Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

This lesson is one that I wrote for SoundTree’s Teaching Resources. There are quite a few lessons and articles on this website. I encourage you to check them out. Enjoy this lesson!

Name Chant: An Activity That You Can Do With Your Students During The First Few Days Of School

Grade Level: 
K-3

Objective:
The students will successfully chant the “Name Chant” poem and their names to a steady beat. In addition, they will successfully read and play the notation of the poem.

 TI:ME Strategies Covered:
Electronic Keyboards or Music Production

MENC Standards Covered:
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
5. Reading and notating music

Materials:

1. The “Name Chant” Poem
2. An electronic keyboard that can play various rhythms or a music production software such as Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box

Procedures:

1. Have the students sit in a circle.
2. Introduce the “Name Chant” by rote while tapping the steady beat on their laps. If you are working with Grades 2 and 3, you can introduce this chant with the rhythmic notation, rather than through rote.
3. Go around the room and have all of the students state the chant together while tapping the steady beat on their laps. Then, each student will rhythmically chant his/her name between all of the students stating the “Name Chant” together. The form would be: ABACADAEAFA etc. with Section A being the “Name Chant” and Section B, C, D, E, and F being each individual student’s name.
4. Once accomplished, have each student choose a rhythm instrument to play the rhythm of his/her name.
5. Play a musical style/beat pattern from an electronic keyboard, or from Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box.
6. Now have the students chant the “Name Chant,” then perform their names on the rhythm instruments. The musical style/beat pattern being played by the electronic keyboard or from Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box provides the students with the steady beat and a musical style to perform the chant.

Extensions:
The teacher could use this lesson to introduce the four voices: talking, singing, calling, and whispering. The teacher could have the students chant the “Name Chant” and rhythmically state their name using one of the four voices.

Outcome:
This lesson will produce various levels of achievements. The ideal outcome is that the students can successfully read the notated rhythm while stating the chant. In addition, they can perform the rhythms of their names on rhythm instruments while a musical style/beat pattern is being played on the electronic instrument or music production software such as Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box. I have seen my students gain confidence and ownership of rhythm patterns by just adding that simple electronic keyboard musical style/beat pattern or just hitting play on PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box to accompany them.

The rubric provided below gives the teacher a reference to assess a student’s performance. I assess the two skills individually.

Excellent: The student can state the chant successfully while tapping a steady beat. The student can successfully play his/her name on a rhythm instrument while a musical style is being played.

Good: The student can state most of the chant successfully while tapping a steady beat. The student can mostly play his/her name on a rhythm instrument while a musical style is being played.

Fair: The student can state only a measure of the chant and has difficulty tapping the steady beat. The student has difficulty playing his/her name on a rhythm instrument while a musical style is being played.

Novice: The student cannot state the chant successfully and cannot tap a steady beat. The student cannot play his/her name on a rhythm
instrument while a musical style is being played.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Lesson Plans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.