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Music Activities and Resources for Kids and Teachers
MusicKit
the Virtual Music Classroom
This is the first of a series of activities to demonstrate the 2 MOST IMPORTANT things in music:
1. The Beat and
2. Listening
The activities will demonstrate the importance of listening in music and how to listen to music. It will also demonstrate the basic and fundamental importance of the BEAT and beat keeping in music.
In the process of all this, the teacher will meet all students and learn their names!
These activities could be repeated a number of times in different lessons, adding some new level of sophistication each time.
Content Standard #1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied
repertoire of music
- Students sing expressively, with appropriate dynamics, phrasing,
and interpretation
- Students sing in groups, blending vocal timbres, matching dynamic
levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor
Content Standard #3: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
Achievement Standard:
- Students improvise "answers" in the same style to given rhythmic
and melodic phrases
Content Standard #6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
- Students identify simple music forms when presented aurally
- Students demonstrate perceptual skills by moving, by answering
questions about, and by describing aural examples of music
- Students use appropriate terminology in explaining music, music
notation, music instruments and voices, and music performances
Content Standard #8: Understanding relationships between music,
the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
- Students identify similarities and differences in the meanings
of common terms (e.g., "listen" "beat" high/low)
Students will gain an appreciation for the role of listening in music making.
Students will experiment with how to listen by focussing on a specific listening task.
Students will listen for and describe loud/soft and "dynamics".
Students will listen for and perform the beat in perfect unison while singing a song.
Listening skills - focus on sounds
Beat keeping skills and pitch matching
Lesson 1:
1. Discuss with students how much you and they love music and
why. Then say:
"Music is important to everyone! Did you realize that music has
been with all of us since we were born! NO BEFORE we were born!
Why did you know that even in your mommy's tummy you LISTENED
to music as soon as you had ears to hear! The music you heard
sounded like this:
guTHUMP! guTHUMP, guTHUMP...
Can you guess what that sound was?"
2. Someone will guess or ellicit the heart BEAT!
3. "Almost ALL music has a beat - that is what makes sounds MUSIC! The beat is always steady! Let's keep the beat in our laps, but before you begin - LISTEN for my beat. Wait until you hear how fast or slow I go and LISTEN until you can copy it EXACTLY. Make sure everone is listening to everyone else and the beat sounds like one person!"
4. Tap the beat in your lap with a 6/8 swing bouncing hands first left then right. Encourage all to follow and listen carefully that all are together "Listen to your neighbor - be sure you are all tapping at the same time!"
5. "Keep that beat going! - and while you do I'll sing you a song..." As the kids keep the beat sing "Hickety-Tickety Bumblebee" .
6. "Keep the beat going!" (Kids and teacher continue to clap beat on lap as teacher speaks). "This time, when I point to you - say you're name at the end of the song - Everyone else Listen carefully! Then say the name back just like the person says it! Keep the beat going the whole time. We will go around the circle and learn everyones name! See if we can keep the beat gong all the way around the circle!"
You can follow up in the same period with introducing Listen! - Make A Noise" Lesson.
1. A finger puppet for the bee!
Watch for the children who keep the beat easily and accurately with the teacher. Praise kids/class who are keeping the beat particularly well in unison for listening so carefully to their neighbors.
Listen for the class to say the name just like the person says it - Insist on accuracy especially with more exotic names. Encourage all to listen and say the name EXACTLY like the individual says it. If the beat stops and a person stumbles over saying their name to the beat, make a note of it.
You will find that most children stop keeping the beat as their turn comes. If the activity is repeated in a number of sessions, encourage kids to try keeping the beat even as they say their name. The ability to do this is a mark of a particularly../bumblb.html independent beat keeper.
Notice i
Music is about being able to do 2 or more things at once. Give praise if you find kids able to do this.
Encourage kids to sing along too, when they have learned the song.
Acrobat file of Hickety-Tickety
Last Change: 6:56 PM, Saturday, September 12, 1998
Created by: Kit Eakle