Updated February 2023
February has a lot of celebrations that can be explored and studied in elementary music class. The Lunar New Year sometimes begins in February, but this year, the year of the Rabbit, started on January 22, 2023. In my classroom, we will explore various songs, instruments, and books that celebrate the Lunar New Year. February 2 is Groundhog’s Day when my students look forward to finding out if we will have six more weeks of winter. In music class, we might write a short poem about the day and orchestrate our classroom instruments to enhance the poem.
February is also Black History Month where we can study numerous black musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Ella Jenkins, Mahalia Jackson, James Brown, and so many more. However, in my classroom, I try to celebrate all musicians all year long and try to steer away from only celebrating black musicians in February, women musicians in March, etc. One way I do this is to begin each class by celebrating musicians’ birthdays that occur that week. I use https://www.onthisday.com/music/. This site has been a wonderful resource that updates often.
February can also be known for hosting the extra day of a leap year. And finally, Valentine’s Day can be celebrated on or around the 14th with songs, instruments, movement, and rhythm play-alongs.
Play-Along
This rhythm play-along is a medley of five fun, Valentine-like songs dating from 1963-1996. The rhythms involved are quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, and quarter and half rests. The play-along ends with a dance break.
I was originally going to make the songs date from 1963 to 1976, but one of the original songs I chose was blocked by YouTube copyright policy. Therefore, I replaced it with a very similar song, That Thing You Do! This song was written by Adam Schlesinger for the movie, That Thing You Do! The artists that recorded the song are listed as The Wonders, but that was a fictional group created for the movie, and the only artists I could find listed for this song were Adam and Mike Viola. Adam, unfortunately, passed away in April 2020 due to covid.
Medley
Garrett, L., Hardaway, L. M., Wonder, S., Wright, S. (1970). Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours. [Recorded by S. Wonder]. On Signed, Sealed & Delivered [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6To0fvX_wFA
Morrison, V. (1967). Brown Eyed Girl. On Blowin' Your Mind [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfmkgQRmmeE
Schlesinger, A. (1996). That Thing You Do! [Recorded by The Wonders]. On That Thing You Do! [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJn-Jl2ZeQU
d'Abo, M. Macaulay, T. (1968). Build Me Up Buttercup. [Recorded by The Foundations]. On Baby Now That I've Found You [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbfJM7eMnBM
Anderson, S., Andersson, B., Ulvaeus, B. (1976). Dancing Queen. [Recorded by ABBA]. On Arrival [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AqvKYYQEE
Manipulatives
This year, I am including the teaching manipulatives so you can use them in your classroom.
Here is a Google Slide Presentation with the rhythm slides. You can use these to:
Teach them to the students.
Use https://wheelofnames.com/ to have the wheel randomly choose students to perform the rhythm patterns as you assess them.
Review the rhythms before you perform the play-along activity.
Print them out (black and white is suggested if you are using your own printer) and hand them to the students so they only play the pattern that is in front of them.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/1/d/1i4dYsEJswxUtzVKAJCRGmg7-S3W6GjJQE25GxLpo1kI/copy
Enjoy the play-along and if you like using my resources, please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.