Chinese New Year Music

Chinese New Year is coming up next week! My daughter was adopted from China so this is a big deal holiday in our house; when she wakes up on CNY she has a special red envelope (hong bao) with "lucky money" inside and we do other things to make it a fun and meaningful holiday for her. Our school (where I teach and she attends) also has a sister school in China! Here's a piece I wrote last year, the title is "Xin Nian Kuai Le" or "Happy New Year". Easy level bordun for accompaniment- add unpitched percussion (UPP) for the percussion line- lots of gongs, drums, etc. to "scare away" evil spirits. Very nice with a big, low gong at the end. Good for your upper level recorder players, too- those who have a solid low "C". Look on youtube for pronunciation guide - Xin = Shin, Nian= like it sounds, Kuai= kwahee, Le = luh Yi (number 1) = eee, Er (number 2)= are, San (number 3) = sahn, "Jia Yo" (Let's Go! as in cheering people on) = jya yo. Enjoy!

Sub Plans...Lots of 'Em!

So.. the day after my huge holiday concert, Dec. 13th to be exact, I found out the nausea I had been experiencing since Thanksgiving was actually a perforated bowel. So, off to surgery I went that Thursday eve. three weeks ago today! And guess what they found? A piece of a toothpick.. never putting those in my mouth again. I've had this surgery before (had colon cancer in my 20's.. another long story) and it's a long recouperation time. I was in the hospital for 11 days, got out just before Christmas and was able to spend Christmas morning home with my family which was wonderful but weird as I was pretty much nested on the couch surrounded by lots of pillows and medications. My incision got infected so I have an open wound that's draining and being packed every day (ick) and am now working on sub plans. I won't be back to school until probably mid-February which I'm not exactly pleased about but it is what it is. I will be going into school tomorrow to meet with my long term sub and kids return Monday so we've got a ton of work to do tomorrow. One of the best things I've found about sub plans is to leave them verbally. Use an app like evernote or record yourself another way (so many options) and talk to the kids just like you would in the classroom. When the kids need to find partners, or move to another part of the room, etc. I always say, "press the pause button now and then turn it back on when the kiddos are in place". Subs LOVE this. Another good activity is a music game round robin. I have the sub divide the students into small groups of 3 or 4 and the students play music games like Music Candyland, Counting Up the Mountain, etc. I had an earlier post on music games from early fall, look back and you'll be able to find tons of games. Groups play their game for 10-12 minutes and then rotate to the next game. This keeps things fresh and really fun as they rotate through. I also keep a Sub Plan Songbook with CD's I put together years ago just for times like this. In the Songbook are suggestions for songs with books, games, activities, and tons of songs with visuals. All the song pages have appropriate ages listed so the sub has no questions as to what songs might work with different grades. It's truly a lot of work, but it's going to pay off for me now!

Creating a Movement Rondo

1. Ask students about their favorite sports; what kind of activities are involved with each one. Make a list on the board. It might look like this: Basketball Horseback Riding Dribbling Canter Passing Jump Shooting Gallop Running Walk Hook Shot Prance Jumping Side Step 2. Reviewing theme and contrast (AB, ABA). Explain rondo form and demonstrate using sport theme. For the demonstration, have the class do each theme or section for 8-16 beats. 3. Divide class into groups, each group works together to develop their own rondo. 4. Each group performs their rondo without telling other students what their “theme” was, students try to identify the theme and evaluate their use of rondo form. To give signals for changing from one section to another within the rondo, try using three different instruments (A=temple blocks, B=drum, C= triangle) playing a steady beat for a specified number of beats (8-16).

Extension: Viennese Musical Clock from the Hary Janos Suite 1. Prepare students by marching to a drum beat. Once comfortable, ask them to change directions when they hear a change in the drum sound (use bongos or small to medium tubanos, hand drums, etc.). Experiment with different styles of marching (high, low, marching in mud, rain, sun, marching through jello or chocolate, marching when tired, happy, sad, excited, frustrated, angry, etc). 2. Listen to the music and identify the marching beat, ask students to use marching arms as they sit and identify the numbers of A (marching) sections (4). 3. Outline the form or use a diagram you have created or found. Ask: How can you tell when the sections change? What instruments are used? (This is part of a bigger piece of music (composition) written for an orchestra, but this particular movement has no strings.) Does the music sound like a mechanical clock? Why or why not? 4. Divide class into groups labeled B, C, or D. Students create movement with scarves or ribbon sticks or ??? for these sections. Everyone moves on the A section with other groups performing their movement for the B, C, and D sections. Further Extension Listen to other musical clock pieces: Syncopated Clock by Leroy Anderson Other mechanical instrument pieces: Add On Machine from Contrast and Continuum, Vol. I, by Eric Chappelle

Music for Hannukkah

I love this time of year- I love Christmas music and I love snow.. well... snow that GOES- which is one of the reasons I left Maine for NC! I like it here for a ocuple days then gone! I have a huge holiday concert with my kiddos at school with 300 kids! Whoopee! I have a very dear music teacher friend who is Jewish and I'm always asking for advice on Hannukkah music. I have never performed "Oh Dreidl" nor do I wish to.. it's just one of those things.. not my favorite! I try to perform a Hebrew folk song with the children singing in Hebrew every year instead of performing a "Hannukkah" song that has been manufactured/manipulated for this very special holiday. I also believe my students benefit from learning "Bim Bom" or "Shalom Chaverim" or "Hasuka MaYafa". Other favorites are "Hine Ma Tov", "Dodi Li", "Burn Little Candle" among others. I also love to teach some Hebrew dances and the kids love them! Try Haida! Enjoy this video!

Ribbon Choreography Made Easy

For some people, using ribbons with classes is great fun and exciting; for others it is painful; what to do with these things? To create easy and fun ribbon choreography, use these cards (I actually have about 10 pages of these.. use your imagination to create new patterns). First, determine the form of your piece, have students listen and brainstorm the mood of the piece and use a word wall or create a list of movements that reflect each section of the music. Perform with movements. Show ribbon choreography cards and have students determine how to move ribbons that reflect the mood of each section. Display cards in order of performance and then get ready! It often works well (particularly if you have a piece in rondo form) to have different groups of children move during specific sections of music- one group moves for "A", another for "B", and so on. Play the music and move and groove. This makes coming up with ways to move the ribbons easy peasy and the kiddos love creating! Have fun with them!

Ribbons and Ribbons and Russia...

Well, Russian composer anyway! I love using music from the Nutcracker this time of year! Especially the March and Trepak! See the bucket drum routine below to Trepak. My 2nd graders are performing this in a week and a half and my fourth graders are performing a different one to the Duke Ellington arrangement of the Overture.. listen to it sometime soon- rich with possiblities! Here's another activity with ribbons posted by Mrs. Shredder- soo stinkin' cute with these 2nd graders of hers! Enjoy!

Finally.. spoon matching game.. CHECK!

I've been wanting to get this one done for a while. Thanks to pinterest- someone had the brilliant idea to use clear spoons and white (or colored) ones to work on lower case and upper case letter matching. For us music folks, the idea was easily adapted to notes and note values. I got some done today and I think it will work well as a center! My school is in the process of buying ipads for me and the art teacher to share- FIVE! Woot Woot!! So.. am going to incorporate some centers starting in January. One of these will include the spoons. Once students have determined the correct rhythm value, they could use one of the rhythm grids I've seen on Mrs King Rocks' blog- check her out- awesome ideas (!), then they could compose and perform rhythms. Another one done... CHECK!