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 |
Much earlier in this school year, I posted about adding movements to rhythms to do a tabata style workout! We are back at it, with a new twist! I created new cards that are much bigger so students can see them outside, when they are distanced. The cards are created with movements that I had in mind... for example, the one above could be squat for 2 beats (half note) and then high knees jogging on the 4 8th notes. Tabata is a type of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) where one does a higher intensity movement (like burpees or mountain climbers) for 20 seconds, then wait for 10 seconds. This pattern is repeated 10 times, totalling 4 minutes. Often, exercise classes have music, and the participants are moving to the music... but they might not know that the movements they are doing are rhythms... But I do because rhythms are always in my head... so when I do burpees, they happen to be 4 quarter notes 1 feet jump back, 2 feet jump back forward, 3 jump up, 4 land! Mountain climbers are repeating 8th notes... so this is how I made the cards! I thought of whatever movement one could do with 16th, 8th, quarter, half, and whole notes, then created rhythm cards. I will show the students the various movements that work with each note duration, then when I show a 4 beat rhythm they will decide which movements to pick! All of that is part 1. Part 2 is: they will be moving around in a group circle, mindful of being distanced (we have a LOT of space so it's easy to do), based on the listening example I give! I spent last night making a listening playlist of orchestral works to get them to gallop, sneak, run in slow motion, etc... giggling as I created it! Well! We used these cards and ideas today and one of the things that made me laugh the most was getting them go join their teacher from our spot in the field with one of the listening examples! One group sneakily walked to their teacher, another ran in slow motion! It was so awesome that this gets their teacher to respond: the sneaky group's teacher pretended to run away! The slow motion group's teacher ran towards THEM in slow motion too! So funny and so joyful... Ended one of my classes with students making snow art! I had seen students playing with snow last week while listening to their teacher, and thought it would be so fun to just play some mindful music and let them create. As you saw in a previous post, they did so last week, and it was so lovely! It was beautiful in the sunshine today as well, and here are some pictures from the kindergarten class' creations: I told them that making snow art, especially their abstract examples above, remind me of the beautiful works created by @zalansz on California beaches, and I can't wait to show them one day! And UPDATE!! Apparently there are amazing artists who do work like this with snow as well! Can't wait to show my students! They will be so excited!! Here is Simon Beck: And here is Kim Asmussen in Schreiber, Ontario! Which sort of took me to my next idea watching students throw snow, and smash ice on the ground... I thought of the art of Shinichi Maruayma and how we can be inspired by these moments in time that are so lovely. I told a class about this and a new student came up and told me about how beautiful this would be with the sun behind it. It's so interesting at this time of year as most of the day is a slow sunrise or sunset, and so we have this beautiful backdrop all the time, with long shadows. So inspiring!
To see curricular connections for Tabata Rhythms, click on the picture below!
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This quote is on my wall in my office. For me, its meaning is music. Music is the beauty that I love... and sharing it is my passion and my way to serve others. I love to share music in performance, and with students so that they receive the gift of knowing that music is theirs to play, to experience, and to create. Music is joy, calm, fun... Music heals us, supports us and lifts us up.
Another meaning that came to me today, is the many ways I can share music with others. Most of the ways I have taught in the past are currently on hold. We aren't singing, or playing the instruments we usually play, and I have never taught music outside, day after day, in summer weather or winter weather, as I am now. You would think I would run out of things to do each day, because how does one teach music without traditional classroom instruments or singing? I keep thinking this too, that I will run out of ideas, but each day I find myself typing out idea after idea of future experiences to try with students outside! It does help that I have expanded what I do to include all the arts... but all of the arts that I am using are always to support music: - Using drama to get students to role play an orchestral work - Using art in real time to respond to a piano piece - Using movement to demonstrate rhythms or musical form I'm so excited about the ideas that are coming up with dance, art and non-traditional instruments for students to see "outside" differently, and explore new ideas! More to come! CLICK HERE to go to post #22 We started class the way we often do, with a warm up dance! But, while they were dancing, I was distracted as always, by the beauty of the sky, and the trees... ...so when they finished the dance, I told them to look at the beautiful sunrise (safely - told them to not stare at the sun for too long)... we all climbed up the hill to watch this glorious view: And with the trees... One student exclaimed that it looked like The Lion King and I knew exactly what he meant as The Lion King is a favourite movie! So we all listened to The Circle of Life and I named various animals that show up in that opening scene, and students acted like these animals as we listened! After we carried on with the activity for that day, but taking that moment to be inspired was pretty special! What they didn't know is that in my mind I'm picturing the musical version on Broadway which I haven't seen, but REALLY REALLY WANT TO!!! So I got their teachers to share this video with them so they can picture all the puppets and how it is acted out to see amazing movement that can be done to present this piece: Goosebumps... So hopefully another time when there is a beautiful sunrise we will do it again! Cypher! When the first group of students were coming out, I was listening to music on a playlist that I made called "groovy"... music that you just can't help bobbing your head along with: So when they came out, I just kept playing the music, and asked them to get in a GIANT DISTANCED circle, and do a cypher, which is each person getting a chance to go into the middle and do their own improvised movement! They don't have to, they can pass to the next person, and many did so.. but many also did their own fun movements! And the point is while they are doing this, everyone else is clapping along and supporting them! It's a wonderful community builder, and a nice way to support each other! I pointed out one girl particularly, who, for each person, would shout out "YEAH! Go (name)!!" It was so great! We love having a cheering section! Ended up doing this for the warm up all day, with students saying "Can we do it again??" It is also great because this is improvisation, which we do in music as well, so it is a great way to start this! They actually have been doing improvisation since grade 1-2 with me, so I reminded them of this so they could made this connection. I also pointed out that improvisation uses a different part of our brain than what we use to perform pre-learned pieces... so it is very important as it is the part that helps us think in the moment and problem solve... in music!
Winter is so interesting in Canada, as the sun rises and sets on my day... and I love getting to see every part of it in outdoor music class! I am so lucky to have a teaching partner! We share classes, and bounce ideas off of each other! I also love watching students from a different angle, as a supporting role for when my teaching partner is the main teacher. While she is leading the class with her fun games, I wander around the group, helping students, and I get to see the little things they are doing while they listen to her instructions. They are always moving a little bit, or noticing things around themselves while they listen... children are just awake to the world, and they need to move! Definitely why the Orff approach involves so much movement and games in this style of learning music! While watching them, I end up thinking of so many ideas, like the shadow movements, and this past week I was watching some enjoy swirling the snow with their mitts or boots while listening, and it made me think it would be fun to create snow art, in the same way people create sand art: So! I did this today with my afternoon classes, while playing a playlist of guitar and lute music etc that is generally calming music... the look on one little one's face when she found a leaf to add to her little sculpture was absolutely precious! Some drew, some made sculptures, and one just danced to the music... love it! Snow Suit Creations! So this is another example of noticing the quiet movements of students as they listen to my teaching partner. Some quietly play with their snowsuits, enjoying the sound while they are listening. It made me think! Our snowsuits have so many fun sounds! So for the past few days, we've been finding all the different ways we can make scraping sounds with our arms against our jackets, or snowpants with scissor jumps, or our zippers which sounds like a record scratch, or our boots that we can stomp or tap together, or anything they can think of! Each class learned a bit of a rhythm called Cabaret which is similar to the version in Calla Isaak's book: ... But I use some different rhythms with the way I was taught by Jordan Hanson who teaches mostly in Victoria, but also comes back to teach in Winnipeg... I took lessons with him for years, and he taught the Cabaret rhythm to my students in the past.... The cool thing with rhythms is you can play them on anything... think of Stomp! and how they play the most amazing rhythms with brooms, garbage lids, etc! So we played the Cabaret rhythm with our snow gear!
Then, I created small groups, and asked students to create their own rhythm creations together. After they had been practicing for a while, I asked them to add a level, by adding choreography with their rhythms. Some students presented today already and it was so amazing! Also, my phone does an amazing job of picking up the sounds of their snowsuits, especially seeing as there was a bit of a breeze today but you could still hear it! I love seeing their performances as they are so accustomed to creating compositions together from years of experience in music class, so they always have these fun ideas with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and know to let everyone have a turn to add ideas... it's really quite the skill to collaborate with others, and build ideas to the point of presenting them... this is needed for so many areas of life, and here we are learning these skills in music class! UPDATE: These percussion creations with snowsuits are going sooo well! Students compose in my music classes throughout the year in all grades, so I was telling all my oldest students today how amazing their compositions are. I can see how they are incorporating so many levels to what they are creating... solos, polyrhythms, musical expression. They are doing such an excellent job of watching each other so closely to perform as an ensemble... I was telling each class how much I love watching them grow as composers and musicians, and that I hope they keep creating music in their lives... To read about curricular connections for this music experience, click on the picture below! Students have been inspired by orchestral works and chain reaction machines! First, I'd like to say that I was away for a few weeks with a leg injury, and was just blown away when I came back, because some groups hadn't presented their movement/drama creations from Haydn's Clock Symphony (previous post), and they remembered what they were doing completely and presented! It's so important for students to create something using the concepts they are learning, because they remember it so well when they synthesize these concepts into their own projects. I remember quite clearly when I was in history in high school that our teacher would ask us to use concepts and facts as criteria for making projects whatever way we wanted to go, so with 2 different projects, I made a journal of a soldier, and created a song. I remember what the soldier was writing about, and getting the binding, and how to end the journal, and I remember lyrics to the song and the melody and the theme.. and this is over 30 years ago. Do not ask me to recount what I memorized for tests... that is gone. It is only short-term memorization for this or that test. I also remember almost every sonnet or speech of Shakespeare that I was to memorize. Why? Because I had to decide how to act it out, and present it. So! On with our latest learning outside! Back in December, music teachers were thinking of ways to share seasonal pieces, such as the music of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, which is presented by our local Royal Winnipeg Ballet each year in December. A colleague shared a cute version with actions for hands to demonstrate the different sections, by the talented Mr. DelGaudio: I love it! While I was watching, I started thinking that it would be neat, because we are outside, to get our whole bodies to act out the different sections with movement, as that is part of my mission this year, for students to get to use a lot of space, have free movement, and be creative, as they don't get to move as much inside this year... and I started thinking about the bridges to each new section, and the connections even within each melody, how they sound like they flow from one little motif to the next... You can see at 16 seconds, 24 seconds, 32 seconds for example, he has a little connecting movement he does between the melodies... and that little spot in the piece is a quick descending melody that reminded me of a little ball rolling down like a chain reaction machine... and then I started thinking about connecting this piece with its bridges from one section to the next with chain reaction machines! So I got teachers to share this video in their classes so they would understand the visualizations I was speaking about outside to inspire us and prepare us for this outdoor movement activity! I just had to watch that all over again because it's sooo amazing! What an orchestral work and a chain reaction machine have in common is that there is a timeline from beginning to end that we follow in real time, there are different sections of interest to pay attention to, and the action never stops from beginning to end: your mind is always being taken somewhere and it is all connected. In music there are "bridges" between sections to lead you to the next section of interest. With a chain reaction machine we see a ball or swing lead us to the next area... so I wanted students to create sections of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in groups, but in a long line where the groups had to stay in order, and CONNECT their movements to the next group... the little movement part in So Long Farewell from The Sound of Music demonstrates little movements that pass from one child to another here, and you can see it demonstrated at 8 seconds: It was very fun to watch their movements they created, and how they would "pass" to the next group!
CLICK HERE to go to post #19
Oh my word!!! I'M SO EXCITED!! People keep asking me what we are going to do once it gets colder, you know, because it is Winterpeg, Canada!
They've been working on this for a while, but until I saw them actually post about it here, I wasn't sure it was for sure happening:
The tents are already here!
We continue to be inspired by everything around us outside! Our shadows, snow, the sky and creatures and events around us can become be part of our activities at any moment and it's so amazing!
My philosophy for this time outside is now posted at the top of the page: Move Play Create Be Inspired Repeat They are all important, and each is used in almost every lesson. During this time, I know it can be difficult when inside, in distanced places, to be able to move freely and creatively to be safe, but outside, we have a LOT of space, so we spread out and get many chances to use our energy, our creativity and be inspired by music and nature around us! None of the words say music itself, but it's moving... to music, playing... with music, etc! When I create lessons for movement, we move a LOT and the students know it! We have to warm up often, especially earlier in the morning when it is cooler, so we will be inspired by a LOT of movement either with an invigorating warm up to music that involves a lot of running and jumping...
... or music games where they run, skip, jump all over the field. They play games and or create ideas or characters, using music and our surroundings as our inspiration! Here are some recent examples!
In the Hall of the Mountain King, from the play, Peer Gynt, by Edvard Grieg: This is a super fun symphonic piece that was composed by Edvard Grieg for a play called Peer Gynt. I tell them the general story that the Mountain King and the other gnomes chase the character Peer Gynt off the mountain! It is fun as it starts slow and mysterious, and gets noticeably faster and faster until the end when it is racing and loud! I've done this for years, with students having a partner, one who is Peer and one who is the gnome... that is a fun day in the music room! But now, I wanted to make sure they kept distant, but also had a chance to use the space we have! So! They all spaced out in the huge field, and used their shadows to watch their gnome characters... and they chased me, acting as Peer Gynt, across the field! Okay that sounds bananas! Haha! But they could only move in their own section of the music, and had to take small steps, and follow the beat, and keep walking straight across the field... it has a call/answer phrasing throughout the piece, so Peer walks then freezes in a statue pose, then the gnomes move across then make a statue, over and over again. Then there are several fun statues at the end! Much laughter! Here they come after me:
Getting closer!!
To use shadows, there are only so many special days, or even parts of days, where we can use the shadows... So here in the picture below you can see we just happened to have enough time to play the Mountain King game before the clouds enveloped the sun for the rest of the day! We had to move fast haha!
Carnival of the Animals - St Saens - progressive story!
Students in Kindergarten came with me, literally, on a journey around the school field, as I tell the story of the Carnival of the Animals, and students act out each different animal in different parts of the field! The donkey dashes across the field, the kangaroo hops up the hill, we move through the trees to hear the elusive cuckoo bird! So fun! Peter and the Wolf - Prokofiev - Shadow acting! This one we prepared for in advance! Sometimes if it is raining or overly windy (I draw the line around 40-50 km/hr!) I will have inside lessons projected via Teams into their classrooms, which I like to do because it is a presentation of various ideas I use to build plans for when we are next outside! Because we were having SO much fun playing with shadows, I told them about how we can use our shadows for movement and telling stories, and that there are even shadow puppet shows! First, I shared this amazing piece that was created by students with the amazing James Harding of the San Francisco School, who I have had the great fortune of learning from on several occasions at national and international conferences! In fact the first time I learned from him was 5 years ago this very week at the San Diego Orff Schulwerk Conference!
Have to do something like that one year...
A few years ago, our students had the amazing chance to work with our arts coordinator, Ingrid Pedersen, who came and inspired the grade 4s with shadow puppetry! We used dance, puppetry and green screen videos for legends from around the world for that concert and it was so fun! Here is an example of what they did, and I shared it with some students on Teams!
LOVE! Thank you so much, Ms Pedersen!!
With these ideas in mind, I shared Pierre et le loup, aka Peter and the Wolf, and all the instrument introductions so they could see them and hear them being played, and then pitched the idea of going outside the next class and acting out all the characters ourselves for this story! I've had the chance to do this with several classes and it has been so fun! Haydn's Clock Symphony! I have LOVED being able to work with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for years to have our students perform on stage, and this and the amazing PD sessions to prepare for this has given me a wide range of symphonic pieces to have so much fun with, with kids! This piece starts calm and measured, but then has a very energetic, powerful B section that switches to a minor key, then goes back to the measured music at the end. Students were asked to create characters and a scene for this piece, that something extreme happens in the middle, then goes back to the original scene for the end to demonstrate their understanding that the A section has returned. They were all amazing! AMAZING! I watched animals playing, storms swirling, kids at school, a restaurant scene... whatever they came up with for an idea... and they created all of it! Tears in my eyes they were so brilliant! The amount of critical thinking, communication skills, team work, adaptability, self-discipline, and intangible creativity I witnessed this past week is wonderful!
Hot Air Balloon Inspiration at Kindergarten Class/Recess!
We were so excited to see a hot air balloon, and instead of trying to carry on with whatever lesson I was wanting to do, we carried on with the balloon inspiration!! I played some slow piano composition, and students were inspired to move slowly, floating across the butterfly garden field like the hot air balloon! Now, they weren't quite sure how to do this, but some of my grade 5 students were outside, as it is recess during the morning kindergarten music class, so they - from a far away space as they are in a different cohort - demonstrated floating across their side of the sidewalk, while kindergartens excitedly followed their modelling! So cute! They kept entertaining each other for the rest of the class! When the kindergartens went back inside the grade 5s asked if they can always come and help from their distant spot and I said yes! This is amazing because a few weeks ago when this schedule started with having kindergartens during recess, it seemed so difficult as they were distracted by recess kids, and didn't seem to have a place to do music... but once I collaborated with my wonderful Phys Ed Outdoor Team about where they take kindergartens, and remembered other kids can't play in the butterfly garden area, I had a great spot! And it just naturally separates the other kids who still like to come over and play! So this turned into such an excellent opportunity for the older students to be role models for the younger ones! Friday, November 6th, The Day the Sky Showed Off! It had been COLD and GLOOMY all morning, but still fantastic because of the Clock Symphony mentioned above... so it was a surprise to come out and see the blue sky... but it was more than that! It was absolutely FULL of "atmospheric phenomena"!
The class was so excited!!
What we are seeing is more than "sundogs"... there are other "atmospheric phenomena" present, but I'm not sure what they all are... maybe some that were present in this amazing picture from Brent McKean in Manitoba, Dec. 29, 2017:
Later, people had responded to him to add all the phenomena in the photo: "A circumizenthal arc, a supra lateral arc, an upper tangeat arc( relatively rare). a 46 degree halo(pretty rare), a Parry arc, Parrysuperlatesal arcs, a 22 degree halo, twin sun dogs(parhelia) partial parhelic circle and a upper sun pillar. Very rare to see all of these during a single event. "
Very cool! Can't see that in my old classroom with no windows! And it doesn't stick around long either! Another teacher was outside all day, but not during the 20 minutes during which this happened... so these are special moments for sure! There is beauty around us. To read more about curricular connections for these symphonic music creations, click on the picture below!
We teachers know we are usually in our rooms, doing what we do, but we don't necessarily get a chance to see what is going on in the other rooms because, well, we are teaching. I know that teachers often get a chance to see what is happening with their own students at the end of class when they pop in to pick them up, but now... music and phys. ed. are just - out there, in the open field, and everyone can see what we are doing from the windows, from when they are dropping off their students outside and see what other classes are doing... and it's great!
I'm playing music all the time that we are using as listening examples to move to, plus dances, and so often people are looking on to see what we are up to. And sometimes they even join in! I love hearing a teacher exclaim "That's so cool!" when we are playing with shadows, or snow, or learning a new dance! One unexpected, but wonderful tradition that has developed, is that as the phys ed teachers and I are walking down the hall to go outside for the afternoon, I start playing music to pump us up, and encourage us!! This happened because I thought it's so funny with all of us walking together with our wagons, and our sunglasses, and I said it's like the scene from a movie of the characters walking in slow motion in, let's say, their space suits, or whatever!
I told them I want to make a video of us doing this haha! So one day, I found music from Top Gun that matches us walking out, like a soundtrack for us, and it was so fun! So now, every day I do this, and if I take a bit to line it up, there are now people who say "Where's the music?" and "This is my favourite part of the day!" That is great to hear, and great that music is what is doing it!
It reminds me of a few months ago, of Mo Willems talking to Jimmy Fallon about art (which I interpret more broadly as all the arts): "Science is going to get us out of this. Art [the arts] is going to get us THROUGH this!"
Being present helps me teach outside... and teaching outside makes me be present. I'm noticing so many things when I am outside, and helping students do so as well. Whether there is sun, snowflakes falling, or snow everywhere, or geese flying by etc, these are wonderful moments to follow and celebrate with the students. Nature helps me be in the moment, and adapt in the moment, and change plans which is fun and makes you be awake to the world. Adapting and changing quickly are wonderful skills for students. This amazing quote from John Spencer above. Even when I was teaching for the past 25 years in a regular classroom, I've always created my own learning experiences and curated content to share with students to illustrate my ideas so we can turn them into inspirations for creation. Now that I am outside, I can barely even follow my own lesson plans!! Every day is becoming more of a stream of consciousness, state of flow sort of thing instead of anything planned... it’s just constant improv is the norm versus lesson plans... ... Following the weather, the seasons, the animals, the sky, the planes... just... everything is an inspiration to share something in the moment and I just flow with it... this is the year of the pivot and music class is just a constant... being on the edge of my seat... the... edge of experience... harkens back to a show of Wanda Koop’s at the Winnipeg Art Gallery called The Edge of Experience... I was taking a drama class as my final course for my PBDE (Post Bacc Diploma in Education) and we visited the show for hours, and then we were supposed to now think of what the phrase The Edge of Experience meant to us and make a class 'collective creation' out of it. We ended up making up several different sections of a drama piece that connected with us for that phrase. Here, exactly 10 years later, I am... on the edge of experience. We all are. None of us feel we know what we are doing with this year. There was an article in the Wpg Free Press where a teacher explained that she feels like a first year teacher. It does feel like that. I’ve been teaching for over 25 years, but I feel out of my element this year... not even like a first year teacher, actually, because I felt very confident in my first year... my university training was amazing for teaching elementary music, especially with my Orff training. But this year? No one has prepared me for this. I have done basically nothing I have ever done before. And being outside is like a new set of challenges (or... opportunities!) every day... and I face them and it is wonderful. Any given moment I have to have about 3 different lessons ready... 1 is the original one that I planned for, following curricular outcomes but also connected to outside learning. The second is the inside lesson in case the weather is too windy or raining. What I love about those is I use that time to illustrate point about what we will do outside next, with videos or websites. I also might expand on something we are doing outside, again with videos or websites to illustrate. The third lesson? That one is just there somehow, based on years of experiences with music, and that I have Apple Music and can access any song I want in a second... and this third lesson comes from nature itself in the moment. I cannot know it will happen and am surprised when it does, but I follow it and love doing so... we celebrate the eagle, or the geese, or the clouds... Listening to "the wind of my soul...": Shout out to my family who taught me to love winter as a child... always tobogganing, skiing, skating, snowshoes, moccasins... outdoor meals and hot chocolate over a fire, camping... all these are dear experiences to me... and fast forward to this point in my life where all that knowledge of how to not only be safe outside in the winter, but to love it, are so important for my job in a way that I never thought would happen. So here are some things that happened this week, that changed the course of my planned lessons, so that we could be inspired by our surroundings: SHADOWS!! One morning, I noticed the long shadows that we have all day, because it is late fall and the path of the sun has all shadows being long... so! What a perfect time to dance with ourselves!! We noticed our shadows, and then, using Eric Satie's Gymnopédie, we used our arms to flow for the length of the phrases in this piece, which are long and slow. Then we created shapes with the piece, like a tree or a circle (again, with our shadows), but students were instructed to use the whole phrase to create their shape, so they had to move quite slowly! I shared with them that they are being living art when they create these shadows. I will be sharing videos of shadow puppetry and shadow art with them if there is an occasion where I am teaching inside for a class. Then, we made our own monster dance by creating silly movements to go along with the Monster Mash, and watching our own shadows be the monsters that we get to watch while we dance! Another shadow activity was creating a little story about M. Ombrage (Mr. Shadow) that I drew quickly on a portable whiteboard, who wanted to go on an adventure! This shadow story combined the snow forts and giant snowballs students had made during recess the day before. Listening to various symphonic selections, students used the music to go from one snowy location to another, as locations in M. Ombrage's story as he traveled here and there! Like a play with several locations that the audience visits! With the symphonic selections, students would use the music to respond with moving slowly, or galloping etc, in ways that match the music. SNOW!!! It snooooowwed this week, on the evening of October 20th! My that is early, but actually it snowed before Thanksgiving (Canadian, so beginning of October) last year, so actually it could be even earlier! Well! Children cannot contain this excitement, so we found ways to experience it! With one class, for example, we listened to Debussy's "Des pas sur la neige" and moved slowly with each step we could hear being shared with us through this recording, and we made our own snow track art across the field that had been empty of tracks before we did this! So beautiful, the experience and the tracks: Then, we ran, twirling and swirling, back to where we started the class, pretending to be snowflakes, as we responded to "The Snow is Dancing" by Debussy. We also ran about, dramatizing the stormy first movement of Vivaldi's Winter!
Several classes also created dance video game style choreograpy to a wintery, jazzy tune in small groups, and then each group had to present their choreo to the rest of the class while we followed along the way you would with a dance video game! It was so fun, and I loved all of their creations! You can only do shadow dancing when there are shadows. You can only play with fresh snow when it is there. You can only make stories with various "sets" of snow props around the field when they have been made, and they won't be there long! So I love using these various elements of nature when they are there, which means I completely abandon whatever I was planning, so we can celebrate these fun moments! An eagle flew over us again this week, with a different class. We did the same as before, listening to The Eagle Song in Ojibwe, as well as talking about the smudge from our Indigenous People's Day, and also talking about all the seven teachings we had learned that year. Then we did a (distanced) round dance together, talking about the teachings we have learned around this. To read more about curricular connections for these experiences, click on the picture below! There are so many things that happen outside that would never happen inside the school... seeing amazing arcs, halos, sundogs around the sun, seeing all the different types of clouds, being able to go on giant dance walks through the whole school yard, seeing former students on their phys ed walks, having families watch or even join in with our dancing... Check out one of the highlight events this week... with one class we saw an eagle. At first I wasn't sure because sometimes when it gets closer it's actually a crow, but then the students started screaming excitedly that it was a bald eagle, so we stopped everything and watched it soar right above us for several minutes. Then I remembered I had a recording of the eagle song the choir sang in Ojibwe a few years ago during our year long learning of the 7 teachings, culminating in our Indigenous People's Day celebration. This class and I reminisced by pointing over to the area in the school yard where the smudge had taken place... they all remembered the song. This was a powerful moment that would not have happened inside. What I am really enjoying seeing with students doing so much movement to represent music concepts is that they are all becoming so much more creative and experimental... the arts are amazing at getting students to become more confident about who they are, which is what we want, isn't it? In each of the arts curricula is an important outcome that says "demonstrate a valuing of risk taking as a component of the creative process (e.g., take risks, support the risk taking of others)" and I am definitely seeing this occuring more now that we have been moving for over a month! I also love the part that says to support the risk-taking of others, so they have the confidence to try something new as we are all doing it, and we are all kind to others experimenting as well. The second the music starts playing now for a new piece of music we are exploring, the students start moving around in really creative ways with no prompting from me of what they will be doing! Sometimes I end up following their own ideas of what we should do with the music and that has never happened before this year... I love THIS ARTICLE on the benefits of dance education for students... on the list are:
I have found that students' music playing skills - their technique of playing an instrument or singing - greatly improves when they consider the movement that is inherent in the music. Music isn't just different lengths of sounds... it's emotional and dynamic. When we hear a "musical" performance compared to a computer which is able to plunk out the algorithms of the notes that were entered in, we can definitely hear a difference... humans add that dynamic quality and feeling to the notes, with some sort of intangible and abstract ability to feel what those notes mean to them. Dancing and drama really bring those aspects of music out into the forefront, and this year is definitely teaching students to feel the music more! What does it mean, what can we physically do to bring out what we hear? A couple of anecdotal examples: years ago, my son was supposed to be playing a piece that was 3 beats per bar... we are much more likely to hear 4 beats per bar, so 3 is hard to "feel" for a young person, or anyone who is learning music, really... so we started to move to it to "feel" the 3, so that when he went back to playing it, the "musicality" of his playing increased so much, and he really enjoyed playing it! It was also an example of practicing for a goal (feeling the 3 beats) versus a length of time with no plan behind it than "you have to practice for this length of time". That's another story haha! Anyway, here is an example of an amazing performance by Brandon Acker who I just discovered in the past 5 minutes, who clearly is feeling the 3 beats per bar when he plays, and you can SEE it because performers who are playing are always moving with their playing... they feel it through their whole body. This is what I am working on with students this year: FEEL the music! Can't wait to see the effect on their playing: Next anecdotal example: A few years ago I had a life-changing experience of attending the American Orff Schülwerk Association conference, with so many amazing music educators. So many. Absolute paradigm-shift in how I teach music after that conference from the amazing pedagogy of Estêvão Marques, James Harding, Mary Knysh, Sofia Lopez-Ibor, and so many more! One of the first sessions I attended was led by Estêvão Marques who instantly said "Say good bye to your seats!" with a charming smile at the beginning of the session, because for him, music is always connected to moving to it. Everything we did in that session was movement, which enhanced our playing. He showed a body percussion clapping game, that we were all (about 100 of us) having trouble getting. A room full of music teachers. What made us be able to instantly clap this rhythm? He stopped us all and said "The rhythm doesn't come from here (and motioned to our hands and arms we were using for the body percussion)"... "It comes from HERE!" and demonstrated the body movement that starts all the percussion in our hands and arms. Once we all started moving in this way he demonstrated we could all do it! Here he is with this exact rhythm. See how he moves the whole time? In fact, see how every person in the video moves the whole time? The music is interconnected with movement. The final example of the rhythm he demonstrated is when he and his playing partner turn towards each other. They move the whole time. It's the basis of everything... and so joyful: Dance helps with other activities as well, such as it helps so many skills for athletes, public speaking and speech, and then there are these people who are talking about making presentations more interesting through dance, and I just love them. Another example.
The effects of all of this movement learning of music and creativity, building confidence, taking risks will be amazing to watch in the future at our school... CLICK HERE to go to post #14 |
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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