Last month, our second graders read a story called The Empty Pot by Demi. It told the story of a Chinese Emperor who was choosing a successor by asking all of the children of the land to plant a seed and do their best. The main character, Ping, grows the most beautiful flowers in the land, so when he plants the seed given to him by the emperor, he is very disappointed that nothing grows! The other children show off beautiful results, but poor Ping has only an empty pot to present to the Emperor. Ask your child what happens at the end of the story and see if they remember!
We added instruments with two specific rhythms to follow the names of the two main characters. After we played along with the story, we took the specific rhythms and combined them into 4 beat rhythm patterns. We put our short measures together in groups to create an original rhythm composition. Then we added the instruments back to the rhythms and each group played their rhythms all together at once, creating an exciting class composition!
We used this rhythm for the character of the Emperor.
And this one for Ping.
musicwithmrsbeekman 