This rotation I am labeling ostinato in 2nd grade. At the end of our lesson, I have had my kids count the ostinati while watching the video. After watching we discuss how many we heard. They love this and are still talking about it.
If you are going to show this video to your kids, I would stop it just past a minute. I usually stop it when Harry and Snape argue back and forth. If you're anything like me, you're wary about the word "bomb".
Have you come across any other good examples of ostinato on YouTube?
I have mentioned before that I have been doing a unit on Woodwind Instruments with my 2nd graders but I thought I would create a post that compiles all of the resources I have been using for this unit.
I like to use the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's website for recordings. They have done a great job of recording each instrument playing Twinkle, Twinkle and an orchestral excerpt.
Some of the images of the instruments on DSO's site are great examples but others run on the small side; even when projected onto the screen in my classroom. In these instances, I use my Peter and the Wolf signs. I made these a few years ago for a fun Peter and the Wolf lesson and I can easily project the name and image of the instrument from my doc cam.
I give my students an experience with a famous piece for each instrument we learn about. For the oboe, we listened to the Afternoon of a Faun, the bassoon Peer Gynt, etc. I display a picture of the composer on the screen with their name and the name of the famous piece. Depending on the instrument and piece, we may also do a listening/movement activity.
Students take notes on each instrument and the famous piece it is featured in. Here are some images of their notes.
They aren't anything fancy but they help the kids keep the information organized. I think the part that has been the most impactful is drawing the instruments. I make sure to emphasize some of the physical features of the instruments like the bocal on the bassoon, the difference in bell size of the clarinet and the oboe to help them distinguish between the instruments. My kids have been easily able to discuss the differences when we played our review game.
Our notes only take about 5-8 minutes at the beginning of the lesson. These sheets have a backside with more boxes to take notes on other instruments. I leave drawing the instruments for when we have extra time. Some lessons there may not be anytime to draw instruments but other days they may have time to draw 2. It just depends on the class and the day and sometimes my mood! :)
Another thing I like to do when I have extra time is play videos of the instruments we are learning about. I posted these videos in October. If you have an oboe or clarinet video you like, please share it in the comment section of this post.
There are a lot of things I don't mind getting behind on because I know I can catch up. But, when I have a sub one thing that I do let them teach is the instrument. I have them read from "The Story of the Orchestra" by Robert Levine. There is great information and pictures in this book. It's not just great for a sub, I like to read from it as well!
It's the end of the first quarter, so we have been playing Jeopardy as a review. My kids LOVE this! It only takes about 20 minutes to play, so it doesn't take up my whole lesson. It has definitely been worthwhile to take the time and play the game before moving onto the next instrument family. I found my Jeopardy template on Powerpoint Games website. There are a few things I'm not crazy about, like the text colors and size, but for a free template it works! The template on their site is blank, so you could use it to create a review game for any concept you are working on.
Each team gets a sound effect instrument (use 3 different timbres). The team to buzz in first gets to answer the question (I don't care if they answer in the form of a question). If they answer correctly, they get the points. If not, the other teams can steal. If no one gets the answer correct, then no one gets the points.
I play in 3 teams because of my seating arrangement. After each question the instrument is passed to the next team member so that everyone gets a chance to represent their team. After buzzing in I give the team a few seconds to discuss their answer. For the listening examples, I make them wait to buzz in until I have given them a thumbs up or stopped the recording. If you don't specify, no one will be able to hear because the kids will be buzzing in.
Tips:
-Try and provide as many real examples as you can. I brought in my flute and it gave my kids a much better perspective when it came to the size and shape of the instrument. Videos are also great for this.
-Buy a few reeds. I have examples of clarinet and bassoon reeds and I'm hoping to collet others.
-Provide multiple listening examples. The more the kids hear these instruments the better.
This 9 weeks we will be working on our next instrument family. Here is a preview:
This is the best thing I've ever done! This rotation I began my introduction to the ballet to prepare my 2nd graders for their trip to the ballet later this month. In the past I have introduced it by reading the fairy tale and then going through a slideshow of what ballet is and trying out the feet/arm positions. While there was nothing wrong with this lesson, what I did this rotation seemed to get such better results.
I had seen a post on Warren Ainley's blog about introducing ballet through a pantomime activity about a little fish and a shark but it didn't really fit with the woodwind instrument we were discussing this rotation. So, instead of scrapping the idea I used Peer Gynt: In the Hall of the Mountain King. Our instrument was the bassoon, so it worked very well for telling the story. I kept the story telling simple and actually told it as the music was playing. During the 2nd listen, we pantomimed the chase, making sure to use our facial expressions to share what Peer Gynt must have been feeling.
After we finished pantomiming, we sat back down and I told them in a few weeks we would be going on a music field trip and that the performers would be pantomiming to tell a story, just like they had.
WOW! Not one "eew" out of a single boy when I said the word ballet!!! And even fewer than normal when I said that both boys and girls can perform in the ballet???? It was both refreshing and astonishing. I will never teach my ballet unit again without doing a pantomime exercise first.
Wednesday was the start of my second rotation and my first set of "real" lessons for the year. Although I did incorporate music into my first rotation (especially with K-2), much of those first lessons was reserved for rules, info. about performing groups, recorder letters, etc. So needless to say, it was refreshing to be able to focus on just making music!
My 2nd grade lesson for this rotation is one I'm particularly proud of. Each activity was borrowed or inspired by a colleague but they way they came together was awesome. It's not often that I don't feel the need to tweak after the first day.
Here's what we did:
1. Hello Song
I do an echoing song that I got from my supervising teacher during my internship. I start out the year leading the song and once students are comfortable, I invite a duet up to lead the song and the rest of the class echoes them.
2. Instrument Families
Introduction to instrument families. I plan to focus on one instrument family per quarter. I started with WW's but I wish I hadn't. It wasn't my original plan but because of the scheduling of some special events, my students really would benefit from being familiar with WW's now. In this lesson we just discussed how they are played, what they are made of and special features (reeds, keys). 3. Rhythm Building Blocks
I know that technically these are supposed to be called bricks but I always default to blocks, so that's what I'm using with my kids.
This was a great way to ease back into rhythm. I came up with back to school inspired words for each of the rhythm building blocks. Since my blocks are laminated, I wrote the words under the rhythms with a dry erase marker. This is the first time I'm using the blocks with my students, so I picked the words this time. Next month, I will let the kids brainstorm words that fit each of the rhythm blocks.
We clapped the rhythm of the words of each card as I stuck them to the white board. Once we had clapped each card, I called students up one at a time to pull out a card to create their own 8 beat rhythm pattern.
4. The Cougars Are Coming
This was a short back to school poem that a colleague, Mr. G, shared with me. We echoed to learn the poem and then used the rhythm we had composed with the blocks as a B section.
We performed this in AB form:
A - poem spoken
B - Drums play building block rhythm
We sat in rows and the kid at the front of the row played the drum. During the repeat of the A section they would move to the end so that the next student would be ready to play B. 5. School Bus Rhythms
To assess what my students had retained over the summer I used Mrs. King's School Bus Rhythm idea. This was such a great way to see how they were doing with aurally distinguishing rhythm patterns. You never know what they are going to retain over the summer and it was nice to see where they were and who was struggling.
