Do you ever get new instruments you just want to play with? Chances are your students would like to play with them too.😊We received a class set of spoons this week. It could be my Atlantic Canadian roots but I LOVE SPOONS. They are so satisfying to play and have a lovely wooden tone. Sooo…. my grade 2’s are delving into Frozen’s “Let it Go” this week.

When I introduce the beginning instrumental parts, I use body percussion. It transfers easily. I repeat the introduction until everyone gets a turn. If you don’t have the same instruments as outlined above, substitute with found sounds, vocal sounds, rainsticks, anything on hand. I don’t give them a turn at everything, they get a turn at something. The next time we run it, I set the instruments up so they get a turn at something new. Eventually, they will have had a turn at it all.

My students love learning the spoons patterns. The trickiest part is teaching them to control how many times they tap the spoons between their legs and hand. The text associated with the patterns helps keep it rhythmic.

A tubano is a kid sized conga. The open bottom on the tubano allows the tone to project and the students don’t have to hold them up like a conga. They are super cost effective and you can introduce the idea of Bass (“Keep”) and tone (“It steady”). The bass is played in the center of the drum and the tone is played around the edge – where you would see the numbers on a clock.

Putting it all together. I will spend some time running it to this point so the kids get familiar with the form before moving on.

This was the tricky part to orchestrate until I realized using ocean drum and chimes would work just fine. And for a little fun, I added a fill for the kids to play on the tubano. I was recently at a webinar where the presenter discussed counting as microbeats and macrobeats. You need to count this as a slow 4 – macrobeats.

This whole instrumental arrangement is based on 3 spoon patterns, 2 tubano patterns, and 1 idiophone pattern. Super simple but super satisfying. Here is a jamboard with all the visuals you need to try it out for yourself. Have fun! I will post some videos as we move through this process.

Take care,

Ms. Syndi