Beth's Music Classroom: Rockin' in Music Class!

Have you had a jam-packed start to your September so far? This time of the year can be very hectic, as I'm sure you know. I'd love to hear about your school year and what's working for you to start a new year on the right foot.

Well, this past week, my school celebrated their 1st ever GYTO's "Rock Your School" event. Most of the teachers got involved wearing rock-star costumes, and throughout the day we had several music and dance breaks where we played "Rockin Robin," "Party Rock Anthem," and others. The kids absolutely loved it! It was a wonderful way to encourage young students to get excited about learning and being in school, and it was a big success!

It worked out that on this exciting day, I was able to teach my "Rockin' Form" lesson to my 2nd graders. Although I taught this lesson similarly last year at this time, the added excitement really helped keep the kids' attention, and they had an awesome time.

I want my students to discover form both visually and aurally. I explain that when they were in Kindergarten and 1st grade, they talked about shapes and colors for each of the different sections. In the PowerPoint, I lead them through discovering the same and different sections of a song and then learning the "big-kid" way to label them - with letters, A and B. My classes loved hearing about this more advanced way. I have them relate it to visuals and icons first and then use the letters once they can grasp it.

This PowerPoint is a lot of fun in teaching AB and ABA form, filled with songs, instrument and movement activities, puns, assessment, charts/visuals, and more! The perfect timing of the "Rock Your School" event worked out so well. But this year, it was also emotional as it dealt with rocks and geology, reminding me of my cousin who was an amazing geologist, gardener, explorer, cook, and so much more. This July of 2018, my family and I were so saddened to hear that my 29-year old cousin was killed in a car accident. He will be greatly missed.