{"id":488,"date":"2017-03-08T14:01:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T19:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/?p=488"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:58:59","slug":"7-9-year-old-dalcroze-22817","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-year-old-dalcroze-22817\/","title":{"rendered":"7-9 year-old Dalcroze: 2\/28\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This was an unusual class in many ways. The girls\u2019 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 slow movement of Mahler\u2019s 1<sup>st<\/sup> Symphony. This movement is a basically a minor reworking of the tune <em>Frere Jacques<\/em>. But here is roughly the sequence of events:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I asked the girls to create characters for each of the 3 rhythm patterns I had written on the board, and which I played on the drum. They came up with a king, a queen and a kangaroo.<\/li>\n<li>I let them choose whichever character they wanted to be. There were many kangaroos, a few queens and no kings \u2013 so I took on that role.<\/li>\n<li>We explored how each group would move according to their specific rhythm pattern.<\/li>\n<li>By asking them a series of questions, they created the following scenario: there is a king who likes turning people into statues, and one day he froze the entire kingdom. When the queen saw this she tried to save the statues, but was unsuccessful. A bunch of kangaroos came along and worked their magic spells to release the people. The queen was delighted.<\/li>\n<li>Each group had percussion instruments. The kangaroos were to play for each other, and all played for me. We practiced this.<\/li>\n<li>We enacted the story, attempting to talk as little as possible. This was easier the second time.<\/li>\n<li>I told them that after the statues were released, the king was sorry he had done that. The entire kingdom came together and moved each other\u2019s rhythms in different patterns. At this point I played the Mahler and asked them to listen for each rhythm and move freely however they liked. Some chose to move as a character, others choose to pretend to play instruments. After one time through, we talked about what they heard. We played it one more time, and pointed out the various rhythms we heard as it went along.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By this point, the time was almost up. We gathered for a quick round or two of the St. Louis Blues, and had to say goodbye. This was a class I might be able to repeat with a different group, but only one as imaginative and interested in story as this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was an unusual class in many ways. The girls\u2019 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[93,113,120],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dalcroze-reference","tag-1st-2nd-grade","tag-children","tag-single-class-documentation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9ohMj-7S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/a-class-for-5-6-year-olds\/","url_meta":{"origin":488,"position":0},"title":"A Class for 5-6 Year-olds","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"January 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So many things can happen over the course of a Dalcroze semester that you can often get a better\u00a0idea of what a class has been doing by simply describing a single class in detail. Here\u2019s a description of a recent class of exceptional 5-6 year-old girls that I am fortunate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dalcroze Reference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-year-old-dalcroze-april\/","url_meta":{"origin":488,"position":1},"title":"7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: April","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"May 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Life caught up with me in April, so this is the first update for class activities in over a month. Here is a brief list\u00a0of some of the things we have explored and games we have played over the past several weeks: Toss the bean bag on the high note.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dalcroze Reference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":474,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-dalcroze-11017\/","url_meta":{"origin":488,"position":2},"title":"7-9 Dalcroze: 1\/10\/17","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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 \u2018opposite day\u2019), but devilishly hard to execute for this age. The urge to mirror is very strong in us. I made my phrases in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dalcroze Reference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10688,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/1st-2nd-grade-skills-and-objectives-associated-with-rhythm-part-2-of-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":488,"position":3},"title":"1st-2nd Grade Dalcroze Skills and Experiences: Rhythm (Part 2 of 4)","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"September 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Second in a series of posts describing what a typical class might cover during the year. Now we get to the heart of the matter. This is a formidable list, and not all that different from a list I might make for adult classes. Does this mean the children will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dalcroze Reference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":500,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-year-old-dalcroze-3617\/","url_meta":{"origin":488,"position":4},"title":"7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 3\/6\/17","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"March 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This was another very unusual class. The story from the previous week was very strong in their minds, and they desperately wanted to continue it. That kind of intense student engagement is very hard for me to resist, so I relented, not having the least idea about where it would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dalcroze Reference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":510,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-year-old-dalcroze-4417\/","url_meta":{"origin":488,"position":5},"title":"7-9 Year-old Dalcroze, 4\/4\/17","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"April 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This week\u2019s activities: We first reviewed the notation and language for some basic rhythms for compound (ternary) meter: dotted quarters, 3 eighth notes, quarter-eighth. I put the symbols on the board, and asked one student to stand in front of the one he\/she wanted to hear and see moved. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dalcroze Reference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}