Beehive!

A new melody for an existing chant (not sure who wrote the chant). First graders love this song and set of activities!

• Day 1: Start the students on an ostinato sung on the resting tone on macrobeats: "1, 2, 3, bzz, 1, 2, 3, bzz," having them tap the macrobeat on their legs for the first three beats and on their shoulders on the buzz. Sing the song over the ostinato.  If you are using the words the first day of the song, display the words to students with bees, sees, hive, and five underlined, guiding them to notice that the "bzz" happens at those spots.  Then, have 5 students pretend to be the bees, walking around the outside of the circle on macrobeats, gently tapping one student's should only on the buzz parts of the ostinato. Have the bees perform a major or triple pattern, and appoint five new bees, singing the last line of the song as you choose them.

• Day 2: Have students flow during the song as if they are bees flying in curvy pathways. Use this free TpT bumblebee animated vocal exploration SMART board file to have students explore their head voices between repetitions, having one student come up to the front to click the smart board and echo a triple meter pattern. For other repetitions, have students move the ostinato from day 1 again, changing which body part they sting themselves on for the buzz every time.

• Day 3: Use the song for a locomotor movement activity. Guide the students to explore curvy and straight pathways ("beelines" 😃) around the room. Have them fly high or low. Have them find closed or small shapes like they are the bees hiding, or open and large shapes like they came out of the hive.  At the end of the activity, ask the students to "fly back to their nests" returning to their spots.

Other ways to vary or spiral the activity to other grades, depending on students' skill levels:

• Have one student hide a toy bee around the room like it is hidden in the beehive as the rest of the students close their eyes. When the song is over, have students open their eyes and point quietly when they see the bee. Someone who pointed quietly will get to hide the bee next, and anyone who gets a turn performs a triple or major pattern.

• Use the toy bee to go around to students during the song, pausing after every line to "sting" a student with a dramatic resting tone buzz! Invite the student you sing to perform the resting tone as well. 

• Have students find the DO SOL MI patterns and sing DO SOL MI on solfege or on BUM BUM BUM in the song every time it occurs. They could also look at the notation for that pattern if they are ready for symbolic association, or they could replace it with different major tonic patterns that they create singing or writing and singing.

• Have students sing chord roots (DO DO FA DO, DO DO SOL DO) and possibly transfer that to instruments.

• Connect to the major tonic patterns in the song by playing the major tonic game. My version of the game: Students listen to patterns and jump after they hear a major tonic pattern, singing "major tonic," and they squat after they hear a major dominant pattern, singing "major dominant." If they are incorrect they sit down where they are and are out until the next round. Perhaps add subdominant in there since it is part of the song's progression!

Notation is here if you want to edit or display it in higher quality to your students.

Autumn rhythms to read!

Rhythms in 4/4, 6/8, and 3/4 to read! The rhythms are straight from the Learning Sequence Activities! Download them here!

Spring Rhythms to Read

Updated version:  It's important to show the kids that the same rhythm can be written in different time signatures, so HERE is an updated version of these rhythms. In this version, the 6/8 rhythms below are also notated in 3/4.  I also added the duple meter rhythms from the first duple meter LSA, notating the same rhythms two different ways (just quarters and eighths, then just half notes and quarter notes).

Looking for triple and duple meter rhythms with a cute background for springtime? You can download the ones below here. The patterns come straight from the LSAs! :)

Download the original slides here.

Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Listening Lesson + Rhythm Reading

Got this lesson from my AWESOME mentor teacher. I made the slides though. ;)

Lesson plan:

Have students read the rhythms on the first 4 slides. 

(Download the slide show for free here.)

Then turn to the 5th one and have students read through the line of music after giving them a little background info on who Beethoven was. 

Then students listen to the beginning of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Movement 2. Can they hear the rhythm they just read in the music?  

Pause the music and have the students tap the rhythm on their laps as they follow along with you pointing to the rhythm.  

Pause the music again, and have the students come up with a different place on their body to tap the rhythm. They tap the rhythm again as you point to the notes on the projector or SMART board.

Then ask for student volunteers; who thinks they've followed along with the notes so well they can point to them for the class?  The student leader points to the notes, and everyone else follows along with the notation, moving to the rhythm in another new way. 

Continue until the song changes to a new section (at 2:45 in the youtube recording linked to above). Tell the students to stop the movement when they hear the music change to a different rhythm and tonality.