"So Mr. Vanilla was the Boogie Man?"

This morning we had a blast as a Lower School. I popped a Holiday Karaoke CD into the player and projected it onto a screen for the whole school sang along. Then we sang the "12 Day of Christmas." Each classroom was in charge of creating a poster for one of the 12 days and stood to sing when it came to that part of the song. It's amazing how simplistic and beautiful it is to just get together as a community and sing. When the next title of a song popped onto the screen, we heard "ooh," "aaah" and "YAY!" That kind of energy is irresistible and definitely worthy of tradition! At the end of our little shindig I called all the teachers down front -which unexpectedly the kids erupted with grand cheers. We sang a little number called "Blitzen's Boogie" from Plank Road Publishing. When Mr. Manella, our Headmaster boogied out in front of us all in the middle of the song, showing off his incredible reindeer skills, it just about blew the roof off with excitement from our audience! And my week was made complete when I got an email reporting that a first grader asked, "So Mr. Vanilla was the Boogie Man?"

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If Santa Were Stuck In My Chimney

You wake up in the middle of the night and you hear muffled cries for help coming from your family room  but you don't recognize the voice... first you get freaked out but suddenly you remember it's Christmas Eve. Leaping from bed you run to the door of your bedroom and sneak one toe into the hallway and then another and another... lilting ever so stealthily down the hallway... because if it really is who you think it is...

"Hello, there," you call up the chimney. It's him. He knows your name and proves himself to be Santa Claus because he even knows what you asked for this year. You are one out of BILLIONS to get the chance to help Santa get unstuck from your chimney! After a few tugs, he is free and makes his way into your family room. You share a cookie together and he tells you that you get to ask one- just ONE question- anything you've ever wanted to know about Santa. You have wondered your WHOLE LIFE how and why he does what he does- why this, why that... So many movies explain things their own way- it's like there's a hundred versions of Santa and the North Pole- but which ones are real... if any?

So if the Claus himself were standing before you and you could have one question answered... what would it be?

Here's a sampling of what kids came up with from 3 years old through 3rd grade...

Where did you get your name from?  Where did you get the elves?Are you still going to give us toys? How do you get all that wood to make the toys? How do they make ribbons? How do you make teddy bears? Why do you come on Christmas? Do you have any friends? What do reindeer like to eat? Do you have another home besides the North Pole? Where do elves go to the bathroom? How does the angel get on top of the Christmas tree? What toys do you like to play with? Why do you always come last in the parade- are you late?  How do the reindeer fly all the way from the top of the world down to Kentucky? How do you fly if the reindeer are out in the front and Santa is in the back and so heavy? Are you a Guardian? Are you a spirit? Do you have diabetes? Am I naughty or nice?

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Spontanious Combustion of Collaboration!

Students were told to finish up some work and then go practice the melody of an Orff (Keetman) piece I taught them in the previous class. While I was working with some students on their written assignment, I realized that several practice groups emerged-  clusters of students working together to review the melody. One child who was working the same melody at the piano was sort of leading the troops and later decided to change "do" (the tonic) to a different pitch which sounds horribly wonderful!

I was hesitant to stop the delightful collaborative work, but I wanted to make sure the melody process was complete so we could venture forward next time and shape the piece with other instrument parts and form... here's how lovely the melody turned out after a very short time of practicing:

The piece is from a book I love called "Discovering Keetman," compiled by Jane Frazee- the name of the activity is written down as "Keetman #12" because there isn't really a name for it- or even a poem that goes with it. Next week, these students will compose their own lyrics and we will create a form based on "verses" they've written alternated by the melody played on instruments.

If you're interested in the process of this lesson... the time before in music class, I said- "hey everyone listen to this song you're all going to be able to play by the end of class!"

I played it and then listened to their comments like, "that's too hard" or "I won't be able to remember all of that!" or "how did you DO THAT?"- but when we analyzed the melody through solfege and the wrote the rhythm out together phrase by phrase- the kids were "tricked" into already having it memorized before ever touching an instrument. Gunild Keetman, a student of Carl Orff, wrote these exercises with young children in mind. She truly inspires me!

Señor Don Gato

John Manders 
Now listen. Find a copy of this book. Read it. Love it. Remember it. And if you get ahold of it- don't give it away because I think it's out of print.  It's such a treasure in my classroom that I do not let anyone borrow it- EVER- it's just that special. It's like the ultimate Valentine's Day story. A week ago my after school ensemble, "Encore" performed this piece for a school wide arts program and let me just say it was a proud moment in my career. For years I have read the John Manders version of the story, whose gorgeous illustrations truly capture the tale. So when my current crop of second and third graders sang and acted out the story, I had handfuls of middle school and highschool students coming up to me after the program or during our rehearsals to tell me about how they still remember the story and loved it. In the beginning of the song, you can't see him, but Don Gato is on the roof waving to the crowd and feeling preeety proud of himself about the Lady Cat's acceptance of his proposal.  
In Spanish class, students do a study on the "Day of the Dead" and you will see that the makeshift gurney is adorned with skeletons made by second graders from Spanish class. And the facade of Don Gato's house was completely made by second graders during Art class. They drew it, mixed colors and painted the whole thing by themselves. They also created their own "feesh" for the "market square" which causes Don Gato to become re-animated. For the song arrangement, we worked off of the two-part treble arrangement by Ray Doughty.
 
"Encore" group performing Don Gato 
 
Text:

Oh Señor Don Gato was a cat,
On a high red roof Don Gato sat.
He went there to read a letter, (meow, meow, meow)
Where the reading light was better (meow, meow, meow).
T'was a love note for Don Gato.

"I adore you," wrote the lady cat.
Who was fluffy, white, and nice and fat.
There was not a sweeter kitty, (meow, meow, meow)
In the country or the city (meow, meow, meow).
And she said she'd wed Don Gato.

Oh, Don Gato jumped so happily,
He fell off the roof and broke his knee.
Broke his ribs and all his whiskers, (meow, meow, meow)
And his little solar plexus (meow, meow, meow).
"Ay carramba!" cried Don Gato.

Then the doctors all came on the run,
Just to see if something could be done.
And they held a consultation, (meow, meow, meow)
About how to save their patient (meow, meow, meow).
How to save Señor Don Gato.

But in spite of everything they tried,
Poor Señor Don Gato up and died.
Oh it wasn't very merry, (meow, meow, meow)
Going to the cemetery (meow, meow, meow).
For the ending of Don Gato.

As the funeral passed the market square,
Such a smell of fish was in the air.
Though the burial was slated, (meow, meow, meow)
He became re-animated (meow, meow, meow).
He came back to life Don Gato.

Water Dance (2nd Grade)

Water Dance 
"Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean, and the pleasant land."
 C  D  E       F   G  G C D E          F  G----  C       D   E    F    G  G   G     F    E   D      C---

Modal exploration, dynamics, melody "transposition," Orff instrument families

In 2nd grade, when the calendar flips to November, after all the excitement from Halloween activities, I've come up with something special involving this great book by Thomas Locker. During October we explored all of the interesting moods and modes of Halloween (I absolutely cannot wait to blog about Halloween activities!). The curiosity level is still quite high about what made those activities so exciting, so I decided to sort of play off those experiences. As a bonus, this lesson reviews the names of the Orff instruments and turns out to be a lovely discussion piece for musical dynamics. With "Water Dance", Thomas Locker describes each form of water almost like a riddle. So I read each page without showing the picture to the class and when I'm done with each description, they can guess what form of water it is. Recently, the second graders just wrote breathtaking Haikus about fall so they truly appreciated this book's play on words and beautiful illustrations. Using the above poem, "Little Drops of Water"- put all of the bars on the instruments and formed the melody you see above. Next, I teach them how to play this melody on Orff instruments by first using our bodies like an instrument. That way- when we change the starting pitch, they've already learned the contour and pattern of the melody- it's nothing to transpose it. At the instruments, I go through each page of the book. 

On the page with the text, I have a piece of paper covering it that says something like, "glocks play softly starting on G" and show it silently to the class. Then I read the page and then tap out my infamous "one two skidderiedoo" and those kids play on the appropriate notes. Here's the order and melodic choices I used for the book:

1.   Rain - woods start on C (medium-soft, mp)
2.   Stream -glocks start on G (soft- p)
3.   Waterfall - glocks & metals start on F (medium loud, mf)
4.   Lake- all instruments start on A (medium loud, mf)
5.   River- woods start on F (softly, p)
6.   Sea - all instruments start on B (softly, p)
7.   Mist- glocks start on A (very softly, pp)
8.   Clouds- metalophones start on F (medium soft, mp)
9.   Stormfront- basses only start on D (medium loud, mf)
10. Thunderhead- woods start on C, Metals start on A (loudly, f)
11.  Storm- All instruments play starting on ANY NOTE (very loud, ff)
12.  Rainbow- metals & glocks start on G (softly, p)
13.  Water - All instruments play on C (medium soft, mp)

Love this activity. It would be a great performance piece with student narrators. Also- add more instruments for color- rainsticks, thunder sheet, shakers, etc. If you have a larger group, you can have some assigned to creative movement with streamers or scarves. Try dimming the lights and flickering the lights during the lightening part.

One, Two, SKIDDERIE-DOO!

...That's what I say when we're just about to start some sort of music making (rather than, "ready go" or "a one two three four!"). Kids can take a turn being the "conductor" and they see how their tempo effects whatever we're about to play or sing together. Just imagine me saying it really slow- because I'm sort of hesitant and don't really know where to begin. As any of my students know, it's just about the most appropriate thing I could say for my first ever post. 

My name is  Sarah Kuchera and I teach PK - 3rd grade music at Sayre School in Lexington, KY. There are several purposes for creating this blog. First and foremost, I adore my students and what we do in music class. I am constantly inspired, impressed and motivated from the music made in my classroom. For years and years, I've been in my room "wowed" by what kids can do. At the end of the day, though, they go home and don't really have a way of sharing what they did in class other than to verbally recount- which is not easy when you're six! The activity essentially ends when they leave the room. And when they try and share about an experience they had, they're like, "we did this cool thing with instruments" or "there was this funny story..." But it's not like art class, where they get to bring physical work home and share what they did. So, to all the kids in my amazing community- let's show off and share the great work we've done in class. Another purpose is for teachers who might be searching for new ideas for their music classroom- I would be honored for you to borrow from me and start conversations with you as well.

If you're interested in knowing a little bit about my background and my philosophy of teaching, check out my profile page at my school:  http://www.sayreschool.org/page.cfm?p=571