Embedded Files
First Trimester
First Trimester
Musical Contour: Up and Down
Musical Contour: Up and Down
1st graders began the year ready to build on the foundational skills we gained in kindergarten! Our first goal of the year was to explore the idea of music going up and down. We participated in vocal exploration exercises, song activities, and games to notice how our voices can go up and down when singing. Many of our activities involved following a line with our voice to show up and down. We made lines out of yarn that we read and sang aloud. Then we listened to a song in the language of the Sami people of Norway called Kuovsâkkâsâh that was inspired by the northern lights, and we drew our own northern lights on the board and followed them with our voice. We also drew slides on the board and sung them as kids slid down them. These types of activities help students connect the idea of music sounding high and low with a visual representation, which lays the foundation for understanding how to read pitches on a music staff later on.
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can use my singing voice to accurately read a contour line.
Stretch & Explore: I can create and accurately perform my own contour line.
Envision: I can shape my own contour line to show up and down.
1st Portfolio- Up, Up, Down.mp4Up, Up, Down
Up, Up, Down
Once we were starting to master the idea of our voices going up and down, we explored this idea on xylophones as well. We read the story Up, Up, Down by Robert Munsch, and we used our voices to follow Anna as she climbed up and fell down in the story. Then we transferred that to xylophones to practice showing up and down on an instrument. Watch the video to see how 1st graders made a musical retelling of Up, Up, Down!
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Express: I can use my voice and instruments to participate in a musical retelling of a story.
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate appropriate playing technique on a xylophone.
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate how to go higher and lower on the xylophone.
Understand the Art World: I can participate in a musical experience with my classmates safely and appropriately.
1st Portfolio- Rhythm.wmvWe've Got the Rhythm
We've Got the Rhythm
In kindergarten, we mastered finding a steady beat. Now first graders are learning how to identify a rhythm! We started out by tapping along to the words of songs and rhymes. We noticed that when we tap a steady beat it always stays the same, but when we tap the words, it changes. We practiced showing the words, or the rhythm, both on our own bodies and by using instruments such as cups, drums, and xylophones.
Watch the video to see the different ways that first graders explored the concept of rhythm!
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can identify and demonstrate rhythm in a song.
Stretch & Explore: I can show the rhythm of a song or chant using a variety of movements, objects, and instruments.
Second Trimester
Second Trimester
Bickle Bockle
Bickle Bockle
1st Portfolio- Bickle Bockle.mp4As first graders have grown more comfortable with using the xylophones, we were ready to expand beyond using them as a means of musical exploration and try them out as an accompaniment instrument. We used the song Bickle Bockle to learn how to play a steady beat on the F and C bars while we sang. It was a challenge to coordinate singing and playing at the same time, but we are ready to keep practicing our xylophone accompanying on new songs as we go into the third trimester!
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate appropriate playing technique on a xylophone
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate a steady beat accompaniment on a xylophone.
Understand the Art World: I can work productively with other musicians in a group.
ABC, It's easy as So and Mi!
ABC, It's easy as So and Mi!
First graders have spent a lot of time in music this year training our ears to listen to high and low sounds. We started back in the fall by moving our bodies to show high and low in songs that only use two pitches. Then we thought about how we can use pictures or icons to show high and low sounds visually, and we read these high and low visualizations as we sang. Once we became masters of hearing, reading and identifying high and low, we gave them a new name: So and Mi.
So and Mi are the first two solfege pitches that we learn in music class. Solfege is a tool that musicians use as a way to give names to individual pitches in a song and to help us understand how pitches in a song relate to each other. We use solfege to control and refine our singing voices and as a way to facilitate early experiences in reading written music notation.
Scroll through the pictures to check out two of the activities we did to practice using high (So) and low (Mi) pitches. In the pom-pom activity, we listened to Mrs. Gallinari sing a short pattern using high and low, then showed what we heard using pom-poms on our yarn staff. In the fish sticker activity, we composed and sang our very own So and Mi melodies!
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Observe: I can identify So and Mi in a melody.
Develop Craft: I can read a melody using So and Mi on a staff.
Envision: I can compose a melody using So and Mi.
Third Trimester
Third Trimester
Reading Music Notes
Reading Music Notes
First graders met their first music notes during the second and third trimesters! We have been working throughout the year on identifying "long" and "short-short" sounds in the rhythms of the songs we learn, so it was a natural transition for students to turn "long" into a quarter note and "short-short" into two 8th notes. Now students can not only read rhythms written with these music notes, but they can also use them to compose their own rhythms and to write out the rhythms of the songs and rhymes we work on. Look through the pictures to see how students used popsicle sticks to create quarter notes and 8th notes to dictate short rhythm patterns that they heard.
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Observe: I can identify quarter notes and two 8th notes in a song or chant.
Develop Craft: I can read a rhythm pattern using quarter notes and two 8th notes.
Envision: I can compose a rhythm pattern using quarter notes and two 8th notes.
Cobbler, Cobbler
Cobbler, Cobbler
One of the major goals with xylophone playing in 1st grade is to get comfortable accompanying ourselves with a steady beat, so it's a skill we practice often with multiple songs throughout the year. For the song Cobbler, Cobbler we not only practiced playing a steady beat on the xylophones, but we also practiced performing a xylophone song with two separate sections. For the first part, students sang the song and played the steady beat. For the second part, they played a rhythm on the side of the xylophone along with a rhyme. We also used our new knowledge of quarter notes and two 8th notes to show how to write out the rhythms we used while singing and playing this song!
1st Portfolio- Cobbler Cobbler.mp4Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Observe: I can identify quarter notes and two 8th notes in a song or chant.
Develop Craft: I can read a rhythm pattern using quarter notes and two 8th notes.
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate appropriate playing technique on a xylophone
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate a steady beat accompaniment on a xylophone.
Understand the Art World: I can work productively with other musicians in a group.
1st Portfolio- No Robbers.mp4No Robbers
No Robbers
Since 1st graders were pros at reading rhythms with quarter notes and eighth notes by April, we added on one more new rhythm before the year ended! As we looked at the rhythm of some of our songs, such as Naughty Kitty Cat and Kaeru No Uta, we noticed that sometimes there was a beat in the middle of the song where there was no sound. We learned how to show these silent beats with a rhythm called quarter rest. As we learned the song No Robbers, we learned a xylophone accompaniment pattern where the robber "steals a beat" by replacing it with a quarter rest. Listen to 1st graders perform No Robbers in the video!
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Observe: I can identify quarter rests in a song or chant.
Develop Craft: I can read a rhythm pattern using quarter rests.
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate appropriate playing technique on a xylophone
Develop Craft: I can demonstrate an ostinato accompaniment on a xylophone.
Understand the Art World: I can work productively with other musicians in a group.
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