Learning About Nature Through
Music and the Arts
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
In the fall, I wrote a post called "Inspired to Create" about the amazing experience of learning music outside throughout 2020-2021. We have continued to learn outside this year as well, but - because I have the option of using my music room again - all of the times where it is incredibly windy or cold (which it seems to be in abundance this year of 21-22) we learn inside, and love again having the option of playing instruments that wouldn't be taken outside.
I'm so excited to say that Grade 3 and 4 students will be creating music with composer, Rayne Hamilton! A few weeks ago, our amazing LRSD music coordinator, Ingrid Pedersen, proposed an innovative way to experience Orff Day for our students this year! Ingrid is so positive and enthusiastic, and is always finding creative and new ways for students to experience music and the arts, and this has especially been seen throughout the pandemic. Below is a Tweet from an "Orff Day" in 2019:
As you can see by the lively picture above, from 2019, our traditional Grade 4 Orff Days are filled with a lot of students from around the entire school division, which is amazing, but we aren't quite at the point yet to get back to having huge crowds of students indoors, from various schools. We will get there again :-)
So this year, Ingrid Pedersen suggested having music clinicians come to our schools to do sessions with grade 4 students (or in our case, all the grade 3 and 4 students). One suggestion was the talented Raine Hamilton! I was immediately excited, thinking about how I was wanting to work on composing about our outdoor experiences with students, because I had actually been at a concert years ago where Raine Hamilton, and a number of other songwriters, had a concert following a songwriting retreat at Fort Whyte Alive! Check out this description of the experience: "Our thanks to Manitoba Music and the nine artists who brought their energy to FortWhyte Alive for this unique collaboration. Creating opportunities for others to become enchanted by lakeside views, roaming bison and aspen forests is an important part of our mission at FortWhyte Alive."
So amazing! And it was such a gorgeous concert! I've been excitedly communicating back and forth with Raine Hamilton for weeks now! It will be in April, and I cannot wait!
Here are some responses that students gave back in the fall, when I asked them to describe their time learning music outside... This is made with online word cloud generators. Words that get said repeatedly end up larger than others, so you can see the word "fun" is huge, meaning it was said so many times by so many classes. I just love that so much. Students regularly ask when we can go outside again, this year. At the moment, because it keeps being -30 to -40 celsius with North winds gusting to 50-70km/hr, I just gesture around me and say "Sure, just not in THIS." Hahaha! I can't believe how incredibly cold and windy it still is in the middle of March! Students had to stay indoors for recess yesterday on March 10th because it was so freezing! In any case, it will be amazing to see these responses and reflections below shared in music with our collaboration with Raine Hamilton in April!
Another way students have been reflecting and responding musically to our experiences learning music outside is through using SoundTrap. This is another amazing initiative of our arts coordinator, Ingrid Pedersen.
The Grade 5 students have been creating compositions with SoundTrap, using music loops infused with nature sounds. Here are a couple that I have created as examples. Here is the description for the first one: "This is an example for my students of incorporating outside/nature sounds into a composition, to represent our experiences of learning music outside during the 2020 2021 school year."
Here is the next one:
"This track was made with SoundTrap to show my students an example of creating a fusion of nature sounds we would hear when learning music outside during the 2020-2021 school year, integrated with music loops (SoundTrap, and my own voice). The music loops I used/created emulate the reflective feeling I often have when walking by myself in our beautiful, snowy, winter landscapes. Before the classes would come outside each day, I would have a moment to myself to just be grateful for all I could see and hear - the breeze, the birds, the sunrise...
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Click HERE to go back to the first postBio - Jennifer EngbrechtI am a music specialist in the Louis Riel School Division in Manitoba, Canada. I have a strong interest in the interrelationship of all subject areas, especially infusing the arts into all learning, and as their own stand-alone subjects. NEW:
So excited to be interviewed for Green Teacher Magazine's "Talking With Green Teachers" Podcast My article in the MSSTA Journal for Fall 2021... Click on the image below:
My article in the Summer 2021 Green Teacher Magazine. Click on the image below:
Disconnect: The Outdoor Education Podcast - listen to this episode about Teaching Music Outside by clicking on the picture below:
Looking for the WSO Manitoba Mosaic lesson for Hey Terre by Kelly Bado?
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