Final Performance

For their final performance, the students created their own secret songs for their neighbors. I took time the week before the performance to teach students how to make their own songdots. On the day of the final performance, I reminded students of the process and we reviewed all of our songs. Then, the students went back to their tables and made their secret songs.

After making their secret songs and sharing them with the class, they counted the number of dots they made versus the number of words in the song. We brought this back together as a class and discussed those differences in a whole group setting. Finally, the students had the opportunity to share their songdots with the whole class if they wished to.

Secret Songs

We used a number of lessons on "secret songs" to introduce the students to more connections between the rhythms and syllables of our songs.

The secret songs that I used were made up of songdots. When making songdots of a song, you place a dot on the paper for every rhythmic event in the song. For example, if I was songdotting the word "Sally" from "Sally Go 'Round the Sun," I would place two dots on the page. When I made the secret songs for the class, I spaces the dots out according to duration and phrasing. My songdots for "Sally Go 'Round the Sun" are pictured below, followed by the dots connected to the lyrics.

Sally Go 'Round the Sun

With Lyrics

This was the first secret song that I used with the students. To begin, I displayed the plain dots on the board and explained what they were to the students. Then, I tapped the rhythm while pointing to the dots. Afterwards, the students guessed which song it could be and we sang their guesses while pointing to the dots to check if they were correct. We did the same process on following weeks for "Bee Bee Bumblebee" and "A-Hunting We Will Go."

During this process, we focused a lot on matching the lyrics to the songdots. We talked about how many dots it takes to sing the words. We were able to discuss how sometimes words are split into parts, which is why it takes more than one note to sing those in these songs. The students were also able to identify how words in the songs were split up between dots.

Connecting Vowels to Rhythm

After the students learned rhythm and were confident in identifying vowel sounds, we were able to start using those two skills in conjunction with one another. The songs and story that we used to teach about rhythm, vowel sounds, and syllables, each had only one vowel sound/syllable per note and vice versa. Because of this, we were able to make important connections between those concepts.
One lesson that we completed for this used the song "High-Stepping Horses." When learning the song, we marched to the rhythm of the song. Afterwards, we used rhythm sticks in two different ways. We used these to tap the rhythm of the song one time. Then, we practiced tapping every time that we heard a vowel sound. For example, when we sang the word, "stepping," we tapped for the /e/ sound and the /i/ sound. In order to connect our rhythm and vowel sounds, we talked about whether or not their tapping was the same or different each time.

Some students noticed differences because, in identifying vowel sounds, they did not say that the "y" in the word "jiggety" qualified. In this way, they demonstrated their discernment and ability to distinguish between rhythm and vowels. 

Later, to reinforce similarities and differences between syllables and rhythm, we read a Halloween book called There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. We added instruments to the story on the phrases "There was an old lady who swallowed a..." and "I don't know why she swallowed a bat. Imagine that." Students played the rhythm of the story with either rhythm sticks or triangles.

From these lessons, we were able to identify that, in the instances of the song and story that we used, the vowel sounds matched the rhythms. This led to our later discussions on how the smaller parts of words, syllables, can also match the rhythm.

Identifying Vowel Sounds

We spent a few weeks talking about vowel sounds in words. This was in conjunction with the 1st Grade Utah State English Language Arts Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 3B: "Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word."

To start our lessons on vowel sounds, we played the singing game "A-Hunting We Will Go." The students loved having the opportunity to catch the others in their boxes as we played and sang.

After playing the game, students worked to identify the vowel sounds in five of the words from the song: "fox," "box," "him," "put," and "let." By identifying these, we were able to set foundational knowledge for later lessons.

Learning Rhythm

To begin my teaching, I decided to introduce the students to the concept of rhythm, so we could later connect that to the syllables of words that fit into the rhythm. 

We started by learning the song "Bee Bee Bumblebee" by playing the singing game. While standing in a circle, students helped me sing the song as I spun around. At the end of the song, whichever students I was pointing at were "out." Their job was to sit down and tap the rhythm of the song on their laps as we continued the game. I pre-taught them the difference between beat and rhythm. I started by modeling the beat and talking about how it was steady. For rhythm, I told them to tap all of the notes in the song and modeled what that looked and sounded like. Because of this, students were able to tap most of the rhythm correctly during the game, although we stopped and practiced a few different times. 

The students were very engaged in this game and loved waiting to see who would "get out" and who would "win" at the very end. This lesson provided the foundation for the students to start understanding rhythm and using it for future lessons. 

Introduction

My name is Marissa Johnson. I am a senior in the Early Childhood Education major at Brigham Young University, with minors in Music and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages K-12. I am ecstatic at the opportunity which I have this semester to teach integrated music lessons in a 1st grade classroom at Spring Lake Elementary School in Payson, Utah.

I come from a musical family, and therefore have been involved in music for most of my life. I have played the piano for 14 years and started singing in choirs in 5th grade. Since coming to BYU, I have had the opportunity to further my musical skills through private lessons, singing in choirs, and working for the Elementary Music Education Office as an assistant. With my background in both early childhood education and music, teaching integrated music lessons is an incredible opportunity for me to combine two of my biggest passions.

This semester, I will be working with the 1st grade students to study music and English language arts. Through my project, we will discover the relationship between musical elements like rhythm and important language arts topics like syllables. I look forward to being able to interact with the children often, as well as to learn from both the classroom teacher and my mentor teacher.