Term One: Junior Music Sessions: Year 0 - Year 2

I have had a wonderful time with the juniors this term exploring and discovering the elements of music through listening, singing, dancing, musical games, and percussion play.  

We have been building a rich repertoire of songs that we can sing confidently and a number of simple partner and circle dances, games, and clapping/body percussion pieces.  Some of our favourites include: Sally Go Round the Sun, We Say Hello, A Let a Go Go, I Wanna be a Friend of Yours, Old King Glory, and Johnny Brown.

From: 'Starting School' by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

We have been listening to music from around the world including Africa, Australia, and Russia and talked about the places and people who make this music.  We have responded to the pieces with movement to get the feel of the different styles and rhythms they use.  We have explored movement using scarves and have listened carefully to see if the music tells us to jump, swirl, skip, walk, run, or crawl slowly.  You can see Room C3 doing some different movements on their classroom blog: http://c3smarties.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/music.html

We are learning there are many different styles of music in the world and they all make us want to move in different ways.  We are also learning that there are always stories behind the songs and music about the people and places they come from.

From 'Rhymes for Annie Rose' by Shirley Hughes

We have had lots of fun with poems like Davy Davy Dumpling, African chants like Bala Pata Zum and Awa, and nonsense rhymes like Tamminy Mamminy Ma.    We have clapped and patted the rhythms of words and then tried the patterns on different percussion instruments.  We have used the word play to explore different rhythms and contrasts in tempo ie. fast and slow and dynamics ie. loud and soft.  

We have talked about how our voices are the first instrument we learn to use and how we all have one of these we can use to make music anywhere and anytime.  Singing as a group is fun and makes us feel good.

“songs are one of the glues of cohesive culture.  A room full of people that know the same songs not only make an important personal connection, but a vital cultural one as well.” 

(From ‘Play, Sing, and Dance’ by Doug Goodkin, p.31).

We have explored keeping the beat with our bodies and also with shakers, claves, and bucket drums.  Rooms E6 and E7 have posted some small videos of us keeping the beat in different ways.  http://learningine6.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/e6-e7-music-with-mrs-gain.html

And you can also check out some lovely photos of D1 doing bucket drumming and using the tuned percussion in our Orff Orchestra too http://ehsd1.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/music-time.html

In the last few weeks of the term we have also started getting to know the instruments in our Orff Orchestra.  We are very lucky at Eastern Hutt School to have the chance to play in an Orff Orchestra that has marimba, xylophones, metallaphones, glockenspiels, and even a contrabass C.  We have been learning about scales, the musical alphabet and how to find some of the different notes.  We have been learning how to hold our beaters and play the instruments with them.