Storytelling and Music

One of my favorite things to do is read stories and create mini dramas and music to them.  This past week the Grade 1/2 classes have been listening, acting, and playing to fun stories that connect us to the fall season.

Robert Munsch

The Grade 1s have been working really hard to learn instrument parts for the song "Clang Clang" from the famous Robert Munsch story, Mortimer.

Check out Robert Munsch telling the story!

Art Music Project

The Grade 4/5 classes have been using their listening skills to reflect on a song that we will hear at the Winnipeg Symphony concert in April.  The song is called "Contented House" by Canadian composer, Jean Coulthard.  After we listened to the piece several times, we discussed how art can reflect music and music can reflect art.  We didn't have a lot of time to explore, but many of the students were able to depict the music through an art picture.  Here is what they came up with.

The Cat Came Back

Today the Grade 1 classes got to enjoy the fun song "The Cat Came Back."  Listening to song 'stories' is a great way to build literacy awareness, oral language skills, critical-thinking, comprehension, and self-expression.

Vocabulary: cat, yellow, farm, farmer, tractor, trucker, truck, pilot, plane, train, train conductor, little girl

Some great questions ask about the song:
What color was the cat in this story? Why do you think Mr. Johnson wanted to give the cat away? Who was the first person that Mr. Johnson gave the cat to? What were the sequence of events? How do you think the cat felt each time Mr. Johnson gave him away? How many times did the cat go back to Mr. Johnson? Can a cat really a drive a truck, fly a plane or eat up an entire field of corn? Is this story real or make-believe? How did the story end? How do you think the cat felt when the little girl took him home? Why do you think he felt that way? What was your favorite part of the story? What do you think the little girl named the cat?  What was the song form?

Celebrations

For term 2, our classes did a variety of music activities and practiced many instrument and team building skills.  One of our highlights was playing together on the barred instruments and creating songs and stories.

Grade 1 Abiyoyo by Peter Seeger

Grade 2/3 playing Old Mother Hubbard

The Nutcracker

This week our Grade 2/3s are learning the story of Nutcracker, a ballet by Peter I. Tchaikovsky, a Russian composer.  The songs and the story are magical.  See below for a clip from the opening party scene.

Farmer in the Dell

Today the Kindergarten music classes sang and played the Farmer in the Dell game.  We learned that a dell is a small valley between trees.

Landfill Orchestra

Did you know that trash can be someone else's treasure?  In some areas of the world, people are creating instruments from trash.  Watch the video above and see how music is transforming a nation and giving hope to wasteful places.

Miss Mary Mack Fun!

Today our Grade 1 classes read, sang and learned a simple version of the hand-clapping game of Miss Mary Mack.  We have some Grade 1 experts here to show us our version:

 

Here is the version that is shown above in the music.

Check out this fun song and body percussion piece called "Bim Bam."  Can you keep the pattern?

Tuesday Assembly

 

Come on out to our Kick Off to I LOVE TO READ assembly on Tuesday, February 3 at 9:00.  Our Kindergarten classes will be presenting 2 stories with some really cool sounds! 

Instrument Exploration

The Kindergarten classes have begun a music unit on sound exploration.  We are learning how to put special sounds into a story to make it interesting.  We will be sharing these in February.

Can you guess what sound this instrument makes?

Play the sound of the above instrument...

Getting ready to play the temple blocks.

The Dream Game

The Grade 1's played our first 'dream' game today.  We listened to a piece of music and imagined what the song was about.  As you listen to it, what pictures or story comes to mind?  We talked about the feeling of the music.  Most felt it was kind of scary sounding.  We heard short, detached sounds and learned the word for this is 'staccato.'   We talked about the instrument that makes the loud crashing sounds (cymbals) and practiced moving our bodies to it.  We all agreed that the music got louder and faster at the end.  It was like something crazy was happening.

Songs of Remembrance

Today the Grade 1's and I read the poem "In Flanders Fields" from the book by Linda Granfield, illustrated by Janet Wilson.  We shed a few tears as we talked about what Remembrance Day is, why we wear poppies and why remembering soliders who fight for our freedom is important.  This year the Grade 1 and Kindergarten classes will be singing at our assembly on Nov. 7.  We will be practicing our song for the next few weeks in music.

Congratulations to the students who came and auditioned today for a chance to sing the solo in the Remembrance Day Grade 2/3 choir song.  Everyone did great.  Jessica (Room 18) and Kiera (Room 11) will be leading the choir and the runner ups were Tyson (Room 17) and Jyan (Room 12). 

Carnival of the Animals

The Kinders have been learning about French composer, Camille St. Saens and his brillant works from the Carnival of the Animals.  Today we listened to several of the recordings of the animals and acted out the parts.  We listened for the jokes that Camille hid in the pieces and identified instruments.  We watched the 1985 zoo visit video, hosted by Gary Burghoff with Ogen Nash's poetry.

Here is a Youtube clip of the 1976 classic hosted by Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

Peter and the Wolf

The Grade 1's have been studying the orchestra instruments and learning the famous story "Peter and the Wolf" by Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev.  We read the story illustrated by Peter Malone and learned all the instruments in the story.  We matched them with their sounds.






Today we watched Disney's 1946 version narrated by Sterling Holloway.  We discussed how the name of the bird in the show was Sasha, just like our Russian dance.  We also talked about the Russian hat that was worn and then compared the differences between the book and the movie.  Most students liked the movie the best.


Here is a Youtube version of the story performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and narrated by conductor, Bramwell Tovey.

Wide-Mouthed Frog

Congratulations to the Grade 2/3 Orff Club for their presentation of the story "The Wide-Mouthed Frog" on Thursday.