Kindergarten is a year of preparation. It’s a year to teach a variety of repertoire and allow students to experience a mixture of songs, games, instruments, folk dances, and other activities. Every concept seems to stem from the idea of same or different: singing vs. speaking, fast vs. slow, loud vs….
Category: Listening
Listening for ta-dimi
My third graders just learned ta-dimi, an eighth note followed by two sixteenths, so we listened to “Fossils” from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns this week. My students have heard this piece in the past. In second grade they heard it and read the first four beats of rhythm: takadimi…
Book Review – Martin & Mahalia: his words, her song
Book: Martin & Mahalia: his words, her song Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney Illustrator: Brian Pinkney Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2013 Martin & Mahalia: his words, her song is a nonfiction picture book with beautiful artwork, poetic language, and smooth, easy-to-read-aloud text. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahalia Jackson shared…
Who’s That Tapping at the Window
It’s been several months since I wrote a blog post, so I’ll write about a favorite song that I just posted under Resources for Teachers, Solfége and Rhythm examples. Who’s That Tapping at the Window is a folk song with amazing potential. The source listed in my song collection is…
More Listening Lessons – Schubert
The spring semester was very busy and I completed Orff-Schulwerk Level III right after school finished (Orff Certified!), so it’s taken me longer to follow up on listening lessons than I had planned. I’ll try to address the specific questions I received by email with one of my favorite listening…
Listening Lessons
All of my listening lessons tie into my regular lessons in some way. Sometimes they relate to a rhythmic element, a related pitch or scale, or even form, such as rondo. The very best listening examples have a clear melody the students can sing. Need examples? Certainly. 1. Mozart’s “Allegro”…