Using iconic or rhythmic notation, various voices, elemental forms, movement, non-pitched percussion, barred percussion, movement, and improvisation, this is a "kitchen sink" lesson using everything in the classroom you CHOOSE to use. You can use this with your first graders to upper elementary, varying the complexity included in the lesson. You can get the full slide set with all of the visuals on my Patreon community. Add your favorite book about winter and voila! A lesson with no prep!
Improvisation is essentially spontaneous composition. The art and act of creating an expressive musical statement in real time adhering to some kind of structure.
Question and Answer is a common improvisation technique in music. In the world of Orff Schulwerk we begin with imitation and exploration of an idea or concept. Then we add label and improvise using that idea and concept.
When students are ready to improvise, where do we begin?
I like to begin with this:
Teach song and step the beat in place.
Sing and walk the beat.
While singing, walk to face a partner.
Show 8 fingers and do a "countdown" demonstrating rhythmic alien language.
Something like this:
With partner, decide who is going first (rock, paper, scissors to determine "winner"). Show fingers again, first partner improvises over the 8 beats using alien language. Second partner answers them with their 8 beats. Don't worry if they are not truly performing question and answer yet - it will come.
Repeat several times before defining question and answer technique.
Repeat game with question and answer technique.
Repeat activity with body percussion. Consider transferring to non-pitched percussion.
Hike by Pete Oswald (of The Good Egg and The Bad Seed fame) is a beautiful (almost) wordless picture book.
Follow a Dad and son into the mountains as they witness the magic of the wilderness, overcome challenges, and plant a tree to give back to the forest. This beautiful book is full of possibilities for movement and vocal and barred instrument exploration (images that move down or up, small and large trees, mountain peaks, hills and of course those beautiful winding trails). Or, have small groups create movement tableaus for different pages or create 2-beat building bricks about what the father and son are doing or seeing.
Perfect for back to school talks about summer trips or for Earth Day.
This would work well with Trees 'Round the Earth from my new book, Singing Waters, Dancing Flames published by Beatin Path Publications.
For a clearer image of the song, click here to download.
Another great tie in would be the beautiful canon, This Pretty Planet.
Or use Seeds of Love by Gemini
Another extension idea using the book Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert, post click here
To see a video of Planting a Rainbow and the Seeds song by Gemini, click here.
What is your favorite song or activity about nature? Drop a comment below.
Ramadan is a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world. It begins at sundown April 2 and ends May 1 this year. Through fasting, Muslims believe their relationship with God will be strengthened, as it makes up one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
This 3-minute video shows children sharing information about Ramadan:
This book is the story of Najma, a girl who rises each morning of Ramadan to the drum beat of her neighborhood's musaharati. He wakes each family for the pre-dawn meal before the day of fasting. Najma wants be a musaharati herself one day, but the job has never been one for girls. This is a lovely story of resilience, determination, and courage.
This is a great read aloud of the book:
Lisa Zargarpur wrote a beautiful article for the American Center for Elemental Music and Movement (ACEMM) with a song for Ramadan. Check it out here!
Hena Khan is one of my favorite authors!
I fell in love with Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets a few years ago and wrote an activity I put in my Painted Music book.
Here is a link to the pdf with the above images and the 2-beat building bricks.
.png)
