Posts Tagged ‘band’

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Weekly ‘Bring Science Home’ Activities!

July 31st, 2018

 

It’s Tuesday, July 31, 2018, and time for Science at ClickSchooling!

 

Recommended Website:

Scientific American: Bring Science Home

(www.scientificamerican.com/section.cfm?id=bring-science-home)

Age Range: 6-12 (Grades 1-8, with parental supervision, and fun for the whole family)

 

This ad-supported site from Scientific American features a fun, new, science-related activity every Thursday “which parents and their kids ages 6-12 can do together with household items in just a half hour or less.”

Get instructions and explanations for a bunch of interesting experiments that cover a variety of scientific topics with intriguing titles such as: 

  • Does It Sink or Float? Depends on the Soap!
  • Tune Up Your Rubber Band Guitar!
  • Play a Memory Game with Your Nose!
  • And lots more!

Back on the home page, find videos under the “Type” drop-down menu to watch entertaining videos that demonstrate fun scientific experiments such as: 

  • How to Make Oobleck
  • How to Make Mini-Craters with Mini-Meteors
  • How to Make A Homemade Compass

When you’re through checking out what’s available in the “Bring Science Home” section, be sure to explore the rest of the massive Scientific American site. Click on the “Citizen Science” tabs under “Education” on the horizontal menu for volunteer research opportunities for budding scientists of all ages.

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Free Lesson Plans for Music, Dance, Theater and More

March 24th, 2018

 

It’s Saturday, March 24, 2018, and time for Art at ClickSchooling!

 

Recommended Website:

The Kennedy Center: ArtsEdge Lessons

(artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons.aspx)

Age Range: 5-18 (Grades K-12, with parental supervision)

 

The Kennedy Center sponsors this website that provides multimedia activities and in-depth lessons on Dance, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts integrated with other subjects such as Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, and Technology.

When you get to the site you’ll see some featured lessons and a “Lesson Finder” search engine. Simply select: 

  • Grade Band
    • K-4
    • 5-8
    • 9-12 
  • Arts Subject
    • Dance
    • Literary Arts
    • Media Arts
    • Music
    • Theater
    • Visual Arts
  • Other Subject
    • English
    • Geography
    • History
    • Language Arts
    • Math
    • Physical Education
    • Science
    • Social Studies
    • Technology
    • World Languages

Click “Find” and a new page opens displaying the title and description of the lesson. Click on a title and another page opens displaying the lesson overview and objectives. Then, just click on the arrows to get the instructions and activities with links to resources such as printable worksheets and other materials. Some of the lessons include an online interactive game.

You will be astounded by the scope and depth of the material provided. It is designed for classroom teachers but can be adapted by home educators. There are even tips for how to prepare to present the material to your students in a way they will enjoy. High school students shouldn’t have any problem navigating these lessons independently, although parents (as always) should review the content to determine suitability.

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Create a Beatbox Band

June 17th, 2017

 

It’s Saturday, June 17, 2017, and time for Music at ClickSchooling!

 

Recommended Website:

Incredibox

(www.incredibox.com/)

Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision)

 

Become the conductor of a group of animated human sound machines and express your musicality through this free, fun, and easy to use interactive program. Sponsored by a graphic design and mixed media studio, Incredibox lets you record your music composition to share with friends.

When you get to the site, select from versions: 

  • The original – 2009
  • Little miss – 2012
  • Sunrise – 2013
  • The love – 2014

After making a selection, a short introduction demonstrates how to use the program. Once the intro is over, the program will be ready to begin. You’ll see animated male characters. Drag and drop different effects, beats, melodies, and voices (from icons located below the animation screen). As you drop them onto the character, it will dress the character in a new outfit and demonstrate the effect. Continue until you create a musical piece that appeals to you. 

Use the small icons above the music screen to record your music, shuffle the program (automate it), remove the sounds (start over), and change the settings. It takes a little experimentation to get proficient at creating compositions, but the fun is in exploring and testing the possibilities.

Note: There is a big “Play Now” button located at the bottom of the screen that opens a page where you can download a game program. It was difficult to tell if it was an advertisement – but it’s not part of the Incredibox program. Our advice is to avoid it. Also, there is a paid version of Incredibox available in the Apple App Store.

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Strike up the Band with John Philip Sousa

March 5th, 2016

 

It’s Saturday, March 5, 2016, and time for Music at ClickSchooling!

 

Recommended Website:

The Music of John Philip Sousa

(www.dws.org/sousa/)

Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision)

 

This website, sponsored by the Dallas Wind Symphony, features all of the works of John Philip Sousa – most famous for his 136 marches, particularly, “Stars and Stripes Forever,” the official march of the United States of America. If you’re not certain you know the music, a friendly ClickScholar writes in to remind us that, “It’s that famous song. You know, ‘Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody’s mo-o-other…'”

Sousa was a man of many talents. Use the navigation bar to learn about the man and music, listen to his marches and operettas, read descendent-approved biographical information and primary source accounts of Sousa’s life and work, and much more.

Under “Works” in the menu, look for the “Complete Works of Sousa” and click on it to see a comprehensive listing of Sousa’s work along with sound clips from many of his original recordings with his actual band.

As a Clickscholar commented, “The music alone is really worth the visit.”

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Classical Music and Games

December 12th, 2015

 

It’s Saturday, December 12, 2015, and time for Music at ClickSchooling!

 

Recommended Website:

Sphinx Kids

(www.sphinxkids.org/index.html)

Age Range: 6-13 (Grades 1-8, with parental supervision)

 

This website is a companion to the Sphinx Organization that “envisions a world in which classical music reflects cultural diversity and plays a role in the everyday lives of youth.” Sphinx Kids bring classical music into underserved schools nationwide. The website, partially sponsored by AT&T and the New York Philharmonic, provides free interactive games that introduce kids to the world of classical music, instruments of the orchestra, and the diversity of many composers of classical music.

When you get to the website you’ll see a menu that includes: 

  • Minority Composer’s Forum – Learn about the lives and musical compositions of renown minority composers such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Undine Smith Moore, Heitor Villa-Lobos and more. Listen to samples of their compositions.
  • Practice Room – Pick a stringed instrument (violin, viola, cello, or bass) and watch videos of minority musicians playing scales and etudes.
  • Minorities On Stage – Watch videos of performances by minority musicians, and be sure to click on “See What’s Going On Backstage” to watch video-interviews with the musician-laureates. Their stories are inspirational.
  • Orchestration Station – Get familiar with the instruments of the orchestra. Pick one and hear it played.
  • Rhythm Band – Use a virtual pencil to place notes on a scale, then pick one or several instruments to hear how it sounds.
  • Music Match: Composers – Match the classical composers to their musical compositions.
  • Music Match: Instruments – Play a match game with instruments of the orchestra.
  • Instrument Storage Room – Take an animated tour of the storage room and learn about each instrument and hear it played.
  • String Instrument Gallery – Learn about each part of the violin, viola, cello, and bass and what it does.
  • Composer’s Gallery – Take an animated tour of a gallery of composers born from the 1600s through the 1900s. Read their bios and hear samples of their music. Includes: Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Gershwin, Ellington, Debussy, Danielpour, Chopin, Britten, Brahms, Bernstein, Beethoven, Beach, Handel, Mozart, Lindberg, Leon, Kolb, Kodaly, Joplin, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Sheng, and many more.

This is a terrific way to introduce children and their families to classical music and to the diversity of the composers of that music.

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Free Sheet Music, Theory Lessons, and More

April 25th, 2015

 

It’s Saturday, April 25, 2015, and time for Music at ClickSchooling!

 

Recommended Website:

 

8notes.com

 

Age Range: All (children with parental supervision)

 

This website from Red Balloon Technology Ltd. in St. Albans, England, is a fabulous resource for free sheet music for all kinds of instruments. 90% of this website is free to use with subscriptions to additional features available for $20 a year. The free portions of this website are ad-supported, but they are minimal and do not interfere with use of the site.
When arriving at the link, visitors will see sections broken down into smaller categories with image links. Sections include: 
  • Free Sheet Music & Lessons – sorted by instruments including string, wind, brass, vocal, ensembles, and other instruments
  • Music Lessons & Resources – included are Lessons, Improvisation Pieces, Play along Jam tracks, Licks & Riffs, Chord Charts and Tuners, Charts & Resources
  • Free Sheet Music Categories – music sorted by classical, pop & rock, jazz, film & TV, world, weddings, Christmas, traditional, funeral, children’s, Christian, and new music
When choosing from an instrument category, the section is further broken down into categories such as music genre, skill levels, and/or occasion. There are also resource links for lessons, forums, tuners, and more.

Music lessons and resources include basic lessons for drum, guitar, piano, saxophone, violin, music theory and more. Search by level or lesson. Find guitar, ukulele, piano, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, recorder, and trumpet, and interactive finger and chord charts in the Chord Charts, Fingering Charts & Scales section. There is also a Composer and Artist biographies collection to explore to expand your knowledge of music greats.

When selecting from a music category, you are presented with a chart of available music within the genre. You can easily make selections by searching for difficulty level, artist, or title from the information in the chart. Click on the song title and another list shows all the instrument versions that are available. Select the instrument and the sheet music page will open.

When the sheet music pages open, you can not only view the music but also print out the sheet music. There is also access to use an online metronome and review other information about the piece.

Music lovers will want to bookmark this website and check the “Latest” category to see all the new additions to this continually building website.

(Please note that in the free portions only one page at a time can be printed when selecting the printer icon. Also subscribers only have access to the “Play”, “Play Along – Piano Accompaniment”, “Play Along Band Accompaniment”, and “Play Along – Slow Piano Accompaniment” features.)

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