I am so excited and honored to be the clinician at the newly formed Southeastern Carolina Chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association!! We are going to sing, play, dance, move, groove and have a blast in Lumberton, NC on March 29!!
Today, I am excited to share with you a lesson that was inspired by Thom Borden's blog: http://thomborden.blogspot.com/ Thom and I took Master's Level of Orff Certification together and I truly enjoy his creative energy. A while back he posted about this Lois Ehlert book:
Planting a Rainbow. I loved his idea of using seed packets with rhythms and I made seed packet rhythms from vintage seed packet images I found online. You can save and print them here:
I put 8 various seed packs in an envelope made from laminated construction paper so I had enough for partners or small groups. Each group may end up with a completely different set; that is so much fun.. what an amazingly diverse group of flowers! I also have discovered it is really smart to use a sharpie and draw a small colored circle on each set so you have a "yellow dot" set and a "blue dot" set, etc. If groups work close to each other then their seed packets won't get mixed with the other groups; each group has their own specific colored dot on all their manipulatives. This has helped me tremendously when manipulatives are the same.
If you haven't used the heart charts before from previous posts I've had; here is an example you can save and print:
1.
After
reading the story, tell students that we are going to create a garden of
flowers in the music room today.
Demonstrate how to create a 4 beat rhythm using rhythm packs. Ask students to clap the words of
the flowers. Show the seed packet side
without the rhythm note first. Using the
4 beat heart charts and small manipulatives (flower erasers or small glass gems
from Target or Dollar Tree) “write” the rhythm of the words.
2.
Clap and
say the rhythm of the flowers using “ta” and “ti-ti”. Turn the seed packets over, say, “Let’s see
if we are right”.
3.
Divide students into 7 groups; each gets a seed
packet, manipulatives, and a heart chart.
4.
Ask them to create as many rhythms as they can,
showing the flower side up (not the flower and rhythm), then “write the rhythm
they think goes with the words, THEN check their answer by flipping the seed
cards over. There are 8 seed packets but
they will only use FOUR each time so there are MANY possibilities of
rhythms.
5.
On another day, ask students to create 8 beat
rhythms and use the dry erase 8 beat grids to draw their rhythms; demonstrate
how to place 4 cards (flower side up, not flower and rhythm) next to one
another, then another 4 under that (just like the 8 beat grids; 4 boxes over 4
boxes) and ask them to write the rhythms THEN check their answer by flipping
the seed cards over to show the rhythm.
6.
Extensions:
a.
Use scarves and a piece of music to create a
movement piece.
b.
Students
create a tune on E and G (sol and mi) with glockenspiels and rhythms
HAVE FUN!!!
