The fourth graders study the American Revolutionary War during the winter trimester of the school year. To correlate with their study, we study the music of the Revolutionary War. The students learn that many patriotic melodies were originally British melodies. They also study the purposes of the drum and fife players during battles.

Finally, they study the melody of Yankee Doodle. They learn how to read and perform the melody on their recorders. In addition, I place them in small groups and access their Noteflight accounts (noteflight.com). They open the "Copy of Yankee Doodle" file and read through the melody and drum lines. The file has some of the melody and some drum patterns. The students can copy and paste these patterns into the empty measures and perform their new arrangement.

Once finished, we export this new arrangement directly into Soundtrap (soundtrap.com). They are assigned a musical style and come up with an updated version of Yankee Doodle. This is in the style of Tour the States, a youtube sensation where the students sing and rap the states and their capitals. Below is an example of one of the fourth grade group's creations. They hope you enjoy it!