3rd grade class composition replete with smears created when we edited the words.

They were delighted with their song.

Each recorder class had its own transparency for this activity.

The lyrics read:
Everybody dance. Everybody sing. Everybody play in the Land of Oz.

 The 5th graders were just losing it when they practiced this accompaniment to Pat-A-Pan, even WITH the assistance of rhythmic words. The grid made all the difference in their successful performance.

I used the grid to make sure the accompaniment patterns were all different, interesting and playable.

These patterns sounded real good. We layered them in by verses.

 I wanted the kindergarteners to learn the motions to the dance "Bow Wow Wow" by seeing the "score." This helps introduce them to notation using icons and pictorial representations.

They learned it far faster with this notation than I'd ever had kids learn it before. I was pretty amazed.

The words to the movements are:
step step step rest; pat pat pat rest: turn turn turn turn; step step step rest.

(I never said I was an artist!)

This is an example where I wanted the first graders to see how two syllables might go into one box. This was the part of the preparation of their understanding of ta's and ti-ti's, as well as the beginning of learning the difference between beat and rhythm.

We said it, acted it out, played it on sticks, and then tried it with different timbres for each word, we tried it with the Engine chant, etc. Using a washable marker allowed me to write their instrumentation ideas on the transparency and then clean it for the next class to use.

 Tyrone could not be stopped in his quest for more recorder ribbons (a la Recorder Karate). This was for the green ribbon. (I start with red, orange, yellow, etc.) He had to create a composition using almost all the notes he knew (c,d,e,f#,g,a,B flat, b, c1, d1) using the given rhythm and play his composition.

He took some artistic license in the third line and I let him because it sounded better to him (and me) and he had already shown competance with the syn-co-pa pattern which was the challenge at this level.

 This is a well-used and now retired 8x4 grid that the students used with good success.

You can see what happens when you don't use permanent marker.

Color coding is something that you can easily do on these grids.

home
last updated August 9, 2003