Movement Formation Cards

 I love using these to get my students into movement and dance formations -I simply hold up the sign and students quietly (or silently) move into position.  We practice moving into formations at the beginning of the school year and I use these often to get students quickly to where they need to be for various activities. 

UPDATED - I made them with stick figures also so you have a choice of which ones to print & use. 

Here's the link to the slide set to print.

Enjoy!

Theme and Variations

Form is one of my favorite things to teach.  This year I decided to teach Theme and Variations a little differently and ran across my friend Elizabeth's blog post and knew she was on to something.  I loved what she had done but needed to tweak it a bit for my Orff -sensibilities and decided to add a movement component using non-locomotor and locomotor movements already learned.
I began by playing the main theme from UP and had students sing it on "la".  Then we watched this video in which the theme is clearly heard and changes based on the scene shown. 

I ask the students to turn and talk about the words, "mood" (which we have learned about previously), and how the mood changes affect the music. 

As a class we discuss instruments, tempo, dynamics, and introduce Theme and Variations. We sang  a song already learned and created four variations.  We had already done some other things and this was the final activity on day one.

The next class I had this video ready.  It is so perfect for older elementary. There will be one or two they probably don't know but have heard the music to before.  I ask my students to wait until the countdown shows "3" before guessing the title (which they get so excited about shouting out!).  It was hilarious! This is 10 minutes long, show as much or as little as you would like.

Small groups were created and each chose a theme to use - anything was up for grabs and Spongebob Squarepants, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and several others showed up but many groups chose  theme songs from the Movie Theme video. Everyone in the group had to agree on the theme song. 

Groups were then tasked with creating four variations on their theme song and everyone had to sing. 

Over the years I have collected many "Sing Like A ...." cards similar to the ones here (free pdf).  I gave students the option of using these and demonstrated (and reiterated) the need for the SOUND to be different each time.  We also talked about changing dynamics, tempo, etc. 

Groups decided on variations and wrote them on individual white boards, then practiced these.  We also added a movement component where the movement should reflect the mood of the variation.  

Students decided order of performance and everyone watching responded with two thumbs up (they heard four different variations), or one thumb up (they heard some variations).  It was so much fun and they were incredibly engaged and everyone was singing! Music to my ears! 

Hope you give it a try and let me know how it went!

Vocal Exploration to Notation

This is a resource I created to help students go from vocal exploration to notation. Use the individual colored slides for younger students and ask - where does it move, high to low, low to high?  Does it go up and down, etc.  You could also use these for movement pathways. Notice there is no clef so you can use them right side up or upside down.   If you would like to have the full  pdf with 113 slides, please send an email to musicquilt@hotmail.com.

Each slide begins with a colored vocal exploration or movement pathway:

The next slide places the staff on the slide:

Notes are added:

Then the image is removed:

Here are a few others:

Hope you enjoy these!

Ribbon/Scarf/Fan Choreography Made Simple

*Updated 3.9.217

I came across a blog post about using fans and scarves recently and it inspired me to look again at a previous post I had about using Movement Cards I created a couple years ago.  The original post is here.
I have many different kinds of ribbon streamers but all were homemade.  My favorite are made out of dowels and have fishing bobber atttachments (they twirl!) so don't get wrapped around students arms! I have also attached ribbons onto new elastic hairbands, and these work well for going around the wrist, although I prefer the ones on sticks as students have more control "drawing" with them in the air. 
Here is how mine are made:  6 - 7 feet of ribbon works perfectly and will not get tangled!  The silver stick is a yard stick (spray painted silver for the North Skelton Sword Dance).

And here is how the fisher bobber attachments look once placed:

Lots of music can be made into a fan/ribbon/scarf dance, from traditional instrumental folk recordings to classical pieces, from Indian folk to Spanish flamenco music. 

Here is one idea for using a piece with the movement cards:

Tale of Two Villages                                                                             

Source: Music for Creative Dance by Eric Chappelle, Contrast & Continuum, Volume 1,     available from itunes

 

Formation: Individuals scattered around room

Prepare for movement:

Move only arms to the beat for 8 beats, teacher plays drum for 8 beats

Move only one leg, etc., experiencing various levels of movement (high, middle, low), shapes created with body (circle, triangle, etc.), and ways of moving  (twist, leap, jump, walk, bend, slither, sway, melt,etc.)

A Section:  Non-locomotor movement (stay in place, move body to the beat)

B Section:  Locomotor movement (travel and move body to the beat)

“Notice what your neighbors are doing, try something you see someone else doing”

Discuss words to describe movement, discuss the activity; lead to discovery/labeling of same/different, “A” and “B” sections of music.

Another day use ribbon wands and UPP; half the class has ribbon wands, half the class has UPP.

Ribbon wands will watch as teacher changes shape cards below * on A section (mbira/kalimba playing on recording)

UPP players will improvise on B section (drumming)

 

Movement Cards:  Right click to save, import into powerpoint or other graphics-friendly program, enlarge, print onto cardstock, laminate and cut apart!