September Update: Medieval Month Returns!

 Hello, all! 

   So... I'm starting to realize that regular blogging is...

   ...harder than it looks. 

    Mostly because browsing other people's content is more fun than creating my own. 😆

   So, yes, I finally decided that October would be a throwback to 2020's Knights and Princesses Theme. Except, instead of reusing any of the games I created then, I came up with a whole new set of games. Because why go the easy way, right? 

   As usual, I forgot to take pictures, and had to recreate photos of my activities.

   Which is too bad, because my opening week activity was pretty good. At least, in my books. It was kind of based on the escape room idea... as much as you can have an escape room when your studio is in an open-concept basement. ;) The "prison" was made out of string. Students had to solve a series of musical riddles to "escape the dungeon." 

    In the second week, I had two different kinds of listening activities. Younger students were given a medieval piece of music to listen to. They had to draw a picture of what it made them think of. Then we talked about tempo, dynamics, and mood. (It was a pack I found on Teachers Pay Teachers. It was so good, I was starting to wish I'd used it with all the students, not just the beginners!) Older students practiced both ear-training and dictation skills. I gave them a sheet with the opening lines of four old folk songs. (I wish I could say they were genuine medieval music, but no. They were all old and European, but Greensleaves is Renaissance-era, and Scarborough Fair, The Galloway Piper, and Loch Lomond are probably more recent still.) Then I would play one of the four lines, and they would have to figure out, by using their ear, which one I was playing. 

  The activities in the third and fourth week weren't so great. The creative juices just weren't flowing the same way. 😕In the third week, we played around with 3/4 rhythm and the tambourine. (Did you know that most medieval music was written in triple or compound time, not duple time?) This week, I made paper shields with either finger numbers or note names on them. When I pointed to a shield, students (depending on their level) had to play a note with the matching finger or write the matching note on the staff. It took me almost all week to realize that this last game would be more fun if I supplied note reading flashcards for students to match with the shields. 

One student decided to replace the shields with their corresponding flashcards. :) (Flashcards are from Wunderkeys.) 

   And that was about that!

   Next week we'll start picking out Christmas music. :)