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 |
I am so honoured to have the opportunity to have written an outdoor music learning experience for the amazing Manitoba Mosaic concert series of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra! I wrote about this amazing series of videos that are a tribute to our beautiful province of Manitoba that I call home. A visit through each of our lovely seasons by the amazing conductor Naomi Woo, who speaks of listening to all the music around us, and shares how she loves being outside, walking and riding her bike even in winter! I loved watching these videos to hear from others who also love nature, getting outdoors, and all the beautiful images of places and natural areas that surround us. Hey Terre, by the talented Kelly Bado, is a gorgeous song that has been floating in my mind the entire time as I considered how to celebrate this song, and the earth, and the joy we have been experiencing outside! It is awesome that we have been responding to this lovely piece, which is a letter of gratefulness to the earth, during the month in which Earth Day takes place! You can access the study guide for this beautiful series by clicking on the Manitoba Mosaic image above until June 30th, 2021. Here, I am including my process of how we will created our movement response to this beautiful piece, and a final video of students presenting their movement response appears below! NB Thank you to Kelly Bado who gave me permission to use the recording of her song for this project. Here is our final video, based on the lesson in the study guide: I created the lesson to be experienced outside. What a beautiful way to celebrate the earth: by doing a movement response to the music and lyrics about gratefulness for our earth while we are actually outside; where we can appreciate the wind, the ground, the sky as we move. There are examples of dancing and singing to music outside for celebrations going back since the beginning of recorded time, so that is how we will celebrate this beautiful piece, and the earth itself! First class, Monday, April 5th: I spoke of Kelly Bado, her amazing song and how it is a letter to the earth of thanks. I spoke of using the idea of lyrical dance to represent the beautiful poetry of this piece. We listened to the first verse and chorus. I had some ideas for larger group sections that I wanted to do, so we did those. At the moment, I'm thinking that the chorus will be the whole group demonstrating the earth spinning and celebrating the earth. The verses are where I may be giving them the opportunity to be in groups and create movement ideas that connect with each line of lyrics... and then try to take those movements and make them more abstract, versus being a direct action that represents a word. With the lesson in the study guide it speaks of lyrical dance and movement responses, and being comfortable anywhere on that scale based on what students choose to create, and choose to add with their experience of movement and dance. As long as they are representing what the words make them feel and want to respond with, then the outcome of connecting to the poetry on a personal level is met. Students in this group felt comfortable adding some new movements with turns, new steps. They also shared their joy and love of moving in many different ways that I hadn't imagined in the beginning, as the project also enveloped our happiness with being outside for music! All these groups this year have really stepped up to trying new experiences with music outside - exploring space, experimenting with new sounds. They are like sound and movement scientists! How exhilarating! So, for today, I had them do a few group things just to get them done, and to see if I liked the look on film. Here they are so far, below. I really wanted to put them dance-walking forwards, because that is how this class comes out to music "class" outside each day. It is just so fun and feels so festive each time, and then we have a giant improv dance circle, called a cypher, where they all get a chance to dance by themselves if they want, while the rest of the community of the class supports them by clapping along. I plan on showing them up to this point via a Teams meeting, as this is actually 3 different rooms, so it's easier to show over a video chat: Tuesday, April 6th... Had a video chat with these students in their 3 rooms and shared my screen to show them how I put together what may have seemed like 3 random moments. Then I showed them how another class had done the chorus part which I liked how they changed it. I saw it as students just running in a circle. This group sort of skips it instead of running, and they also spin themselves while going around in a larger circle, as if they are all planets going around a sun. Then I picked a student with a yellow hat to actually be the sun, and other student wanted join as they also had a yellow hat. I loved their spinning and jumping, and the suns are moving because we listened to TMBG's 'Why Does the Sun Shine' (but to be accurate one should really listen to the follow up 'Why Does the Sun REALLY Shine?"). Anyway, I shared this video on the video chat so that they could see this idea. I love how the choreography for the main sections that I'm creating sort of morph from group to group as we think of different ideas, or they simply move in different ways... and it just becomes more refined throughout the day. As well, watching different groups with the piece helps me come up with different ways to approach different sections. Another thing that helps me visualize different sections is listening to it constantly. I think it will be what I wrote yesterday: the chorus parts will be choreographed mostly by myself (with creative interpretations added as above), and then phrases from the verses will be choreographed by small groups. I've created large posters that I put outside so that these phrases can be seen as they are creating the choreography for these parts. I'm thinking each group would get up from the down position they are in (in the video above), share their movement idea for their phrase in the verse, then freeze in a tableau, then the next group and the next group... In my mind, I see the bridge/3rd verse section as sort of a dream-like section with slow mirrored movements. The end with the repeating chorus, I have a surprise that I'm adding, to sort of highlight the improvisational descant lines... and I want it to feel like just pure joy of being on this planet "living it up". I didn't end up doing these ideas, as I ended up loving the snow scenes below, and made them be the slower dream-like section as it's just so fun to watch them playing in the last snowstorm. When we perform the piece from beginning to end, they actually do using the slower movements in the dream-like bridge section, but this was really fun for the video! Interesting how the media of film can change how it can appear! Week of April 12th...What the form of the dance has become: I've alluded to the form of the dance in the last two entries, and now after seeing many groups perform and listening to the piece a lot, when they perform the whole piece from beginning to end: The first "Hey - never let me down" is an intro to each thought for the earth (as per poster above), that is introduced by 4 groups, one group at a time. They will choose how to represent each sentence/thought, with input for how to add traditional movements/steps into their ideas, or a way to make more abstract versus a straight "action" movement. trying to have more of the artistry and flow of movement to match the artistry and flow of the poetry (so beautiful!). The chorus is skipping around in a giant circle, while individually spinning at random times. They stop at 'giving it up' to do a small group movement, and demonstrate 'living it up' with individual dances as they love to do this, and it works for how we are all individuals on this planet, and we are joined together by it... which matches Ms Bado's introduction to her song in the WSO video, so I want to represent those words. The second 'never let me down' sequence is a dream-like bridge section and this could be reflected in their four groups, possibly with flocking (thanks to Ingrid Pedersen, the arts coordinator for my division, who I ask constantly what the word is for this very visually beautiful movement form)! This doesn't appear in the final video as I mentioned above that I loved the snow scenes and how joyful they seem. The chorus at the end can be the spinning again as above, but also with some fun free dance added in, because this group loves improvisational dance, so I've been filming lots of examples of that to add at the end! We dance walk out to our spot each class, they do cypher dance improvisations... it's very fun! I want to share that joy of movement in their presentation. As we in Manitoba know IT'S BEEN SNOWING! So even though it was really very windy, and wind is hard for me to stay in, and try to bring out my supplies or put up displays etc, or even just be able to see, I still took this one class out to play in the snow as I've wanted fun snow videos and pictures all winter! So for fun, I've put together a montage of some of what we have done that will eventually be put at the end, or used differerently... I made the bridge part be slow motion as it matches that section in my mind! Fun to play with different clips and work with what it will be in the end! Hard on the equipment! Haha! Definitely good to get the water resistant kind! The only way I could see today, lol! This was such a fun project, and so fun to be actually outside to lift our arms up to the sky and say thank you to the earth directly! Each time we did this movement, the sky looked different, and that is very powerful, that we are thankful for the changing sky, and the weather each time we do music outside.
There are so many different learning outcomes that occurred with classes while learning and responding to this piece: Music - most certainly we addressed many music outcomes in all four wings of the Manitoba Music Curriculum, of form, beat, rhythm, responding to music with movement, roles, music and musicians from our community, creating together, performing, rehearsing.... Dance, Drama - many similar outcomes to music were involved. SEL (Social Emotional Learning) Mindfulness - one is definitely experiencing being in the moment with a project like this, and it's often why it feels amazing to perform music together, because "you are the music while the music lasts". Physical Education - a huge element to music is movement, and even more so this year when we are outside! They get a lot of exercise in music class this year! Environment learning - so important with this song. Numeracy - something I regularly point out to students is that music has patterns, fractions, forms, and they are representing their understanding of these mathematical musical principles through music and movement. Literacy - learning the lyrics and how to represent and respond to them. Check out some more curricular connections for this music experience by clicking on the picture below!
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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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