Math and Music, Learn Fractions with Garageband

Each year, our fourth grade musicians are introduced to GarageBand.  This year, a collaborative project was created between fourth grade Music and Math.  Students were split into small groups.  After becoming familiar with different genres of music and tracks, students were responsible for composing a piece of music using loops in GarageBand.  Paying attention to layering and transitions, their piece had to include an introduction, middle and conclusion.  Once this was finished, students decided what fraction part of their entire composition was the beginning, the middle and conclusion.  They then recorded themselves sharing their compositions, explaining the fractions they used and their overall explanation of their project. Throughout this project, students were able to understand the general outline of composing a song, listen for and describe transitions as well as apply their new knowledge of fractions into their original composition.  We finally held a presentation day in which each fourth grade group shared their projects.  This was successful due to the collaboration of Miss Mueller, Ms. Lechleitner and the open-mindedness of fourth grade musicians and mathematicians to experiment with something new!

Multiage Weather Projects

To mark the end of our science unit on weather, Ms. Dye’s Multiage class completed group projects in which multiple apps and programs were used on the iPads and laptops. Each cooperative learning group of three to four students researched a different weather phenomenon including tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, etc.  With the use of guided questions some kids researched with the iPads on weatherwizkids.com, while others used the laptops to watch videos on Brain Pop or read books on Scholastic’s True Flix.

After completing the research stage, the students worked together to creatively incorporate the information they had learned into a script for a weather newscast. Next, half of the group members worked on the laptops using the Flip Book feature in Animation-ish to create a “video footage” of their weather event to use in their newscast, while others used the iPads to create illustrations to project behind them with Drawing Pad. Some of the major advantages of incorporating both the use of the iPads and laptops simultaneously, were that it split the workload up in a way that every student had plenty of activity to keep them engaged, while also utilizing academic choice as students chose the task that most suited their talents and interests.

Finally, we filmed the students performing their scripts, projecting their illustrations and videos on the Smartboard in the background.  The last step was to put their videos into iMovie to create the final product.  We held a “movie premiere” in our classroom to watch the newscasts, capping off what was a fun and engaging project filled with technology integration.