OBJECTIVE: To teach young kids how to build teamwork skills, leadership skills, self- confidence, how to overcome obstacles, set goals, and be imaginative.

Begin with “what is leadership”

• Anchor Chart - What is a leader Build self-confidence

• Teach Positive affirmations
  • Make positive self talk bracelets
• Teach Goal Setting
• Create an “I love myself sheet” where they roll a dice (made up of positive self esteem statements and say why they love themselves, why they are great:

Confronting Obstacles

• Worry Box
  • Create a box that says “write or draw what you’re worried about. Drop the worry in the box. Leave your worry behind, the box will hold it for ”

 Imagination Games

• Marshmallow challenge
  • Give students one marshmallow, 20 sticks of pasta, one yard of tape, and a ball of string
  • Students have to build the tallest free standing structure and then place the marshmallow on top

Team building games

• Music requires people to be in a team and play together, life will too
• Kids will be more successful if they work together and work in a team
• Hula Hoop Team Building Activity
  • Mark a hula-hoop with a line
  • Have kids stand around the hula-hoop
  • Move the hula-hoop around the group until it returns back to the original person
• Marble Runs
  • Hold pieces of a gutter together and figure out how to get the ball from one gutter piece to the last one
• Hula Hoop Transfer
  • Everyone stands around a circle and holds hands
  • Must pass on the hula hoop without letting go of hand

OBJECTIVE: To raise students awareness of how instruments and music work, allow hands on play, and expanding the imagination

Each rehearsal, bring pieces of wood, pots, pans, paper, metal, any sort of recycled material

Building Instruments

• Begin each design class with a picture of an instrument, Flute
• Explain how each instrument is made, ex. Flute is a tube with holes, you can blow in on one side
• Have an example “recycled instrument” to show how any instrument can be built with household objects
• Have the kids draw out what they would use
• Have volunteers help the kids actually build an instrument
• Collect the instruments, and over time use them in ensemble rehearsals

Imagination in music

• Listen to musicals and talk about them
  • Develop dances
  • Draw pictures of what the music sounds like
• Listen to music with no words
  • Come up with words that make them think of the music
  • Draw pictures about the music
• Classical Music Games
• Recycled Orchestral Sounds
  • Take the recycled materials and discover what sounds they make, other objects

Composition

• Print out shapes and assign each shape a musical activity (for example, a star means to clap) and then teach the kids to put the shapes in any order to create a song
• Explain how to write out rhythms
• Compose initially in rhythms
• Over time, expand into solfege

I Like to Move It Move It

(From the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Website)

To add more structure: suggest some body movements that students could do; some might be shy about dancing.

***For the first buy-in day, instead of having the students clap rhythms, have the student with the dry-erase marker say what their favorite type of music is or who their favorite band is***

• Also have students say their name so we can get to know them!

Procedure:

• This activity gets students moving and actively participating on the first day of general music class
• Students will move about the room as the song ‘I Like to Move It Move It’ plays
  • Students can move in an organized fashion around the room (figure eight, square, circle) or move around in a random pattern, as long as the classroom environment makes it safe to do so
• As students move, a white board eraser is being passed from student to student
• When the music stops, the student with the eraser will clap the rhythm written on the white
  • Can also be used as a review game: the student who has the eraser must give the definition of the term on the board or an example of the concept written on the board
• Students can also say ‘Move It!’ when the chorus says ‘Ya like ta’

Instruments List

Standard Percussion Ensemble Snare Drum/Field Drum

Bass Drum Toms

Cymbals (Suspended and Crash) Melodic Mallet Instruments

Found Instruments Ensemble Metal Buckets/Terra Cotta Pots (4) 50 Gallon Plastic Bin/Trash Can (2)

Plastic Buckets (6) Metal Trash Can Lids (2)

Metal Pipes, Glass Bottles, Glasses, Wood Planks, Plates, Tea Cups, Bowls (3-4)

Boom Whackers (1-2

Begin with a check in session to reconnect with students about life events Review basic rhythms again

• Assign rhythm sheets for them to clap out and practice outside of class (no more than five minutes a day)

Discuss hand position and check to make sure they have a solid foundation

• Palm down
• Thumb and first knuckle
• Play in the center of the bucket, both sticks striking the same spot, as if a sticker was placed there
• Tips of sticks should create a 90 degree angle at the middle of the bucket
• Keep shoulders completely relaxed
• Don’t squeeze sticks
• No “chicken wings”
• Arms should be slightly below 90 degrees at the elbow

• Rebound Stroke
• Sticks start and end at the same location above the drum
• Motion feels like bouncing a ball
• Back fingers remain wrapped, but not gripping tightly, the back of the stick

Work on ensemble piece

• Inquire if there are questions
• Rehearse segments

Reserve time at the end to discuss happenings in their lives Reserve time for homework help

We are constantly looking for recycled materials to create our instruments! Should you have anything that could be recycled and are looking to get rid of it, send it our way and we will    make something beautiful out of it!

Partners

Many thanks to our partners over at Communities in  Harmony  for  helping  us  grow  and flourish, and supporting us! Want to be a partner? Check out how at www.findyourbeat.org