Native American Indians

Lesson #7: The Hand Game

This third grade class at Spanish Oaks Elementary has begun learning about different kids of cultures. One group of people they have been learning about is the Native American Indians. During this lesson we learned more about the culture of Native American Indians and played a traditional Native American Indian game.

Native American Indians: An Umbrella Term

First I explained to the class how the term "Native American Indian" is a very broad term and there are many more specific classifications underneath that term. I related this to shoes. Shoes are a very broad term. There are all sorts of different kinds of shoes--sneakers, sandals, boots, flip flops, heels, flats, slippers, and so forth. There are also many different kinds of Native American Indians--Navajo, Ute, Apache, Cherokee, Inuit, and so forth. I brought with me a library book about Native American Indians. This book listed some of these different tribes and showed a map with where these different tribes lived in North America--along with what kind of houses each of these different tribes built to live in. The book also contained illustrations of a Native American Indian's culture and lifestyle. There were pages about clothing, housing, hunting/farming, and transportation (canoe, horses, and dogsled). We looked at these pictures as a class and talked about some of these differences between our culture and their culture.

Native American Indians Played Games Too!

We also discussed as a class games that we like to play in our culture (such as monopoly). Well, the Native American Indians also played games--just different ones than we play now. I showed them a picture in the library book of some Native American playing cards and some sport (kind of like lacrosse) that some people were playing. The kids next got the opportunity to play a traditional Native American Indian game--called the Hand Game (also called the stick game). This game was played among Indians in the plateau region. I taught the game to the class (with some revisions in the rules that allowed every student to play at once and also that made the game simpler) and then we played it several times. This game was also played with musical accompaniment. Players would sing and also play the drums as part of the game. I taught the class a simple children's song that we would use for our musical accompaniment. The rules are as follows.

The Hand Game

1. The class is divided into two teams (Team 1 & Team 2). Each team forms two rows, facing inwards. Each row had about 5 students. The inside rows sit on the floor while the outside rows stand.

2. The first student in line (in the standing row) is the Team Hider. When it is their team's turn, the Team Hider will be given a button by the teacher. The Team Hider will then walk up and down their team's row and will hide the button in one of their teammate's hands (all the students standing have their hands outstretched behind their backs). 

3. The first student in line in the standing row on the other team is the Team Guesser. While the other Team Hider is hiding the button, the Team Guesser stands in the center and watches. After the button has been hidden, the Team Guesser has two guesses as to which student is holding the button. If the Team Guesser guesses correctly, that button goes into their team bowl (they score a point). If the Team Guesser is unable to locate the button after the two guesses, the other team puts the button in their own team bowl and gets a point themselves.

4. The Team Hider does have a time limit for hiding the button. The students who are standing are sing the children's song we just learned as a class. The inside rows of students who are sitting on the floor each had a different drum and a mallet. They drummed the beat of the song while the other students sang. The Team Hider had until the end of the song to hide the button.

5. Whichever team had the most buttons in their bowl when it was time to stop playing (which was decided by me) won!

The kids had a fun time playing this game. Halfway through the game, the kids playing the instruments switched with the kids who were standing. So everyone got the chance to play an instrument and almost everyone got the chance to be either the Team Hider or the Team Guesser. It was a fun time! Team 1 won. :)

Wrap-Up

I wrapped up the lesson by explaining that while Native American Indians back in the day did not have access to Monopoly, air conditioning, cars, plumbing, etc. But there are many Native American Indians today who do have access to those things. They do not necessarily wear tribal clothes all the times, and they're pretty similar to us. We just might differ in religious beliefs. I then showed the class some pictures. My Grandma and Grandpa Smith served an LDS mission at the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. My Grandma was kind enough to send me some pictures of the people there, and I showed two of these pictures to the class--one picture of a Native American Indian boy and one of a Native American Indian girl. When I showed them to the class, one girl exclaimed out loud exactly what I'd hoped they would understand. She said, "They look just like us!" This was a fun lesson where the class got to explore more of Native American Indian culture, got to learn a simple song, play the beat with a mallet on a drum, and got to play a fun Native American Indian game!

Latin American Instrument-ing!

Lesson #6: Welcome, Senor Don Gato!

Yesterday I took another trip to Spanish Oaks Elementary! The kids are beginning to learn about cultures: what a culture is, what makes up a culture, and so forth. Some specific cultures they'll be learning about include the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and Native American Indians. I knew that the kids loved playing instruments in one of our previous lessons, so I decided to organize our class time around instruments used in Latin America.

Story Time:

First I began by reading a children's story about a cat named Senor Don Gato. I explained that Senor Don Gato lives somewhere in Latin America--probably Mexico. The story follows Don Gato as he receives a love letter from a lady cat, then falls off a roof and breaks all sorts of bones, dies, is carried away to the cemetery, but then upon smelling fish, comes back to life! After reading the story, we pointed out things as a class that are different in this culture than in our culture (clothes, houses, food market).

Next I explained that other cultures listen to different kinds of music and use different instruments in that music. In our American culture we hear lots of piano, drums, and guitar (to name a few) in our music. Then I brought out some old Aztec instruments--an ayoyote (like a rattle) and an ocarina (a little instrument you blow in). There also was an African djembe (d rum). I then compared these to some other instruments I had brought from the BYU Elementary music library--a hand drum, claves, recorders, maracas, guiros, and cowbells. I explained that instruments evolve over time through different cultures and time periods--an example being of how the invention of the organ later led to the harpsichord which then led to the piano. So these really old Aztec instruments (among plenty of other instruments) over time have evolved to instruments like these!

Soundtrack for Don Gato:

Then we created a little soundtrack for just one of the segments of the story--when Don Gato is so excited about his love letter that he falls off the roof and breaks his ribs, his bones, and his whiskers! I wrote out this portion of the book on the white board. The kids had instruments at their desks and helped to decide when each instrument would play while the poem was being read. We created a kind of composition using different symbols above the text to represent different instruments would play (and sometimes if the instruments would play loudly, slowly, quickly, etc). 

Don Gato is a Song Too:

This little story isn't just a poem in a book. It's also a song--a ballad to be exact (a song that has many verses that repeats over and over to tell a story). I showed the class the last page in the storybook--which shows the written notation and sang it for the class. Then I pulled up a YouTube instrumental recording of the song and explained the students would be playing their instruments along with the recording (while I sang--all the recordings I found with singing were either creepy or annoying). First we practiced playing together as a class (they play when I clap). They didn't know, but we clapped a half note pulse, then a quarter note pulse, and then a quick clump of three eighth notes at the end of each phrase. The recording plays all six verses and the kids had to watch me each verse to see which rhythm we were going to do for which verse. We did the whole song once, switched instruments, and then did it again! The kids got pretty good at following me and enjoyed getting to experiment with these Latin American instruments!

Link to Don Gato Recording (this is the slower version)

Marvelous Music Map Making!

Lesson #5: Sally Go Round the Sun

Yesterday I made another visit out to Spanish Oaks Elementary! Our lesson today was centered around the short and simple song "Sally Go Round the Sun." I was taught this lesson by Dr. Brittney May in one of my Music Education classes at BYU. So instead of being the student, this time I was the teacher!

Song + Movement

The students gathered in as large of a circle as the classroom would permit and I taught them this song. The lyrics are:

Sally go round the sun,

Sally go round the moon, 

Sally go round the chimney pot

every afternoon--boom!

After singing through the song once, I picked three students to stand in the middle of the circle. Each student held a piece of paper with one of the objects in the song drawn on it (a sun, a moon, a chimney pot). I sang the song and while I sang, walked around each student (going "round" the sun, moon, and chimney pot). When I got to "boom!", I was standing back in my original spot in the circle of students. 

Next the students got to sing and move along with me. I chose children by birthday months to make sure everyone got a turn in the middle.

Mini-Preposition Lesson:

Next I suggested to the class that maybe we could substitute a different word for "round." One child suggested "over." So then the students holding the objects laid down on the floor while other students sang:

Sally go over the sun,

Sally go over the moon,

Sally go over the chimney pot

every afternoon--boom!

 One student correctly identified "round" and "over" as a preposition! If we had more time, we would have done more playing around with changing out prepositions.

Making the Map

Students then sat in their circles and I reminded them of two weeks ago when we all followed the Harry Potter music map. I told them today they would be creating a map kind of like that using "Sally Go Round the Sun."

Each student received a whiteboard to write on, a piece of paper, and a marker. I showed them how to draw an 'X' in the top left corner of their paper--this is where their map would begin. They would start their map there and then would move their marker continuously on the paper until the song ended. We practiced once with tracing our finger and then did the real thing. Later on, the students traced their maps and then added in pictures of the sun, the moon, and the chimney pot in accordance to where they happened in the song. Here are some examples of what the kids came up with:

Switch-er-roo

Next the students were to swap papers with their neighbors and would trace their neighbors' maps. This was a lesson for me. I instructed the students to pass their papers one person to the right. This was much more of a difficult task than I anticipated it would be: I learned to always make sure everyone knows which way is right to begin with. :) Eventually the kids were able to trace another map besides their own!

Conclusion:

The students learned a new song, did movement to the song, and then created a music map for it. Creating the map required that they listened to the general melody and shape of the melody. We briefly talked as a class how the maps they made were different from one another. Although all the students heard the same song being sung, different people interpret and visualize music differently--in a way that makes the most sense to them.

M&Ms: Math & Music

Lesson #4: Addition, Body Percussion, & Instruments

Today at Spanish Oaks Elementary we began with reviewing 4-digit addition. I wrote three math problems on the board, and the students solved these problems in their math notebooks. For each problem, a student came to the white board and showed how he or she had solved the problem. 

Then I asked for the students' help to identify the:

• thousands column
• hundreds column
• tens column
• ones column

As the students identified which column was which, I put a box around that column.

Each column, I explained, would be assigned a different body percussion. As now shown below:

In this way, the answer to every math problem becomes a kind of song or composition. This one would consist of 3 snaps, 2 claps, 1 pat, and 6 stomps. I modeled how this should be done--keeping an even beat and counting out loud while we snapped/clapped/patted/stomped.

After the kids got the hang of this, we then performed the whole equation (1862 + 1354 = 3216) with the same body percussion as before.

Group Activity:

Next the class was split into four groups. Each group was assigned a different addition problem to first solve and then to practice as a group to soon perform in front of the class. They did this!

Body Percussion to Instruments:

I then erased the snaps/claps/pats/stomps markings I had written on the whiteboard and replaced them with these words: claves, triangles, sand blocks, and Chinese balls. What do these words all have in common? They are all percussion instruments!

The instruments were handed out to all of the students (they got to play their instruments as much as they liked while this was going on). After going over rules about the instruments, I explained how now each column would be played by one specific instrument. To simplify things, on the whiteboard I drew symbols that represented each of the instruments (clave=stars, triangles=circles, sand blocks=squares, Chinese balls=hearts).

We then played the equations using our instruments!

It was a fun time!

Music Standards Met:

3.M.P.8; 3.M.P.11

Music Mapping

 Lesson #3: A Music Map!

This week at Spanish Oaks elementary we began exploring music maps!

For our first activity, I showed the class I drawing I had done of my neighborhood. I pointed out places in my neighborhood that were important to me and that I had put little stars next to (my house, my friends' house, my church). The students then had about five minutes to create a map of their own neighborhood.

Class Discussion:

Then as a class we talked about some of the purposes of a map. Some of the things we came up with were:

• Maps show others where to go (could help a friend get to my house)
• Maps have symbols on them that represent something (little boxes represent houses, stores, and so forth)
• Maps show distance (e.g., how far away my house is from the neighborhood park)
• Maps aren't always 100% accurate--they are interpretations
• Maps show a specific place or location (or a specific neighborhood)

The students' maps were all unique and creative in their own way. Here is just a couple of them!

The Music Map:

Next I hung up on the board what is called a music map. This map "maps" out a song--using symbols, lines, and shapes to depict the different melodies throughout the song. I stood by the music map and as the song played, I traced my finger along each of the lines and symbols. The class was silent during this process! 

The song we used is from the movie soundtrack "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." (I chose this song and created this map in mind of this class--their classroom decoration has a Harry Potter theme.) Here is a link to the song as well as a close-up picture of the music map itself. 

"Book 2: Prologue and the Escape from the Dursleys"

Then I invited the kids to all put their fingers in the air and trace along with me.

Next I asked what the kids noticed about this map. Many students shared musical insights that they had noticed while listening and watching the map.

Some of their observations included:

• The map followed the melody in the song
• Symbols/lines in the map showed if sounds were short/long, slow/fast, and soft/loud
• Some parts were repeated in the song
• Lines showed whether the melody went up or down

Tie-In:

At this point, we revisited the class discussion we had earlier about the purposes of map. We talked about how this music map, although visually looks different than the neighborhood maps they drew, has the same functions as a regular map.

Music maps also can:

• Show a listener where the melody goes throughout a song
• Contain symbols that represent sounds, timbres, dynamics, tempos, and melodies
• Show distance (how far away different themes in the song are from one another)
• Are not 100% accurate--are interpretations!
• Show a specific song (using this map with another song would not be effective)

For the last activity, we listened to the song again and the kids were told to stand up and to use their bodies to follow along with what the music was doing (instead of just tracing with their finger). I traced for them and they did some movement (some of which was quite entertaining to watch)!

Music Standards Met:

3.M.P.5; 3.M.R.1

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