Last Visit

Thursday, March 26th, was Jolene's 6th grade class's performance, and my last day at Fox Hollow Elementary School. Before we began, I went over to Mrs. Larson's 3rd grade class to give them cookies for their great performance the week before and to say good-bye. I didn't want to interrupt, so I quickly dropped the cookies off. Before I could leave, however, a bunch of my 3rd graders ran up to me and gave me hugs. It was the sweetest thing I have ever experienced. I didn't want to leave, but I had to go and rehearse Mrs. Pruyt's 6th graders for their performance.

Later, as the students were coming into the gym for the assembly, I saw Mrs. Larson's class come in right by me (I was sitting at the piano). They all smiled and waved when they saw me. Then, the best surprise ever, one of the students came up to me and gave me a rubber-banded stack of colorful cards from all the 3rd graders. Oh, how I am going to miss them! This has been an incredible experience. I am so grateful that I was given this opportunity to work with Arts Bridge. It has been one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done. I now know for sure that I love teaching elementary music, and now I am a little better prepared for my future in music education.

The Performance! (March 20th)

Today was the performance! It turned out that all the third grade classes we were planning on performing for were together in the hall doing an activity, and their teachers were happy to have us perform for all of the classes together. So, we went through our Beggarman song several times to practice as we waited for the classes to be ready for us. We also went over the characters and what facts we know about each one. With this information, I assigned characters to students who volunteered to talk about each one. I did this because since the song is fast, it can be hard to understand the words the first time.

Finally, it was time to perform! The children were all so excited! I explained that this song was an Irish folk song for St. Patrick's Day, and that in Ireland folk stories are told in songs. Then, the students explained the characteristics of each character in the song, and then they sang. I am so proud of them! They did so well!

Practice, practice, practice... (March 13th visit)

This week's visit was all in preparation for the children's performances. It has been a couple weeks since my last visit, so I wanted to see how much they could remember of the song. We went over the verses many times at different speeds. They will be ready to perform!

Learning by experience (February 20th visit)

This visit with Mrs. Larson's class was fun, but I also learned about selecting music music for a specific age group.

We began by practicing the Little Beggarman. The children love this song! They know all the words now, and one even told me that she was happy because she had it stuck in her head the day before. We worked on memorizing the words, and to make it more interesting we did different ways of beating and clapping and snapping the rhythm.

Then, I decided to teach them a new folk song: Johnny's Gone for a Soldier. This a complete opposite from the Beggarman song. It is slow and sad. I incorporated their study of parts of speech by asking them to identify different things like nouns, verbs and adjectives. This was a good exercise for them. The problem, however came when we began to sing. They picked up the melody and words quickly, but they didn't have the same enthusiasm. I realized, as we sang, that maybe the song was a little too sad and not quite accessible to the understanding of 3rd graders. We finished singing all the verses, and the class was in a more somber mood. I wanted to bring the excitement from the beginning of class back, so as we stood and walked back to the classroom, I began singing the Beggarman song. Soon everyone was singing and happy again.

This was a good learning experience for me as I pick music for my students in the future. I will be more sensitive to their age and understanding, and also what they would enjoy.

The Beggarman and laws of motion

Class today was really fun! We worked more on our Irish song, The Little Beggarman, especially on memorizing the first two verses. The kids love this silly folktale-song about a little beggarman named Johnny Dhu who walks around with holes in his shoes, loving the free life. Once we got the first two verses memorized we used one of the topics they studied this week to make it more interesting. They have been studying all about force and motion in science this week, and as I was preparing, I thought about how musicians use these laws of physics to create motion and intensity in performance, specifically by means of dynamics. First, I had the children hold their hand in front of their face and blow with different air speeds, or different amounts of force. Then, to demonstrate how this applies to sound production, I brought my flute with me to class, and I asked the children what they thought would happen if I applied a lot of force or a little force when I played. They hypothesized accurately, and the more force I used the louder the notes, and the less force the softer the notes. Next, I drew a large crescendo symbol on the board, explaining what it was in musical terms. I then told them that it would be a force-meter for us. We sang our Irish song, but this time I directed the class as to how much force to use to make different dynamics by indicating on the crescendo. The students took turns directing me on the flute, and then directing their classmates.It was so much fun!

The Little Beggarman

I had such a fun time visiting Sherry Larson's class today! For today's lesson, I decided to introduce the Irish folk song we will be performing for St. Patrick's day as our final project. The song I chose was a classic in Irish traditional music, and one that is full of humor and energy. It is called "The Little Beggarman". Irish music is really fun because it is used to tell folk tales, and this ties in perfectly to the core standard for language arts to learn about folk tales from different cultures.

I began today's lesson by playing an old recording of a famous Irish folk singer, Tommy Makem, singing the song. He had a very strong accent, which made it difficult for the children to understand all the words to the story, but the more we listened, and with some specific questions, the children began to understand the words. After we listened, I projected the words on the board, and we read them together in rhythm. I explained some unfamiliar words, like "rigadoo" and "calico". Then, I passed out paper and assigned each of the four verses to the four rows of students. With a more modern and energetic version of the folk song playing in the background, the children picked lines in their assigned verses to illustrate. There were all kinds of fun pictures of cats and rats playing "peek-a-boo" or Johnny Dhu walking up a hill. It was so fun to see the children enjoying the music and the funny folk tale!

Here are some pictures:

The Nutcracker

I thought, in the spirit of the Christmas season, that it would be fun for Mrs. Larson's class to learn about the Nutcracker ballet. I was able to find a beautifully illustrated version of the story at BYU's library, and I found a recording of some excerpts on NAXOS music database.

To begin class, we reviewed the two songs I've taught them so far: "Pat-a-Pan" and "Carol of the Bells". After reviewing the songs, I brought out the book of the Nutcracker and read it to the class. The children were so attentive and seemed interested in the story. Afterwards, I showed them different excerpts of the music, explaining how each correlated with a part of the story. They especially liked the energetic "Trepak" or Russian dance. Some even couldn't contain themselves and got up and started dancing like Russians, kicking their legs high and folding their arms. For the last song, "Waltz of the Flowers", we all formed a circle to dance like ballet dancers to the music. We each took turns doing follow the leader with different dance moves inspired by the music. It was so fun, and I was so impressed with their creativity. Some even knew some real ballet steps. My goal in all of this was to get them to experience a little bit of what the Nutcracker is and use their own creativity to interpret the music they heard into their own dancing. It was so much fun!