"Trick or Treat": 2nd Grade Glockenspiels

This past week in 2nd grade music we have used the simple song "Trick or Treat" to learn about and reinforce many musical concepts and skills. 

We started the week by listening for different patterns in the song. We first listened for the pattern "Sol-Sol-Mi" and learned how to read this using modified Kodaly notation. We figured out that this pattern happens every time we sing the words "Trick or Treat." Then, we transferred this pattern onto our glockenspiels and learned how to play and sing the pattern.

Next, we listened for the pattern "Sol-Sol-La-La-Sol" and identified where we heard it in the song. Just like the last pattern, we then learned how to play that on our glockenspiels and were able to put the two parts together to play half of the song!

After that, we learned the last two patterns, "Mi-Mi-Re-Re-Do" and "Sol-Sol-Do." We had a great time figuring out on our own how to read those patterns and then play them on our instruments.

Focusing on the rhythm, we figured out that it is in Duple Meter, because our microbeat is "Du De." We then read the rhythms and acted like scientists to find any patterns in the song. We talked about how scientists look for patterns  (or lack of pattern) everywhere in order to help them better understand the world and how we can use these same skills in music. We figured out that the first half of the song has an A B A B rhythm pattern and the second half has an A B A C rhythm pattern.

On our very last day this week, we were able to put all of the small chunks that we learned together so that we could play the entire song! We talked about how we learn best when breaking problems up into small parts and working on them one at a time, and then putting them all together in the end. We also talked about how it is important to practice the trickiest parts first when we are working on a piece of music. We used our modified musical notation to read and play our song at the end.

Here is a recording of Mrs. Martin's class singing the song using Solfege syllables, and a recording of Mrs. Micou-Davis's class playing the song on their glockenspiels. I was so proud with all of the 2nd graders this week, and impressed with all of their focus and hard work. We were able to build many skills in just one week! Fantastic work!