Submitted by Tracy King, Farmington, Missouri

Idea posted March 25, 2002

I know that several of you use videos only for subs. I, however, use videos (or portions of videos) often for me. I show at least one musical per year to each grade level and use a few of the Wee Sing videos to introduce units for grades K and 1. I feel that the quality performance examples are worth exploring in class. I have prewatching activities (usually), video watching sheets for grades 2-8, and I follow up with some kind of activity after. I also use segments of videos to illustrate concepts or use them in place of listening journals on CDs.

Here's what I use by grade level each year (usually):

Kindergarten

  • Wee Sing Train (introduce train songs and discuss various styles of music)
  • Mother Goose Rock And Rhyme (nursery rhymes)

First Grade

  • Marvelous Musical Mansion (we do several activities with this, including a Marvelous Musical Mansion Rhythm Recorder where we write down rhythms that we hear in the video - yay door knocker!)
  • Betsy Lee's Ghost Town Jamboree (just for fun! I don't show this every year)
  • Overture To Disaster (operas)

Second Grade

  • The Composers' Specials (all six of them scattered throughout the year with activities after)

Third Grade

study instruments for a large portion of the year

  • Carnival Of The Animals (the Bugs Bunny one)
  • Overture To Disaster
  • Video Tour Of Powell Symphony Hall (in St. Louis)

Fourth Grade

  • Annie

Fifth Grade

  • Bye Bye Birdie
  • Stomp Out Loud

(I have considered adding some American music, music of Civil War stuff to this grade level because this grade does several patriotic things throughout the year.)

Sixth Grade

  • The Wiz and portions of The Wizard Of Oz
  • Seven Brides For Seven Brothers

Seventh and Eighth Grade

(these rotate from year to year)

  • Oklahoma!
  • Grease
  • West Side Story
  • My Fair Lady

Seventh Grade studies world music ALL year long, and I use a series of videos, "Music Of Russia," "Music Of Japan," etc. They watch these with worksheets to fill out and are quizzed over the info.