Rhythm in Poetry

Homework: Read both sides of handout about "Rhythm and Meter" and "First Lines"

Warmup: Copy "Counting-Out Rhyme" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Underline and label different parts of figurative language.

Silver bark of beech, and sallow
Bark of yellow birch and yellow
Twig of willow.

Stripe of green in moosewood maple,
Colour seen in leaf of apple,
Bark of popple.

Wood of popple pale as moonbeam,
Wood of oak for yoke and barn-beam,
Wood of hornbeam.

Silver bark of beech, and hollow
Stem of elder, tall and yellow
Twig of willow.

If you read this poem to a 4/4 beat, all the stresses fall on the first and third syllables. Try it out!

Silver bark of beech, and sallow
Bark of yellow birch and yellow
Twig of willow.

Pretty great, right? You could easily sing this poem to a melody.

For our next exercise, we listed some well-known songs on the board, like "Happy Birthday," "London Bridge," and "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Students kept the rhythm of the songs but rewrote the lyrics, to hilarious effect.

Then we looked at some limericks, which have a very specific rhythm and rhyme scheme. Students wrote their own limericks and shared them out loud.

Tomorrow: Time to revise again! Concrete poems will be due at the end of the period.

Instrument Building

No homework for tomorrow, unless you have committed to bringing in extra materials for instruments.

Today in class: Everyone got together with their bands and started building their instruments. We reviewed the different types of instruments. Each band also received a blank rhythm chart so they can get started making rhythms together once the instruments are finished. Bandleaders gave Ms. Blumenfeld lists of extra supplies they need.

Tomorrow is an early release day. We'll spend the whole period working on instruments. Bands who finish building and decorating theirs can practice using the rhythm charts.

Junk Band Challenge

Homework: Bring in instrument building supplies tomorrow!

There are already lots of great supplies, but we can definitely use more. Long cardboard tubes, plastic bottles, rubber bands, things to shake, metal bits and pieces... the possibilities are endless.

Today's class: Warmups for Monday, Tuesday and today were due.

Bandleaders received the "Junk Band Challenge" assignment sheet with all the requirements for the project, due next Friday, September 25th.

Each section came up with a list of instrument types to choose from when constructing their instruments. The traditional orchestral groupings are: brass, woodwinds, strings, percussion. The 6th graders came up with categories based on how their instruments will be played. For example, 6D has bangers, pluckers, strummers, shakers, blowers, squishers, loners (for instruments that don't fit into any other category) and maybe one or two more that I missed.

Each student received a blank rhythm grid and filled it out to create their own rhythm that their group could play together. Bands also experimented with playing two or more different rhythms at the same time and stringing all the rhythms together. When the bands had practiced their rhythm for a while, they were allowed to try it out on some instruments in the classroom. Some of these exotic instruments included:

didgeridoo - Australian, a long hollow wooden tube that you blow into

berimbau - Brazilian, a sort of bow with a gourd attached. You hit the stretched wire with a stick.

hand drum - Tibetan, a two headed drum made of wood and hide

tambourines

claves - wooden sticks

bells

shakers

triangles

toy cymbals

Tomorrow: instrument building and practice