Oh Opposites!

First graders at HSES have been working on a musical opposites unit! They have learned about loud/soft (quiet), fast/slow, high/low, and long/short. They have had so much fun doing various games and activities to help them identify these changes in music. Here are a few pictures of our fun...

After hearing a fast/slow story about a school bus, students move their buses fast and slow to the music.

After learning about fast and slow music, students participate in a quick check assessment.

Learning about loud and soft -  boys pretend to be grizzly bears hibernating

... and wake up when the song gets loud!

And then the girls get to be the grizzly bears!

So. Much. Fun! :)

Using scarves as paintbrushes - painting long and short sounds

Using sticks to play "violins" when they hear long sounds...

... and playing "drums" for short sounds.

Pretending scarves are taffy - stretching them out to long sounds.

Learning about Long and Short

First grade students are finishing up a unit on musical opposites. The last two opposite words they have been learning about are long and short. They discovered that long and short sounds can be made into patterns that create rhythms! Here are a few of the ways they experienced long and short sounds:

Students put these pictures into the correct category according to the kind of sound it made:

 

They really enjoyed using scarves to help show long and short. They pretended their scarf was a paintbrush and they painted long or short strokes as they listened to the "Long and Short Dance" (from the Share the Music curriculum).

Students used rhythm sticks to show long and short as well. As they listened to music, they used their rhythm sticks like drum sticks on the floor if they heard short sounds...

And pretended to play violins if the sounds were long...

Then, we read the book, Otto Goes to the Beach, by Todd Parr:

 In the story, Otto is having a really rough day and they hear the repeated phrase, "Poor, Otto!" 

The students quickly discovered that the word "Otto" has two short sounds and "Poor" has a long sound!

With our own dog pictures, we created patterns on the board with long and short sounds such as "Poor, Poor, Otto, Poor."

Then, they worked with a partner to create and perform their own patterns.

Finally, the students were introduced to the real musical symbols: the quarter note (long sound) and eighth notes (short sounds). They were able to make patterns with the newly learned symbols, otherwise known as "tah" and "ti-ti."

Next up... rests! Stay tuned for more rhythm work in 1st grade music! :)

First Graders are Officially "Real Musicans!"

As we are wrapping up a unit on "Musical Opposites" in first grade, we are preparing to tackle basic rhythm patterns.  Our last two opposite words were "Long and Short" and students spent some time singing, playing, listening to, and moving to long and short sounds. 

 

A great way for me to assess their understanding of long and short sounds is by using scarves!  I told the students to pretend that they were famous painters and that they had a huge blank canvas in front of them.  They were to listen to the music and use their scarves paintbrushes to paint long strokes or short strokes according to what they heard in the music.  They did a great job and had so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now we are working on transferring their knowledge of long and short sounds to the introduction of basic rhythms.  They are learning about the quarter note (tah - long) and the eighth notes (ti-ti - short) and how to put them together to make patterns.  Over the next few weeks they will be working on identifying, performing, and creating patterns using tah and ti-ti.  As I said to my first grade class today... "You are now REAL musicians!"  They thought they were big stuff!  ;)

 

Playing... 

 

 

 

Identifying...

 

 

 

Creating...