Mallet Madness
What?
Mallet Madness is a book by Artie Almeida, a leader in music education. It is for grades K-6 and this model has every child playing a variety of instruments for the entire music class. The room is set up with 24 instruments total, made up of four rows. Ideally, there is an equal amount of pitched and non-pitched percussion, however, I had about 1/3 pitched percussion and 2/3 non pitched. Students first learn the rotation pattern and signal, and then we start playing. The first step was to set our routines and norms; most importantly that instruments are only to be played when I ask. I took care to reinforce this continually with all of my classes, notably, the age that followed this rule the best was kindergarten. When students entered the room, I invited the to sit down at a table spot so I could introduce the activity there. I gave instructions for our rotation and process, and then asked students if they were curious about any of the instruments. This gave me an opportunity to introduce how to play each instrument that they were unfamiliar with. Since this was our first class period doing this, most of our time was spent working on just a steady beat. 5th grade and 3rd grade were able to move into eighth notes, and 5th grade was able to move into a challenge called Crazy 8s that involves a lot of counting and rests. One of my kindergarten classes was able to keep a steady beat, the other class didn't quite get that far, but were able to stop and start playing on my signal. Those are all necessary foundational steps for music. Ideally students get to rotate 6-7 times, given them ample opportunity to play a variety of instruments.
So What?
This program is significant because it keeps students engaged and reinforces musical skills; out of the 120 or so students I saw, only one refused to participate (which was not out of character for this particular student). We used the C Pentatonic scale on the pitched percussion, which was great for students to use to explore some early composition principles, and sets up some composition projects we will be doing in May. Students practiced self control, counting both out loud and in their heads, fine motor skills, and cooperative playing.
Now What?
We will be working with Mallet Madness throughout the month of March. While we will take some time out to incorporate our work with genres during March, most days, we will be playing the whole time. I'm hoping to incorporate some of what we do with our Grandparents' Day Concert in early May.
Mallet Madness is a book by Artie Almeida, a leader in music education. It is for grades K-6 and this model has every child playing a variety of instruments for the entire music class. The room is set up with 24 instruments total, made up of four rows. Ideally, there is an equal amount of pitched and non-pitched percussion, however, I had about 1/3 pitched percussion and 2/3 non pitched. Students first learn the rotation pattern and signal, and then we start playing. The first step was to set our routines and norms; most importantly that instruments are only to be played when I ask. I took care to reinforce this continually with all of my classes, notably, the age that followed this rule the best was kindergarten. When students entered the room, I invited the to sit down at a table spot so I could introduce the activity there. I gave instructions for our rotation and process, and then asked students if they were curious about any of the instruments. This gave me an opportunity to introduce how to play each instrument that they were unfamiliar with. Since this was our first class period doing this, most of our time was spent working on just a steady beat. 5th grade and 3rd grade were able to move into eighth notes, and 5th grade was able to move into a challenge called Crazy 8s that involves a lot of counting and rests. One of my kindergarten classes was able to keep a steady beat, the other class didn't quite get that far, but were able to stop and start playing on my signal. Those are all necessary foundational steps for music. Ideally students get to rotate 6-7 times, given them ample opportunity to play a variety of instruments.
So What?
This program is significant because it keeps students engaged and reinforces musical skills; out of the 120 or so students I saw, only one refused to participate (which was not out of character for this particular student). We used the C Pentatonic scale on the pitched percussion, which was great for students to use to explore some early composition principles, and sets up some composition projects we will be doing in May. Students practiced self control, counting both out loud and in their heads, fine motor skills, and cooperative playing.
Now What?
We will be working with Mallet Madness throughout the month of March. While we will take some time out to incorporate our work with genres during March, most days, we will be playing the whole time. I'm hoping to incorporate some of what we do with our Grandparents' Day Concert in early May.
It is really cool to see a picture of your classroom. The musical rug in the center is so colorful and engaging. In you reflection this week you speak about a lesson from Mallet Madness in which students had a chance to play some instruments they were not familiar with. They also had a chence to practice some important skills like counting, listening and being able to start and stop playing on command.
ReplyDeleteAs you think about your expectations for this lesson, what was the most important thing that you felt your students learned? What are some of your hunches about why this lesson was so successful with your Kindergarteners?