I’ve shared my love for the Seesaw app before. It’s the most intuitive, engaging, and practical app I’ve ever encountered for active music learning. I’ve used it for centers, for advocacy, and parent communication.

It also has some powerful applications for virtual learning! Here’s a sequence of learning activities for la in SLSM using the song, Acka Backa. Each activity is designed to correlate with the teaching strategies in The 2019 - 2020 Planning Binder.

You can grab each of the seesaw activities for free at the bottom of the post. Feel free to use, add to, or edit these activities in your own classroom!

These activities walk through a sequence of preparing, presenting, and practicing la. You can absolutely add more activities around the ones presented here! Use these as a starting point to create your own resources that work with your unique situation.

Preparing La

Play the game!

Games are an amazing place to begin work with any musical element, and students LOVE the game to Acka Backa! It can be adapted for Seesaw with a few tweaks.

Instead of playing with classmates, students choose the color in the circle they think will win. When a color is “out” students erase it using the white pen tool. Continue playing until there is only one color left.

Trace the melody

Students trace the melodic contour of Acka Backa. This is an example of an in-class activity that can very easily be transferred to virtual learning!

Track the steady beat

Even though this is melodic work, students will use their knowledge of steady beat to identify high and low sounds later.

Listening Activity

In this activity, students are guided to listen for the highest sound in the song. Throughout the entire melody, beat two is always the highest. Students sing the song and circle the beat with the highest sound.

A Mystery Note

Students have discovered a note higher than sol! In this activity, students sing the melody with the DESCRIPTION of the new pitch (something like high or up), rather than its standardized Western name.

Presenting La

Naming the New Note

By this point, students have physically, aurally, and visually prepared the pitch above sol. They’re probably ready to learn the standardized Western name it!

Practicing La

Writing La in a Known Song

In this activity, students read standardized notation for la, and catch the teacher’s mistake.

Grab the Seesaw activities below!

The guiding principle of the Kodaly philosophy is that only the best is good enough for a child.

When virtual learning becomes the best delivery method for instruction, educators look for innovative ways to maintain quality music education. We land on our feet, and re-imagine some aspects of active, engaged, and contextual musical learning.

If you use any of these activities, I’d love to hear about it. You can drop a comment below, find me on instagram (@victoriaboler), or shoot me an email (victoria@victoriaboler.com).

Happy teaching!

Rhythmic building blocks are one of my favorite ways to give students musical choice.

They’re not technically improvisation, but they are a way for a student to have agency over his or her musical output.

Here are some rhythmic building block sets you can download and use in the classroom. All the materials in this collection correspond with The Planning Binder 2019 - 2020 curriculum.

There’s a link to download these building blocks at the end of the post. Let’s jump in!

Getting Started: Materials

2nd Grade Rhythmic Concepts:

The rhythmic building blocks in this set are centered around The Planning Binder curriculum for 2nd grade. In 2nd grade, this means working on:

Ta and Ta-di
Quarter Rest
Half Notes
Takadimi

You’ll find a focus on these rhythmic elements in the cards below.

Using Rhythmic Building Blocks:

Rhythmic Building Blocks Ideas:

Rhythmic building blocks can be used in so many different ways, for so many different musical purposes. Here are some ideas to jump start your planning.

Students create an ostinato
Students create a B section
Students create a pattern, then clap it. The rest of the class dictates what they heard.
Students create patterns, then the teacher chooses one to clap. Students listen to rhythm to figure out if theirs was the one the teacher clapped.
Students create patterns, then share as a class. Students raise their hands if another group’s pattern matched theirs.
Create a rhythm, then add solfege and sing it.
Students create a pattern, then they transfer it to body percussion.
Create a rhythm, then put the rhythm on barred instruments.
Students create a pattern, then the class goes on a “museum walk” to look at or play the other rhythms.

Differentiation:

Rhythmic building blocks can also be used to target the specific learning needs of students through differentiation.

I often find that students self-differentiate when activities involve student choice. This is by no means an extensive list of differentiated strategies, but here are some pathways to consider.

Vary the length:

Some students might make a four beat pattern (only use two cards), some could make a 16 beat pattern (using eight cards).

Vary the rhythms:

This depends on your musical objective, as you’ve defined it in your long-range plans. Let’s say you want to turn these rhythms into a melodic ostinato by having students create a rhythm and then add a melody to it. Since the purpose of the activity is melodic, some students can get a pack of cards with more difficult rhythms. Others can get a pack with simpler rhythms. Each group still achieves the musical goal of adding melody to a rhythmic pattern.

Read more about long-range plans here, or check out The Planning Binder.

Vary the output:

These rhythms can be tricky, depending on the output of musical knowledge we ask of students. For example, let’s say your goal is for students to use a new rhythmic element in an original rhythm. Some students who need support might only speak their rhythm while patting a steady beat. Other groups might clap the rhythm of the words to their pattern. High achieving groups might perform their pattern with different levels of body percussion.

Vary the literacy level:

In early practice, you might print three forms of cards. Some students only have the text, some read the text with standard notation above, and some read only standard notation. As students progress in their musical skills, you can change your literacy expectations.

Logistics Tips:

Keep the groups small. These songs have all been chosen around a 2nd grade level. My experience is that students have the most success in groups of two to four.
I like to hand out two sets of cards to each group. That way, students can use the same rhythm twice in their pattern. I don’t specify that each group must use each card. I leave that decision up to the students.
Have a signal to freeze and listen. This kind of work can get noisy very quickly! Having a quick signal to pause and listen for instruction will go a long way in positive classroom management.

Rhythmic Building Blocks:

Download the full pack below!

Star Light Star Bright

Rocky Mountain

Kookaburra

Here Comes a Bluebird

Who’s That?

This activity is a bit different from the previous rhythmic building blocks! Instead of giving students pre-made rhythms, have them write their name on the card. Each group can rearrange their names to create a rhythm.

Rhythmic building blocks provide a wealth of information for the teacher. They also keep students engaged and at the center of their own learning by providing opportunities for musical choice.

You can click the links below to read more about providing musical choice through improvisation.

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