Rainy Day Rhythms

It is spring! I've got some rainy day resources for your music lessons.

This video is a read aloud of "Listen To the Rain" by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. It is paired with Chopin's "Raindrop Prelude". It starts bright with gentle sprinkles. The middle section is more dark and gloomy as the storm brews. At the end, the sun returns with a rainbow and it is bright and happy again. The music and book pair so well together. 

I used the song "Pitter Patter" from Let's Play Music. I actually turned this song into an ABA form to mimic the book. I asked the kids to create some motions for the A section and some different motions for the B section.

We created some rhythmic compositions to replace the B section of the Pitter Patter song. Since I am teaching digitally at the moment, I created a Scratch game to aid in their compositions. The students can click on the rhythms to cycle through 8 different rhythm choices. They can click the green button to hear the rhythms. They can click the purple button to hear the song in ABA form with the rhythms inserted as the B section. 

I hope your students enjoy some of these rainy day music activities!

Scratch For Music Educators Video Tutorials

The challenges of distance learning have led me down a deep rabbit hole to learn how to code. I have been using Scratch to create interactive music experiences for my students learning at home. If you missed my other posts on Scratch, click this link.

I have created a Facebook Group called Scratch For Music Educators. The group is growing rapidly. Many members are new and are unsure of how to get started with Scratch. So, I am creating some Scratch tutorials aimed for the music educator. You can watch and decide if Scratch can be used to enhance your curriculum. 

This tutorial will be expanded as I discover new tricks. Updates will always be announced in the Scratch for Music Educators Facebook group and posted here on this blog. If you have a suggestion for a tutorial, complete the Google Form on the last slide.  

Scratch: Size and Pitch

The challenges of distance learning have led me down a deep rabbit hole to learn how to code. I have been using Scratch to create interactive music experiences for my students learning at home. If you missed my other posts on Scratch, click this link.

I use fairy tales to help introduce the kindergarten students to the Orff instruments for the first time. I "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" we compare the sizes of the billy goats and the sizes of the bars. The bigger bars sound lower and the smaller bars sound higher. We also change our voices to sound higher and lower. In this Scratch game, the students click the goats and troll for sound effects.

Three Billy Goats Gruff

In Goldilocks, we continued to explore size and pitch and compared the different size xylophones. Papa Bear becomes the bass, Mama Bear becomes the alto, and  Baby Bear becomes the soprano. Goldilocks is the glockenspiel. In class, we get to take turns rotating through these instruments while I read the story. With the Scratch game, they get to play all the sounds. They can click the character or click the instrument.

Goldilocks

I hope your students enjoy these games! 

Click for more Scratch games created by me.

Click to join the Facebook Group Scratch for Music Educators.

Scratch: Triplet Games

 

The challenges of distance learning have led me down a deep rabbit hole to learn how to code. I have been using Scratch to create interactive music experiences for my students learning at home. If you missed my other posts on Scratch, click this link.

These games focus on triplets. "Loose Tooth" is a poem I learned at an Orff workshop using a body percussion ostinato. We would transfer the body percussion to unpitched percussion. This game allows students to change the rhythm of the ostinato. You can click each beat to change it from quarter note, triplet, or quarter rest. The instruments below can performed by clicking but it is easiest to use the number keys. I have embedded audio of the Loose Tooth poem so they can accompany with their ostinato.

Loose Tooth

After teaching "Loose Tooth" during student teaching, my mentor purchased this book as a gift-"A Tooth Story" by Margaret McNamara. I inserted a melodic phrase which also used the triplet rhythms. This Scratch allows the students to perform the melody of that phrase while listening to the audio of the story.

A Tooth Story

"Carnival Time" is a poem and song I composed. I brainstormed carnival words which would fit the quarter note and triplet rhythms. In a normal lesson, students would divide in groups and be given manipulatives to compose a phrase using the carnival words. They would get to choose instruments to perform for the class. In the Scratch game, the students click each beat to compose a phrase. The beats cycle through all the carnival words as well as a quarter rest. They can use the number keys to choose from several percussion sounds. If they click play, "Carnival Time" will begin in ABA form with the B section featuring the student's composition.

Carnival Time

I hope your students enjoy these games! 

Click for more Scratch games created by me.

Click to join the Facebook Group Scratch for Music Educators.

Scratch Melodic Games

The challenges of distance learning have led me down a deep rabbit hole to learn how to code. I have been using Scratch to create interactive music experiences for my students learning at home. If you missed my other posts on Scratch, click this link.

The projects I'm sharing in this post focus on melody. In Tideo, the students will play the Tideo phrase at the ends of each line. In the video lessons, we examined the staff notation and used hand signs to sing in solfege. In a normal lesson, we would transfer this melody to the Orff instruments. In the Scratch, the song will play and a yellow box will appear around the notation for each phrase. Students use their number keys to play the melody.

Tideo

I would normally use "Home" by Phillip Phillips with recorders. We would play the chorus on recorders and play the refrain on the xylophones. On Scratch, students will use their number keys to play both on a virtual xylophone. A yellow box will appear around each melody to show the students when to play.

Home

"The Ballad of the Beetles and the Bedbugs" allows students to play a melodic ostinato to accompany the song-a broken bordun. Then, they have a chance to improvise a melodic section. This is one of the first lessons introducing melodic improvisation. I love using the baseball analogy. I compare Do to homebase and ask the students to end their melody on Do.

Beetles and Bedbugs

I hope your students enjoy these games! 

Click for more Scratch games created by me.

Click to join the Facebook Group Scratch for Music Educators.

Scratch: The Mitten & The Cold Lady

    

The challenges of distance learning have led me down a deep rabbit hole to learn how to code. I have been using Scratch to create interactive music experiences where students can play virtual instruments. If you missed my first post on Scratch, click this link. 

My latest projects involve books-There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow (Lucille Colandro) and The Mitten (Jan Brett). Both these stories are additive, starting with one character/item and adding on more and more as the story progresses. Additive stories are great to turn into sound stories adding musical sounds to represent the characters/items. This helps students focus on listening to the music and learning how to keep their instrument quiet when it is not their turn.

While teaching virtually, these lessons would be impossible without the help of virtual instruments. I used Scratch to code the games. I recorded myself reading and singing the story. This will begin when they click the play button. When they click the pictures of the items/animals, the image will change to an instrument and play that instrument sound. The images of the animals for The Mitten were taken from the free mask printables provided by the author Jan Brett.

I hope you and your students can enjoy these Scratch games. Again, you do not need a login to access Scratch. It is completely free. Simply share the link and they will have access to the game. 

The Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

The Mitten

Click for more Scratch games created by me.