We Need Your Help!

We are reaching out today to ask for your help. 

Our artists have always been generous with their time, with their knowledge, and with their creative gifts.  —and now they need our help.

In the next four weeks alone, 10 performing artists affiliated with Music Is First will lose more than $20,000 in income because of school closures. As freelancers and independent contractors, if teaching artists don't work, they don't earn the money they need to live.

Can you give a donation to help us keep our community’s teaching artists housed, nourished, and well during this crisis? We have launched an Angel Donor Fund, so that regardless of school closures and future uncertainty, artists can still receive compensation and give you musical resources to do at home through our website and Private Facebook.

Please help us reach our goal of raising $10,000 by April 15th.

100% of all tax-deductible donations given to this fund will go directly to our artists who are impacted by school closures and cancellations. Music Is First will cover all donation processing fees. You will also be added to a private Facebook Group that allows you to access additional resources.

Beyond this immediate need, Music Is First  will continue to leverage community funds to support to work with our teaching artists so that our young people can once again experience all that our artists have to offer.

Artists give their all to students and communities every day. They truly are the catalyst for change, the spark that can transform the course of a life, the light in so many hearts in our communities—now it is time to give them our support.

We ask that you please give generously.

Thanks!

All Are Welcome Story Sung By Mr. Matt (VIDEO)

 I end almost every lesson with a book--I've always done that because of the Music First curriculum. Lots of kids' books lend themselves to being made into songs because they rhyme--I just started making up songs spontaneously as I read them. I have the classroom teacher hold the book and turn pages while I sing and play guitar. This book was introduced to me by a teacher named "Ms. B" at Rollingwood school in San Bruno. Teachers usually have great suggestions about books and I've been introduced to lots of good ones this way. I hope you enjoy - Matt

How To Use Body Percussion To Create Weather Sounds With Students

This is an ideal lesson to use when teaching a Weather Unit to your students. Find the lesson plan below!

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“LET IT RAIN” 

MATERIALS NEEDED: You and your students         PREP TIME:  0

DURATION OF LESSON: 25 -30 minutes

VOCABULARY: Percussion, Sound Effects, Rhythm Pattern, Tapping, Clapping

Introductory Activity: Teach the song “Rain, Rain Go Away” with students.

Practice having students first watch and then try and imitate using a steady beat by either clapping or tapping their legs.

 

SITTING ACTIVITY: 10 minutes (Rhythm Integration w/Language and Math Acquisition) Integrated Music and Games

MAKING RAIN and following directions without verbal cues.

·               Ask students first to stand in a circle shoulder-to-shoulder.  You will be standing inside the circle.

·               To demonstrate your directions, ask the students to model or copy your action or sound as you perform them, otherwise known as “do-as-I-do.”  Students are not to start the action/sound until you have walked directly in front of them.

·               Select one student to begin, use eye contact as you start a motion such as tapping the top of your head lightly. This signals the student to begin.   When that student copies your motion walk to the next student, then the next student, and so on.  (Some students will usually start immediately so I am careful to re-iterate that they are not to begin the motion or sound until I am directly in front of them.)

·               After walking around the circle, every student should be tapping his or her head softly also.  At the same place and student where you began, using contact to signal, change the motion by rubbing your stomach making sure they understand they can only change actions when you are right in front of them. (This means that half of the circle at one point will be actively engaged in one motion while the other half does the new motion).

·               As all students are now rubbing their stomachs, after you’ve successfully walked around the circle begin to make each of the following the sounds:

ACTIVITY: Perform each of these movements and sounds sequentially as you move around the circle until each student is participating.

  • 1.            Rub your hands together as if you’re trying to get them warm and walk around the circle.

  • 2.            Take two fingers and tap them against your other two fingers and cluck the tongue intermittently.

  • 3.           Tap your hands against your thighs.

  • 4.           While still tapping hands on the thighs, stomp your feet by jogging in place.

  • 5.           While still tapping your hands and jogging in place, add an intermittent clap of your hands here and there for the effect of thunder. 

At this point the rainstorm should be in full effect and as it peaks we will reverse the patterns and wind it down.

  • 6.       Continue to move around the circle and first remove the intermittent clapping.

  • 7.        Secondly, continue to move around the circle but discontinue the jogging.

  • 8.        Thirdly, continue to move around the circle and change to: 

  • 9.          Students snap and cluck.

  • 10.        Students rub hands.

  • 11.        After this last motion of rubbing the hands together, blow softly as   if almost whistling to imitate the sound of the wind. There should be soft blowing and whistling sounds and when you find an appropriate moment signal everyone to stop by sitting down quietly.

  • 12. OR: After this final pass around the circle please find a space within the circle and at an appropriate moment by example, stop all sound and rest in silence for a moment.

REFLECTION: After answering the following questions, revisit one of the first activities, and new vocabulary

QUESTIONS:

  • 1.          What did you hear?

  • 2.          What actions made which sounds?

  • 3.          Could we have made that sound with just one person? What about a few people?

  • 4.           Was it music?

  • 5.            Is percussion always a sound-pattern or rhythm?

Ask students to listen to the rain the next time it rains and to hear the different sounds and see if they sound similar to what you just created as a group.  Look to the chapters on making shakers and sound effects for similarly related topics. 

CONCLUSION AND GOALS:

  • 1.          Students understand that through working together we are able to achieve success.

  • 2.          Students understand that a weather like rainstorms have patterns.

  • 3.           Students understand that “percussion” is anything that shakes, hits, taps or strikes against something.

Follow up: Read a poem about rain. Ask the students to imitate the rain sounds that they used in our rain exercise to “illustrate sound effects.” 

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Modification Strategies For Different Learning Styles In Your Music Class

Not everyone learns the same way.  To teach to different learning styles in your music class and reinforce skills in other academic areas here are some suggestions.

Language Learners:

  • Have words to songs printed or written on the board.

  • Use pictures for some of the vocabulary for those that are language learners.

  • Students that have visual and auditory impairments, have them sit closer to you.

Energetic Learners:

  • Assign seats.

  • If that’s impossible, put lines of blue tape of the floor so students know to stand/sit on it.

  • Change up the activity.  If they are sitting for 10 minutes learning a song, have them stand for the next 5.

  • Give the most energetic learners a job.  Hold up a picture/ poster or lead a song for good behavior.

Verbal Learners:

  • After you introduce a concept, tell students to turn to their neighbor and tell that neighbor the first word that comes to mind. 

  • Have students lead a group if a round is being taught.

 Reinforce Positive Behavior:

  • Know their names fast!!!

  • Think of the infamous marble jar.  When the class is on task, add a marble or whatever of your choosing.  When they get so many, they get a reward (a pencil, eraser, dare I say a party?? )

  • Notice the students that are on task and give them a shout out in front of the class.  “Great job_____.   I notice you are sitting quietly ready to learn!”

 When Giving Directions: 

  • Call on students to repeat the directions (Check for understanding)

  • Tell class when a loud activity will occur (auditory sensitivity)

 

There are millions of other strategies.  We’d love to read yours in the comments below!

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