Every year my grade three general music students do a unit on harmony. We use a graphic organizer and learn about 5 ways to create harmony. One of the ways we study is using an ostinato. Most of the time students define, read, and perform these harmonies - but just today I had students write some. My grade 5 students have written ostinato to harmonize an original melody but I haddn't done it with grade three and this year I thought "why not?"
We used the song "Brother John" as the melody to harmonize. It's easy and most students have it memorized or memorize it quickly. I passed out staff paper and we wrote one together as an example. I gave them a few "rules" (only use F, A, or C, only use quarter, half or whole notes) and I had them write an original ostinato. Then students came up and play them on xylophones. Some students had trouble naming notes so I asked "who is really good at remembering names of notes?" I assigned those students to help those who needed help. I also had the students who had the xylophones on their desks help struggling students to figure out how to play their little compositions.
Students created and performed thier own original harmonies and it ony took about 20 minutes! I will defiantly do this activity again!
Sample work
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