What's New in Musicplay with Denise Gagne

Fun Ways to teach Tempo

This newsletter was inspired by a question received in my email:

Strawberry Shortcake is a song included in January lessons in Musicplay 1. This is a traditional skipping rhyme. You could include the singing game as one activity in your first class of the new year, or you could build an entire lesson around the song.

I just attended Artie Almeida’s session on teaching tempo and dynamics at TMEA. One of the songs she used for teaching and reviewing tempo terms was Tony Chestnut which is in Musicplay 2 for that very purpose. (Is this great minds think alike or fools seldom differ?)

In Musicplay K-6, many assessment ideas are included. In this newsletter, I’ll highlight some easy ideas for assessment of rhythm reading and writing. Students in elementary school are most often able to read language and literature at a greater difficulty level than they can write. The same is true of rhythm. In assessing students ability to read and write rhythms, include assessment of both the ability to read, and the ability to write or notate a rhythm that they have heard.

A daily intercom listening program is an easy and effective way to include listening to classical music in every child’s musical education. Using a track with the school PA system, the same piece of music is played over the intercom every day for a week. A brief script is read that will teach the name of the piece and the composer, and highlight some of the musical concepts in the piece. The script is written so that each day of the week, the students learn a little more about the piece, the period of music and the composer.

Materials Needed:

• tub of cinnamon hearts (sold at Walmart)
• plain white napkins.
• drum
• listening selections in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 OR use selections suggested in Listening Resource Kit Level 2

Introduction:

Ask the students to move into the open area of your classroom. Play a 2/4 pattern on a drum and ask the students to move to the music. When you stop, they are to freeze. Ask them to tell you whether the beat was moving in twos, threes or fours. Have them move again as you play a pattern in 3/4 or 4/4. Exaggerate the meter so it’s easy for children to tell if it’s moving in twos, threes or fours. Stop, freeze and ask them again. Have them move again as you play a pattern in 3/4 or 4/4. Continue playing and moving until the students are able to answer correctly.

Susie Davies-Splitter

 Susie Davies-Splitter is a music and movement educator, Orff practitioner, jazz musician, composer and president of the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association (VOSA) in Australia. From 2000 - 2002, Susie was the Director of Music and the Performing Arts at The King David School in Melbourne, overseeing the performing arts curriculum from 18 months to 18 years. Since 1997, Susie has been on the teaching team for Orff level courses for VOSA and the Australian Catholic University Grad Cert and Grad. Dip Courses in Orff Schulwerk. In 2004, Susie trained the Bachelor of Education primary students in music at Melbourne University .

A word wall is an interactive tool for teaching words that students need in their reading and writing. A word wall is an organized collection of words displayed in large letters on a classroom wall. Word-wall words can be organized alphabetically, by theme (weather related words, for example), or by spelling pattern. Most teachers add at least five words a week to their word walls on a regular basis; many more words are added spontaneously, as the need arises. Word walls can promote literacy by providing a print-rich environment and creating in students an excitement about words.

Pre-readers and Beginning Readers

The use of music, rhythm and rhyme have been shown in many studies to help children learn. For hundreds of years, parents have sung the ABC song to teach their children the letters of the alphabet. I would bet that 99.9% of the adults who’ve grown up in North America, could sing the alphabet song. Use songs to teach letter sounds and letter recognition. In “Alphabet Action Songs” we used familiar tunes to teach the letter sounds of the consonants. You can use this collection of songs, or make up your own songs to teach letter sounds.

How do we teach children to sing in tune? Children come to elementary school with a variety of pre-school experiences. Some may be singing very well when they come to kindergarten or grade 1. Some may still be using speaking voices or singing only in a very low “chest” voice. A child cannot produce a pitch that they do not perceive. The problem may be that they do not hear the pitch and cannot distinguish pitches. Or, the child may not know what to do to make one pitch sound like another - their vocal mechanism may not be working well.