Music with Ms. Ally Webb
An Introduction to MUSIC with Ms. Ally Web
For those of you who don't yet know me, my name is Ms. Ally and I am the music teacher/band director at CMP's Orangevale and American River campuses. Each week, I visit every classroom for half an hour and do a music lesson with them. In our lessons, we will learn the basics of music theory, music history, music from around the world, peace songs and other fun sing-alongs, how to play and perform with pitched and unpitched percussion instruments, and more!
Once every two weeks, I will be posting on ParentSquare my newsletter with interactive links that will give you a peek into what we are learning. Here's a sample of what we've been up to:
We Are One
With the International Day of Peace in September, I am teaching all the students this song, which I have renamed We Are One. We talked about unity, and how it stems from the word unit, which we know from our Montessori Golden Beads, means one. As a class, we had a conversation about what it means to be part of a unit, like being part of a team who will only win/be successful if we care for each other and work together.
Body Percussion
To help us understand how to count along to the beat of a song, the lower and upper elementary students have learned exercises #1-4 from this cool body percussion video called Just Beats.
Music As Fractions
The lower and upper elementary students are learning about how the body percussion rhythms we learned last week relate to music note values that can be expressed as fractions. For this, I used the Montessori red fraction materials to demonstrate the concept of the quarter note and the eighth note. Next we will dive more into our musical fractions with this awesome video from music educator Phil Tulga as well as another fraction video of his involving Aztec rhythms. Spoiler alert: Phil will be coming to our school for a special music/math assembly in March!
Ready Go Music
Ready Go Music is a super cool YouTube channel that allows students to put their rhythmic skills to the test through fun, sometimes easy and sometimes challenging rhythm play-alongs. This week, our instruments are egg shakers. The kindergarten classes got to try out Fairy Grove and Hidden Library. Lower elementary selections include Hipcat Club and Bok Bok Beach. Upper elementary worked on Summer Night Simulator and Autumn Trail.
Upper Elementary Band Tryouts
Attention 4th-6th grade families: Band tryouts will be happening at the end of September!
Funky Veggies
As we transition into our drumming unit, I thought the kids would enjoy this fun song, Funky Veggies, which allows them to practice counting beats and playing along to a funky lil song with three different rhythm instruments.
Under the Sun by Frank Leto
I started teaching the kindergarten classes the song Under the Sun, by my childhood music teacher and music education mentor, Frank Leto. We talked about how the ancient Hawaiian people used the hula dance as part of their storytelling tradition. Please click this link if you would like to hear the song and follow along with the hula movements
Native American Heritage Month
In honor of Native American Month, the students will be learning about the music of various indigenous cultures over the next few weeks. Watch for updates about the Lakota Sioux of the Great Plains, the Pueblo people of the southwest, and the native people of ancient Hawai'i.
Mitakuye Oyasin
The Lakota people (the largest subdivision of the Great Sioux Nation) have a saying: Mitakuye Oyasin. The closest English translation is, "we are all related." The we here implies all people, as well as the Earth and all living things. Our lesson on the Lakota tribe includes this video, We Are One--Mitakuye Oyasin, which was put together in 2015 and included a choir of 200 children from the Black Hills and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations of South Dakota. Our class activity is to sing the line, "Mitakuye Oyasin," while playing a Native American gathering drum that was donated by a beloved TA from the Orangevale Campus, Reelaiah Israel. The upper elementary students have a Boomwhacker melody to play, as well. If you would like to see an example of a gathering drum being played at a Lakota powwow, check out this short clip. The steady beat of the drum represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
Instrument Show and Tell Day is Coming Soon!
If your child has an instrument at home that they would like to share with the class, they can bring it in on their normal music class day that week. If your child does not have a musical instrument at home, they are welcome to make a homemade one ahead of time and bring it in! If they do not have (or do not want to share) an instrument, that's okay, too! They can enjoy the other instruments that are being shared.
In Celebration of Dr. King
My childhood music teacher, Frank Leto, wrote a call-and-response style song about how we, the children of the world, can honor Dr. King and his contributions to our lives. This song is well-suited to kindergarten and lower elementary children. If you'd like to check it out, please follow this link.
Do Re Mi
We are kicking off our January music theory curriculum by learning the notes of the scale, and how they relate to one another in intervals, chords, and melodies. I'm not showing it in class this year, but if you'd like to watch the Do Re Mi song from The Sound of Music, please feel free to check out this video!
Kindergarten Classes: Ear Training and
Metronome Work
I cannot overstate the importance of ear training and metronome work at the early childhood level. In the kindergarten classrooms, we have been brushing up on our Boomwhacker skills by imitating patterns of notes sung by the teacher and practicing playing in time to a metronome. As the children progress on to lower elementary and beyond, I have no doubt that we will see these skills play off as they begin learning songs and preparing for ensemble work!
Boomwhacker Play-alongs
The upper elementary classes, as well as some of the lower elementary classes, are moving into some more advanced work with the boomwhackers, involving chords and/or basslines to accompany their melodies. Check out the links to these three really fun songs: Ghostbusters,The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and Africa.
Chrome Music Lab Song Maker
We are using Song Maker with the Boomwhackers and xylophones to explore the relationships between pitches, practice our skills with the instruments (especially counting beats), and learn some good tricks for creating our own compositions. The colors of the pitches in the program match the Boomwhacker colors! As mentioned above, I will invite students to post their compositions on our class' Jamboard, which can be found in Google Classroom.
Animal Sounds in Other Languages
Various kindergarten and lower elementary classes are learning a song that teaches us the words for animal sounds in other languages. Here is the French version and here is the Portuguese version if you'd like to check out this adorable video
Chinese Ribbon Dancing
I have been working with students at all grade levels on a ribbon dancing lesson. This lesson includes some history on ribbon dancing in China, which stems all the way back from the Han Dynasty, as well as this video of a Chinese dance troupe in New York City performing a ribbon dance, and a demonstration of several ribbon dance moves for the children to try, which all symbolize things in nature. Upper Elementary students also got to try this Harry Potter ribbon dance from one of my favorite YouTubers, Mr. Noe.
Stevie Wonder
In celebration of Black History Month, I am working on a lesson that I'll be doing with the children, that centers on Stevie Wonder's uplifting and informational song, Sir Duke. I am preparing a slideshow that contains some photos, information, and musical samples from the musicians that Stevie mentions in the song (Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, etc.). In addition, I have created my own body percussion play-along videos to use with the children in the classroom.
Families of Instruments
In the TK/K, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary classes, we have been learning about how instruments in an orchestra are grouped according to their characteristics, and a little bit about the science of how the different types of instruments produce high and low notes.
Unconventional Instruments
One thing that I have been discussing with the children is that we can find music all around us, in our everyday lives. There are some incredibly talented people out there who find ways of making beautiful music through unconventional means/sources. For example, watch this video if you want to see someone who carved pumpkins of various sizes into woodwind instruments and put together a mesmerizing composition: Billie Eilish Pumpkin Cover Then there's this guy, who filmed his son making baby noises for an entire year, and somehow compiled clips of him into a flawlessly-executed song: Baby Ryan "Sings" Thunderstruck And, last but not least, there's a live looping artist I love from South Africa called The Kiffness who takes all kinds of sound clips, such as cat and/or dog noises, people talking, singing, etc., and loops in beats, vocals, and instrument tracks, and turns them into catchy tunes. Check out The Kiffness and Alugalug Cat.
Middle School's PVC Xylophone
In the middle school music elective class, we are building our PVC xylophone. After we calculated the length of pipe we need for each pitch, I went home and cut up the pipes. When I brought them back, I used a tuner app on my phone to show the students how the pipes matched each of the pitches for the notes we wanted to create. We then built the wooden frame for the instrument and attached pipes to the instrument. Two of my favorite comments I've gotten from the students in this group are: "If I'd known we were going to be doing math, I wouldn't have picked music!" and, "This music class is not very musical." These comments make me smile to myself, because one day, these students will understand the big picture of what we're doing, and what a beautiful connection there is between music, math and science. We have been using the PVC xylophone in an ensemble over the past two weeks, with some other xylophones, some Boomwhackers, and some drums. So far, we have learned how to play The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the Tokens. Future plans include learning how to play Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin and Day-o by Harry Belafonte. Here are a couple of brief videos that demonstrate what the instrument sounds like. Yes, you do play it with flip flops. 😁
Xylophone Video #1
Xylophone Video #2
Songs for Cultural Fair
As you know, the Cultural Fair is happening this Friday from 5-7 p.m. At 6:50, all of the students will be gathering together in the quad to sing United Imaginations and Mitakuye Oyasin. Please feel free to click on the links if you want to practice at home!
Chrome Music Lab
I'm sure the kindergarten and lower elementary students are excitedly coming home and asking about Chrome Music Lab! It is a website that can be accessed from any computer, tablet, or phone (no download needed). It has super fun interactive tools to help the children make their own musical creations and explore musical concepts. The website is https://musiclab.
Memorization Challenge
To any student in lower or upper elementary who takes my memorization challenge, I am offering a small prize (a pop tart or squishy animal for upper elementary, or simply a squishy animal for lower elementary). They need to memorize one of the following (see below) by their first music class after spring break. I am including links to songs that can help them memorize their selections. Students do not have to sing in front of the class! They can simply recite their selection if they prefer. Also, I can only afford to give out one prize per student. I am not a rich woman! Haha
Upper Elementary:
- States and Capitals: Wakko's America
- Presidents: Long Version with Info, Medium Version with Numbers (this is the version that I myself will be memorizing, since I don't know my presidents yet either!), Shortest Version (no numbers)
- French Animal Names and Sounds: Le Poussin Piou (the song itself is REALLY fast, but you may find this pronunciation guide very helpful!)
Lower Elementary:
- Skip Counting: Farmer's Market (Note: I would suggest that third graders start with twos, fives, and tens if they don't know them yet, and choose a different number if they already know those! First and second graders should start with twos, and can move on to tens and fives, etc., if they know their twos. They only need to go up as high as the numbers go in the Farmer's Market song. For example, the twos go up to 36.)
- French Animal Names and Sounds: Le Poussin Piou (the song itself is REALLY fast, but you may find this pronunciation guide very helpful!)