Revolutionary War Music

Today was Colony Day at Spanish Oaks Elementary. When I walked into the classroom, the kids were all dressed up in their colony attire with new colonist name tags such as Barnabas, Zedekiah, and Remember. The whiteboard was a chalkboard now with cursive writing. They had to sit in rows like pews, and each had their own copy of an old Primer book. There was a dunce hat on one of the boys, and I was instructed to use public shaming in my lesson if the kids deserved it.

We started out singing "Yankee Doodle," and learning about the meaning of "macaroni" and "yankee doodle." Then we performed a stick game, tapping and passing the sticks in a circle. The kids got it after a few times, and we had fun increasing the speed. Don't tap the sticks too hard or they will break! This game worked well with the 5th graders, maybe not so well if they were 1st graders.

We learned about the different Revolutionary War instruments, like the bugle, the fife, and the drum. The kids learned three different drum patterns for turning left, right, and 180 degrees. I would clap a pattern and the kids would have to turn the correct way. Whoever messed up sat down and we kept going until there was a winner. I had one of the kids be the drummer (clapper) too.

Division in Music

The second activity in the division lesson is to learn how it applies to music. After playing "Old Joe Clark" to remember the song and game, the kids joined me at the whiteboard.


By listening, they discovered that the song "Old Joe Clark" has 3 big sections. I drew 3 large arcs on the board, and we labeled them ABA by listening to see if the sections were the same or different. "This song is in ABA form," I told them. "We just divided the song into 3 parts!" I divided the students into 3 groups and had each group sing a different section.





Next, the students listened for even smaller sections in the music. With this part of the lesson, the kids can hear it in two measure sections or one measure sections. This class heard it in one measure sections. Underneath the large arcs, I drew smaller arcs for the smaller sections. "We just divided the song into 12 parts," I said. But instead of splitting the class into 12 groups, we did 4 groups and I pointed to each group when it was their turn to sing a small section.

Lastly, I showed the students how some songs have a strong/weak beat (2), strong/weak/weak beat (3), and a strong/weak/weak/weak beat (4). The students and I used our bodies to tap the beat of the song to find out if it was in 2, 3, or 4. Then we sang the entire song while tapping the strong and weak beats on our bodies.

With some extra time, we reviewed "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and applied the same process to this song. We divided it into 2 sections, with 7 smaller sections, and found out that the beat was in 3. We also took the song "Witch's Brew" and did the same process with that song! It was also in ABA form (the kids liked that connection to "Old Joe Clark"), had 12 smaller sections, and they decided it was had 4 beats in a measure. Technically, "Witch's Brew" is in 2, but the eighth notes are so slow that it feels like 4.

It was super fun, the students understood the idea of form, and we used division in music :)

Division and Halloween

Using a lesson plan created by my mentor Emily Soderborg, the kids at Rocky Mountain Elementary and I learned a LOT about division and we had tons of fun doing it. I haven't done math for about 4 years, so I had to look up some of the division lingo to make sure I was doing it right. I'll be honest, I even messed up a simple division problem, but the kids helped me fix it so I know they get it :)

We learned a new song today called "Old Joe Clark." To get the melody in their heads, we added some movements; walking around in a circle with linked arms (the kids didn't want to hold hands...), and walking to the center and back during the chorus. It was a challenge for them since they were in a bit of an oval shape and some of the boys didn't understand the concept of round circles. Then, we changed the chorus to "make a group of ____, make it really fast, how many remainders last?" Each time we sang the song, we put a different number in the space. I started it simple, with groups of two or three, and then went up to five. We wrote the division problem on the board every time we did the chorus. The kids (and I) learned that this is measurement division!

We changed the chorus again to "come together in ____ groups, come together fast, how many remainders last?" The kids had a harder time with this kind of division, which is called partitive division. But after a few times, it got easier for them.

Then, I labeled the parts of the division problem and we sang a new verse about the vocabulary (dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder). I was worried that because the words were so big, the kids would have trouble singing this verse. But with the words on the board, they got it just fine. I also had some students come up and "conduct" the verse for me by pointing to the correct parts of the problem.

We had a bit of extra time, so I pulled out a Halloween song called "Pumpkin Stew." The song was a hit, but the partner hand game wasn't since the boys and girls didn't want to touch each other at all. So we switched it to "Witches Brew" and thought of gross things we could put in the brew. When I left, they had come up with four gross ingredients and rhythms to match. Ms. Brown took it a step further after and had them create an 8 measure section using the gross ingredients. Even though they didn't know it, we practiced dividing into groups of 2 during the partner game in "Pumpkin Stew," so it all ended up connecting in one way or another.

"My Country 'Tis of Thee"

Our second lesson was on the patriotic song "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Using a picture book, we discovered the origins of the song and how it has evolved over the last 300 years. We also compared and contrasted different versions of the song today.

First, I sang the song "America" by Samuel Francis Smith. Most of the kids had heard this before, so I invited them to sing it with me the second time. We watched a video of Aretha Franklin sing the same song at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. She sings it in a jazzy, spiritual style. The kids helped me brainstorm lots of different words to describe what they heard and saw. Then, we watched Mormon Tabernacle Choir's version. They sing it in a more classical and calm way, and the kids noticed that immediately. One of the students pointed out that the first video was sung by a woman and the second video was sung by more men. We had a short discussion about the difference between a soloist and a choir.

I pulled out the book "My Country 'Tis of Thee: How One Song Reveals the History of Civil Rights" by Claire Murphy. Since the print is small, we used the projector so that the kids could sing each new verse with me. From the book, the kids learned about how the song started out as "God Save the King," a British tune. Then the colonists changed the words during the Revolutionary War. There was a new verse written for President George Washington's inauguration. The North and the South each had their own verses during the Civil War, and President Abraham Lincoln sang a new verse with the Union after they won the war. Women wrote new verses about women's rights. Native Americans wrote about the rights they wanted. African-Americans wrote about their rights. Martin Luther King Jr. even quoted the song in his "I Have a Dream" speech. The last part of the book shows Aretha Franklin singing, and invites the children to write their own verse about a cause they believe in. I gave the students a handout to write their new verse on and next time we will sing a few of their lyric compositions.

Grammar Lesson - 9/22

Our first lesson went splendidly! A huge thanks to fellow art scholar Kristen Freeland for the lesson plan. Using the song "Buffalo Gals," my Spanish Oaks 5th graders learned to recognize nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

To learn the song, I had the 5th graders listen attentively to the words. We tapped the beat as we sang, and added some fun actions to specific words in the song. The boys definitely went a bit crazy with some of the actions, and we worked very hard to keep our oval round instead of a blob.

Once the song was learned, we identified the nouns, verbs, and adjectives with different colors on the whiteboard. Then, we performed the song by only doing the actions for the nouns, then the verbs, then the adjectives. I had some students pick combinations of the three as well.

I checked the clock and we still had 15 minutes! These 5th graders were smart and my pacing has definitely gotten faster. So, I made up an extra section of the lesson on the spot. We took the last line or two, "Buffalo Gals won't you come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon," and changed the noun "Buffalo Gals" to something else. We tried it with "Quarterbacks" and changed the action to throwing. Then, I split up the class into 3 groups, assigned them an animal, and had them change the verb at the end to something pertaining to that animal. It was fun to have the students create their own line to the song.

Why Me and Why Art?

My childhood was split into two phases; traveling and rain. I was born in Chicago, and by the time I was in middle school I had moved to Virginia, Italy, California, and Washington. My family settled after that, and I consider the gray skies and wet grass my hometown. I had the awesome opportunity to attend the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics (VSAA) for all of middle and high school. At VSAA, I was given the chance to try different art forms, including moving image arts, literary arts, music, visual art, and theatre. This school is where and why my passion for arts integration began.

Focusing on orchestra and choir definitely helped me identify as a musician primarily, but I have a deep love for all art. As a student at Brigham Young University, I am currently working on my bachelor's degree in music education while performing with University Singers. I love school, so even though I could graduate sooner, I will probably find more classes to take before I am finished. For work, I teach group piano lessons at the Art City Music Academy. This job has given me 13+ hours of teaching experience weekly, and helped solidify my decision to pursue music education.

My husband Tyler and I have been married for just over a year, and we live in Mapleton, UT. Though we love Utah, our hope is to someday move to his hometown Alaska to spend our lives teaching music, riding horses, and catching salmon. 

I am so excited to play with Ms. Brown's 5th grade class this semester at Rocky Mountain Elementary in Spanish Fork! Let's make some music!

PC: Nick Ritter, 2015