Water Glass Music-Making

Lesson #2: Using the Scientific Process

With my second week at Spanish Oaks Elementary, we used the scientific process to answer a question about the pitches these water glasses would make!

1. The Scientific Process

All students received a handout that listed the steps within the scientific process. Together as a class we went through each of the steps:

• Purpose/Question
• Research
• Hypothesis
• Experiment
• Data/Analysis
• Conclusion

Our scientific experiment involved the five water glasses shown above. Each of the identical glasses are filled up with different amounts of water (with food coloring). The students were asked to make a hypothesis about if all the glasses would make the same pitch when hit by a metal spoon. If they thought the glasses would make different pitches, then which glass would create the highest pitch and which glass would create the lowest pitch.

After experimenting, the kids made the conclusion that the blue glass (that contained the most water) made the lowest pitch, and the purple glass (which contained the least amount of water) made the highest pitch.

2. Further Experimenting/ Music-Making

Next I used the water glasses and a spoon to play a melody for the kids. They each raised their hands when they recognized which song it was (Mary Had a Little Lamb). These glasses form an E Major scale (do, re, mi, fa, & sol). I added another tiny glass which then became 'la.' Then each student got a turn to come up and help play a common children's song (while they rest of the class listened and guessed which song it was). 

Because of the setup of the glasses, each student knew it was their turn to play when I lightly tapped the top of their head (which I did with student permission). We played through several songs: Mary Had a Little Lamb; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; It's Raining, and London Bridge is Falling Down (the latter being the trickiest for the kids to recognize). 

This was a fun activity that caused the students to think, listen, and participate! We could have spent many more minutes playing around with our little water-glass-ensemble!

Music Standards Met: 

3.M.P.11

Side Note:

The students thought I was so cool because I went around the room and listed off all of their names (which I had memorized using the class roster).

                                             #ProudTeacherMoment

Music + Grammar

Lesson #1: Recognizing Verbs,   Adjectives, and Nouns 

This marks a new semester! I am now teaching at Spanish Oaks Elementary in a fun classroom of third graders. After a short getting-to-know-you activity, here it what we did!

Opening Activity:

First we all learned the first verse of the simple song "Buffalo Gals."

Similar Recording of Buffalo Gals

Then we added movement/actions that illustrated individual words in the song. Words like: "walking," "street," "gal," "see," "buffalo gals," "dance,' and "moon" to name a few. I suggested actions for the first half of the song, and the students enthusiastically created actions for the second half. We performed the song several times with all these actions!

Application Time:

For the application part of the lesson, the students returned to their desk and helped me write the lyrics to the songs on the whiteboard. Then I asked students to raise their hands and tell me which words involved "doing something." The kids supplied the answers, I underlined them in a different color, and then pointed out that these words are VERBS.

Next I did the same thing with all of the NOUNS and then ADJECTIVES in the song. 

Then we returned back to our standing circle and performed the song again. But this time, the students were instructed to only do the actions for the verbs and to omit the other actions. It was easy for the students (and me) to get carried away and do all of the actions unless we were really thinking!

Lastly, we returned to looking at the lyrics on the whiteboard. I erased a verb here, an adjective there, a noun there--leaving the underlined colors that showed what kind of word it had been. Then the students suggested words to go in those blank places--creating different lyrics. We then sang this version as a class one last time!

Music Standards Met:

3.M.P.10; 3.M.CR.2