Mrs.

Griswolds Music Notes

for Progressive Fives Classes
Autumn, 2016 Issue

STEADY BEAT IS THE KEY

Feeling the steady beat is the most fundamental and essential concept in music. Beat competency lays a foundation for
rhythmic ability in music, but it is also plays
a great role in other areas of child development. Feeling the beat is linked to balance, coordination and athleticism. It also
assists in hearing the cadence of language, developing speech and literacy
skills. We discuss and experience several
more complex concepts and master other
skills in Progressive Five, kindergarten,
and first grade classes, but music is a spiral curriculum, and we are constantly returning to listening and movement activities
so we can experience the feeling of beat.

Were on the Web!

You can visit the BES General Music website at:
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Specials (Art, Music, and P.E.) Schedule

At Bridgman Elementary, we have three different specials teachers, while we have only
two sections of Progressive Fives classes. As a result, the ProFives classes have a
rotating specials schedule every twelve weeks. During the first twelve weeks of school, I
see Miss Doyles class twice a week and Mrs. Vs class only once a week. Thus, the
following list of songs are some of the highlights of what Miss Doyles class has already
covered and what Mrs. Vs class will continue to experience in the coming weeks. Later
in the year, I will see Mrs. Vincentinis class more frequently than Miss Doyles class. By
the end of the year, each group will have seen me for nearly sixty 40-minute lessons. The completion of those lessons simply varies widely on the calendar, due to the
12-week specials scheduling in Progressive Fives classes.

Theme One: Clocks

I have organized the Progressive Fives content by theme this year,
and the students are thriving! Most of these songs are repeated
over three or four lessons. Game songs are usually introduced at
the end of one class and finished with the remaining students at the
beginning of another class. A music note before a title denotes a
classical work of importance that would be worth finding online to
listen to again with your child.
The Syncopated Clock, by Leroy Anderson
Our first listening has us experience the changes in musical form by pretending to be
mechanical cuckoo clocks in the staccato A
section and then fly like birds in the legato B and C sections.
In another lesson, we played wood blocks to the steady beat in the A section and
learned how to hold and play rolls on a triangle in the B and C sections.
In our final lesson with this piece, we marched and bounced scarves in a staccato
fashion for the A section, created swaying movements in the legato B section, and threw
our scarves in the air on the C section
Cuckoo Clock
We performed this rhyme for reinforcing steady beat. We embellished it with a highlow pattern on the tick-tock blocks. In another lesson, we passed tick-tock blocks to the
beat and played a small tam tam (similar to a gong) to signal the striking of the hours on
a clock.
Cuckoo, Where are You?
This game encouraged group and solo singing and gave me a chance to collect data
on each students ability to distinguish between singing and speaking voice, echo on
pitch, and sing a 2-note tonal pattern (sol-mi) with proper breath support.
Viennese Musical Clock, from Hry Jnos Suite, by Zoltn Kodly
We experienced the divisions in musical form in this musical rondo with a movement
routine, aided by our 20-foot parachute. In rondo form, the first theme returns after each
contrasting section.

Theme 2:
Mice

Theme 3: Cats
Run, Run, by Octavio Pinto

In the second lesson with this cat-and-mouse

piece, we used 3 six-foot parachutes and created a

movement routine to illustrate the formal divisions
of the piece.
Hickory
Dickory Dock
We performed in sing-along style for
beat reinforcement, group singing practice, and to help tie themes together
Mouse, Mousie
This is a fun game song that involves
a cat-and-mouse chase, singing a song
with three pitches (the sol-mi-do tonal
pattern), and offers students a chance to
keep the beat on xylophones
Three Blind Mice
We played instruments to the beat,
experienced the triple subdivision, sang
the song, and listened to a recording of
the piece, performed in a round.
Little Tommy Tiddlemouse
This is another game song to encourage solo and group singing. The mouse
sits in a chair, closes his/her eyes, and
has to guess who knocking on the chair
and singing, Who am I? to the pitches,
sol-sol-mi.
Run, Run, by Octavio Pinto.

This piano piece is in ABA form. In

one lesson, we pretended to be mice
and cats. The mice skittered and scurried in the fast, staccato A section while
the cats pretended to sleep. Then, when
the music became slow and legato, the
lazy, old cats stretched their paws, halfheartedly looked for the hiding mice, and
settled back down to sleep for the return
of the A section and the reprise of the
skittering mice.

Warm Kitty

You may know this song as the Soft Kitty round

from the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Progressive

fives students are not ready to perform

rounds. Instead, we played a toss-catch game with

soft pom pom balls to the beat and were reminded
never to toss real kitties!
Comic Duet for Two Cats, by G. Berthold (a pseudonymn, most likely for Robert Lucas de Pearsall), in
the style of Rossini

Inspired by a page in William Lachs book. Can

You Hear It?, we listened to a duet between a mezzo

soprano and a soprano opera singer, where they half

-sing, half-meow. We signaled the entrance of the
higher voice, the hissing sound and argument over
spilled milk, and the purring when they cats had
full bellies. We then practice meowing and other
nasal vocalises to help find our head voices, setting
us up for healthy singing.
Naughty Kitty Cat (song on la-sol-mi) and The
Teachers Cat (chant)

These were opportunities for the students to im-

provise. We created new lyrics/words, trying to insert out ideas without breaking the rhythmic cadence of the song/rhyme.
The Old Gray Cat

We got to move to the beat as the lyrics told a

story about a sleeping cat, nibbling mice, etc.

Theme Four: Farming and Harvest Songs

Old MacDonald
We explored the flexibility of our voices with animal noises, and we accompanied the a
video recording of the song with a sol-do pattern to the steady beat on xylophones.
The Farmer in the Dell
We used our colorful stretchy band to reinforce the steady beat as we sang and performed the game song.
Picking a Spot
This is a motion song about a farmer who has to choose a spot, cut down weeds, move
rocks, clear the land, plant seeds, experience the rain, sun, etc., and ends up with the exclamation of Apples - whoa! in our head voices.
The Happy Farmer from Album for the Young, by Robert Schumann
We identified the solo instrument as a piano, then we created
steady beat farmer motions to illustrate the AABABA form.
Oats. Peas, Beans and Barley Grow
This is a play party (a folk dance with words) that is accessible for
young kids.
Johnny on the Woodpile
We performed this echo song with motions to reinforce high v. low
sounds and upward v. downward melodies.
Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop
This rhyme helps us experience steady beat and triple subdivision (compound meter). It
is also another improvisation opportunity for the kids, while they think of things that require
chopping.
Over in the Meadow
This counting song has been adapted into a book several times by a variety of author/
illustrators. We will use Over in the Meadow to transition into our next theme, and the
songs melody and rhythm will recur in several other story songs and books this year.