#msgoldberg

Dolores T. Aaron 6th Grade, Garden and Culinary Arts Ms. Goldberg/ Ms. Amber

“Welcome to Life!” Ms. Amber reminds her students regularly in her Garden Arts classroom.

These 6th graders brought some cabbage to life through careful planting, watering, composting, and weeding. Now, they were ready to harvest and create delicious, beautiful food from the cabbage they had grown!

Dolores T. Aaron 1st Grade, Music + Visual Arts Ms. Goldberg / Coach Holden

How do Artists use music for inspiration?

First graders studying Jackson Pollock in their visual art class practiced some close listening of “Uptown Funk” to inspire their art performance. First, they identified the instruments in the song. Then, they chose a color crayon to represent each instrument. Finally, they drew while focusing on each instrument in turn.

Dolores T. Aaron Pre-Kindergarten, Dance & Math Ms. Goldberg / Ms. Feld

How do you use numbers and counting to learn and remember a dance?

I’m doing Hinduism, they pray to their gods They spread by their gods, They went to India But they couldn’t go North  because of the Himalayas They did not have a holy text,  they had no holy text PEACE”

-Miquelle, 6th grader

Dolores T. Aaron Academy Ms. Goldberg & Mrs. Barbre 6th grade Social Studies and Songwriting

In the second week of their music-integration residency, students in Mrs. Barbre’s class learned about the spread of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism by writing short raps. They had to answer:

1. What religion are you rapping about? 2. What does it mean to practice that religion? 3. How did it spread? 4. What are its holy texts?

Here’s brilliant rap by 6th grader Jada:

“I’m rapping about Buddhism, it mean they meditate. It spread through central Asia. Yeah, Buddhism is great. Buddhism important text is the Nobel Truths, oh yeah”

Students were inspired by Muslim-American rapper, Mona Haydar, and her song, “Hijabi.”

Dolores T. Aaron 2nd grade, Music & ELA Ms. Goldberg / Ms. Baskin

How to Retell a Non-Fiction Text Through Drumming

Step 1: Make a 3-part body percussion ensemble as a class about how you feel when you see insects.

“Yell, ‘DIE! DIE! DIE!’ while stomping, like you’re stomping on roaches.”

“Say, ’shoo! shoo!’ while brushing your arms, like you’re brushing away flies.”

“Go, ‘Yuck!’ while clapping your hands, like you just killed a mosquito and it’s on your hands.”

Step 2: Read a text about the life cycle of insects and learn important vocabulary words, like metamorphosis and exoskeleton. Identify the main idea of this non-fiction text (the life cycle of insects) and the most important key details.

Step 3: Say those main ideas and key details in 5 words or less.

Step 4: Work in a small group to “rap” the words to find their rhythm and decide on a timbre, or sound, to drum it with that expresses something important about your key detail. Notate your rhythm with long and short icons.

Step 5: Each group perform and explain their reasoning.

“We are clapping on the outside instead of inside, because the exoskeleton is on the outside.”

“We decided to do our hands like this because when we just flapped our arms like wings, it didn’t make any sound, and this still looks like wings.”

“We end with butterfly wings coming out of the cocoon like at the end of metamorphosis!”

Dolores T. Aaron Pre-K, Movement & ELA Ms. Goldberg / Ms. Scioneaux

Pre-K is a time for learning. In this one lesson using the text Mole’s Hill, students reinforced learning about the seasons from science and about shapes from math, but the focus in ELA was about retelling a story using beginning, middle and end. Connected with movement, students retold the story using three ways to create shapes: with your hands by yourself, by holding hands with friends, and by walking to create a pathway.

The story Mole’s Hill starts with fox finding a tiny mound of dirt that Mole had dug up out of the ground while making his home. Students created the semicircle shape of the mound of dirt using their hands.

Fox tells Mole that he’ll have to move his home before fall, because Fox is making a path to the pond and Mole’s mound of dirt is in the way. Mole has an idea to make a hill instead and to cover it with trees and flowers. Students mimicked the illustration of the trees and flowers made from collaged shapes by making circles, triangles, and rectangles on the carpet with their friends.