Making Our Own Music

In 3rd grade we are diving into the Orff instruments.  Orff-Schulwerk is a music education method that emphasizes singing, movement, and instrumental playing.  We are blessed to have a huge assortment of these wonderful instruments at FPD!  We started the beginning of October with an American folk song called "Tideo."  First, we learned the song, then we added movements to key words.  Finally, we replaced the movements with instrumental parts.  At the end of the process (over two class periods), the students were able to sing and play all the parts themselves.  I pointed out that I was not helping--I was not playing piano for the accompaniment, there was no CD playing, it was all them.  The Orff process of singing and playing music definitely requires higher order thinking skills--for the students and for the teacher!  Below are two performances from the same class.  Notice that the students switch parts in each video.  In the Orff process, everyone learns every part!