Chinese New Year 2017

lion dancersGung Hay Fat Choy or best wishes for a prosperous new year! Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays for the Chinese people and it is marked with many traditions. I learned a great deal about these traditions and the festivities surrounding the holiday while living and teaching in Singapore. The island was transformed during the holiday with many festivals, food stalls and lion dancing performances. Continue reading “Chinese New Year 2017”

La Mariposa, A Bolivian folksong

This was part of a series of lessons dealing with the concept of melody. Students were introduced to several songs from South America, Japan, Europe and America. In these examples you will find lessons that are designed to enable students to work in cooperative groups in problem solving situations where they could draw upon their collective knowledge and act upon their decisions! Some of the lessons use puzzle cards that are simply iconic representation of the melodic shape and duration. While the concept of melody was the focus, the students noticed many more musical dimensions which led to creative projects dealing with musical form, expression, and timbre.

I was introduced to the puzzle card idea by Dr. Jackie Wiggins at Oakland University. See her book, Teaching for Musical Understanding for more information.

 
Title–La MariposaWorld music playground
Artist—Colibri  (Bolivia)
Album
—World Music Playground
Get the complete lesson plan here: La Mariposa
YouTube Videos for Classroom Instruction: 
La Mariposa has a few different versions and lot of great YouTube videos that can be used for lesson planning for the elementary and secondary general music classroom. Here are a few of my favorites: