This week I had to stay home one day to take care of my baby daughter.  Imagine my surprise when I opened my email to find this wonderful video of Ms. Evans’ & Ms. Wilder’s 2nd grade students rehearsing for the musical with our substitute teacher.  The name of this musical is called “Dinostars,” and I have to stay that I think I am having as much fun as the students working on it!

First Quarter in First Grade is all about performing steady beat independently.   Our favorite musical puppet, Chompy, came for a visit to teach us a song and instrument rotation game so we could practice performing steady beat.  Below is a video from Ms. Afanador’s Class & Mrs. Hyatt’s Class showing you this fun activity!

 

At the start of the year I always review rhythm notation (note values, rest values, measures, time signatures, repeat signs, double bars).   This year, as part of our review, we applied rhythmic notation reading skills to learn and practice this fun rhythmic accompaniment to “Fireflies” by Owl City.

The basketball “turns” were the students’ idea to match the lyrics “planet Earth turns slowly.”  You will see the smartboard at the front of the room with the music notation on it.  We had to read this notation in order to learn the part.

The video is of Mrs. Campbell  & Mrs. Beddard’s 5th grade class.  Enjoy!