Music with Mrs. Nielsen

What? Students learned the Irish folk song "Michael Finnegan." We started by keeping a beat on the half notes, and as students became more comfortable with the words, changed the tempos. As they became comfortable with adjustments in tempos, we sat in a circle and passed a ball on the beat. Students were encouraged to keep the beat on their knees even if they didn't have the basketball. When we were successful passing on the beat, we played a game for repetition- the student who ended up with the basketball was 'out' and had to scoot out of the circle. We continued this until we had one student left as the winner. So What? This was a great chance to reinforce a steady beat with a lot of repetition as well as expose students to folk music. Because it is March, it also related to St. Patrick's Day. The 3rd grade class that did this is motivated by competition and this definitely proved to be effective. Even after students were out, they were still engaged by...

What? This is a game called 1, 2, 3 O'Leary. Students learned the song in a circle first, keeping a steady beat on their laps. I then showed them a pattern with a basketball (bounce, bounce, pass, catch). They repeated this pattern with each line. As students became more comfortable with the pattern, we added another ball, and another. Students were instructed to use a certain kind of pass (bounce pass, chest pass, overhead pass) depending on what color ball they had in order to prevent balls colliding in the air. So What? This activity took a simple song and added a high level of kinesthetic activity in order to demonstrate an understanding of the beat. It was a simple assessment for me to see which students were able to bounce a ball on the beat. I used basketballs because I was working with 5th graders in this particular lesson- if I had done this with younger grades, I would've used a softer ball. The basketballs also created some curiosity and interest- they were confu...

I don't have a lot to discuss this week. We did more Mallet Madness, and since it takes a full week to get through every one of my classes, not much was different from last week. I did a new book called "Once I caught a fish alive." All grades did this book, with varying levels of difficulty. Kindergarten: Played their instruments only on the words or only on the numbers. 1st grade: Played non-pitched on words, pitched on numbers. 2nd grade: Played non-pitched on words, pitched on numbers. 3rd grade: Experimented with the C Pentatonic scale up and down on numbers, non-pitched on words. 4th grade: Recorders (no mallet madness) 5th grade: Played the C Pentatonic scale up on numbers 1-5 and down on numbers 6-10. Non-pitched percussion on words. Also, added Crazy 8s, introduced some classes to the idea of Original, Retrograde, Inversion and Retrograde Inversion forms. Students were really excited and receptive to these activities. It was particularly exciting ...