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