Mrs. Tucker's Class Rap

Treble Clef Rap:  Mrs. Tucker's Class

Composing with Fourth and Fifth Grade

I'll admit that I get nervous about allowing students to compose.  It's so much easier for me to give them what they need to know and to lead them where I need them to go.  Letting them create their own compositions was a little scary at first.  Yesterday students truly amazed me with what they were able to create.

To begin, we have been reviewing the C major scale and G major scale as well as intervals through singing and playing.  The last lesson students drew oversized keyboards showing the intervals from middle C to each note all the way up to treble C.  They worked in small groups to measure with rulers, crayons and butcher paper.  It was a great visual and they seemed to get quite a bit out of just seeing it and doing it.

We then used our iPads as well as a melody page to help students think through what sounds correct.  For example, I would play three measures, but leave off the last note and ask students to sing the next note.  They would find the tonic (home note) in most cases.  I would then play a phrase and end it on a different note to see their reactions.  The song didn't sound finished; it needed something more.  We talked about how music starts and ends.  How that impacts our ears and our emotions about it.

Students then broke into groups where each person wrote four measures.  They put together their creations to form a 16 measure song.  They chose the order, how it was played, if two parts played at the same time and whether they wanted to repeat certain parts.  Students wrote out the letters of their notes first under their measures.  Then added the notation above it.

Some students wanted to write with only quarter notes; others created more complicated rhythms.

The final result was incredibly cool as students truly thought like musicians and composers.  They were opinionated and able to express why they felt the way that they do about their song.  It was neat to hear them use the iPads to compose - at first quite a bit of sound and experimentation; then forming phrases that made sense; and finally a piece of music.

Freeman PBL 2

The boys in Mrs. Freeman's class chose to rewrite the words to the popular song "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego Movie.  Here is their new version:

The Diaphragm Song

By Shaun, Ife, Brock, Adrian and Ethan

Everything is awesome, Everything is cool when you’re breathing in air.

Everything is awesome when you’re sniffing a bear.

Everything is better when we’re breathing together.

Side by side you and I gonna use my lungs together.

Let’s breathe forever.

We’re the same unlike you

You and me we are working to breathe

Everything is awesome

Everything is cool when you’re breathing in air

Everything is awesome when you’re sniffing a bear.

I just heard my diaphragm working

Everyone’s taking a breath

Cause everything’s awesome

Awesome lungs and new fresh air

More free diaphragms to breathe

I feel more awesome than an awesome bear.

Keep my lungs from turning black

I’ll be healthy that’s a fact

Smelling like a bear, everything is awesome

Accept to look at new bear shoes.

It’s awesome to breathe in and it’s awesome to breathe out

Everythnig is better when we breathe together

Side by side you and I gonna breathe forever

Let’s breathe forever

Everything is awesome

Everything is cool when you’re breathing in air

Everything is awesome when you’re sniffing a bear.

Everything is awesome

Everything is cool when you’re breathing in air

Everything is awesome when you’re sniffing a bear.

Ward PBL

Students in Mrs. Ward's class chose to rewrite the words to popular songs to share what they learned about the lungs and diaphragm.  Here are a few excerpts:

1.  Poem:

By Surya, Eli, Mason, J Skye, Diego, Jordan

The diaphragm helps us breathe.

It’s right under our lungs.

It goes up when you breathe out

The diaphragm goes down when you breathe in.

Huh huh huh

The diaphragm helps you breathe.

Smoking hurts your lungs.

It makes your lungs black and yucky.

Don’t do drugs!

2.  LET IT GO:

The breathe goes in let the diaphragm out

Not a breath to be seen

A kingdom of breathalation

And it looks like I can breathe.

The air is moving like this storm in my lungs.

Couldn’t keep my diaphragm in heaven knows I tried.

Don’t let it in, don’t let lungs out

Be the good girl you always have to be

Conceal, don’t feel don’t let them know

Well now they know

Let it go, let it go

Can’t hold my breath anymore

Let it go, let it go

Can’t hold my breath anymore.

3.  Preston, JD, and Carter

“Get Jazzy on Me”

Get your lungs on me boom huh boom huh

I don’t know what the diaphragm does for me

The diaphragm helps your breathe

The diaphragm helps your lungs size up.

It goes up and down when you breathe

Your lungs push air into your vocal chords.

That’s how the diaphragm helps you breathe.

Freeman PBL

A group of girls in Mrs. Freeman's class wanted to perform a skit.  They wrote the entire scene themselves complete with characters (a scientist and teacher talking to two kids) and simple staging.  Here is their final result:

Freeman’s Group:  Skit

Ally and Brooke:  Miss Madalyn?  Oh scientist!

Madalyn:  Who!  What do you need?

Chloe:  Miss Madalyn what are these kids doing here?

Brooke:  We want to learn about our diaphragm.

Ally:  What’s a diaphragm?

Brooke:  You don’t know what a diaphragm is?

All:  Let’s ask!

Chloe:  Your diaphragm helps you breathe.  When you take a breath in, your diaphragm goes down.

Madalyn:  When you breathe out, your diaphragm moves back out.  Mostly that’s how the diaphragm works.

Ally:  Well, how do you get the air inside your diaphragm.

Chloe:  Well you breathe in air through your mouth.  Your lungs expand and air comes in.

Brooke:  I heard smoking is bad for your lungs and your diaphragm.

Madalyn:  It’s bad for your whole body.  Smoking makes your lungs turn black.

Chloe:  The nicotine in cigarettes holds onto your body and doesn’t let it go.

Madalyn:  Like a fish on a hook – it doesn’t let go.  Let’s go get some ice cream.

Adriana:  Hey guys – where are you?  Who turned off the lights?