends.  They then didn't know where to sit so they just milled around in bunches all over the room.  As I got them sitting down I would give them a paper I had made with different types of notes on them.  It took a while to tell them through the chaos that I wanted them to make two measures of four counts.  Eventually they did it and then I had a few groups share their measures with the group and then we tapped them out with the rhythm sticks.

After that I was done!

3rd Grade School Theme

3rd Grade
September Theme - School

Ah 3rd Grade.  I don't know what it is about this group but they are just a squirrely group.  The first time went the best.

Introduce quarter notes, eighth note, half notes, whole notes and their values.
   I had printed up each type of note.  I started with quarter notes and then tore the note if half to show the value of eighth note.  These guys were funny.  When I tore that paper in half they collectively gasped in horror.  I assured them I had more.

Rhythm sticks
    Used rhythm sticks to work out some combinations of notes.

'Wake Up' by The Verve Pipe
    Used rhythm sticks while listening to Wake up.  I encouraged them to try to pick out different rhythms in the song.  I didn't use Audacity to clip the song so it was a little to long and the kids got a little exuberant.

Kindergarten School Theme 2

Kindergarten
Theme for September - School

Second time in Kindergarten I got there a little early (which is huge for me.)  It was technically October but we used the Sept theme since this was only the second visit and there are still four Mondays left of October to use October's theme.

'Fun to Do'

'Wheels on the Bus'

'Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friend' by Mitch Miller and Gang
    I taught them the words.  Then we played the music and sang.  It was a little low since it was singing with a men's choir.  The kids liked it especially 'the end' and we sang it twice.

'Willoughby Wallaby Woo' by Raffi
   I started this song and they loved it but I kept messing up so we moved on to the next thing.

Book 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus' by Mo Willams

'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'

    We were a little shy on time.  I was going to 'Stars and Stripes' by Sousa and probably should have to fill some time.  I wasn't sure at the moment how it would have gone over.  I need to make a system of choosing kids.  I had several kids complain that they hadn't had a turn.

Kindergarten School Theme

Kindergarten
Theme for September - School

So the first time I went to kindergarten I got the time wrong and came an hour early.  The teacher was really sweet about it but it had to be annoying.  We had fun though and it went well.

'Fun to Do' from Children's Songbook
   http://www.lds.org/cm/display/0,17631,8764-1,00.html   Kids got to chose some other things that they thought were fun.

 
Wheels on the Bus

    Made a big bus from an from a Powerpoint clipart image on poster board and had pictures of different parts of the song on a magnetic board for them to take turns picking.
 
Introduced Quarter Note and Eighth Note
   Tore picture of Quarter Note in half to show 1/2 of a beat for Eighth Note


Rhythms stick to ABC by Jackson 5

   Rhythm sticks made out of pcv pipe.  I had four quarter notes on one page and eight eighth notes on another page.  We would switch back and forth between tapping out quarter notes and eighth notes.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt
   I have watched a you tube of Michael Rosen performing the Bear Hunt poem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc0U2WAz4s   He did not have anyone repeating after him.  It is quite amusing the way he does it and he has this cool accent.  It kind of bugs me now to listen to a repeat version so I don't repeat.  Plus it is long anyway so it is twice as long if every word is repeated.