Group Class – Dinosaur Day
Yesterday was group class Dinosaur Day! I created a theme lesson all about dinosaurs for our Twinklers group class. Dinosaur Day was a great hit! I first thought of this when a friend posted that she found some dinosaur erasers in the “spot” section at Target. She used them with a student. And the dinosaurs fit right on the bow. I thought how fun would that be to have a dinosaur ride on your bow for a whole group class? The more I thought about more and more ideas came to mind. Since dinosaur is 3 syllables, it would be perfect to practice Twinkle Variation D, the triplets! Triplets can be tricky any way. So to spend a whole group class on them would be good.
I’ve been using Joann Martin’s book Magic Carpet a lot in my group classes this semester. And I LOVE this book! I can’t say enough good things about it. The kids focus on the bowing pattern and the pieces in this book give them a chance to play the pattern over and over in a fun creative way. The piano accompaniments are creative and the titles give us some geographical places to learn about. I got to thinking that I could write something like this having to do with dinosaurs. There is only has one piece in Magic Carpet covering Variation D. So I came up with some new pieces. Here are the songs and activities I incorporated to create our group class dinosaur day.
Group Class Activities for Dinosaur Day
Dinosaur Erasers
So first I visited the Target “dollar section.” I call it the “dollar” section, but honestly, most things are more than a dollar… My friend had found some dinosaur erasers there around Valentine’s Day. I couldn’t find any in my Target when I visited, but I 
checked Amazon. Oh yes! They had some. They come in a pack of 24. And once they arrived I discovered they were from Oriental Trading Company, the source of all prize box toys for kids! So, you can either order them from Amazon or Oriental Trading Company.
I ended up using sticky tack to attach them in the middle of the student’s bows. Since all the bows are slightly different diameters. Also the little “T-Rex” erasers didn’t stay on well since the 2 front legs of the T-Rex are short. But sticky tack did the trick. We had a couple fall off during the class. But the kids popped them right back on.
Teaching Points
- I put the dinosaur right in the middle of the bow. I have observed several kids are starting to drift towards the frog when playing their Twinkle Patterns. The dinosaur gave them a large visual reminder to stay right in the middle of their bow.
- How often do we remind our students to watch their bow? Making sure it’s not drifting over to the bridge or fingerboard. The dinosaur was a novel thing to watch yesterday!
- The other benefit is that they add a little weight to the bow. The kid’s bow holds got a little pinky workout yesterday. They don’t weigh much, but they do change the weight of the bow. I wouldn’t use these all the time for that reason. But they were sure a hit with the kids.
Song: Very Big Dinosaur
The first song I wrote only uses the rhythm pattern on an open string. First we clapped “dinosaur” and found that it had 3 claps. Then we clapped “very big.” That had 3 claps too! So we added them together to get 6. We clapped “very big dinosaur.” A couple times, then I demonstrated. One student suggested that we play it on the G string rather than the E string. So after class, I did transpose it down so it can be played on E string as well as G string.
Teaching Points
- I made the connection that the pattern “very big dinosaur” was the same pattern as “strawberry popsicle.” They each have six claps!
- There is a rest in the middle of the piece where the pattern and accompaniment stop. You could use this rest to check bow placement, bow holds.
- We also walked around the room like a dinosaur.
Download mp3 Very Big Dinosaur Play-Along track here
Song: Dinosaur Looking for Food
This song is like “See the Little Monkey.” Since the little monkey climbs up the ladder to pick a pink banana, I used the same finger pattern to have our dinosaurs go look for food. Our dinosaur is on the hunt for his snack.
Teaching Points
- There are two beats of rest between each finger. This allows the student to set the finger before playing.
- To begin I say the letter that we are playing. Once they know the piece, then I have them say the letter in the rests.
Download mp3 of Dinosaur Looking for Food – A string at metronome = 72
Download mp3 of Dinosaur Looking for Food – A string at metronome = 84
Download mp3 of Dinosaur Looking for Food – Accompaniment
Teaching Points
- Dinosnore is the A Major scale ascending and descending in triplets.
- Like the “Dinosaur Looking for Food” song, there is a rest between each finger. This one is a little different for them because it is in 3/4. There is only 1 beat rest between each pattern for finger placement. This was new for them as many of the songs in magic carpet give them 2 beats to get their finger ready.
- We have sung the A scale since the very first day of class. But I verbally remind them every week that “to step down from E means we set all three fingers on the A string to play D!” (Some students will make this connection on their own. Other students you will need to help them make this connection.
Download mp3 of Dinosnore Play-Along here
Activity – Don’t let your violin sound like a Bronchiosaurus
About half way through our lesson time, I try to incorporate one non-violin activity. I want it to be something that teaches them about the violin or music theory. It’s usually a whole body, gross motor skill activity. For our dinosaur class, we talked about cleaning our violins after playing them. We don’t want our violins to wail like the brochiosaurus. So we need to clean off the rosin after we play.
I found some flannel at Joann Fabric that had dinosaurs on it. While some of the students have cleaning cloths in their case, others have lost them Some constantly leave them at home. Who knows maybe the dog ate it!
Wash and dry the fabric before cutting it. This gets off any coating they might have put on when manufacturing. Then I cut them into rectangles. I let them choose which dinosaur cloth they wanted. Then we practiced gently wiping off our strings and wiping the rosin off the top of the violin.
I purchased a yard of both fabrics. They were on sale for 3.70 a yard. So my total cost was under $8. And I had extra cloths left over. (Some of the older siblings who sit in the class waiting for their class got one too!) Joanns offers coupons and sales. So you shouldn’t have to pay full price if you have time to wait for a sale or coupon.
Try out these songs and ideas and create your own group class Dinosaur Day lesson and comment below on how it goes!
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