Glocks Galore!

This week, as many of you have probably heard, I was on crutches due to an ankle injury. Therefore classes were a bit more sedentary than usual. I originally wanted to focus on singing this semester, but I was also itching to get the students playing some instruments! We have played a lot of percussion so far, but nothing with a pitch.

I planned an introduction to our glockenspiels for them and so far we have had a blast learning all about this instrument. We now know that glockenspiels are pitched percussion instruments whose bars are made of metal. Although most of the children thought that they would be playing "xylophones" when I showed them the glockenspiel, we quickly learned that xylophones are made of wood, as opposed to metal. We will soon be experimenting with our xylophones too!
With all grade levels this week, we learned how to hold the mallets, strike the bars of the glockenspiel (no bouncing too high!) and played along with a Robert Munsch story entitled "Mortimer". We practiced playing from low to high and from high to low whenever a character in the story went up or down the stairs. We also sang along with Mortimer when we belted his favourite tune "CLING CLANG RATTLE BING BANG gonna make my noise all day! CLING CLANG RATTLE BING BANG gonna make my noise all day!" (sorry parents!)

Here's an interesting article I came across: Kids Music 101