Orff Day by Day
Classroom projects in music and movement
In helping teachers with Orff projects in their classrooms, Alice Brass has realized there is a need for a guide that answers such practical questions as:
- Where do I begin?
- How much can I reasonably expect to cover in a class?
- How do I combine movement, language and music?
- How do I encourage children to develop their own ideas?
- How do I make children feel comfortable improvising?
- How do I introduce Orff into a performance?
This book outlines nine projects, taking the teacher day by day through a process designed to teach basic music, improvisation and creative movement. It will be valuable and inspiring to all who teach music and movement to young children.
Nine projects in music, movement and language for you to try in your classroom. Originally I thought the book was for teachers of grade 3 up, but many teachers in the earlier grades have used it successfully.
Fall in the Forests
- using poetry to create ideas
- combining drama, art and a Canadian folk song
A Rondo for Rhythm Instruments
- exploration of sounds, form and shape
Canon in Music and Movement
- understanding the form of music called a canon or a round
Lummi Sticks
- eye-hand co-ordination and rhythmic focus
Colours of the Rainbow
- language development and creative movement
- exploration of sounds and how they can be used to enhance actions
Improvisation
- feeling safe with sound
- experimenting with the pentatonic scale and some of the modes
- the use of rhythms to emphasize certain words.
- exploring notation and the way music is written down
Poetry and a Finished Presentation
- an extension of language arts
- an exploration of sound effects to enhance drama
Curriculum Guidelines
- ways in which these projects meet curriculum guidelines
If you are new to the Orff approach, this book will give you some ideas about how to use the children's ingenuity to make music fun for all.
The Orff approach allows the children to explore how music is created and what role they can have in its creation. It encourages them to react to music, not only the notes but the form and the rhythm. This reaction is in turn expressed by clapping, body percussion, chants, singing and/or playing instruments that Carl Orff designed in such a way that they are very simple to learn to use.
80 pages, spiral-bound paperback, $20
Orff Explorations
Classroom projects in music, poetry and movement
Alice Brass's approach to Orff music stresses improvisation and creativity on the part of the children themselves. Teachers who have seen the lively and inventive presentations of her groups have often asked, "How did you develop such a complex and interesting production?" The answer always is, "Step by step and day by day."
These questions prompted her to write her first book, Orff
Day by Day, which has proven popular with teachers around
the world.
Now Alice Brass has written a second book, Orff Explorations.
It has been designed to guide teachers through various ways of
integrating the arts and Orff and is intended to answer the following
questions:
- How can I work with word rhythms?
- How could I ever teach a dance?
- How do I put together a piece with many parts?
- How can I use poetry with Orff?
- How can I turn classroom work into a performance?
- How can I combine visual arts with Orff?
This book outlines ten projects and, as in Orff Day by Day, it takes the teacher class by class through a process designed to teach the basic skills and to combine them with the children's creativity. It will be valuable to teachers interested in integrating the arts and literacy with music.
Projects in music, movement and poetry to try in your classroom anywhere from grade 3 to grade 7
What Is Your Name?
- discovering the syllables that make a name
- creating musical sequences from simple rhythmic patterns
Reading Symbols: Music Reading Readiness
- understanding and creating basic shapes as instructions for basic sounds
Poetry Has Rhythm
- discovering how sound expresses emotions
The Orff Orchestra - Many Interwoven Parts
- melodic patterns and playing as an ensemble
Using Your Feet to Tell the Story
- use of body language and movement to demonstrate words
Orff, Shapes and Colors
- how to express color and shapes in sound
So Your Want to Teach a Folk Dance
- basic steps, working with partners, working to the rhythm of music, and learning a dance
Exploring the Rhythm of Word Patterns
- learn a piece with many rhythmic parts, discover how to make word patterns fit these rhythms, and learn how rhythm affects speach
Mother Goose Rhymes for the 21st Century
- an extension of language arts - using poetry to communicate a message
Rhythmic Repetition
- an extension of language arts - an exploration of sound effects to enhance drama
80 pages, spiral-bound paperback, $20