Whiteboard Music Lessons Module Two Released
By janice | April 3, 2012
It’s finally here!! After months of writing, editing and revising, Module two of our Whiteboard Music Lessons – “Music Jam” series is now available for everyone to use.
This level is much more comprehensive and detailed that we ever imagined it would be. The whole module contains over 280 interactive whiteboard slides broken down into 14 easy to navigate lessons of jam packed content for teaching a primary or elementary music curriculum.
There are some major reasons why our interactive whiteboard primary music curriculum is different to just about any other curriculum you’ll find:
We Research.
A year prior to writing the initial drafts on this resource, we started to research the major music curricula around the world including the National Standards for Music in the USA, the requirements of Key stage 2 in the UK and the draft National Curriculum in Australia. What we found was that all these major curricula had ten core essential characteristics that were common to all and we used this market research to develop the basis for our curriculum.
We Listen.
We never just write a new resource out of the experience of one author. Most importantly, we seek out the opinions and needs of the users of interactive whiteboards in the classrooms to seek out what they are looking for in interactive materials for the classroom. After running an extensive survey, we found that teachers wanted the choice of using the resources from any computer and on any interactive whiteboard. We also found that users wanted to use the pens and duster that come with the major brands of interactive whiteboard. For this reason we’ve come up with a system that enables all our users to access their resources whether they have a PC or a Mac and they are able to install the interactive resources on both the Promethean and Smart Board using the free software that is associated with both these brands. We also know that our product works with users just have a projector and a laptop as well.
We offer an Outstanding level of Choice.
We offer a choice of European terminology (Stave, crotchet) or American (staff, quarter note) language. This means that you can use the most relevant language to you in your regional area.
We are not aware of ANY other company in the world that offers this choice.
Most books or music programs of any kind use the language preference of the author. The language of ‘Staff’ vs ‘Stave’ might seem like a small thing… but we think it is BIG thing. Its REALLY IMPORTANT that the language in the program exactly matches your preference.
We’ve continued to make the navigation of the resource very easy – so that you have the choice of doing every activity in sequence or you can change it as you need. We also offer easy access to games and songs you may want to access more often.
We’ve also included a worksheet for each lesson that you can do individually and/or as a class. These worksheets can also be printed for students to use and keep in their own book.
Now Lets have a more detailed look at how the lessons work:
Lesson 1:
This lesson is a foundation to the entire module ahead. In this lesson students will have exposure to singing their first song for the term; learning to play their first note with backing tracks on a recorder or tuned percussion instrument; experience playing untuned percussion instruments and learn to read elementary rhythms, experience how to write the treble clef and write and place their first note played and will have the opportunity to play a variety of musical and listening games.
Lesson 2:
While revising and extending known concepts such as the treble clef, basic rhythm reading and playing and writing the note G learned in lesson 1, this lesson also adds new concepts such as hearing long and short sounds, improvising and putting together the next sequential steps to learning their first class ensemble piece.
Lesson 3:
Students are able to play two parts together as a class ensemble by this lesson and they’ll improving on their rhythm recognition and playing by working through some slides that set them up for success with it in steps. In this lesson students also have a short composition activity and will be able to extend their knowledge of instruments sounds and names through an aural puzzle activity and have the opportunity to play musical hangman to revise known concepts learned.
Lesson 4:
In this lesson students will have an opportunity to sing a jazz song, have exposure to learning the differences in sound with tuned percussion instruments, will have the chance to compose a short rhythmical piece, be able to hear the difference between different basic rhythm patterns and will complete their first class ensemble piece in three parts.
Lesson 5:
The new concept for students in this lesson is time signatures and what they mean. They will have practice playing music with different basic time signatures and will have the opportunity to play a time signature game. On the practical side, students will be able to extend their playing knowledge to three notes and learning the first steps to learning their second class ensemble piece.
Lesson 6:
Students will have fun adding variety to their jazz singing song in this lesson by adding kazoos and other instruments to it in the bridge to create variety. Other new concepts include identifying the sounds of wind instruments, playing rhythm in two parts, playing Hot Cross Buns on their tuned instruments and composing and playing a short melody piece based on three notes.
Lesson 7:
As the students continue to build their playing and rhythmic skills in this lesson by learning to read and play in various simple time signatures, they will also have exposure to learning about dynamics.
Lesson 8:
In this lesson, students extend their tuned playing to a five note range and learn about stem direction in addition to playing and reviewing other known concepts in a variety of new ways and activities.
Lesson 9:
By the end of this lesson, students will have their second class ensemble piece for the module ready to perform and will continue to write, read and place their 5 note range. They’ll have a lot of fun playing musical snakes and ladders in four teams at the end of the lesson as well.
Lesson 10:
By this stage in the course, students are able to distinguish aurally between four styles of music, will learn to play a more complex piece of music on their tuned percussion instruments that will get their hands moving quickly to play it and will be able to distinguish between three different notes aurally.
Lesson 11:
Students have exposure to playing “Ode to Joy” in this lesson. To lead up to this there are some activities on hearing and playing dotted rhythms to help them build up successfully. Students will also have fun creating a composition based on environmental sounds.
Lesson 12:
Students will improve their coordination in this lesson by playing a simple rhythm pattern with two hands which helps to extend their rhythm reading. Other new concepts include hearing up to three notes on a track and playing back what they hear on a tuned instrument and playing a game to hear the difference between two basic chord sounds in order to give their ears exposure to using and hearing this more in the future.
Lesson 13:
In this lesson students are learning about the concept of flats and sharps, learning to play a sharp and then learning about key signatures.
Lesson 14:
This lesson marks the end of module 1 and students will be able to revise known rhythm concepts, will be able to play and improvise on 7 notes and will have practice and exposure to identifying simple intervals for the first time.
This course is built with much more than just a term’s content. We’ve structured this beginning module with 14 lessons, so that if teachers feel they are moving quickly with their classes, there will still be enough content to fill a term and for those that find their classes are moving slower, it is easy to spread the content over a whole semester.
Please let us know what you think about these new resources by using the comment box below or alternatively, click here to leave your success story.
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Topics: Classroom Music, music lesson plans, Primary/Elementary Music
Teaching in the The Information Age Vs the The Industrial Age
By janice | March 15, 2012
What “Age” do we teach in?
I ask this because from time to time we have teachers come to us saying that some of our printable resources and fun sheets materials don’t exactly match up to our game worksheets. We have comprehension fill in the gap activities that fully match, but with each lesson topic, we also provide a fun puzzle for students to solve using the information we provide as a basis and to get them to think creatively for the answers. These fun style worksheets are where students complete a puzzle by finding facts out about a given topic in music.
Our answer to this is- we know! Because we feel that we are in the information “problem solving” age where the materials are only the beginning to understanding the information presented.
So Let me clarify this a little bit more….
Teaching in the Industrial Age
I grew up in an age where we had comprehension sheets- the Industrial Age. Do you remember them too? This was where you had a story about a topic on one side of the sheet and you had a pile of questions or things to find about the story on the other side. Basically you didn’t ever have to think for yourself when you were answering these questions, you just had to look for the answer which was somewhere in the story.
Now there was absolutely nothing wrong with this style of worksheet (apart from the fact that we dreaded these every week because they were so boring!) because it suited this era perfectly! The choices for the students at this time suited this style of learning because all you had to do to get any job back then was to re regurgitate the information that was given to you for an entrance exam and nothing extra was really asked of you.
The Information Age
It all changed when we all started using the web! No longer was it good enough to just read what we were presented with. Suddenly we were searching for an answer to one question and we were presented with thousands and sometimes millions of answers to choose from.
The classroom has also changed… back then in pre 2000 – we still had chalk boards, whiteboards, overhead projectors. All information presented came directly from the teacher- the teacher knew the answers and the students just had to learn it.
Nowadays our classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards, computers and iPads.
The number one wish list item for any teenager is an iPad and our students come to school with mobile phones and iPhones which connect them to their wider world.
The Challenge of Teaching In The information Age
Information has never been easier to get for our students to get – it’s the guidance with which it is used which becomes the challenge in teaching.
Anyone can get access to anything- it’s natural to go straight to a computer, an iPad a mobile phone and search for anything we don’t know. The question is do we keep this in mind as we teach our new generations?
The challenge for our next generations is that they can get access to anything, but they need to find out how to use it responsibly and with integrity. Often this is not yet taught in the home so it makes sense that we embrace it in any classroom with a supportive environment.
There is a big movement towards finding a way to get the best out of our children using questions instead of telling them- getting them to actively participate in learning instead of passively listening. All of these movements encourage our future generations to become problem solvers, leaders and builders. People who can be well educated to make the right decision at the right time and people who will see what the truth really is with all the information presented.
But now I really want to hear from you on this topic. In order for us to better serve our teaching community, we need to know how you feel!! What “age” would you rather be teaching in? How do you incorporate information age style thinking into your classroom? Does it matter that not all the information is presented in comprehension style format these days- that sometimes our students need to search for the answers?
Please lets start a discussion and find the best way forward together.
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Topics: Classroom Music, Music Education Articles, music teacher resources
The Musical Fly Swatter Game: A Music Flashcard Activity For the Classroom
By janice | February 27, 2012
“Tell me, I forget, show me, I remember, involve me, I understand.”- Carl Orff
Doing is everything – especially when it comes to teaching music theory!
Playing a game can often help students to retain more and can make a boring concept fun.
So today I have the pleasure of posting a great game which will help upper primary children think and do rhythms and other symbols quickly all while having fun. This game was sent in to us by one of our music teaching friends, Olivia Lucas and she gave us permission to share it with any other interested music teachers-So thank you Olivia for sharing this great idea.
Please also feel free to use the comment box below to leave your feedback or any other games or activities you might want to share.
The Musical Fly Swatter Game
Here is a lively and distinctive activity to practise rhythms or even music vocabulary.
Materials Needed:
Rhythm cards
Dice
2 Fly Swatters
Once my students have learn’t rhythm values and how to vary their rhythmic combinations, I play the Fly Swatter Game!
Using Rhythm Cards (with one 4 beat bar for younger or beginner students and 2 or more bars with 4 beats each for older students. Rhythms in Triple Meter are another possibility) spread across the board.
Each rhythm card is then numbered depending on the amount of rhythm cards and die available. If only one dice is used then 6 rhythm cards are needed- numbered 1 to 6, When two die are used 11 cards are needed – numbered 2- 12 ( the number 1 will never come up because two die are used). If more than 11 cards are used then more die are necessary.
Then I divide the class into two teams. The first time with the fly swatters, I explain how the game works. After that, it’s not necessary.
In order to establish who gets his/her turn to play next, I allocate a number to each member of the team. So to begin with, number 1 of each team comes to the front of the room facing the board with their back to the class. Each has a fly swatter. they may not look back: if they do they do, their team loses 2 points.
I then select one other student to throw the dice ( I make a point of choosing a student from one end of the class and work through to the other end,to save any avoiding or omitting anyone. This way I find everyone is given the opportunity to throw the dice as well as to produce the corresponding rhythm and I can evaluate each student’s rhythmic abilities).This student may not reveal or speak out the numbers on the dice. Instead he/she has to clap the rhythm with the corresponding number. To keep everyone focused and involved, the whole class then repeats the same rhythm. Once the rhythm has been clapped, the two fly swatters can swat the correct rhythm. The first one to swat the correct rhythm gets a point for their team.
There are some other basic rules:
1. You may not hit another student with the fly swatter.
2. You may not throw the fly swatter at anyone.
3.You may not ‘block’ another player with your arm or your body to prevent them from swatting a rhythm card.
This game may also be played to practice and consolidate musical vocabulary or symbols. When playing the game in this format, I have two sets of cards, one with the words and the other with corresponding symbols. The teacher can decide on putting either words or symbols on the board as the first set of cards. The second set of cards is in my possession with the written side facing downwards so they are out of sight.
In this version of the game, students with the fly swatters are facing the class with their backs to the board.
Each student in the class is given the opportunity to pick a card.
When the selected card has a word, the students turning it around silently reads the word on it, then shows it while saying the word out loud to the students up front. the students with the fly swatters must then turn to face the board and swat the corresponding symbol. The first one to swat the correct symbols gets a point for their team.
When the selected card has a symbol, the student turning the card must not say what it i. Instead he/she says something like ” look what I’ve got!” while showing the card to the students up front. the students with the fly swatters then turn and face the board and swat the corresponding word. The first one to swat the correct word earns a point for their team.
Happy Swatting!
Olivia Lucas
12th February, 2012
Some Other Articles that are about using flashcards in music lessons include:
Five Flashcard Activities For the Music Classroom
5 Steps For Flashcard Success In The Music Classroom
Using Flashcards In Music Theory Lessons
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Topics: Classroom Music, Games, music teacher resources, music teaching success stories
