I have been sharing a lot of my favorite books to use in the elementary music classroom, particularly with the younger grades recently- you can read this post for ideas for Bear Snores On, and this post for We're Going On a Bear Hunt- but today's book is my all-time favorite lesson using a book in music class, period. *this post contains affiliate links* If you don't know this book, run, don't walk, to your nearest library (or buy it here) and get it NOW. It is a hilarious book about a boy who doesn't want to go to sleep. Instead of being quiet and going to sleep (as several people try to tell him to do), he keeps singing quite rambunctiously! Here is a read aloud if you're not familiar with the story: I actually use a different melody that I picked up from my cooperating teacher during my student teaching for Mortimer's song. Mine is pentatonic so the students can play a bordun in tonic without having to change keys: You could make up whatever melody you like to reinforce whatever solfege pitches you are practicing. Here is how I use the book in my class (this process is spread out over several lessons): 1. Learn the song and read the story I actually teach the students the song before reading the story, and as I read, I have the students sing along with the song while keeping a steady beat on their legs. When I read, I intentionally read things a certain way to reinforce high and low later on: 1) every time someone goes up or down the stairs, I make the pitch of my voice go gradually higher or lower (on the words, "thump, thump...") and 2) I vary the pitch of each character's speaking voice (the lowest is the police, dad is next, then mom, and the siblings are the highest). 2. Assign characters and act out the story Once they have heard the story and know the song, I assign the students to a character. It doesn't matter how many you have of each at this point- I usually split them up equally between police, dad, mom, and siblings. On their character's portion, those students say the "thump, thump" going up and down the stairs, with their voices going higher and lower, and they also say "Mortimer, be quiet!" in their best impression of that character (I don't worry if they are using the same pitches as I do for that). I also still have them all sing the song each time. 3. Transfer to instruments Once the students are able to perform their character's part, including making their voices go up and down correctly (and I usually have them switch parts a few times), we move to xylophones! The first thing we practice is singing while playing a bordun on the tonic and dominant notes (which they have already been practicing by patting the beat on their legs). Then we all practice going up and down the stairs together- we start at the lowest note and "walk" up by alternating hands and then go back down the other direction. We also practice running up the stairs (which I have the siblings do) by doing a gliss (sliding the mallet across the bars) in each direction. We practice going the correct direction by hearing my call out "up the stairs" or "down the stairs", in random order, and practicing starting on the low or high note. 4. Tell the story with instruments The final step is to perform the whole story with instruments! There are 2 more things that students need to practice to do the final version: adding a few unpitched percussion parts, and splitting up the characters again. I assign the characters by the barred instrument type (hence the variation in pitch in the initial reading): bass instruments are the police, altos are the dad, sopranos are the mom, and glockenspiels are the siblings. If you don't have all of the different types, you can still assign different parts to different students- it is just an added layer of learning to distinguish between instrument types if you do have them. Keep 3 students aside with no barred instruments (I tend to pick the ones who need the least amount of further practice on high/low on the xylophones) while you make sure each student knows when to play their parts for going up and down the stairs and say their line ("be quiet!"). I use 3 unpitched percussion instruments to add another layer of interest and fun to the story. These are totally not necessary for teaching high/low or xylophone technique, but a) it makes the story more fun, b) it gives a chance to give some students a "special part", and c) I take the opportunity to introduce all of the students to these "color instruments" to get them started on knowing the names and how to play them. I have one student who is the opening door, performed on the ratchet, one student who is the closing door, performed on the slap stick, and another who is Mortimer's nodding head, performed on the vibraslap. Obviously you could use other instruments you have in your classroom as well. At the end of the story, I have all 3 of those students lie down on the floor and pretend to go to sleep (it gives them something to do at the end of the story when their parts stop, and I don't want the students on xylophones falling on the floor and knocking the bars off of their instruments). My students and I love this lesson! I always videotape their final performance and show it to their homeroom teachers. I've also used it to do an "informance" in class and invite parents, teachers, and staff to come and watch informally in the classroom, and that was a big hit as well. And after doing it one year, I come back to it again and again for the next few years to review high and low on the Orff instruments (they don't mind). What are your favorite books to use in the music classroom? Share your ideas in the comments below- I'd love to hear them!
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I'm back with another lesson idea for using literature to introduce and practice music concepts with lower elementary students! Today's post is on a book that is brand new to me this year: a wonderful book by Ann McGovern called "Too Much Noise". *this post contains affiliate links* I just used this book this past week (you can get it on Amazon here) with first grade to review loud and soft, introduce the vocabulary forte and piano, and review classroom instrument names and playing technique. You could use this book with any lower elementary grade to practice or introduce dynamics and/or timbre. The first thing we did was read the story. This book is a wonderful story about a man who thinks the quiet sounds in his house are too loud, who gets a bunch of loud animals at the advice of the town's wise man, and then realizes how quiet his house actually is when he gets rid of all of the animals. The illustrations are wonderful and there are several sound words in the story- the swishing of the wind, the mooing of the cow- which I had the students say with me as I read. At the end of the book, I asked the students to retell the story, and then asked them which sounds were loud and which were quiet (or soft. I know some teachers care deeply about which word you use- I use them both interchangeably but will use "quiet" in this post for consistency's sake). We practiced saying the animal sounds loudly and the house sounds quietly. Since I was using the book to introduce the vocabulary words "forte" and "piano", I introduced those words here, having the students say the words loudly and quietly, respectively. That was the end of the first 30-minute lesson. In the next lesson, we reviewed the basic story line, reviewed the words "forte" and "piano", and I had students sort the sound words into categories of forte and piano. I did this on my interactive whiteboard, but you could also do this on a regular whiteboard and just write the words, or print the words on cards and have them sort as a class or in small groups. Then I told the students that I wanted to use instruments for each of the sounds instead of our voices. We quickly reviewed the classroom instruments we used last year, including small percussion and barred instruments, and for each discussed whether the instrument could produce sounds that are forte, piano, or both (An egg shaker, for example, is hard to play forte, but a cowbell, on the other hand, is difficult to play quietly, although it can be done. A hand drum could easily be used for either forte or piano). Once we reviewed the instruments, the students chose one instrument to represent each sound, and I assigned a few students to each one. Then we read the story again, this time playing the appropriate instrument each time the sound came up in the story. I reminded the students before we started that they should play their instruments at the appropriate dynamic level that we had discussed, but that they should never play over the sound of any other instrument or my reading. This lesson was a great way to review dynamics and instrument names, give the students a chance to play some instruments, and introduce forte and piano. Have you ever used this book in your music classes? I would love to hear your ideas as well- leave a comment! If you want to see some of the other lessons I teach with children's literature, click here.
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