A few weeks ago, 1st Grade wrapped up working on a musical version of The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Many of Eric Carle's books provide a great opportunity for us to create our own musical accompaniment to go along with the book. Here is what we did. First, we read the story while I added the song "The Spider Didn't Answer" by Linda Ahlstedt. Of course, as soon as everyone caught on to the song, we all sang throughout the book. Once we finished the story, we pointed out the things throughout the book that make sound. There are several animals and other sound effects that are perfect for adding instrument sounds. Next, we listened to several of the unpitched percussion instruments in the music room to see which ones might sound like one of the sounds in the story. Once we found matches for all of the sounds we listed, each student in the class got a job to perform while we told the story. Here are the sounds and instruments we used in the order of the story: The End Cymbal These instruments are a general outline of the instruments that were used in each class. The beauty of activities like this is that each class can decide on a slightly different set of instruments. Many of these instruments are the perfect choice for the sound in the story, so all of the classes decided on the same one, but occasionally, variations do occur. It all depends on the creativity and imagination of the class! Some classes with more students also added other instruments to other parts of the story as well. Some classes added a "ta-da" on the piano when the spider finished her web. Others added a woodblock sound with the spider caught the fly in her web "just like that!" Many classes also used the sand blocks for the sound of the fly. For the next class, we added a very simple part on Orff instruments during "The Spider Didn't Answer." First, we practiced tapping on our laps on the "swer" part of answer and at the very end after "web." Before the kiddos arrived, I set up the Orff instruments in D "LA" pentatonic. PENTAtonic means that there are 5 pitches in the scale. You can see the 5 pitches on the instruments below. "LA" as opposed to "DO" pentatonic means that the home pitch is LA. When the home pitch is LA, the song is in minor; when it is DO, the song is in major. Minor music tends to sound more sad, mad, or mysterious, while major music sound happy, excited, or hopeful. Once we learned the Orff part, we combined it with the story instruments and practiced again. Finally, we took a video of our production and evaluated how we did. Below is a video of Mrs. Luffey's Class at Evergreen performing their arrangement of The Very Busy Spider. Enjoy! Before I close, I want to point out why this lesson is meaningful. Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity are 4 big important 21st century skills. This lesson engages students in all of these "4 C's."
The students engage in CRITICAL THINKING several times throughout the 3-4 week lesson, but it mostly occurred at the end with the final product. Before we took the video, we created our own set of criteria for what a good performance would sound like on video. Afterwards, we evaluated ourselves to see how we measured up. Some classes even recorded a second video to try to do a better job. In any ensemble, the students must COMMUNICATE with each other and the director in several ways. In creating the video, the students had to learn to communicate with me nonverbally so that I did not have to speak during the video. In learning to communicate with each other by listening, the students also learned to COLLABORATE. No musical performance would be possible without collaboration (unless it is a solo performance, that is). Lastly, as I mentioned earlier in this post, the students had an opportunity to be CREATIVE by choosing the instruments they would use to help to tell the story. Wow! That was a long post. I hope you enjoyed learning about our musical journey with The Very Busy Spider! Enjoy your summer vacation! It's just days away! Musically yours, Mr. Verno
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CLICK HERE TO START GETTING EMAILS NOW! Try it out! You can always unsubscribe later if you decide you don't want to receive the emails anymore. For now, I hope you do! Musically yours, Mr. Verno Earlier this year, Kindergarten learned the nursery rhyme "Wee Willie Winkie." This is nursery rhyme is great because it provides so many musical opportunities! It goes like this: (thanks to bethsnotesplus.com for the music) We took turns acting out the story as Wee Willie Winkie while some of us stood as houses and others as lampposts or trees in the town. We also found all of the rhyming words throughout the song. The rhymes on "town" and "gown" as well as "lock" and "clock" gave us a chance to add some instruments. Wee Willie Winkie also gave us a chance to add more sounds by rapping at the window and crying through the lock. We learned so many things with just this simple nursery rhyme, and the kiddos learned in the best way that they can: through playing! Here are some pictures of one class using triangles to play the clock sound, playing wood blocks for the rapping at the window, and adding Orff instruments to the rhyming words. Have a great weekend!
Musically yours, Mr. Verno |
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