Thursday 24 October 2013

Sound Travels #12 - Water Group's Summative Project

We have ended our Sound Travel unit. For the summative project each child created their own tune using found objects or musical instruments. The children brainstormed the feeling or thought they want to reflect in their music and used Garage Band to create their own music sequence.
Allye
Theo
Molly
Lucas
Brendan
Angela

Alfie






Wednesday 9 October 2013

Sound Travels #11 - Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Today I started off group time by playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons for the children to listen to. Immediately the children got up and started dancing to the music. I asked the children why are they dancing. They said the music makes them feel happy and their bodies want to move to the music. I let them know that they are expressing their feelings about the music through their movements.

The Four Seasons Concerto was inspired by four paintings of the seasons by the artist Marco Ricci. To help the children understand that people have different perspectives and ways to express themselves, I asked them to paint a picture to each season as we listened to the music. It was interesting to see their colour choices and how each piece made them feel. I'm eager to see how they feel and their thoughts when I show them the paintings that inspired Vivaldi.

Sound Travels #10 - Express Feelings and Thoughts

On Tuesday, the children explored how music and sound are used to express feelings and thoughts (perspective). We sang the folk song "Daddy Loves the Bear". Here are the words:

Daddy loves the bear, 
Daddy loves the bear, 
Daddy loves the bear and gives it lots of care/takes it everywhere. 

Here are some of their thoughts or actions when they sang the song:
Alfie said: "It is caring."
Theo said: "You can give kisses."
Allye was swaying from side to side.  
We discussed more about caring (one of the ten IB profile words). What does it look like when you are caring to the bear? 

Brendan: I will hold it gently.
Molly: I will hug it. 

We ended group time by making a fuzzy teddy bear card for the ones we care about. 





Wednesday 2 October 2013

Sound Travels #9 - Beats and Rhythms


 Yesterday, the Water group took a closer look at two different forms in a song, the beat and the rhythm. What is the difference between a beat and a rhythm? We used Hickory Dickory Dock to help us understand. First we tapped out the beat (tick tock of the clock) then we tapped the rhythm (words of the rhyme). We even created symbols (triangles for the beats and circles for the rhythms) to help us follow the beat and the rhythm.

Dotting Bumpety, Bumpety, Yellow Bus
Even though it seems a bit confusing for the children to understand, they did notice that a beat is steady but a rhythm can change and has different patterns. Today we practiced beat and rhythm with the song Bumpety, Bumpety, Yellow Bus and created a song dot map to add to our form book that the children are currently working on.

Beats and rhythm for Hickory Dickory Dock