Pandemic Teaching

It’s been a longgggg time since I last blogged.  Like many of you, I’m trying to keep my head above water teaching through a pandemic.  I’m also scrambling to find meaningful musical activities for students without sacrificing content.  At this moment, all of my students are fully remote, but that may change in the near future.  One of the things I’ve struggled with is how to provide movement activities to them virtually.  We start the year with body percussion in my upper elementary classes.  Although we can do body percussion virtually, it’s not the same as being around the circle, exchanging patterns, and giggling at how uncoordinated I am as a music teacher!

Body Percussion

During a YouTube search for body percussion videos (there are none), I came across one of my favorite channels,  Musication  My students LOVE the boomwhacker play along videos.  As I watched his Hungarian Dance No. 5 video,  an idea struck me!  These are PERFECT for body percussion challenges with my students.

Step one was creating a body percussion “legend” for my students.  I wanted the legend to apply to each video so they would know how to identify stomp, pat, clap, or snap.  This is the legend I created for my students.

We discussed how to identify stomp, pat, clap, and snap according to the colors and shapes associated with them.  Then we practiced following the icons using the Les Toreadors video.  First, we practiced tracking one icon for each time it occurred, then repeated doing the same for each body percussion movement.  We also discussed how we might adapt shorter icons vs. longer icons and connected that to rhythm and durations.  You may have noticed, there’s a lovely little movement break in the middle for students to explore shapes and space. As students became familiar connecting the body percussion to the colors/shapes, we moved on to the next body percussion challenge.

Next up was Hungarian Dance No. 5.  This piece provided us opportunities to explore body percussion fully, moving from stomp to pat to clap, to snap.  My students loved it and immediately asked that we do it again!  You’ll notice there are times when all “parts” are moving.  We simply choose one of the four body percussion parts to do.

From there, we jumped off the deep end and went for it with the Can-Can!  This one is REALLY challenging and the ending makes us all laugh as it really requires some practice (and coordination).

If you’re students survive the Can-Can and REALLY want a challenge, then you must try Alla Turka with them!  The A section works well for body percussion.  The B section, we choose 1 or 2 of the 4 to pair up and alternate (stomp-clap or pat-snap).  Helpful hint: if your students need the videos slowed down a bit to get the hang of the body percussion, click on the little gear in the lower right hand corner.  Select Playback Speed and choose 75%!

Additional Resources

If you’re working with younger students, there is a great movement video called Movement Homerun which is perfect to get your little ones up and moving to music.  For students with the Music At Home Kits, these videos are great for egg shakers, rhythm sticks, pool noodle scrapers, etc.  I’m using Deteggtive Anderson with my little ones this week!

Looking for other great YouTube resources for teaching during this pandemic?  Be sure to check out my YouTube Channel!  I’m posting songs, chants, song tales and more each week!

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