Love Will Keep Us Together

Another one of my favorite Randy DeLelles and Jeff Kriske activities uses the classic song, "Love Will Keep us Together," by Captain and Tennille. I got this lesson from an ASOA conference I went to years ago and my students always really enjoy it. 

I start out by having the students practice walking to the beat of a drum in scattered formation. We talk about the importance of walking in unique pathways and not just walking in a counterclockwise circle as is a tendency. Next, we practice walking sideways and backwards to the beat and then we add simple repetitive arm movements. 

At this point, I have students form groups of 5 with the person at the front of the line assigned as the leader. The leader begins walking to the beat doing some kind of simple locomotor movement and the rest of the group follows, copying the motions of the leader. To take turns, I have the leader rotate to the back and the next person in line has an opportunity to lead. 

This can be added to the verses of "Love Will Keep us Together." I also teach this simple choreography to the refrain of the song:

And also you can add a simple pat/clap pattern on the B section and put all of it together for a final performance:

This lesson is great for the end of the year when the kids really need to get up and moving a lot or of course it is appropriate for Valentine's Day. Here are a few pictures of the students in action:

The Mitten

One of my absolute favorite lessons each year goes along with the children's book, The Mitten, by Jan Brett.

I got this idea from my mentor teacher years ago and have adapted it and tweaked it over the years. I use it as a way to culminate the major units that my first graders have been studying throughout the year - rhythm patterns and basic mallet skills. It is also a great way to ease them into preparing for their Spring Musical.

First, I read the story to the students and we discuss the various characters in the book. For each character, we learn a rhythm pattern and I have the students practice playing the rhythms on various percussion instruments.

Then, I teach the students a song that goes with the book. We add a simple bordun and an octave glockenspiel part at the end of each phrase.

Finally, we add some actors! I choose students to represent each character and they follow the narration of the book. I created some masks that I printed from Jan Brett's website, laminated them, and added some elastic bands.

I used a cheap white sheet and cut it into the shape of a mitten for the actors to sit on top of during their performance.

After the students have practiced all of the parts, we put together a performance that we show to their classroom teacher. As the story is read, one student plays the rhythm pattern on the percussion instrument while that character "gets into" the mitten. When the bear sneezes in the story, the actors toss the mitten up into the air and pretend to fall into the snow while the percussionists play all together. We begin and end the performance with our mitten song accompanied by the mallet instruments.

 

If you have larger classes, you can add actors for Nicki and his grandmother, Baba. You can also double instrument parts and even add sound effects on the sneeze part (think: crank, vibraslap, slapstick, etc.) This activity makes a great "informance" piece at PTO meetings or other school events.

The students LOVE it and it is definitely a crowd-pleaser for teachers, too. Fun and learning - that's how we roll at HSES! :)

The Snowy Day... on the Mallets!

I love the book, The Snowy Day, and so do my students! First graders have been experimenting with various sounds they can make with the mallet instruments. I thought this activity would be a perfect way to give them experience on the instruments as well as allow them some creative expression.

First, we read the story and talked about all of the things Peter did in the snow. Then, I had the students partner up and I assigned each of them an action from the story...

The students then worked with their partner to create a sound effect that could represent that action in the story. It was so neat to see the ideas they came up with!

After each group shared their ideas, I re-read the story and had the groups add their sound effect at the appropriate point in the story.

An extension idea could be having half of the class play the sound effects and the other half act out the story. Maybe we'll try that next! :)

Alabama Gal

Alabama Gal... what a fun song! Our fifth graders have really enjoyed learning this piece. After we learned the 4 verses, we added a fun line dance!

I also used this song to talk a little with them about syncopation.

Then, I challenged the students to figure out the melody to the song on their own. They worked with a partner and after being given the starting pitch, they were off! Once they discovered the melody and had a chance to practice, we created a performance including some dancers.

Great job, fifth graders! :)

Here is an Orff accompaniment that we might try after Thanksgiving break written by one of my favs, Deanna Stark. She has some GREAT free resources on her website: http://deannastark.weebly.com/

Dancing Snowflakes

To celebrate winter, Fourth and Fifth grade classes have been working on an Orff piece called, "Dancing Snowflakes." It is very appropriate that we've been working on this song because we've had two snowstorms so far - unheard of in this part of Georgia! This is one of my favorite pieces to teach because it incorporates so many difference elements: mallet technique, improvisation, playing on special words, ABA form, and poetry. After learning the song and instrument parts, students work in groups to create haiku poems that describe snowflakes. Then, we use these poems to create the contrasting sections in our performances. Here is a video of one of the 4th grade classes performing the song:

I also created a display in the hall using their haiku poems and some snowflakes that one of my classes made. Check out some of my favorites:

(Music Teachers: This song and arrangement is located in Gameplan Curriculum - Grade 3)