March from the Nutcracker and Candy Cane Horses

All grade levels have been learning the music and story of the ballet The Nutcracker composed by Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. We used an iPad app called The Nutcracker Musical Storybook to learn the story. K/1 students studied the piece called March. Our instructional focus included rondo form and steady beat. We used some large, plastic candy canes as "horses" while we moved to the music. We also played jingle bells and egg shakers. Here are a couple of pictures:

You're a Grand Old Flag

In November, the second graders learned You're a Grand Old Flag and a flag routine to go with it. This is a favorite activity of second graders every year. I adapted the flag choreography from my friend, Kristin Lukow. This particular arrangement of the song comes from one of my favorite teaching resources, Music K-8 Magazine. Here are a couple of videos of two of the classes performing the song.

“You’re A Grand Old Flag” by George M. Cohan/arr. by Paul Jennings (ASCAP) © 1994 Plank Road Publishing, Inc. • All Rights Reserved • Used by permission

Mrs. Jessen's Second Graders

Mrs. Sannerud's Second Graders

Native American Hoop Dancing

We had a special morning of music today. Instead of our regular PE, music, and art classes, we had a guest speaker for all students in grades 2-5. Fern Cloud came to teach us about Native American Hoop Dancing. Each grade level was able to spend 50 minutes with her. Fern talked about the symbolism of the hoop and the colors on it (the life cycle, the seasons, the day/night, the people of the earth). Then she demonstrated a hoop dance that was called The Global Dance. She formed the hoops into a globe at the end.

After the dance demonstration, she taught the students some hoop dancing. Here are a few pictures from the morning.

I really learned a lot from Fern and I'm hoping the students enjoyed their time with her and will remember what they've learned about Native American Hoop Dancing.

The Car Song

Since many people travel during the holiday season to see friends and family, I thought it was an appropriate time to teach a fun Woody Guthrie song: The Car Song. It is also appropriate because 2012 marks the hundredth birthday of Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie was an American singer and song writer who was also known for the song This Land is Your Land. All the students in grades K-3 learned about Woody Guthrie and The Car Song in the past few music classes.

Another Recorder Karate Option

The other night I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly realized there may be another way students can record their Recorder Karate songs at home. I'm not sure why these things occur to me in the dead of night. Anyway, there are quite a few students that have (or have access to) an iPod Touch. I don't have one, so I haven't been able to test this out, but perhaps a student will try it and let me know if it works.

The newer generation iPod Touches have a built-in microphone. There is a free recording app called Blue FiRe.  If students enable Wi-Fi on the iPod, there is a little globe icon on the main screen (lower left). This will take you to a Browser Access screen. Be sure the switch is turned on to enable this feature. Then, down at the bottom of the screen there is a URL. If you type that URL into your computer's browser, you can choose the format (please choose WAV) and download the recording to your computer. The recording can then be emailed to me at bjahn@ymesting.net as an attachment.

I'll be very interested to see if this works. I may have to try to borrow an iPod Touch from someone to try it out. I do know that this does work on an iPad and I imagine it would also work on the iPhone.

Yankee Doodle

K/1 students have been learning Yankee Doodle. We learned to sing it and have played instruments with it. We also learned that "called it macaroni" has nothing to do with the food you might eat for lunch. It means "dressed in fancy clothes." Ask your K/1 student to tell you about it and sing the song for you.

K/1 Students

Here's a picture of some K/1 students from class today. They were playing the beat while we worked on the song "Chase the Squirrel."