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Graham, Joanna, Cheryl, Shingo, Wendy, Sheri, Tara, Lesley, Mike, Nika, Andrew, Marla, and Barbara Leigh

  Maori Stick Activity

Curriculum Integration:

Fine Arts- Music

Phys. Ed.- Movement

Social Studies- Culture

IRPs:

Grade Five

• Music- Structure- Elements of Rhythm

TSWBAT:

1.      Maintain steady beat within common metres

2.      Compare the form and principles of design in rhythmic structures

• Social Studies- Society and Culture

Grade Six and Seven

• Music- Structure- Elements of Rhythm

TSWBAT:

1.      Perform rhythmic compositions using vocal or instrumental skills

2.      Apply the knowledge of form and the principles of design to their rhythmic compositions

• Social Studies- Society and Culture

Other Songs:

Songs from other indigenous cultures

Treasure Hunt; Cookie Jar; Stick Song; Looby Lou; Woodchuck Chant, and Keep Moving are a few examples from the music text that focus on the I.R.P.’s stated above and are more appropriate for younger students.

Music Objectives:

• to keep a steady beat in triple metre using sticks
• to maintain a steady beat working in pairs
• to work in AB form and to introduce variations i.e. AB = A1B1A2B2A3
        

Social Studies Objectives:

• to explain ways people preserve and transmit culture
• to analyze how a society's artistic expression reflects its
  culture

Materials:

• music lyrics
• CDs
• stereo
• sticks

Hook:

Show the class the video of the related movement exercise they performed last class.  Ask several questions for review.  What were we doing to maintain steady beat?  Where are Maori Sticks from?  Discuss about Maori warriors and excite the children by saying, “You can become a Maori Warrior!”

Procedure:

• Have the words of the Maori Stick Song written on the board prior to start of class
• Ask students to get into a circle on the floor
• Play the song and point to each part of the song for the class to follow the music
• Split songs into parts and sing the song to the class.  Ask about the melody and discuss about how many times each part repeats per phrase
• Sing each part of the song and have the class repeat.  Sing difficult parts more frequently
• Write pattern A B A B A on the chalkboard
• Ask one volunteer to partner with teacher and demonstrate the activity.  Ask another volunteer to write the instructions on the chalk board
• Each part of the song bang Maori sticks as follows:
• A1: floor, together, partner
• B1: floor, floor, partner
• A2: floor, together, flip-catch
• B2: floor, together, pass one to partner
• A3: groups choice
• Ensure music is playing and encourage class to sing along while doing demonstration
• Each student finds a partner and chooses a pair of Maori sticks
• Students sing and do activity; teacher walks around observing
• Ask class to stop activity and choose one group to demonstrate their abilities
• Whole class does song together, teacher directs and points to each part
• Students may need to learn the more difficult patterns over many classes

Extension:

• For PE class the students will use two five-foot bamboo sticks and four blocks to bang on and play a beat.  Another person will dance (Philippine Dance) to the music over and between the sticks to the Maori song. 

Conclusion:

• The whole class does the activity together and the teacher mentions the extension activity

Assessment and Suggestions

Barb’s Music Lesson

The teacher took care to assess student understanding throughout the lesson.  The lesson began with a movie clip review of the previous music and movement lesson, which found rhythm within instruments.  She used asking questions as a means to check for understanding before proceeding.

She pre-wrote the words on the board. She then sang the song first and repeated certain passages to reach a reasonable level of competency before moving on to parts that are more difficult.

The teacher continually scanned the class to ensure students were on task and participating.  She modeled the exercise with one student, prior to handing out sticks to the class. This ensured that the students were not distracted. Students were given 5 minutes of free practice before the group performance.  The performances were assessed based on the teacher’s observations of the students abilities to keep a rhythm pattern.

The teacher always encouraged the students to develop their level of competency and gave positive feedback.  During the performance, there was space for the students to perform comfortably.  The teacher extended the activity, introduced another cultural dance, and integrated the Maori song with the Philippine Dance.

Justification for this lesson:

This lesson allows students to take risks where it is safe to make a mistake.

Rhythm Sticks are instruments that everyone can play successfully.

There was a progression of difficulty as one moved through the various metre patterns.
There was a light introduction to musical form and phrases without technical references.
This lesson sets the stage for extension activities that further develop music and rhythm.
This lesson would be good to parallel for developing coordination in which adolescents must face.

This lesson meets the IRP’s applicable to many grades for Elements of Structure in Rhythm; exploring triple metre through sticks; and performing rhythmic compositions using vocal or instrumental skills in partners, reinforcing form and the principles of design. The lesson is integrated to include a cultural context. This lesson meets the IRP’s for Context, both historical and cultural.  The lesson compares music from a range of historical and cultural contexts demonstrating a multicultural purpose for music.