I've been working hard to ensure my students are ready for the 'next level' of orchestra. These are the main skills I'm tracking for my students. Technically, these skills are always 'in progress' as we refine our abilities each year. But I do expect the highest possible standard for my beginners.
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I teach middle school students fresh out of elementary school where there are parties and games and activities for every holiday. Then they get to middle school and many of those fun activities go away. I don't think they are ever too old to have some fun...even while getting important practicing done during rehearsal.
We have plenty to work on as we polish our concert music. We'll work on all of the tricky passages in our music while doing a few fun challenges. I used the AI coding feature on Canva.com to help me create a St. Patricks Day spinner wheel. I described what I wanted in the prompt and after a few adjustments, published my wheel as a website so I can use it during class. I'll have a student volunteer to spin the wheel and can have the student, a section, or the whole class do the challenge...depending on what I am working on.
I'll have a few fun prizes as we go. I have some fake gold coins to hand out. And some of those super tiny ducks students collect these days. Some lucky horse shoe charms. And some little boxes of Lucky Charms so I can share some snacks.
Here are the challenges in my spinner:
LUCKY DUCK! Quack attack - quack your part for a duck!
Bow like a leprechaun! Use tiny bow strokes.
Hunt for 'shamrocks!' Find students in your section playing correctly and leave a gift.
LUCKY DUCK! Play the passage correctly and you get a duck!
LUCK OF THE DICE! Roll the dice to determine how many times to play the passage correctly.
"Pinch" the notes: Play accents on every note in the passage
Collect ‘Lucky Charms!’ Get a charm for every time C natural in tune!
Add colors of the rainbow! Play the passage with correct dynamics and emotion.
Go for the Gold! Play the passage perfectly 5 times in a row. You have 1 minute!
Bow like a leprechaun! Use tiny bow strokes.
This week I wanted to review rhythm and counting with my students so we played 'Crossy Road Rhythm.' I showed a video of the game and we observed how the player must be pay attention, move with correct timing, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes wait. I used the music snippet extension in google slides to add rhythms to the slides. I also added a number line to help the students see how the beats are aligned in each measure. Whenever I use a number line, students seem to really 'get' rhythm and have a lot of success performing correctly.
Here's a copy to my editable slides! CLICK HERE
