It’s almost Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Aargh, Matey! Next Friday, September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day!
So brush up on your pirate talk and weigh anchor!
And I’ve got the perfect pirate game you can use in your music class…Pirate’s Treasure Song!
Pirate’s Treasure Song has a simple little tune (an original by yours truly, Miss Donna 4 Music!) to get you and your students in the true pirating spirit. It’s perfect for grades K-4, though you could also adapt it to use with 5th grade as well.
The song teaches about quarter note and eighth note rhythms, using Dot Notation and Standard Notation. Dot Notation is a method of writing quarter note/eighth note rhythms without using the traditional quarter note/eighth note patterns but using dots instead. This allows young student who haven’t learned about the different note values to still experience the rhythms. One large dot represents a quarter note or one syllable or sound, while two smaller dots represent the eighth notes or two syllables or sounds. Then when students are ready, you can easily transfer the dots to traditional notation. And since the students have already experienced them, it makes for an easy transition, for practicing the rhythms as well as writing them and recognizing them.
This song also uses a pentatonic solfege pattern for singing, Do, Re, Mi, So, and La. For younger students you can focus on the Mi-So sections of the song and talk about how the music and our voices move up and down, higher and lower. For older students you can incorporate the Do-Re-Mi parts of the song and discuss music moving up and down by steps or skips.
There are also simple movements to add to the song and instrument ostinatos! The suggested instruments used are triangle, drum, maracas, which repeat simple rhythm patterns using quarter notes, eighth notes, and rests. And glockenspiels or boomwhackers can be added to play simple borduns to keep the beat. You could use these elements to create a whole ensemble piece with one group singing and doing movements, one group playing the rhythm ostinatos, and another group playing the melodic borduns!
There are rhythm practice cards, using dot notation and standard, as well as a couple different worksheets to give your students lots of practice writing, recognizing, and composing their own patterns using quarter notes ad eighth notes!
So, brush up on your pirate talk or you’ll have to walk the plank to Davey Jones’ locker! For dead men tell no tales! Savvy?
Miss Donna 4 Music 