We love using art to explore music concepts! A colleague approached us this week about how to go about doing so with grade 2/3/4 students. Below is one idea that has been successful with students in the past!

Grades 2 and up:
The Hands of Clara Schumann (or Mozart, or any piano composer)
Lesson 1:

• Choose two contrasting pieces of piano music by the same composer.
• Have students listen to short clips of each piece and discuss how they are different.
• On the board, draw examples of how line/shape/texture/colour (etc.) can show how the music sounds.
• Discuss the difference between realistic and abstract drawing.
• Have a variety of coloured construction paper for the students to choose from. Thinking about how colour could represent each song, have them choose two pieces of paper.
• Using your choose of medium (markers, crayons, paint etc.), have students listen to the pieces again drawing abstract images to represent each song (no “pictures”!)

 
Lesson 2:

• Discuss the piano with students. Use this as an opportunity to demonstrate how a piano works.
• Demonstrate how to draw the black and white piano key pattern on the board.
• Pass out pencils and white strips of card stock (8 1/2” x 11” cut width-wise).
• Have students draw their own keyboards in pencil. Once they are finished, they can trace their pencil lines in black marker.

 
Lesson 3:

• Have students trace one hand on each of their two pieces of artwork from Lesson 1. It works best if they use the same hand to trace, having one paper face up when traced upon and the other paper face down. That way, the thumbs will face together once glued. Have students cut the hands out.
• Positioning a black piece of construction paper width-wise, have students glue their keyboards on the top half of the black paper.
• Students will then glue each contrasting hand onto their keyboard, having the thumbs in the middle.
• Listen to the musical pieces again while showing the finished artworks. Discuss the contrast between the pieces as well as the hands.

We hope this is useful to you! We would love to hear how you approach listening lessons. Comment below!

We did it! The first week of school is officially complete. Congratulations! It is hard getting back into the swing of things, so we thought you deserved a gift!

Click below for your Welcome to Music printable banner. A French version of the banner is also included! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Sean's middle years students are getting ready for their Lion King Jr. performances next week. He has an amazing team of teachers and parents that help put together an incredible show. Here are some photos of the school display and costume pieces.

Are you planning a spring musical? What are you doing? We would love to hear about it below in the comments!

We are still in the depths of winter but here is something to warm up your little kiddies' voices!

Click HERE for reproducible vocal slide cards to print and use with your students now! Also included are blank buzzing bee warm-up cards. You can use these for students to create and notate their own vocal slide compositions!

Here are our official self-care goals for the school year!

SLEEP - go to bed "early" once a week 
This may be different for everyone. "Early" for Steph is 9:00 pm. "Early" for Sean is 11:00pm. Strive to catch up on sleep and let your body rest at least one day a week whatever your "early" is!

DAY OFF - plan one day off a week
Choose one day a week to dedicate to non-work things outside of school hours! No work at all! No planning, working on materials, etc. If you are really ambitious, do not even check your work e-mail!

EAT 3 MEALS DAY - eat breakfast and lunch every work day
This one is tough for both of us. We often skip meals because things are rushed in the morning or because we are busy working through the lunch hour planning, or running extra-curricular groups. Eating breakfast and lunch is so important and we need to remember that!

MAKE TIME FOR FUN - put one day (at least!) aside to do something fun
Whether it is reading a book, having a glass of wine with a friend, going to a movie, or spending time at a park with family, make time for fun at least once a week (preferably more!)!

EXERCISE - plan to do some physical activity during the week
Exercise does wonders for our mental health. Going for walks, or going to the gym on a regular basis (1-4 times a week) will be part of our goals this year!

What are your goals for the year? 

The demo video is up! This choreographed movement is for Madonna's Ray of Light (radio edit version because it is shorter). The dance is for grade 3 and 4 students using finger lights. It can be used in conjunction with our other Light unit activities, or on its own, as a performance piece, or simply as a classroom learning opportunity. These nifty finger lights can be found at the dollar store. 4 in a pack! We have had an overwhelming response to this piece at our workshops. You love it! And the kids love it! 

Comment below if you have any questions!

We love using books in the Music room! As many of you know, we also love thematic teaching! A farm unit for kinders is a great way to start the school year. There are many traditional songs about farm animals that many of us already do (Old Macdonald, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Three Blind Mice, etc.) that can easily be incorporated into a farm unit. 

There are a ton of farm themed books out there and books are a great way for students to connect story and sound. Picture books can be used in a variety of ways in Music class. Soundscapes using non-pitched and/or pitched percussion can set the mood of a story, an instrument sound or motif can be used to represent a different character in the story, an instrument can be used to portray a sound effect, and the list of possibilities goes on. Some books can act as a framework for movement exercises and some can even lend themselves to vocal warm-ups.

Below are some great books to use as a focus of individual lessons or within a farm unit for your primary classes! 

 PUNK FARM! by Jarrett Krosoczka 

DOING THE ANIMAL BOP by Jan Ormerod

CLICK, CLACK, MOO Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

HOW TO SPEAK MOO by Deborah Fajerman

GIGGLE, GIGGLE, QUACK by Doreen Cronin

SHEEP IN A JEEP by Nancy Shaw

Who uses some of these books already? Do you have any other animal or farm themed books that you use for Music? We would love to hear from you in the comments below!

Whether it's Dollar Tree or Dollarama, I think we can all agree that the dollar store is a great place to find treasures for the Music room! We have found spring and summer to be especially good times to get things. Summer will be coming to an end and it's time we all make sure to pick up these great teaching tools before it's too late!

We love pool noodles! Using a bread knife, we cut pool noodles into pieces to create "beads" with a rhythm drawn in permanant marker on each one. Use string, a bungee, or even a dowel to create rhythm patterns by stringing on the pool noodle pieces. Create longer pool noodle pieces to demonstrate a variety in duration. Use colours to help identify different rhythms if you wish. Here, we have cut blue spacers as our bar lines.

Ribbon wands are excellent movement props. They can be used to demonstrate phrasing, to enhance the visual musicality of a piece, to connect to a mood of a piece, or even as vocal warm-up tool!

Bubbles are a fun way to visually demonstrate when music and/or movement is light as opposed to heavy. Another idea is to identify a reoccurring theme or sound in a piece your class is listening to and every time it presents itself, students pop a bubble!

Chalk can be used to write out rhythms during a dictation exercise. Add even more fun by doing rhythm activities outside! Click HERE to try our outdoor rhythm game Rhythm Squares!

We use these in our Tons of Bugs workshop! Turf squares can be bought at most dollar stores and can be cut into four pieces to use as beats when having students create rhythm patterns. We use the four small pieces to visually demonstrate beat and when a bug is placed on it, the bug word becomes the rhythm. A four beat rhythm pattern is created by each group of students. Super fun! 

The neatest thing happened the other night! Steph was at the Winnipeg Folk Festival Main Stage watching Sheryl Crow and noticed that a large group of children were sitting in a circle playing Beatmaster! Organized all by themselves! To the beat of the music they were listening to! It seriously warmed her heart and she asked the kids if they learned the game from their Music teacher. The children explained that a few of them had, and then taught it to the rest of the group. They loved it and played it for almost the entire set! What a wonderful sight to see. It seriously left Steph warm and fuzzy for the rest of the night.