FALL
Music in fifth grade offers the students the ability to explore various instruments as a means to express themselves. Piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, and drums become commonplace. Students are becoming familiar with lead sheets for each. Because of differing learning profiles and styles, I look to offer multiple entry points to achieve one goal: to get students excited about music.
The throughlines for fifth grade music are Freedom and Independence. As they navigate the history of the United States, we will be driving these themes through music. With or without lyrics, music can become a platform for establishing and sustaining independence.
As a class, we have collaborated to write a song inspired by our through-lines. “Dream For Freedom” reminds us of how freedom can be internal and external. The students were quick to note that during the hardest times, it is often the memories of better times that provide freedom. We talked of independence. The notion that it is responsibility that begets independence resonates with these fifth graders, who stand at the threshold of change in their own lives. The process of co-writing elicits skills of listening, honoring others’ thoughts and ideas, taking risks, and flexibility. It allows us to understand that many minds can often produce work beyond our individual experiences or expectations.
We have worked on our reading skills and translating them from the piano to other instruments. However, sight reading music is just one tool that deepens one’s relationship with music. Like different problem-solving skills in math class, I look to supplement their reading abilities with other skills such as ear-training, transcription, and free play.
Students are also be given the opportunity to play as an ensemble with a piece that I chose that closely connects to our throughlines. It allows for small groups to form in order to practice or perform. “Redemption Song” provides excellent background of rhythm, form, and message.
Fifth grade will focus on rhythm this year. As the foundation and backbone of music, rhythm offers a place of understanding that relates to our most essential and primal tendencies. The ways we walk, talk, and converse all have rhythms. The majority of students reflect that a “good beat” makes for great music. This year we will listen, create, and reflect on why rhythms affect us so deeply. We will write and perform rhythms for each other, always supplementing this with the practice of offering feedback. Again, these practices, much like any other class, support our community values.
Music in fifth grade offers the students the ability to explore various instruments as a means to express themselves. Piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, and drums become commonplace. Students are becoming familiar with lead sheets for each. Because of differing learning profiles and styles, I look to offer multiple entry points to achieve one goal: to get students excited about music.
The throughlines for fifth grade music are Freedom and Independence. As they navigate the history of the United States, we will be driving these themes through music. With or without lyrics, music can become a platform for establishing and sustaining independence.
As a class, we have collaborated to write a song inspired by our through-lines. “Dream For Freedom” reminds us of how freedom can be internal and external. The students were quick to note that during the hardest times, it is often the memories of better times that provide freedom. We talked of independence. The notion that it is responsibility that begets independence resonates with these fifth graders, who stand at the threshold of change in their own lives. The process of co-writing elicits skills of listening, honoring others’ thoughts and ideas, taking risks, and flexibility. It allows us to understand that many minds can often produce work beyond our individual experiences or expectations.
We have worked on our reading skills and translating them from the piano to other instruments. However, sight reading music is just one tool that deepens one’s relationship with music. Like different problem-solving skills in math class, I look to supplement their reading abilities with other skills such as ear-training, transcription, and free play.
Students are also be given the opportunity to play as an ensemble with a piece that I chose that closely connects to our throughlines. It allows for small groups to form in order to practice or perform. “Redemption Song” provides excellent background of rhythm, form, and message.
Fifth grade will focus on rhythm this year. As the foundation and backbone of music, rhythm offers a place of understanding that relates to our most essential and primal tendencies. The ways we walk, talk, and converse all have rhythms. The majority of students reflect that a “good beat” makes for great music. This year we will listen, create, and reflect on why rhythms affect us so deeply. We will write and perform rhythms for each other, always supplementing this with the practice of offering feedback. Again, these practices, much like any other class, support our community values.
WINTER
This winter began with preparations for WinterFest. We scrutinized over how to annunciate lyrics in order to sound like one voice. We tweaked lyrics, created various parts for instruments, and constantly worked to create the best arrangement of our song. This collaborative process is imperative to building a strong culture. The students have to share ideas, give constructive feedback, and be able to show resilience and confidence throughout the process.
Since then, we have embraced rhythm as our skill-based through-line, and freedom and independence our social justice through-line. As the fifth graders devour the history of the United States through their social studies curriculum, they learn the roots of slavery in this country. In music, we have paralleled this with the study of Samba music, its roots, and its cultural implications in South America. After providing context for the students, we have worked to comprehend the syncopation and electricity of the Samba Reggae rhythms. Students witness how separate and simple rhythms come together to create a powerful and unified sound. The goal is for our class to mimic the music and create a powerful and unified community.
We are extending our studies of Samba and now creating our own rhythms using the knowledge of each instrument’s role and then bringing creativity to the table to allow students to interpret this music for themselves. Working in small groups, students will create their own samba schools, creating lead sheets and performing their rhythms.
As the students prepare for the “Unheard Voices of the Revolution” wax museum, we are rehearsing the fifth grade original song, “Dream For Freedom.” It is exciting for the students to link this song to the historical struggles for independence as well as their own understanding of freedom and independence in their own lives.
This winter began with preparations for WinterFest. We scrutinized over how to annunciate lyrics in order to sound like one voice. We tweaked lyrics, created various parts for instruments, and constantly worked to create the best arrangement of our song. This collaborative process is imperative to building a strong culture. The students have to share ideas, give constructive feedback, and be able to show resilience and confidence throughout the process.
Since then, we have embraced rhythm as our skill-based through-line, and freedom and independence our social justice through-line. As the fifth graders devour the history of the United States through their social studies curriculum, they learn the roots of slavery in this country. In music, we have paralleled this with the study of Samba music, its roots, and its cultural implications in South America. After providing context for the students, we have worked to comprehend the syncopation and electricity of the Samba Reggae rhythms. Students witness how separate and simple rhythms come together to create a powerful and unified sound. The goal is for our class to mimic the music and create a powerful and unified community.
We are extending our studies of Samba and now creating our own rhythms using the knowledge of each instrument’s role and then bringing creativity to the table to allow students to interpret this music for themselves. Working in small groups, students will create their own samba schools, creating lead sheets and performing their rhythms.
As the students prepare for the “Unheard Voices of the Revolution” wax museum, we are rehearsing the fifth grade original song, “Dream For Freedom.” It is exciting for the students to link this song to the historical struggles for independence as well as their own understanding of freedom and independence in their own lives.
SPRING
Our focus for the past few months has been on mastering our basic rhythms. Reading and writing sixteenth, eighth, quarter, half, and whole notes, students have been able to invent, play, and transcribe foundational and syncopated rhythms.
We created small ensembles, mini-Samba schools, of four or five people. Students wrote and performed their own rhythms on the various Samba drums. They had to attend to the creative, arranging, and performance aspects in order to achieve success. As they performed for each other, students were reminded about how to use a ladder of feedback and encourage each other. We then spilled into rhythmic ear training lessons, where students were asked to transcribe rhythms. Our goal is to give plenty of rhythmic practice before we add note values and ask them to read music.
From there, we began to arrange our songs for the Spring Concert performance. While lyrics and melody are necessary to memorize and master, this group of students was excited about accompaniment. Arranging instruments is a collaborative effort where we test each other’s ideas regarding when and where an instrument should play, and then decide on what is best for the song. From the bass to ukuleles, from toy pianos to kazoos, the students loved to play along.
Achieving success with the Samba Reggae breakdown section of “Redemption Song” was an imperative. We experimented with multiple entry points of how to blend the two musical genres. This not only lead us to conversations about arranging, but conversations about melding cultures. This tied into our through-lines of freedom and independence.
Since the Spring Concert, we have studied African music and how their polyrhythms, just as with Samba, have impacted so much of our western music. We watched a short film about producers from Ghana who are hearing their native rhythms infuse all music and therefore have a global influence.
We are finishing the year by applying our mastery of rhythm to the piano and reading music. Using MuseScore to project sight reading lessons onto the board, we are familiarizing ourselves with written music.
I look forward to continuing our musical journey together next year. We will layer skills, evolve our social justice through-lines to mirror and supplement their social studies, develop projects, and deepen our understanding of music which in turn, deepens our understanding of each other and our community.
Our focus for the past few months has been on mastering our basic rhythms. Reading and writing sixteenth, eighth, quarter, half, and whole notes, students have been able to invent, play, and transcribe foundational and syncopated rhythms.
We created small ensembles, mini-Samba schools, of four or five people. Students wrote and performed their own rhythms on the various Samba drums. They had to attend to the creative, arranging, and performance aspects in order to achieve success. As they performed for each other, students were reminded about how to use a ladder of feedback and encourage each other. We then spilled into rhythmic ear training lessons, where students were asked to transcribe rhythms. Our goal is to give plenty of rhythmic practice before we add note values and ask them to read music.
From there, we began to arrange our songs for the Spring Concert performance. While lyrics and melody are necessary to memorize and master, this group of students was excited about accompaniment. Arranging instruments is a collaborative effort where we test each other’s ideas regarding when and where an instrument should play, and then decide on what is best for the song. From the bass to ukuleles, from toy pianos to kazoos, the students loved to play along.
Achieving success with the Samba Reggae breakdown section of “Redemption Song” was an imperative. We experimented with multiple entry points of how to blend the two musical genres. This not only lead us to conversations about arranging, but conversations about melding cultures. This tied into our through-lines of freedom and independence.
Since the Spring Concert, we have studied African music and how their polyrhythms, just as with Samba, have impacted so much of our western music. We watched a short film about producers from Ghana who are hearing their native rhythms infuse all music and therefore have a global influence.
We are finishing the year by applying our mastery of rhythm to the piano and reading music. Using MuseScore to project sight reading lessons onto the board, we are familiarizing ourselves with written music.
I look forward to continuing our musical journey together next year. We will layer skills, evolve our social justice through-lines to mirror and supplement their social studies, develop projects, and deepen our understanding of music which in turn, deepens our understanding of each other and our community.