Here is a vocabulary activity my 2nd graders did this fall that they were very excited about.
At the time we did this activity my 2nd graders had internalized enough of these words that before this activity, everyone in the 2nd could easily demonstrate and identify loud, soft, fast and slow, and when presented with dynamic words they could work together to puzzle out definitions, but only a few were using the dynamic words in context. So I knew we had LOTS of room for growth. I wanted everyone to use those words and I wanted to add some new words to deepen our understanding of dynamics while introducing new words for tempo.
1. We folded our paper in half 4 times
2. Then we listed headings: loud words, soft words, fast words, slow words
3. We talked about the words we knew
4. As we came up with the dynamic words we knew, we would add them to our list
5. When we got to crescendo / decrescendo I wrote the symbols on the board, we developed our definition and then we learned the word.
6. Then we watched this quick video to remind ourselves of how each word sounds. I debated with myself about using a variety of listening selections, one for each word, but I think that would have been too much too soon in this case.
I think maybe because 2nd graders still very eager to learn and because they are learning so quickly, my students were not just thrilled with the video and what they knew, but they were begging me to tell them what words should go in the other blanks.
7. I explained that although they had heard me use these words, seen them on my walls, and even listened to music that could be described with these words, all of these words were new.
8. Then we very carefully built the other side of the chart. We started with allegro and adagio. By the end, they had ALL filled in every square. I’ve never had such young students work so persistently at a “note taking” activity before.
When they finished, we watched:
They loved it! AND even more important, I have noticed a nice increase in the use of music vocabulary words.
