I've been doing a school-wide International Music Festival, where every grade level performs music and dance from a different country, for a few years now, and it is probably my favorite performance event I've ever done but it is a lot to put together! Although for the most part each grade studies the same culture each year to fit in with the skills and concepts they are learning in general music, each year I change at least some of the pieces so it's never the exact same program. Here are the performance pieces I have used over the years with my youngest grades- each of these would work well as part of any concert, informance, or program on their own, or you can use this list to put together your own International Music Festival!
I'm listing the pieces by culture/ country below, with the grade level I used them with in parentheses. Obviously many of these could be done with different grades as well, not just the ones I use them with!
Native American (Kindergarten)
- Water Song (students play the steady beat on rhythm sticks and turn each of the 4 directions to sing it 4 times)
- Navajo Happy Song (students sit in rows with their feet under them and their knees touching to do the different patting patterns mentioned in the link while singing)
- Iroquois Ho Ho Watanay (students pretend to rock a baby on the beat while singing)
- Sioux Epanay (students do a basic intertribal step in a circle while a few students play the steady beat on a gathering drum in the middle of the circle)
Bolivia (1st grade)
- Mi Gallito (students face a partner and do a simple 3-beat clapping pattern while they sing- I have them clap their own hands, touch the backs of one hand with their partners', then palms of the same hands, then repeat with the other side)
- La Mariposa (students do a circle dance with a recording while each holding a scarf and singing along on the chorus- the link has a full explanation of the moves that they do with each part of the song as well as links to recordings)
- Carnavalito (students do the dance in rows with a recording)
- Boquita Colorada (I have done this 2 ways- 1) students do the line dance with the recording and sing with the "lai lai" section, or 2) students play simple ostinati on percussion instruments like shakers, rhythm sticks, guiros, and drums)
Colombia (1st grade)
- Vallenato (students play simple ostinati on percussion instruments like drums, guiros, and ridged rhythm sticks with the linked recording)
- Juguemos en el Bosque (students sing and play the circle game)
Syria (lower elementary self-contained special needs)
- Tiri Tiri Ya-as Fura (non-verbal students do motions to show the lyrics of the song with the steady beat of the recording)
- Fiane Sheschra (students play different ostinati for each section of the music on hand drums with the recording)
It would be too much to put everything in one post so check back for future posts with lists of performance pieces I use with older grades in my K-6 International Music Festival! If you have other songs or musical performances you've done representing these cultures, or other ways you've used these songs, I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below. And if you are thinking about putting together a similar program, you can find all the information on what I do and how I do it, from logistics to teaching to stage setup, in this post:
No comments :
Post a Comment