Visit #9: The Threes

Hello again!

So since this entire term is dedicated to multiplication, I brought in another multiplication activity this week! This time, I decided to focus on the three times tables. Since rhythm is one of the most important aspects for a child's musical education, I brought in a few short poems about multiplication that I set to rhythms. Putting the poem to rhythm helps with memorization and makes committing the poem to long-term memory easier. After getting the rhythm poem together, I wanted to add more musical elements to make the exercise exciting for the students. To do this, I added hand drums, guiros, and some beat boxing. The rhythm I wrote had the drums keeping the beat, the guiros improvising, and the beat boxing subdividing the beat.
When I came into the classroom, the students all caught on quickly to the rhythm of the poem and the light, funny feel of the lyrics. They were also all very excited to play an instrument but what they enjoyed the most was obviously the beat boxing. Because beat boxing is generally associated with men, the boys in the class were eager to participate, whereas with actual singing they sometimes shy away. This makes it a great introduction to making music with your body while leaving out the awkwardness of singing in front of a class.

 Here are the videos from two of the poems that we did in class on Friday.

Until next time!

-Kyra

Visit #8 More Multiplication!

Hello Everyone!

This week I went in again for another lesson on multiplication. Since this entire term is dedicated to multiplication, we've been doing quite a bit of it the last couple of weeks. Since last week we did a musical lesson, I thought this week it would be fun to use art to teach multiplication. In the classroom, we used the number patterns produced by the multiplication tables to create geometric designs on graph paper. Here's what we did:

Every multiplication table has a pattern of the same base numbers. To get this pattern, we need to condense every table into single digit numbers by adding the separate numbers together. For instance, here are the 3 multiplications: 3x1=3, 3x2=6, 3x3=9, 3x4=12, 3x5=15, 3x6=18, and so on. To condense the larger numbers, we add them together so we take 12 and say 1+2=3 and again with 15: 1+5= 6. We can already see the pattern in this one, which is 3,6,9. After you have the pattern, you put the pencil to the graph paper and follow this pattern going first to the right, then down, left, and back up. This would give us 3 to the right, 6 down, 9 to the left, 3 up, and then 6 to the right again. You continue this pattern until you reach your starting point again. This gives us really intricate geometric patterns. The one for 3 is actually one of the simplest ones because the pattern is so small. It looks like this:

At the school, we did the 1 times tables to start out with because all of the answers are already single digit numbers. This design is much more intricate, however, because the pattern is much larger. (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2, etc) Many of the students picked up the pattern immediately and began drawing without too much extra help. For the ones that weren't sure, I projected mine onto the smart board and drew slowly so they could go along with me. This way, each student felt the accomplishment of finishing the drawing regardless of their speed. Here are a few of their finished designs:

This activity is great because it really gets the students thinking critically about the times tables. They start to realize the principle of patterns in numbers and their importance, which not only supplements their learning but can also get them excited about the learning process itself. 

Here is another picture of the 2 times tables put into their geometric design:

Thank you for reading! See you next time!

-Kyra

Visit 7: Multiplication

This past week, I made a visit to the school and we all had so much fun! The students have been learning about multiplication this entire month and last week was especially the 8 times tables. I decided to teach the students a song I know called Weevily Wheat, which is a short song that can help children learn any kind of multiplication tables. I also brought in an African squeeze drum so that the children could make their own rhythms during the song. Once we had learned the music, I let the students use the drum one at a time and make up their own rhythms to accompany the song. I was actually surprised and how enthusiastically all of the children responded to the drum. Not only did they all want to play it, they also sang much more confidently when the drum was accompanying them. Since they were excited about the drum, all the students were happy to sing it as many times as I would allow, and so they all memorized the song by heart very quickly. By the time school was out, they all ran into the hall singing the song as they went.

When class started that day, the students all knew their times tables, but they couldn't just spout out the answers. All of them had to think carefully for quite some time before saying what they thought the answer was to any particular times table. Over time, every student learns them better and eventually we all can recite them quickly but by using the arts to teach the multiplication, the students learned them extremely well, and extremely quickly. After class, I quizzed one of the students on the 8 times tables and he knew them the instant I asked. This is the power of using the arts to teach. Regular subjects can become a joy in the lives of students, and these students can also be exposed to music simultaneously.

This is one of the students with the African squeeze drum that I brought in. He showed a lot of interest in drumming and was one of the only students to get the squeeze technique to work. When

the drum is played and squeezed in the exact right way, it gives the performer the ability to warp the timbre of the drum.