Embedded Files
QUARTER 1:
4th Grade students will explore playing West African rhythms on tubano drums, gankogui bells, shekeres, and djembes. They'll learn to listen to each other as they play in an ensemble, while playing confidently and independently on their own part at the same time. Then, they'll review the Nigerian song, "Funga Alafia" and play the melody on xylophones and accompany the song using the patterns they learned on the other instruments.
This is a great picture of 4th graders working in small ensembles to create their own arrangement of "Funga Alafia," using xylophones, shekeres, tubanos, djembes, and gankogui or cow bells. The students decided within their group how to build their arrangement using the rhythmic patterns they learned as a whole class.
Final Performance Videos
Quarter 2: While using Boomwhackers - hollow percussion tubes - students explore Rhythm Reading, Rhythm Dictation, Building Melodies, and Composing.
Boomwhackers!
Boomwhackers!
PXL_20211109_155217078.mp4Each color of Boomwhacker is a different color and length, and therefore a different note. While building melodies, students have to watch and listen and be ready to play their own note at the correct time.
Quarter 3:
Quarter 3:
4th Grade students are using 5-gallon buckets donated from the local Home Depot to practice rhythm reading and drumming skills.
Bucket Drumming!
Bucket Drumming!
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.
PXL_20220118_153817627.mp4PXL_20220104_154557163.mp4For the final project of our bucket drumming unit, students picked a song of their choice to learn and perform in an informal "informance" during music class. Students utilized our subscription to BucketDrumming.net to find their song. It's exciting seeing the students transferring their skills into new material!
Quarter 4:
Quarter 4:
In 4th quarter, students will use iconic notation and recording technology to create personal rhythmic, melodic, and simple harmonic musical ideas. They will also design a video game concept to create their own musical ideas, and demonstrate the intentional use of the elements of music in their creation.
Video Game Music
Video Game Music
In this unit, the 4th graders will be using the online music composition site, Beepbox, to create music to go with an adventure video game concept that they design. As part of the process, the students create concepts for 3 characters, 3 locations, and a power-up for their video game. After brainstorming what they want the music for each location to sound like, the students use Beepbox to compose the music, thinking about melody, harmony, rhythm, and beat.
We also had the opportunity to virtually meet and interview the YouTuber and video game composer, Scruffy. Scruffy talked to us about how he became a composer, how he started composing for video games, and what his process is when he starts a new project. You can watch one of his videos, "What Makes Mario Music So Catchy?" here.
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