2nd Grade

The 2nd Grade Playlist can be found here.

QUARTER 1:

Through movement, listening, reading, and music-making activities, 2nd Grade students will explore the elements of music such as Beat, Rhythm, Melody, Tempo, Meter, and music from unfamiliar cultures.

Music from Other Cultures

Music can be a universal language, and it's fun to discover similarities and differences between songs from different cultures. Two of our songs, "Hi Hey" from America and "E Papa Waiari" from New Zealand have the same 2-part form, which we call AB Form.

The Maori people from New Zealand would use titi torea sticks to play games and improve their hand-eye coordination for hunting and battle. Here, the 2nd graders are practicing a 3-beat titi torea rhythm with sticks. This demonstrates an understanding of strong and weak beats in a Meter of 3, which we can hear in our song, "E Papa Waiari."

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Quarter 2: While using Boomwhackers - hollow percussion tubes - students explore Rhythm Reading, Rhythm Dictation, Building Melodies, and Composing.

Boomwhackers!

Each color of Boomwhacker is a different length and pitch. Students use the Boomwhackers as a tool to learn to read introductory rhythms: quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, quarter rests. While building melodies, students must watch and listen and be ready to play their own note at the correct time.

2-109 Performance of "Day-O" the Banana Boat Song

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Quarter 3

2nd grade students are using 5-gallon buckets donated from the local Home Depot to practice rhythm reading and drumming skills.

Bucket Drumming!

2nd grade students are using 5-gallon buckets donated from the local Home Depot to practice rhythm reading and drumming skills. Students practice drumming on different surfaces of the bucket: top, rim, and sides. They are also learning to recognize and read intermediate rhythmic notation, as well as practicing their playing fluency and stick tricks.

Quarter 4:

Students will demonstrate an understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

As part of this unit, students studied the abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky, and created their own abstract music. Kandinsky experienced something called, Synesthesia, meaning his senses were a bit cross-wired and he experienced "hearing" colors and shapes. This is actually relatively common!

After creating their own Kandinsky-inspired abstract artwork, the 2nd graders used classroom instruments to create an abstract song to accompany their art.

As part of their creative process, the students had time to explore the different classroom instruments and determine if they could "hear" colors or shapes in the sounds, the way Kandinsky did.

Taking Risks - 2019

We ask our students to be vulnerable when they come to their Essentials classes, as they often try new things they've never tried before. Here is a group of students playing the music game "Crocka Diddley" in which they sing a song and the student who gets "clapped" at the end of the song leaves the group and joins another group in the room. Lots of moving around and regrouping in this activity. That can be hard when all you want to do is sit with your friends!

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