5th Grade

5th graders have been exploring form in music through a piece called "The Viennese Musical Clock" by Zoltan Kodaly. This piece of music is in rondo form. This means there is a repeating "A section" of music after each new section is introduced. Students experienced this pattern through tap charts (see below) that had an icon for every beat in the music. This visual map is really helpful for giving students a more concrete view of an abstract idea. Students worked in small groups to create original choreography for each different section of music. Their movements were inspired by mechanical, automated and robotic machines. Putting this all together required a lot of collaboration and cooperation. I was so proud of the final results!

After completing their movement project as a class, they began to work in pairs using the xylophone to decode the main theme of "The Viennese Musical Clock" piece by ear. We introduced notation and began playing it as an ensemble. This week, they are composing original music in pairs to create a class composition in the rondo style. Looking ahead, students will begin learning the notation program "Noteflight". This program is free and will allow our students to create scores of their compositions to print our and bring home!