Music Blocks projects for the holidays
The holidays are in full swing. In fact, an article like this is a little bit behind schedule, but nevertheless I wanted to share some of the creative holiday-themed projects that have been made over the years by various students and teachers. If music for a holiday that you celebrate is not yet on Music Blocks, you are encouraged to be the first to add it for others to enjoy (and, if you do, please let us know by sharing it as a comment below or as a blog post).
Recent project: Ornamenting the Christmas tree
This is perhaps the most recent holiday-themed project to be added to the planet. The goal of this lesson, led recently by teaching artist Huanhuan at Malden MAP after school, was to figure out a fun way to decorate the tree. The idea is to give students a challenge that lends itself to any number of solutions and work together with students to help them problem solve to find a solution.
Huanhuan first came up with a bare Christmas tree (try it HERE), generated from geometric shapes. The project would draw the tree first and then play “Jingle Bells.”
One of the prompts that students were given were to use the “on every note do” block to create ornaments on every note. By doing this, you can generate ornaments that go with the music, which is delightful.
Another possibility, which you can see the results of below, is to add a star at the top of the tree once the music has finished. In order to do this, students would need to put the star into a place within the flow of the code as to not interrupt the music. For this version (displayed below and available HERE), the star is drawn at the end using a geometric pattern.
More holiday-themed projects
There are many holiday-themed projects that students and teachers have made over the years. Below is a list of what I could find with a quick search on the planet for “Holiday” and “Christmas.” Please feel free to suggest others in the comment box below. Also, please feel free to create your own and share those in the comment box — we can never have enough!
- “Happy Holidays” — A fun, fresh composition by a GCI student and beginner that mixes a few Christmas tune idioms. https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1575868881208027&run=True
- “Remix of Christmas Tree” — “Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year” in the style of a fractal tree. https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1638054772186101&run=True
- “Happy Holidays” — a project by a Music+Code student that is a fun interactive greeting card. https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1605470863568193&run=True
- “Frosty the Snowman” — Template for a kind of holiday e-card. https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1606596390741574&run=True
- “Silent Night” — A wonderful transcription by a GCI student that plots pitch over time. (Note: May need some fixes to work at its best.) https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1523032457417314&run=True
- “Tux Santa” — An interactive game where “Tux” chases a Christmas tree for points. https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1605366751429080&run=True
Thank you for reading and “Happy Holidays!”
