Class composition

in progress ...

I only see the kindergarten students in my school eight times in a year. I feel very strongly that all students should learn to compose even at this young age. In those eight class periods we learn to read quarter notes and quarter rests on the pitches sol and me. We also learn to notate and describe loud and soft sounds.



1. Remind the students when we are sharing as a group that all ideas are to be respected even if we do not use all ideas.

2. Lead the children in a brainstorming activity using interactive whiteboard and a thinking map about their favorite school happenings this year.

3. Lead the children in creating three, eight beat sentences from their brainstorming activity again using the interactive whiteboard. This can be the most difficult part of the entire process, but hang in there and really let the lyrics come from the students.

4. Echo sing a few short phrases using the pitches the students know: sol and mi.

5. Choose a few students to be the leaders for the rest of the class to echo on known pitches.

6. Then choose a few students to improvise a melody using known pitches using a phrase of the song. When you hear one most of the class likes then notate that section.(they show their approval with silent cheers)

7. Continue creating the song in this way, but allow students to take over the notation process after a few examples. The interactive whiteboard makes this process so easy and natural for the students compared to struggling with a mouse.

8. Review the composition and edit if needed.

9. Print, record and publish to our school website. I usually have a little talk about copyright at this time too and they grant permission for their work to be published to our school website.