Tag: 1st-2nd grade

This was an unusual class in many ways. The girls’ love for dramatic story telling prompted almost an entire class devoted to the development, rehearsal and enactment of one story. The class loosely followed some goals I had already set up, which was to work with 3 different rhythm patterns that are found in the…

Here’s what we did: Statue tag All students make a statue. One moves as long as she likes. When she stops, she makes the shape of one of the statues. That statue is free to move. This game is more fun when whoever is making someone else’s shape does not make their shape directly in…

Back to my own observations… enjoy!   Statue tag All students make a statue. One moves as long as she likes. When she stops, she makes the shape of one of the statues. That statue is free to move. This game is more fun when whoever is making someone else’s shape does not make their…

This week, a guest poster: Laca Tines. She is a student in our methods class (you may have seen her observing), and a wonderful early childhood music teacher herself. As part of our class, she was asked to write an observation report. I thought hers was keenly observed, and asked for her permission to post…

Here are this week’s activities: Make a straight line with one hand and a circle with the other. Not easy for anyone to do, and most were not able to accomplish this. However, it allowed us to become acclimated to our temporary room which contained a large wall mirrored wall. I allowed them to look at…

Spinning Kids of a certain age often like to spin when they come into a classroom. I’ll leave it to the psychologists to explain why, but sometimes I’ll start where they are. So today I began to play music that matched their spinning. I gradually changed the music and pointed out that it no longer…

Here is our first class of the New Year: If I move, students are still. When I stop, students move freely. Simple instructions (affectionately known as ‘opposite day’), but devilishly hard to execute for this age. The urge to mirror is very strong in us. I made my phrases in tempo and predictable. Each student…

Here’s what we did: All move freely; I choose one person’s movement to play after which the class guesses who I was playing. This was by request. I like this game because it encourages the kids to move in their own way. Make a shape with 3 or 4 people. Simple instructions, but took them…

Back Telephone The traditional game of telephone (whisper a phrase around the circle and see if it comes back the same) only with rhythms gently tapped on the back. We tried 2 rhythms and both came back perfectly. I used the second rhythm to introduce the 4 sixteenth note rhythm (known at Lucy Moses as…

7-9 Year-old Dalcroze; 11/22/16 Make a shape with curves. Make a shape with straight lines. This seemingly simple direction was first intended to be a physical warm-up. As I watched their choices, I began to play accompanying chords: towards dissonance for the curvy, and towards consonant for the straight-line shapes. After a time, I stopped…