Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year!!!  (Okay, I think it's New Year's in Europe right now, lol!  It will be here in the states in 8 hours; 10 hours for here in Colorado).

While I'm waiting for my 2 year old to fall asleep for her nap (which is taking a VERY long time as she's highly anticipating the arrival of her cousins who are coming this evening) I will make true to my promise from yesterday: here's a freebie on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  It's a PDF of my Auld Lang Syne PowerPoint.

I'm sure you all know the tune:

Since this poem dates back to 1788 and is from Scotland, it has many different versions in regards to the text.  I included the text that I found to be most common in the United States.  Now, just a little history for you: it was written by Robert Burns and is set to the tune of a traditional fold song: specifically Roud #6294.  Roud folk songs come from a collection of nearly 25,000 folk songs that were collected by oral traditional by Steve Roud, a former librarian in the London Borough of Croydon. Auld Lang Syne, the Scot's title which can be translated literally as "old long since," is traditionally associated with New Year's eve but is also popularly sung at funerals, graduations and other ceremonies marking a farewell or an ending to an occasion.

My 5th graders are in full-fledged tom-ti practice mode so I thought this would be a perfect way to welcome them back and dive right into where we left off.  We'll start by singing the song from these slides:

Now, since we've had two weeks off we will take a step back and review how we derived tom-ti from the tie between a quarter note and a single eighth note.  The definition of a tie (connects two notes of the same pitch) will be important later on in the PowerPoint.  (The other reason I want to review this is because in other areas of my lesson, through song literature containing games and instruments, they will be singing and physically and aurally preparing ti-tom  and we will be using the tie again to teach that rhythmic concept):

After the quick review we'll sing the song on rhythm:

This slide has the use of a slur, not only between the tom-ti but also between tas and ti-tis.  This will be something new that we will talk about: the difference between a slur and a tie (from above, a tie connects two notes of the same pitch, a slur connects two notes of different pitches).

The new few slides will be used in the following lesson to practice the extended do-pentatone.

And it's always good to have the students sing the song on absolute pitch names.  One of my New Year's Resolutions is to do a better job of having them practice this on a more daily basis. (SO much to do in 45 minutes!!!):

I wish you all the warmest wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2013!!!  See you next year! :)