Recorder Notation

While I do have my recorder students always mark their music with the note letter names, just so I can get a quick informal assessment of whether they understand the lines and spaces or not; I also have them mark their music with the recorder hole numbers.

I took a song from the 2nd grade curriculum (Making Music, Silver/Burdett), a Puerto Rico song (which is great cross-curricular and can tie in with the Spanish teacher's lessons) and decided to use it on the recorder. My first group to attempt the little diddy was my most advanced group. They loved it, and the students who forgot their recorders (there are always a few) sang along with them. I accompanied on the ukulele and it was a really fun class.

The was a great break from Recorder Karate and individual testing. It gave them a sense of "band practice" which is what I'm trying to get them excited about-leading into middle school.

The next group I tried was my lowest group. They were...challenged to say the least. They just don't practice or really care about improving so they kinda got stuck because they realized they can't play together as a "band" if they never work on it individually. It was a rude awakening for some of the kids. But, even with these challenges they found a way to have fun.

Here are some pictures of the song and markings.

This is our "recorder cheat sheet" where I have labeled all the recorder hole markings.
This way they can identify and label both numbers and letters in their music. 

We really worked on rests and counting on this piece. The meter is 3/4 which is different for them, so it proved to be a little challenging. I have them highlight all rests and notes they will have to "hold out" like half notes etc.

Just close ups of the piece above. I inserted these pictures into a slide show and used that on my large TV screen because I don't have a projector or an elmo. It proved to be quite successful.