Kodaly inspired music classroom

10 Books that Every Kodaly Teacher Should Have on Their Bookshelf

I have frequently been asked and I have seen similar questions posted on Kodaly and Music Ed Facebook groups. "I am interested in learning ...

This is probably one of my kids' favorites! Why I love it: -super for teaching ta rest -I can bring it back for teaching la -I find its easy to tell a story about because I actually do have a naughty kitty cat at home: I can always count on this kitty for a good (non-fiction) story to introduce this song. Why my kids love it: -As always, the GAME! Sometimes when I have a class that isn't ready for a traveling circle, we play it as a seated circle chase game, like "duck duck goose" where one student is "the mouse" they walk around the circle during the song and tap the nearest person at the end. This person is "the cat" and chases the cat around the circle. If the mouse is caught they could go to the center, it's up to you. I usually do not send kids to the center unless I have an instrument there. After we play the game we use these slides depending on what we are working on: ta rest or la In the TpT download I also have these slides for those teachers who call or read it differently. Melodic contour: I don't include last phrase since it contains fa and re. They never really ask about it but it helps if you have them come up with an action to do on the last phrase. Solfa Street slide: I made this slide with clipart purchased from: http://www.etsy.com/shop/audreeart?ref=seller_info This product is available on my TpT store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Naughty-Kitty-Cat-A-song-for-ta-rest-and-la You can also "like" my facebook page for product updates, specials, and freebies: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lindsays-Kodaly-Inspired-Classroom/353385428113596 Lindsay

I wanted to share something that worked for my sub while I had to be out of the classroom yesterday. I was introduced to the book, "Nev...

Today one of my kindergarten classes earned their very first free day in music. I'm sure it sounds crazy, but our free days are actually ...

Last Winter I organized a Make It / Take It for the Kodaly Music Educators of Kansas. I thought I would share with you what we did...

I love building lessons around children's literature and finding ways that I can incorporate folk songs with them. Some of the books I choose are based on a song, such as "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" that I sing to the students, and others are not based on a song, but I find ways to add instruments or incorporate a folk song on some of the page turns. It can be a great way to introduce a song because they get a lot of listening repetitions of the song and by the end of the story book, you can often invite them to join in and sing on the page turns. Here is a great one for January when all we really want to do is hibernate until summer. "Bear Snores On" - This book is fun on its own with a cute story and illustrations, but as always, music makes everything better! Here are two different songs I like to use with this book depending on the grade level/concept we are working on. I simply sing the song on the page turns or every few page turns if I am running short on time. Grizzly Bear is perfect for if you are preparing or practicing Loud/Soft in kindergarten: Later in the lesson or on another day you could expand upon this song with rhythm visuals at the board. This slide comes from my "Grizzly Bear" song file. Find it here. "Frosty Weather" - You could use this song when preparing re or even practicing ta and tit. Visuals for "Frosty Weather" can be found here. I use the book to introduce the song. They get a lot of hearing of it that way. Before the book is over, I am inviting the students to sing with me on the page turns. Immediately after the book, we will play the singing game.Students join right in singing because they are already very familiar with the song. Before you rush to Amazon, Ebay or West Music to purchase this book, you might see if your school library already owns it or if any of the primary teachers have it in their classroom library. They are often happy to let you borrow it for a short time if they are not using it that week, and they get really excited to find out that you are incorporating books into your lessons! What is your favorite children's book to use in the music room in January? Let me know if the comments below!

Hello and happy almost-to-winter-break! I've noticed that the closer we get to the two-week break, the more distracted the students get. ...

Hello, this is Lindsay Jervis, from Pursuit of Joyfulness and Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom (on facebook). “The most important thing is to actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of music.” (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p. 2) But HOW do we keep them singing as they get older? I really do believe that the love of music and singing must be something that is instilled from a very young age (most likely before they even enter our classrooms) because of the exposure to music and their musical experience in the home, but that being said, I do believe what we do once them come to elementary school can have a profound impact on what they think of music and music class and whether they WANT to continue in music as they go on through schooling and life. With the little ones, I have always felt this comes easy. Song, stories, and play are so much a part of what they love to do. With the old grades (I'm thinking 3rd-5th), you have to carefully select music, games, and activities that have just the right amount of challenge to peak their interest, keep them engaged, and meet their skill level without becoming too difficult that they give up and become frustrated. In my psychology of Music Ed class last semester we talked about the inverted U - as the challenge goes up, the performance and enjoyment of the students goes up until they reach their skill peak. After that peak, students feel stress, anxiety and give up on the task or "think it's stupid". This is where it is really important to know where your kids are at and select appropriate songs for them. The songs cannot be too babyish (even if the students really are beginners and need to practice things like steady beat and basic rhythm or tonal patterns). I still really consider my older students to be older beginners. I started at my school three years ago and my kids had NO method of reading rhythms or pitches when I got there, so that coupled with my maternity leave my 2nd year there, and they are still not quite up to speed, but that is ok. It is better to go at the pace of the students and do developmentally appropriate literature than push ahead for the sake of staying "on grade level". Here are some songs and games that I have done with my students. In some of these cases, we have used them to isolate rhythm or melodic concepts, but some we have used purely for the joy they bring students while participating. If you find a song that students can't wait to sing/play again- it's a GEM! Hang onto it! You know this one is a gem when I have 5th graders still request it every time they earn a free day. The game is very simple. Students are seated in a circle with their hands behind their back. One student is "it". I call it the "detective" with the older kids and for some reason that is cooler than "it". The first time we play I go around the outside of the circle with a key hidden in my hand. I hide the key in someone's hands. Once I have made it around the circle once, I stop and the detective gets three guesses to try to figure out where the key is. This song is great for older beginners because of the easy rhythms, it is also great for teaching re. With my older beginners I started melody with mi re do instead of sol-mi. Pre-made visuals for this song available here. This song is great for teaching sixteenth notes and the game is a lot of fun. Set up students in a double circle. Inside circle will move clockwise, outside circle will move counterclockwise during the song. Select two chicken farmers. They stand facing away from the circle on opposite sides of the circle. All students in the circles join hands and teacher selects one "window" in each circle. On the last word of the song (I only use verse 1 when playing the game), the selected partners hold their arms up to create a window. The two farmers must race, only going through the "open windows" to get to the middle. I usually borrow a rubber chicken from my PE teacher to throw in the middle. The kids think it is hilarious. This play party is played in longways sets with two lines facing each other (typically one line of boys and one line of girls). Verse 1, the first girl skips around both lines and back to her place. Verse 2, "pretty little Susie skips around set and boys line follows until all are back in their places. Verse 3, cast off, or "peel the banana", head couple forms an arch at the bottom of the set and everyone goes under the arch and the song starts over with a new head couple. Use when preparing and practicing tiri-tiri. If you would like visuals and assessment tools like the one below for this song, you can find some here. I use this song when preparing and practicing tiri-ti. I have one person travel around the circle with two envelopes. Ones says "Ida Red" the other says "Ida Blue". Inside each envelope is an action like crawl, skip, gallop, twirl, crabwalk, hop on one foot, etc. On the last word of the song, the person with the envelopes stops between the two closest people and hands an envelope to each. They take out one card then when I say go, they race around the circle performing that action. If I feel one has an unfair advantage (like crab walk vs. run), I can make one go around twice. The winner gets to be "it" and the game resumes. This one is great for low la! The following two songs were a lot of fun for my fifth grades to create an arrangement of for our Fall Program last year. We used these plus "Who Has Seen the Wind" and added ostinato patterns and added Orff instruments. Each class was responsible for arranging how they wanted to perform the song. They might have chosen to singing sing just the ostinato, then add the melody, then sing and play on barred instruments, and then sing a capella as they traded spots with the next class who was moving onto the barred instruments. It was different for each class and it allowed for them to take something that we were working on in class, take ownership and polish it so that it was something we could present to parents. I used Mamalama strictly for the joy of it last year. It was a great "ice breaker" game for back to school time. My kids loved the challenge of learning the words. I had one girl nail it the first week, which was really cool. You could use this in prepping for fa but it is probably not one that I would use to present fa. This is another one that was played for the joy of it. My kids aren't to low ti yet and the syncopated rhythms are a bit above my kids, but they still need to sing and play this hand clapping game because it is fun. Here's a video of the hand clapping game:

Here's a peek at my Watercolor Music Room: I have found it really helpful to have a lines and spaces bulletin board of some sort up in my room year round. This is helpful especially for my older kids who are playing recorders. Someone in my "Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom - Share Group" on Facebook suggested the title "Brush up on your Lines and Spaces" for the title of the board and I loved it! I actually put this board together twice. Originally I had it backed with white paper and it was just a little too boring. I thought about splattering it with paint, but I didn't trust myself and thought it might become a huge mess, so I ended up finding a really pretty yellow fabric from Hobby Lobby. I had a 40% off coupon and I think it took a yard and a half to cover it. I got the scalloped bulletin board boarder from my local school supply store. You can find it online thought here. I used black streamers for the lines. The printables for this board can be found here. On my other square bulletin board, I backed the board with a pretty floral fabric that had a watercolored look tot he flowers. The fabric is so pretty, but busy, so I wanted something simple for this board. I usually have my Solfa Street on this board, but I thought it might be a good place to post my objectives this year. I bought these really cheap document frames for $1 each from Dollar Tree and printed off some mostly blank pages that had the grade levels on them. I use an expo marker each day to write on the board what the objective for each grade is. My administrator loves this. I did have laminated cards that I tried using last year, but I would forget to change it out. These I can keep up for a while as I am preparing or presenting a concept. I might write "Use my singing voice to match the pitches" or "Move to the feel of the music" when I am prepping a concept. After the concept is presented I can be more specific "I can sing (or read) songs with sol-mi". "I can move to the beat of the music" or "I can clap patterns with ta titi and rest". Find these blank objectives pages here. The colors of mine are a bit different because I wanted them to look good on top of this particular fabric. The ones in the file match (as close as possible) to the grade level binder covers in my watercolor teacher binders set. I love to dress up the side of my file cabinets. I taped butcher paper to the side, trimmed the edges and added border trim (from the same line as the scalloped borders). I love the posters I found "It's RUDE to EXCLUDE!" and "Don't decide that you can't before you discover that you can". Both are very applicable to my kids and my room. Sometimes when we play singing games some kids get left out, or some students don't take hands nicely. This poster is a great little reminder for some of my kiddos. The other one is for when things get "too hard". I have really high expectations for my kiddos and some of them have very low self esteems because of their home lives. I am always encouraging my kiddos to try and telling them that I believe in them. The posters came from my local teacher supply store. You can also find them online here (It's Rude to Exclude) and here (Don't decide you can't before you discover that you can). I was SOOOO excited when I saw how my music rules printed out. I did not know if the watercolor would print well or if the music noted I added to the background myself would show up well. It's my favorite set yet! I have a little rule for each song that makes learning these rules really fun the first week of school. You can find these rules posters and the corresponding songs here. I thought I would try something new to track class behavior this year. I blogged last year about our class rewards for five star days in music. Then I saw this cool pin: I loved the idea of having a colorful xylophone on my wall as a way to track class behavior. Each day when my kids line up, we go over the music room rules and see if we followed all five as a group. If they did, they earn a 5 star day and get to move their class clip over one bar on the xylophone. When they reach the top bar, they will earn a free day for their next music class. Free days in my room are singing games or children's literature that were their favorites from the year or previous years. I didn't have as much space on my wall as the pinner, so mine is a much smaller version above my counter and below my cabinets at the back of my room. For my big bullet board I wanted to do something that incorporated paint chips and the saying "Each individual is like a single note. Together we create a masterpiece." My sister in law painted the staff on my light purple fabric for me. I got the idea from a combination of several pins on Pinterest, but instead of using a die-cut for each note, I wanted the note heads to be the kids thumbprints. I used acrylic paint and in about 8 minutes per class period. Each class all used the same color so I wasn't having to switch colors or brushes during one class. I used a brush to get the right amount of paint on each kid's finger. They went straight to the board, made their print in a place of their choosing and immediately wiped their finger clean with a Clorox wipe. For K-2 I cleaned their fingers myself. It still didn't take much time at all and went much smoother than I anticipated. The kids got excited when they came in the next time and saw even more colors added to the board. This board represents half of my school The other half will be adding their prints on Monday. As I am posting this, I just realized I was trying so hard to get close ups of everything that you don't see the room as a whole. I will see if I can do a view whole room shots next week for you! I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of my music room. If you used any of my decor in your music room, I would love to see pictures. I have started a photo album on my Facebook page of classrooms around the world using my creations. I am slowly getting pictures you share added to it! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great year!

We would all like to think we would never miss a day teaching our kiddos and I wish that were the case too! But there are always things ...

Last Winter I organized a Make It / Take It for the Kodaly Music Educators of Kansas. I thought I would share with you what we did at this make it/ take it in case other districts, chapters, or groups of music teacher friends are interested in putting together their own "Make It / Take It". We decided that we would make the following manipulatives/games at our workshop: 1) Solfege texting sticks For this manipulative, each teacher got a set of Popsicle sticks and a pentatonic page of the texting tone ladders to cut out. We stuck them to the Popsicle sticks with rubber cement. It was a little sticky. Hot glue might work better, but glue along the top edges of the paper will help keep students from picking the paper off the sticks. Download a FREE template here. (Photo credit: Jennifer Patterson) A few ideas for using them: - Sing a known song on solfege and have students use finger to “text” the solfege as they sing - Sing a known song on words and have the students “text” the solfege - Sing do pentatonic melodic patterns and have students echo as they “text” the pattern - Sing melodic patterns on neutral syllable and have students respond with the solfege as they text. 2) Foam rhythm cubes Teachers got a set of 16 cubes. You can order them in bulk here. They could chose what rhythms to put on the sides. I really wanted a set for just ta, titi, ta rest, and takadimi (tika-tika, etc.), so I left two sides blank. Leaving those sides blank opens up the opportunity for student composing or improv if they can fill in their own rhythm on those empty beats. Ideas for use: - Students use the cubes in centers or small groups to find the rhythms of known songs (8 or 16 beats) - Compose new rhythm - Dictate 4 beat rhythm patterns - Compose or improvise new patterns on the blank cubes. 3) Sorted bags of colored transparent bingo chips to use on student high low charts or staves There wasn't anything to make at this station, but a lot of teachers wanted these bingo chips to use on their high/low charts and staves. I have a high low chart, a staff without the clef, and a staff with the clef that is laminated for each student in my class. These chips are cool because although they are colored, they are transparent, so students can see the line going through the middle of them if it is supposed to be on a line and they fit between the lines perfectly for space notes. Each teacher got 250 chips and they could put however many they wanted in bags depending on their class sizes. You can order these chips in bulk here. Ideas for use: - Use the chips to notate, dictate, or compose melodic patterns on student staff paper 4) Four Beat Heartbeat Charts Teachers got 120 heart die cuts and 30 strips of paper that were cut/punched out ahead of time. They glued down the hearts four to a strip to create 4 beat heartbeat charts. Ideas for use: - Students may tap the beat to known folk songs or recorded music - Students use Popsicle sticks to dictate patterns on top of the heartbeats - Students use erasers, beads, etc. to show how many sounds they hear on each beat 5) I Have, Who Has game cards I had a class set of "I Have, Who Has - Tika-tika" cards printed for KMEK members. If you want a ready to print set of cards, you can find them in my TpT store here (lots of different concepts are available), or you could create a rhythm list and create your own cards by handwriting them. If using my set with a big group of teachers, email me at [email protected] for special pricing on additional licenses. The teachers who attended the workshop just had to cut them out and laminate them! Prep Work Before the Workshop To prep for the make it / take it workshop, I spent a lot of time looking for ideas on Pinterest. I put together a Pinterest board with some ideas and let KMEK members comment in our Facebook group to say which manipulatives they would like for us to make. You can see the idea board here. Once we decided what we were going to make, I ordered all of the materials. Some KMEK members helped in advance cutting out all of the heart die cuts cutting strips for the heart beat charts. Once we had enough materials for all of the participants, we sorted everything into bags for each teacher and I printed up a contents sheet with instructions and ideas for use for everything in the bag. Download the instructions page we used here and feel free to edit it for your own personal use! Participants had to pre-register for the workshop so that we could anticipate how many sets of materials we would need to order. There was a lot of prep work that went into this workshop to make it a success, but it was a lot of fun, and our students got to have lots of new hands on manipulatives and games to use in music class as a result! It is always so much more fun to make these things with a group of friends than on your own, and you can benefit from buying in bulk if you are splitting the costs between several teachers. Here are a few more photos of our make it / take it workshop: If you have any questions about our make it/take it workshop or organizing your own, please do not hesitate to email me at [email protected]

Monday Music Manipulatives - Meter Manipulatives with Popsicle Stick Bar Lines

Last Monday, I posted on my Facebook page asking what music manipulatives you were using in your lessons and I got some really neat ideas, and I am so happy that those teachers are allowing me to share their manipulative ideas with you. Today's idea comes from Tina Morgan. This manipulative is for working on creating measures in 4 beat meter, 3 beat meter, or 2 beat meter and having students figure out where to put the bar lines using Popsicle sticks. The class works in small groups to add the bar lines to a known song or they can create their own songs, using certain time signatures and adding bar lines (popsicle sticks) where appropriate. You could create several baskets and do this with the whole class, or create one to use as a center. Here's what goes in each basket for each small group: - rhythm cards (each rhythm was printed on a different color of paper and laminated), each rhythm can be contained in a Ziploc bag - time signature cards - Popsicle sticks - poker chips (in case they want to create repeats) - a sheet of paper that describes the contents of the basket so students can be sure their basket has everything before turning it back in When it's all packed up it looks like this: Here's a close up of the contents sheet: Tina created these rhythm cards by hand back in 1999, but she allowed me to create a digital file so that music teachers could simply print and have this ready to go for their classrooms. Grab the file here. It includes stick notation as well as notation with note heads. I have also include a few more rhythm options. I have added a different contents sheet for several different rhythm concept levels so you could create a basket for where ta and titi are the hardest rhythm concepts, a basket where ta rest is the hardest rhythm concept and so on. Hope you enjoy this manipulative to practice adding bar lines and a big thank you to Tina for letting me share it with you!

Sing, sing, sing! I want my students to experience beautiful, in-tune singing and I am always on the lookout for songs with solos. I know students are more successful in pitch matching when they sing unaccompanied and have opportunities to sing alone. While I use several songs with solos in the primary grades, I don't use as many in the older grades. Here is one that has been very successful with my older students. I often start with several knots tied in the rope so that a few students are singing the solo, (which cuts down on the initial fear factor for the singers.) I learned this song from my wonderful Level III teacher, Liz Arcaro. Once a student has sung a solo (or duet, or trio, depending on how many knots I tie in the rope,) they go to a barred instrument and accompany with a simple bourdon on C and G. What are some of your favorite songs with solos?

3 Curriculum Outlines: Kodaly-Inspired, Orff-Inspired, and Beginning Student

There are so many different places you can start from when creating a Curriculum Outline. A curriculum outline is a broad overview of your entire program, across all grade levels. It’s a zoomed out picture of what concepts you want to cover, and what grades will cover them. I’ve written about a c

No Voice? 10 Game ideas for teaching music with little to no talking

Have you ever had to teach with no voice? You know, that situation where you don't feel sick enough to call off and write sub-plans but can'...

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! I know a lot of you are still in school so here's a fun song to use with your 1st graders . .. . and 2nd graders! I found it in Holidays and Special Days by Grace Nash and Janice Rapley during my college practicum classes and have used it every year. The kids eat it up! Here's the song: Now, this is NOT a folk song. But over the years I've accidentally changed the melody. Here's the way I sing it with my kiddos (and we sing it with swung eighth notes): I use this to aurally identify/reinforce quarter rests with my 1st graders. Other than that, we use it for expression and FUN. Here's the game: Formation: circle, with one student (the "farmer") on the outside of the circle and 2-3 turkeys in the middle. Action: as the song is sung, the farmer walks around the outside of the circle while the turkeys trot around the middle of the circle. At the end of the song the farmer chases the turkeys. Depending on where your students are in your movement sequence, you can have the students in the circle walk the beat while the song is sung with their arms acting as a fence. At the end, the students can choose to make their joined arms gates or leave their section of the fence closed. You can also add instruments. In Holidays and Special Days there are more elaborate Orff parts. I simplified it so my 1st and 2nd graders can play is successfully and independently. Here are a couple of my 1st graders playing it this year. It's a lot of fun and it's great to get some of those pre-holiday wiggles out: Liza Meyer's wrote a post that included this song a couple years ago. She notates it as la,-do at the beginning but my source uses so-mi. You can read her post by clicking here. This post also has a fun Thanksgiving song to the tune of Zum Gali Gali- it's a must do! Your older kiddos with LOVE it! Have a GREAT week everyone!

Hello, this is Lindsay Jervis, from Pursuit of Joyfulness and Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom (on facebook). “The most important thing is to actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of music.” (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p. 2) But HOW do we keep them singing as they get older? I really do believe that the love of music and singing must be something that is instilled from a very young age (most likely before they even enter our classrooms) because of the exposure to music and their musical experience in the home, but that being said, I do believe what we do once them come to elementary school can have a profound impact on what they think of music and music class and whether they WANT to continue in music as they go on through schooling and life. With the little ones, I have always felt this comes easy. Song, stories, and play are so much a part of what they love to do. With the old grades (I'm thinking 3rd-5th), you have to carefully select music, games, and activities that have just the right amount of challenge to peak their interest, keep them engaged, and meet their skill level without becoming too difficult that they give up and become frustrated. In my psychology of Music Ed class last semester we talked about the inverted U - as the challenge goes up, the performance and enjoyment of the students goes up until they reach their skill peak. After that peak, students feel stress, anxiety and give up on the task or "think it's stupid". This is where it is really important to know where your kids are at and select appropriate songs for them. The songs cannot be too babyish (even if the students really are beginners and need to practice things like steady beat and basic rhythm or tonal patterns). I still really consider my older students to be older beginners. I started at my school three years ago and my kids had NO method of reading rhythms or pitches when I got there, so that coupled with my maternity leave my 2nd year there, and they are still not quite up to speed, but that is ok. It is better to go at the pace of the students and do developmentally appropriate literature than push ahead for the sake of staying "on grade level". Here are some songs and games that I have done with my students. In some of these cases, we have used them to isolate rhythm or melodic concepts, but some we have used purely for the joy they bring students while participating. If you find a song that students can't wait to sing/play again- it's a GEM! Hang onto it! You know this one is a gem when I have 5th graders still request it every time they earn a free day. The game is very simple. Students are seated in a circle with their hands behind their back. One student is "it". I call it the "detective" with the older kids and for some reason that is cooler than "it". The first time we play I go around the outside of the circle with a key hidden in my hand. I hide the key in someone's hands. Once I have made it around the circle once, I stop and the detective gets three guesses to try to figure out where the key is. This song is great for older beginners because of the easy rhythms, it is also great for teaching re. With my older beginners I started melody with mi re do instead of sol-mi. Pre-made visuals for this song available here. This song is great for teaching sixteenth notes and the game is a lot of fun. Set up students in a double circle. Inside circle will move clockwise, outside circle will move counterclockwise during the song. Select two chicken farmers. They stand facing away from the circle on opposite sides of the circle. All students in the circles join hands and teacher selects one "window" in each circle. On the last word of the song (I only use verse 1 when playing the game), the selected partners hold their arms up to create a window. The two farmers must race, only going through the "open windows" to get to the middle. I usually borrow a rubber chicken from my PE teacher to throw in the middle. The kids think it is hilarious. This play party is played in longways sets with two lines facing each other (typically one line of boys and one line of girls). Verse 1, the first girl skips around both lines and back to her place. Verse 2, "pretty little Susie skips around set and boys line follows until all are back in their places. Verse 3, cast off, or "peel the banana", head couple forms an arch at the bottom of the set and everyone goes under the arch and the song starts over with a new head couple. Use when preparing and practicing tiri-tiri. If you would like visuals and assessment tools like the one below for this song, you can find some here. I use this song when preparing and practicing tiri-ti. I have one person travel around the circle with two envelopes. Ones says "Ida Red" the other says "Ida Blue". Inside each envelope is an action like crawl, skip, gallop, twirl, crabwalk, hop on one foot, etc. On the last word of the song, the person with the envelopes stops between the two closest people and hands an envelope to each. They take out one card then when I say go, they race around the circle performing that action. If I feel one has an unfair advantage (like crab walk vs. run), I can make one go around twice. The winner gets to be "it" and the game resumes. This one is great for low la! The following two songs were a lot of fun for my fifth grades to create an arrangement of for our Fall Program last year. We used these plus "Who Has Seen the Wind" and added ostinato patterns and added Orff instruments. Each class was responsible for arranging how they wanted to perform the song. They might have chosen to singing sing just the ostinato, then add the melody, then sing and play on barred instruments, and then sing a capella as they traded spots with the next class who was moving onto the barred instruments. It was different for each class and it allowed for them to take something that we were working on in class, take ownership and polish it so that it was something we could present to parents. I used Mamalama strictly for the joy of it last year. It was a great "ice breaker" game for back to school time. My kids loved the challenge of learning the words. I had one girl nail it the first week, which was really cool. You could use this in prepping for fa but it is probably not one that I would use to present fa. This is another one that was played for the joy of it. My kids aren't to low ti yet and the syncopated rhythms are a bit above my kids, but they still need to sing and play this hand clapping game because it is fun. Here's a video of the hand clapping game:

One of my favorite songs to bring out in the spring is 2, 4, 6, 8. I can use this with any grade level that is preparing or practicing beat vs. rhythm or is practicing ta and titi. The dance that I learned with this song is set up in longways sets with each student facing their partner. Phrase 1: Take four steps towards your partner Phrase 2: Shake hands with your partner Phrase 3: Right hand turn to trade places with your partner Phrase 4: Take four steps backward into your partners old spot IDEALLY the head couple sashays down to the bottom of the set during phrase four and the other partners move up a space to start again and there is a new head couple, but you can work up to that. Sometimes they need extra time to get down there, especially if you are teaching it to the whole class at once. Some of my kids won't remember to go because they march backwards instead, but I don't make a big deal out of it. I just add a little rhythm improv between repetitions to get them down there and then we start again I should have made my kids listen a few more times before joining in on the singing, as you will hear that some of them throw in a la and make the last phrase ta titi ta ta. Once we really honed in on the rhythm of the song and read it with ta's and titi's that fixed that right up. Here are some of the visuals and manipulative I use with this song after they have learned the dance. When practicing steady beat or working on beat vs. rhythm, I can pull out this slide and students can pat beat on laps while I point or they can take turns tapping at the board like the teacher. I also have slides for prepping the rhythm of the words as well as with stick notation. Click here to find these ready made slides to use in your classroom. On a different day in ta and titi practice stage, I divide the class into small groups and I pass out baggies that have foam flowers that I picked up from the dollar bin. On the flowers, I have notated (in stick notation) the phrases of the song with one phrase on each flower. Students work in groups to put the song together. When they have the song notated I come around to each group and they perform it for me. I hope this gives you some fun ideas to try with your kids!

Monday Music Manipulatives - 4 Beat Rhythm Blocks

I am so excited to share with you one of my students favorite manipulatives for rhythm practice, 4 Beat Rhythm Blocks. The four blocks each have a hole going through them and are on a little stick, so they can rotate, butare secured by the pieces on the ends. The four visible sides of the cube have a different rhythm on them: ta, titi, ta rest, and tika-tika, so these are great for tika-tika practice. I love that the cubes are all connected, so you don't have pieces everywhere. They are so easy to pass out, and collect, and don't require any time at all to clean up (no baggies full of individual blocks). The first time I pulled these out to use with my students, they seriously thought it was Christmas or something and they had just been given the best toy ever! Yay for music nerds, right!?! These rhythm blocks came with a sheet full of several ideas for using them in your classroom, and I am so thrilled that I get to share some of those ideas with you! 1) Rhythm Dictation Say, clap, or tap a rhythm on a percussion instrument. Students listen, clap the pattern back, and then twist the blocks to match the pattern they clapped. You can give them a little bit to find the pattern and then say "One, two, three REVEAL!" and have all students show you their pattern at once for a quick assessment. It is so easy to see who is getting it and who needs more practice. 2) Rhythm Composing and Writing Practice Have students compose a four beat pattern by twisting the connected rhythm blocks. Clap and read the pattern they created. Notate the pattern. Practicing notation is a step that is often missed and kids need to practice WRITING these rhythms that they can read. 3) Decoding Leave these in a music center with the lyrics to some 16th note songs and have students use the blocks to show the rhythms of the whole song. They can then read the whole song on rhythm syllables or notate their answer. 4) Form Using more than one set of Rhythm Blocks, have students demonstrate knowledge of forms such as ABAB or ABAC, etc. If you love these blocks, you can order a set for your classroom from Rhythmically Yours on Etsy here. She sells them as a station/centers set of 6 or as a class set of 20. She also has options for vinyl or stamped rhythms (mine are vinyl) and I think you can even pick the colors. I have a class set and she sent me four colors, a dark pink, orange, green, and black. You can also enter below to win a free set of 6 to use in centers! a Rafflecopter giveaway How would YOU use these?

We would all like to think we would never miss a day teaching our kiddos and I wish that were the case too! But there are always things each year that prevent us from being in the classroom, whether that is professional development, attending conferences, doctor appointments, staying home because we are sick or being at home with sick kiddos. I don't know about you, but since I usually didn't plan to be gone, I didn't have a great set of sub plans prepared. Then last year that changed. In October I missed over a week of school due to pneumonia. I felt so bad that I wasn't prepared well for a sub. I e-mailed our PE teacher and told her what videos I had that could be left for each grade, but I didn't have a great set of sub plans so that kids could really continue having meaningful music classes even in my absence: That February as my state music conference was approaching and I knew I would be out of school yet again, I decided to put together a set of sub plans that I could use again and again and that I wouldn't have to worry about preparing each time. I don't know about you, but when I am gone, there is not a certified music sub. Most of the subs I get are not comfortable singing with the kids, so I had to make sure that anything I planned were things they could be successful with. So here's a peek at what I came up with: An editable binder that includes: - Your daily schedule (a different page for each day) - Drills/Emergencies - Technology Available (and room to explain how to use it all) - Where to find Materials Needed (pencils, boards to write on, crayons, instruments, etc.) - Singing Games for Substitutes - list by grade level the singing games that your students know well enough to play with a student leader. - Student leaders - a place to list student leaders in each class who could lead singing games, rhythm games, etc. if the sub is not musically inclined. - Editable Seating Chart - A list of procedures, where to find things, drills, and pages to fill out how each grade/class did: - Printable forms for the sub to fill out what they did, any helpful students, and any behavior issues. - Singing games and directions for those games along with a CD of me singing those songs. Many of those could be used with multiple grade levels. - A list of student leaders for each class. These students might be in charge of leading a singing game or starting an "I have, who has rhythm game". - 5 different mini lessons that go along with children's literature for the music room. My kiddos did this one for the book "When You Wish Upon a Star" this week when I was teaching a workshop at our Learning Center. Find a FREE mini lesson for another book here. I love leaving these kinds of lessons for my students, especially when they have a CD to accompany the book, so the sub doesn't have to stress about singing the book. This is also a great time to introduce some composer books! - Games that they can play without any sub help (just a student leader) such as Post Office, I have, Who Has, Telephone Rhythm Games, and some of my rhythm races games. Now, when I need to be gone for whatever reason, I don't have to stress out because I already have a plan in place. With these singing games, children's literature lessons, and rhythm games, my I can always have something ready and when I need a sub in an emergency and I am not able to get sub plans ready the day before, a sub can look through everything and pick and choose which activities they feel comfortable with. It has been such a life saver. So I encourage you, put in a little time up front to create a sub tub. If want something that is already done for you and you just have to add your specific info, check out my sub tubs (with games and without games). Need a few freebies to fill your sub tub with? Check out my free children's literature mini lesson, as well as these other freebies that are great for subs: High/Low Ready, Set, Print worksheet samples (if your students are practicing high/low) Low Sol Ready, Set, Print worksheet samples (if your students are practicing low sol) Candy Corn Rhythm Races: dotted quarter eighth patterns Freeze Dance Freebie

I have frequently been asked and I have seen similar questions posted on Kodaly and Music Ed Facebook groups. "I am interested in learning more about Kodaly. What book resources should I get?" So I thought I would compile a list of ten of my personal favorites. Now, if you know anything about Kodaly teachers, we really are hoarders when it comes to resources. You can absolutely never have too many. Some books might have great pedagogical ideas, sequences, song lists, or folk songs. Some folk songs might have additional verses in other books or they might be a variant (did anyone else have to go collect variants in their levels??) Now, let's be clear on what I am NOT saying. I am NOT telling you that you need to rush out and buy these 10 books if they are not currently on your bookshelf. I am not telling you that these are the top 10 in all of Kodaly world. I am not saying that there are not even better resources out there. I am not telling you that these will replace Kodaly training. Absolutely nothing will. But if you... A) want to learn more about the Kodaly concept B) have taken or are in levels and want to see what books other Kodaly teachers are using or C) are in a Kodaly resource book addicts' club (hellllloooo, you are my people!) then this post is for you! SO, in no particular order: 1) Yearly Plans by Ann Eisen and Lamar Robertson This was so valuable to me when I was going through my Kodaly training before I had made my own yearly plans. It lays out month by month for each grade level what you should be preparing, presenting ,and practicing and includes song suggestions and practice activities. It is meant to be a companion to the American Methodology, so if you get this, I strongly recommend that you also own the American Methodology. 2) 150 American Folk Songs to sing read and play Lovingly referred to as the "150". This book was a required text when I was in level 1 and it is such a great resource for finding folk songs. It organizes them by tone set, which makes it really easy to find songs when you are working on specific concepts. 3) Sail Away 155 American Folk Song to sing read and play The "155" is a collection of EVEN MORE folk songs, because, let's be honest, we can never have too many. Like the 150, this one is organized by tone set. 4) ANYTHING by the New England Dance Masters (a few of my favorites are Chimes of Dunkirk and Sashay the Donut) When I started at my school I was told that they had a tradition of a folk dancing night and that each grade level was to perform a dance on stage. At the time, I hadn't been exposed to much folk dancing, but through Kodaly, our community folk dances at KMEA, and various workshops I have not only come to really enjoy it, but feel comfortable and confident teaching them to my students. Definitely get these books with the CDs and if you can, the DVDs when available. I LOVE watching Peter and Mary Alice Amidon teach the dances. The break it down into steps and a pay really close attention to the little details that really help students be successful in learning them without feeling frustrated. 5) Lullabies to Circle Games by Jo Kirk (I have not found a place to order this online, but if you are interested in it, you can reach Jo Kirk on her website) This has tons of fingerplays, lullabies, and songs for children from before birth through elementary school age. I strongly recommend this book for parents and those who might teach early childhood or preschool music classes, but there are things I pull from it for K/1/2 still. 6) Handy Play Party Book What I love about this is it gives me information about what I can DO with the songs (the singing game or the play party) which maybe I hadn't previously been aware of. 7) The Song Garden (Book 1, 2, 3) by Carol Heath - I believe these are out of print. I couldn't find them on Amazon or Ebay when I looked, but they are a treasure trove. Unfortunately, these three are just collections of songs. There is a book that goes with these that tells what you do with each song and how to teach it, but I don't have my hands on it... yet. 8) An American Methodology by Ann Eisen and Lamar Robertson This was basically our bible in level 3, and that's where I really learned how to utilize it and what the breakdown of physical/aural/visual looked like and countless activities for each during each concept. It also included a variety of ways to practice each concept that are really helpful to me when lesson planning. 9) Kodaly Today by Houlahan and Tacka This book was so incredibly helpful to me after level 1 when I was starting at a new school and trying to implement the Kodaly method which was new for all of my students. This book has a section specifically for older beginners and it has some really great song lists. 10) First, We Sing! Book Two (and Book 1) By Susan Brumfield I love both Book 1 and Book 2 from Susan Brumfield. She was at KMEA and I got to see her present this past year. The books come with CDs that include her students singing the songs and are great models for your students. These recordings are perfect to leave when you have a sub and the students already know the game but that vocal model can help them to sing in an appropriate range while you are away. I like that a lot of the songs in these books were new to me and there are some nice multicultural pieces in them. BONUS 11) Anything by Jill Trinka - I would be remiss if I did not mention Jill Trinka's song collections. They include a huge variety of folk songs and singing games and are definitely worth the purchase! So what are YOUR go to books in your collection? I'd love to hear!

"Who Am I?" Instrument ID Game I recently shared a few of my favorite resources for teaching instruments of the orchestra. Here is a instru...

One of my favorite songs to bring out in the spring is 2, 4, 6, 8. I can use this with any grade level that is preparing or practicing beat vs. rhythm or is practicing ta and titi. The dance that I learned with this song is set up in longways sets with each student facing their partner. Phrase 1: Take four steps towards your partner Phrase 2: Shake hands with your partner Phrase 3: Right hand turn to trade places with your partner Phrase 4: Take four steps backward into your partners old spot IDEALLY the head couple sashays down to the bottom of the set during phrase four and the other partners move up a space to start again and there is a new head couple, but you can work up to that. Sometimes they need extra time to get down there, especially if you are teaching it to the whole class at once. Some of my kids won't remember to go because they march backwards instead, but I don't make a big deal out of it. I just add a little rhythm improv between repetitions to get them down there and then we start again I should have made my kids listen a few more times before joining in on the singing, as you will hear that some of them throw in a la and make the last phrase ta titi ta ta. Once we really honed in on the rhythm of the song and read it with ta's and titi's that fixed that right up. Here are some of the visuals and manipulative I use with this song after they have learned the dance. When practicing steady beat or working on beat vs. rhythm, I can pull out this slide and students can pat beat on laps while I point or they can take turns tapping at the board like the teacher. I also have slides for prepping the rhythm of the words as well as with stick notation. Click here to find these ready made slides to use in your classroom. On a different day in ta and titi practice stage, I divide the class into small groups and I pass out baggies that have foam flowers that I picked up from the dollar bin. On the flowers, I have notated (in stick notation) the phrases of the song with one phrase on each flower. Students work in groups to put the song together. When they have the song notated I come around to each group and they perform it for me. I hope this gives you some fun ideas to try with your kids!

My students could play the game for this song OVER AND OVER. My fifth graders still ask for it. We play the game in a seated circle with a "detective" in the middle. Someone goes around the circle "garden" and drops a key in someone's hands behind their backs. The detective tries to guess who has the key. Lyric slide: Steady beat slide: Rhythm Icons: Stick noation: Solfa with stick notation- new pitch! Iconic pitch notation: Icons to show pitch with solfege and new mystery note: A new note has moved in! Introducing "re"! Practice reading on the staff Staff and solfege: Standard notation with solfege syllables inside: My kids love to play this easy song on the Orff instruments too. There are also slides at the end that show the whole song in iconic notation. These slides are available for download on my teachers pay teachers page, either as a Mimio lesson, or as a PDF. Please make sure you select the right one for you, as I know not everyone has access to Mimio software. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or email me at [email protected] Lindsay

I know I say this about EVERY song I put up here, but this is a favorite. And a gem, the kids adore it!! Here's the song, you probably know it: Here's the game: 2 concentric circles w/ two “foxes” on outside. Teacher chooses 1 “gate” in each of the circles. Rubber chicken is placed in the inside circle. Gates are closed. Foxes may watch now. Both circles sing while moving in opposite directions. On the “o” of Brownie-o” the 2 gates open forming a maze in which foxes race to grab the chicken from the middle of the center circle. Here's the PowerPoint I've made. Of course, it's in the "usual sequence" (sounds like a movie, maybe it's the Oscar watching that I'm doing, lol!). I always let the sequence dictate the order of my PowerPoints. In this case, the rhythm of the song is taught first (with the hardest element being tika-tika) and the melody second (with the hardest melodic element being low so) Here's the lyric slide: Beat slides: And example of the iconic rhythm slide: tika-tika prep slide, substituting the known rhythms and leaving the four icons representing the unknown rhythm that is four sounds on a beat: Finally, the full rhythm of the slide (this is the first of 2 slides): Then on to the melody slides: Here are the preparation slides for low so: And low so practice slides: Absolute pitch practice: This is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store in PDF form. ** The slides look a little different than above. That fun chicken image in the background was HUGE and made the file too big so I had to take it off. If you're really wanting that version, and purchase it, email me and I'll send you the Google Drive link for the PDF. Side note: if you ever buy anything and would like the PowerPoint version of it (providing you have MusicEd Font) send me an email and I'll happily send it your way!! Tomorrow I'll be posting on "Shanghai Chicken." I've posted about this before but I have a "Scrambled Egg" game that I'll be adding that will be able for use with both "Shanghai Chicken" and "Chicken on a Fencepost" as well as other "Scrambled Egg" ideas. I can't wait to use this one with my kiddos!! I hope you all have a GREAT week!!!

Hello, this is Lindsay Jervis, from Pursuit of Joyfulness and Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom (on facebook). “The most important thing is to actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of music.” (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p. 2) But HOW do we keep them singing as they get older? I really do believe that the love of music and singing must be something that is instilled from a very young age (most likely before they even enter our classrooms) because of the exposure to music and their musical experience in the home, but that being said, I do believe what we do once them come to elementary school can have a profound impact on what they think of music and music class and whether they WANT to continue in music as they go on through schooling and life. With the little ones, I have always felt this comes easy. Song, stories, and play are so much a part of what they love to do. With the old grades (I'm thinking 3rd-5th), you have to carefully select music, games, and activities that have just the right amount of challenge to peak their interest, keep them engaged, and meet their skill level without becoming too difficult that they give up and become frustrated. In my psychology of Music Ed class last semester we talked about the inverted U - as the challenge goes up, the performance and enjoyment of the students goes up until they reach their skill peak. After that peak, students feel stress, anxiety and give up on the task or "think it's stupid". This is where it is really important to know where your kids are at and select appropriate songs for them. The songs cannot be too babyish (even if the students really are beginners and need to practice things like steady beat and basic rhythm or tonal patterns). I still really consider my older students to be older beginners. I started at my school three years ago and my kids had NO method of reading rhythms or pitches when I got there, so that coupled with my maternity leave my 2nd year there, and they are still not quite up to speed, but that is ok. It is better to go at the pace of the students and do developmentally appropriate literature than push ahead for the sake of staying "on grade level". Here are some songs and games that I have done with my students. In some of these cases, we have used them to isolate rhythm or melodic concepts, but some we have used purely for the joy they bring students while participating. If you find a song that students can't wait to sing/play again- it's a GEM! Hang onto it! You know this one is a gem when I have 5th graders still request it every time they earn a free day. The game is very simple. Students are seated in a circle with their hands behind their back. One student is "it". I call it the "detective" with the older kids and for some reason that is cooler than "it". The first time we play I go around the outside of the circle with a key hidden in my hand. I hide the key in someone's hands. Once I have made it around the circle once, I stop and the detective gets three guesses to try to figure out where the key is. This song is great for older beginners because of the easy rhythms, it is also great for teaching re. With my older beginners I started melody with mi re do instead of sol-mi. Pre-made visuals for this song available here. This song is great for teaching sixteenth notes and the game is a lot of fun. Set up students in a double circle. Inside circle will move clockwise, outside circle will move counterclockwise during the song. Select two chicken farmers. They stand facing away from the circle on opposite sides of the circle. All students in the circles join hands and teacher selects one "window" in each circle. On the last word of the song (I only use verse 1 when playing the game), the selected partners hold their arms up to create a window. The two farmers must race, only going through the "open windows" to get to the middle. I usually borrow a rubber chicken from my PE teacher to throw in the middle. The kids think it is hilarious. This play party is played in longways sets with two lines facing each other (typically one line of boys and one line of girls). Verse 1, the first girl skips around both lines and back to her place. Verse 2, "pretty little Susie skips around set and boys line follows until all are back in their places. Verse 3, cast off, or "peel the banana", head couple forms an arch at the bottom of the set and everyone goes under the arch and the song starts over with a new head couple. Use when preparing and practicing tiri-tiri. If you would like visuals and assessment tools like the one below for this song, you can find some here. I use this song when preparing and practicing tiri-ti. I have one person travel around the circle with two envelopes. Ones says "Ida Red" the other says "Ida Blue". Inside each envelope is an action like crawl, skip, gallop, twirl, crabwalk, hop on one foot, etc. On the last word of the song, the person with the envelopes stops between the two closest people and hands an envelope to each. They take out one card then when I say go, they race around the circle performing that action. If I feel one has an unfair advantage (like crab walk vs. run), I can make one go around twice. The winner gets to be "it" and the game resumes. This one is great for low la! The following two songs were a lot of fun for my fifth grades to create an arrangement of for our Fall Program last year. We used these plus "Who Has Seen the Wind" and added ostinato patterns and added Orff instruments. Each class was responsible for arranging how they wanted to perform the song. They might have chosen to singing sing just the ostinato, then add the melody, then sing and play on barred instruments, and then sing a capella as they traded spots with the next class who was moving onto the barred instruments. It was different for each class and it allowed for them to take something that we were working on in class, take ownership and polish it so that it was something we could present to parents. I used Mamalama strictly for the joy of it last year. It was a great "ice breaker" game for back to school time. My kids loved the challenge of learning the words. I had one girl nail it the first week, which was really cool. You could use this in prepping for fa but it is probably not one that I would use to present fa. This is another one that was played for the joy of it. My kids aren't to low ti yet and the syncopated rhythms are a bit above my kids, but they still need to sing and play this hand clapping game because it is fun. Here's a video of the hand clapping game:

I started back to school this past week with my kids on Tuesday. I had such a great first week and I am so excited to be back making music with them. We spent our first few days going over music room rules and procedures (click here to see rules post), emergency drills, and jumped right into making music. Can I just say that I LOVE pinterest! I found so many great ideas for back to school games through Pinterest as well as from Susan during Level 3. I thought I would share some of the really fun ones that the students enjoyed our first few days back: "Up The Ladder" is a great game for learning the names of your new students. "Down, Down Baby" is from the Amidons. SO FUN! Apparently this is a favorite, because it's being sung on the bus! Hickety Pickety Bumblebee is a fun one to use with K/1. In first grade you could review four voices with "can you sing (whisper, call, speak) your name to me". With kindergarten, it might be a bit intimidating to ask them to sing their name to you on day 1 of music, but let's be honest we are still learning all their names several weeks into the school year. Pull this out with them a little bit later (maybe after you have presented the four voices) and do this then. Mamalama: I learned this in Level 3, and we take it a bit faster than in this video, but it is SO FUN! I even had a student get the last part after just a few listenings. CRAZY! What are some of your favorite first day songs and activities? Still looking for ways to set up and decorate your room? This music room decor catalog will give you lots of idea, plus a back to school tip on each page!

Folk Song Friday {Let Us Chase the Squirrel}

I am so excited to announce a new series on my blog: Folk Song Friday! I can't commit to or promise that every Friday I will have a new post up, but when I can, I hope to post one of my students' favorite folk songs and share with you what I do with that song in my classroom. Song of the Week: Let Us Chase the Squirrel Hardest Rhythmic Concept: half note (ta-a or ta-o) Other Rhythms: ta and titi Hardest Melodic Concept: re Other Pitches: d m sl I have two different games that I play with this song. Game #1: Students are in long ways sets, forming arches with their partner as the "trees in the forest". Whenever the teacher plays on the triangle, the two students at the end of the set duck down and run up the trees going through the arches and forming a new arch at the end. The sets can travel all around the classroom this way. Game #2: Students are in groups of three around a circle. Two form a tree and one is the squirrel under the tree. Any leftover students go to the middle of the circle and are squirrels. On the word "tree" all of the squirrels must go to a new tree and the squirrels in the middle can try to steal a tree. Here's a video of my students playing the second game: If you are looking for visuals for the song, I've redone my "Let Us Chase the Squirrel" file to give it a fresh look and include slides for re. It has gone from 12 pages to 67! If you own this file: It has now become this: I project this page and have them tap along with the beat when I am working on half note prep. Eventually, the kids will find a sound that lasts for two beats. I bring this song back out when we are working on the melodic concept, re. We play the game during re prep, and then after re has been presented, this song provides lots opportunity to practice re. On the slide below we would sing from icons on the staff. Click on the pictures above to check it out if you are looking for complete ready-made visuals for this song or to re-download and get the updates for free if you had purchased the older version! Grab a FREE sample of this song file here. Do you have any other ideas, games, books, or visuals you use with "Let Us Chase the Squirrel"? Collaborate by sharing below in the comments!

Today one of my kindergarten classes earned their very first free day in music. I'm sure it sounds crazy, but our free days are actually ...

My first graders (I don't see kindergarten) are practicing their high and low sounds and getting ready to learn about steady beat and rhythm as "the way the words go" pretty soon. We are having some great fun with rainy day activities and the timing is perfect as we have been getting some rainy days here in Kansas. I read a book "Rain Talk" with my kids and I get out my rain sticks and have students help to create the rain storm using the rain sticks. You could use any rainy book. I found this one at Goodwill. I always love to rummage through the cheap books to find ways to tie in literature with my songs. Kids are not read to at home very much anymore, and I feel like this is so important for developing reading skills and imagination so I do my part to help out! This book has some opportunities for vocal exploration and I usually add a sol-mi melody to parts of the text. I sing the song "Rain Rain Go Away" every other page turn and that is their cue that they need to pass their rain stick on to let someone else have a turn. The kids really enjoy this and I have found that it's a fun way to introduce the song "Rain Rain". We put "Rain Rain" on our body scale- "high" on our heads and "low" on our shoulders. I have these slides like this that I use for high and low: They are available in my "Rain Rain" collection , my Songs for Spring, or my Sol-Mi Bundle on my teachers pay teachers store. I also use my flashcards for this: My Sol-Mi flashcard kit had flashcards like this and with the solfege under the icon. This kit is also in the Sol-Mi Bundle. Next we prepare for steady beat by practicing tapping to the rain drops on the board: Once we know I will bring this song back for "The way the words go", "long/short" sounds, and ta/titi. Once we get to ta-titi, here are some fun activities I have created to go with it! Team clouds: I cut out these little rain drops and stick tape on the back and we tape it to the team's cloud every time they get a point. The team with the most raindrops on their cloud wins! Other ideas: Match iconic rhythm to real rhythm You can purchase this game from my tpt store and download a preview of it here. Lindsay

My kids really enjoy this song. I bring it out when preparing/presenting/practicing ti-tiri by isolating just the last line of the song. W...

No, I'm sad to report that I'm not a day EARLY but rather almost a week LATE in joining Lindsay's Manipulative Monday Linky Party: But, I guess as they say, better late than never!!! With Valentine's Day behind and looking forward towards the next holiday (St. Patrick's Day) I thought I'd share some finds that I have so you have time to get them, if you're interested in using them for your classroom. First stop is the Dollar Tree. There you'll find foam Shamrocks. These are too big for my felt staff board but I have some other uses for them. Use number 1, comparatives: These are great for kindergarten, especially with chants. Chants are so versatile for comparatives because you can say them any way. You could have them all turned over, like in the first picture, and then have the students pick a shamrock and have the class perform it that way. If you want to use it as an assessment, then have that individual perform the chant by themselves, using the shamrock that they picked. Use number 2, rhythm: Using a sharpie you can easily tailor these to use with whatever rhythmic concept you're working on. They could be used for dictation, composition, etc. Additionally, you could also do the same with putting solfa on the shamrocks and making tone ladders to practice whatever melodic concepts you are practicing OR preparing at the time (if preparing you simply would have some shamrocks that have a "?" on them) The other manipulative can be found at good old Oriental Trading. These are foam shamrock beads and come in three sizes and a couple different hues of green: These can be used a few ways. First for rhythm prep of ta & ti-ti. I know that my first graders are past that but I might try some short/long patterns with my kinders: The other way I'm going to use these is with my Shamrock Shuffle Melodic Files games, specifically with as a stick to staff activity. The students will see a stick notation pattern, such as this: and then using the medium sized shamrock write it on the staff. They can also use them to write known patterns on the staff, such as this phrase of Rocky Mountain: Speaking of those Shamrock Shuffle Files, I'm currently running a little special. For each file, the first five people that purchase and rate the file can email me and I will send them another Shamrock Shuffle file of their choice for FREE! The Bundled Rhythm Set is also marked down to $15 until tomorrow night. A special thanks to Lindsay for hosting the Linky Party! Be sure to check out all the amazing ideas that the other participants blogged about! Have a great week and check back on Wednesday for my FIRST time hosting a Linky Party!!

In recent years, this singing game has become an all-time favorite of my students. They ask to sing and play it ALL the time. The game comes from this book: It's published by the National Youth Choir of Scotland. There's also a version of the book for younger students and a version with singing games for older students. I am the proud owner of all three books. They are GEMS! While they contain a lot of the singing material I already own, they have different activities for them and the kids eat them up. They are WELL worth you money! Here's the song: And here's the game from the Singing Games book: Game 1: In a standing circle, the class sings the song while passing a playground ball to the beat. The student that gets the ball on the word “you” is out and sits down where they are. Play continues until on student is left. ** Note, students sit down in their spot which means as students are eliminated they must toss the ball over the seated students heads. In order for this to be successful you must carefully and proactively prepare your students for this activity. It’s tricky, but they LOVE it!!! And here's another way to play it: Game 2:: In a seated circle, class sings song while teacher walks around inside of circle pointing to one student per beat. The student pointed to on the word “you” moves to an instrument to play the chord bordon. Game repeats, and next student chosen moves to the first instrument as the first student rotates to a new instrument. Here's a PowerPoint that I created to prepare and practice the rhythmic and melodic concepts of the song. If you haven't noticed (and I think I've said this before) I structure my PowerPoints the same each time. Generally, rhythm is first (not always the case, my sequence dictates this, but generally the rhythm is accessible) then melody. But before these are the title, lyric and beat slides. Title slide: Lyric slide: Beat slide: Rhythmic preparation slide: Ta & ti-ti practice slide, rest preparation slide: Full rhythm practice slide (stick only, this is also written out in stick notation with note heads): Then, there are the melodic slides. These samples of the preparation slides for do: Visual representation of iconic notation with text: Iconic notation with solfa: Iconic notation on the staff with text: Iconic notation on the staff with solfa: These next two slides highlight the critical attribute of do: it's lower than la, so & mi and it's a skip below mi. Then, all of the preparation slides are gone through AGAIN but this time do is labeled: And then we move from iconic to symbolic representation (or as the students call it, the "real" notes): And then onto absolute pitch names (I generally start teaching these in third grade and I start with mi-re-do on B-A-G): This PowerPoint can be found in PDF form on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I hope you all have a GREAT week!

Music a la Abbott - Amy Abbott - Kodály Inspired Blog and Teachers Music Education Resource

Music a la Abbott Amy Abbott Kodály Inspired Blog and Elementary Teachers Music Education Resource

Preparing Steady Beat: Johnny Works With One Hammer

I can't wait until next year when I will see Pre-K and Kindergarten (woohoo!), but my first grade babies this year are working so hard! I am getting very close to presenting steady beat with them (probably next week). When I was in my level 1 training, my teacher Jo Kirk had these wonderful hammers with bells inside that we used to tap the steady beat. I couldn't afford to buy them and don't currently have the time or know-how to make them (although that is on my list), but last year at Target, I did find some hammers in the dollar bins so I picked up about 25 or so to use with a few of our favorites for preparing and practicing steady beat. They sure do take up a lot of storage space, but they are awesome to have! I first pull them out when using "Johnny Works With One Hammer." First we sing the song as an action song. After we know it pretty well, we form a circle and I go over procedures for the hammers, what it's resting position looks like, and what happens if you don't take care of the hammer (you will have to put it away and just use your hand!). We pass them out so that everyone has a hammer, and we sing the song again tapping the floor: Mending our shoes: And tapping our neighbor's knees, which they love! Then we move back to our seats and I put up the hammer icons on the board. I usually find that my beat visuals are the most successful after the kids know the song really well, so the visual preparation is usually the last thing I do. I use one of the hammers or a pointer to tap the beats while the students pat their knees. Once they get the hang of this and know how I move from one line to the next, I invite them to come up and try to be the pointing maestro: (Notice, my projector screen is too high, I think I am going to put in a work order this summer to have my projector point down so that I can use the board and not the pull down screen. There's lots of times that I would like to write on the slides and the screen doesn't work too well for that, plus it's a little high for my kids. When my kids point to this one, I erase the top two lines of hammers and say that when they get to the end, they go back and do it again. So we learn repeats early! :) Sometimes I have my students who are not pointing at the board point to their own beat sheet or play "the hammers" on their rhythm sticks. My hammer beat sheet is available for FREE on my TpT page - click here!

My kids really enjoy this song. I bring it out when preparing/presenting/practicing ti-tiri by isolating just the last line of the song. We play the jump rope game that goes with it, substituting "Ella" for the name of the kid jumping in. When the people spinning the rope sing your name, you get to run in and jump. If they make it past 4 letters, we just continue counting regularly in a speaking voice. This song makes an appearance again when we work on tiri-ti. I think they are a little surprised that there was an unknown rhythm in this song since we just isolated the last line previously. It also is great for reading fa! Lyrics: Steady beat (this also helps to make sure that the jump rope is being spun steadily!): Rhythmic icons: Known rhythms plus icons for new rhythm: Introducing our new rhythm. After, I immediately follow with practice reading this rhythm from flashcards and other songs. Stick notation with solfa- new note Someone new has moved into Meldoy Street Icons for pitch with lyrics: Icons for pitch with solfege - new note: Icons on staff: After we learn fa, I have repeats of those last slides with fa filled in as the mystery note (both on and off the staff) Below it is pictured on the staff: Finally we get to read it from the staff in standard notation! The whole download is available as a PDF on my Teachers Pay Teachers page: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Skipping-Rope-Song-Rhythm-and-Melody-Slides Please feel free as always to comment or email with any questions! Lindsay

Music education ideas, activities, games, and songs | Technology tips for the music classroom | Resources for the elementary music room.

Double blog post today, because that's the kind of day I'm having, lol!! I made two batches of muffins for my kids (blueberry and chocolate), bought two new outfits, so things are coming in twos!! This is an idea that I got from two of my friends who teach in my district (Jenna O. & Cathy K.). These are beat strips and are great for rhythmic dictation and notation. They were a little time consuming to make, but I hope to give you some tips to make it go faster and easier! Here's the general idea. Every student gets a beat strip, like this: This is Jenna's original template, I have redone them, using a different font to look more like a time signature. From there, I have rhythms that are prepackaged according to grade level (this will vary for everyone, depending on your sequence). Here's a picture of the beat strip with my first grade "pouch" of rhythms: Here's the way they look on the chart: After first grade, students will have more then one "pouch." So, when my second graders use half note they get the second grade pouch with half note in addition to the first grade pouch with ta, ti-ti and ta rest. ** Note: I don't call them "first grade pouch" so the kids don't have a misconception if they are behind in the sequence. I refer to the rhythms in them with the students. Then, when they put them away, they must return them to the correct baggie, kind of like sorting out legos when you're done building! Here's a couple pictures of the first grade pouch with the third grade rhythm baggie: And here's a couple shots of my fourth grade pouch: Now, I mentioned I re-did Jenna's file. Here's the four beat dictation board that I showed above: What you would do is print these out on card stock, laminate them (so they'll last a long time) and then cut them into the strips that you saw above. I started thinking about the Common Core Standards and wanting my kids to do longer dictation/compositions so I created an 8 beat board (below): I also wanted my students to write in 3/4 meter, so here's a 3/4 board (3 beat dictation/composition): And here's a 3/4 meter board that's 6 beat dictation/composition: I also made all of the rhythms in both stick notation and notation with note-heads. You print these out on card stock first, then laminate and cut along the dotted lines (for a class of 30 you print 10 pages of each rhythm): With the rhythmic elements that last longer than one beat I made light gray lines to show the beats (it's a nice reminder to the students that a dotted half note gets three beats, or a half note gets two beats or syn-co-pa is three sound over two beats). It's important when cutting these cards to NOT cut along the gray lines!! :) Here are the time saving tips: Print them on card stock, they'll last longer Color code them, if possible, according to rhythmic element- this will make assessing them much quicker- you can do a quick glance for color, major time saver during class! For a class of 30, you'll need 10 pages of each concept Cut them out on the paper cutter AFTER you laminate them Look at your curriculum and print the ones you need. Or print as you go. Start with the 1st grade set one year and gradually print more Recruite some 5th graders to sort them- it's a great reinforcement for them too :) If you're interested in these cards, they can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. And there you have it, the double post for the day!!! Have a GREAT Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow!!!

My kids really enjoy this song. I bring it out when preparing/presenting/practicing ti-tiri by isolating just the last line of the song. W...

I have frequently been asked and I have seen similar questions posted on Kodaly and Music Ed Facebook groups. "I am interested in learning more about Kodaly. What book resources should I get?" So I thought I would compile a list of ten of my personal favorites. Now, if you know anything about Kodaly teachers, we really are hoarders when it comes to resources. You can absolutely never have too many. Some books might have great pedagogical ideas, sequences, song lists, or folk songs. Some folk songs might have additional verses in other books or they might be a variant (did anyone else have to go collect variants in their levels??) Now, let's be clear on what I am NOT saying. I am NOT telling you that you need to rush out and buy these 10 books if they are not currently on your bookshelf. I am not telling you that these are the top 10 in all of Kodaly world. I am not saying that there are not even better resources out there. I am not telling you that these will replace Kodaly training. Absolutely nothing will. But if you... A) want to learn more about the Kodaly concept B) have taken or are in levels and want to see what books other Kodaly teachers are using or C) are in a Kodaly resource book addicts' club (hellllloooo, you are my people!) then this post is for you! SO, in no particular order: 1) Yearly Plans by Ann Eisen and Lamar Robertson This was so valuable to me when I was going through my Kodaly training before I had made my own yearly plans. It lays out month by month for each grade level what you should be preparing, presenting ,and practicing and includes song suggestions and practice activities. It is meant to be a companion to the American Methodology, so if you get this, I strongly recommend that you also own the American Methodology. 2) 150 American Folk Songs to sing read and play Lovingly referred to as the "150". This book was a required text when I was in level 1 and it is such a great resource for finding folk songs. It organizes them by tone set, which makes it really easy to find songs when you are working on specific concepts. 3) Sail Away 155 American Folk Song to sing read and play The "155" is a collection of EVEN MORE folk songs, because, let's be honest, we can never have too many. Like the 150, this one is organized by tone set. 4) ANYTHING by the New England Dance Masters (a few of my favorites are Chimes of Dunkirk and Sashay the Donut) When I started at my school I was told that they had a tradition of a folk dancing night and that each grade level was to perform a dance on stage. At the time, I hadn't been exposed to much folk dancing, but through Kodaly, our community folk dances at KMEA, and various workshops I have not only come to really enjoy it, but feel comfortable and confident teaching them to my students. Definitely get these books with the CDs and if you can, the DVDs when available. I LOVE watching Peter and Mary Alice Amidon teach the dances. The break it down into steps and a pay really close attention to the little details that really help students be successful in learning them without feeling frustrated. 5) Lullabies to Circle Games by Jo Kirk (I have not found a place to order this online, but if you are interested in it, you can reach Jo Kirk on her website) This has tons of fingerplays, lullabies, and songs for children from before birth through elementary school age. I strongly recommend this book for parents and those who might teach early childhood or preschool music classes, but there are things I pull from it for K/1/2 still. 6) Handy Play Party Book What I love about this is it gives me information about what I can DO with the songs (the singing game or the play party) which maybe I hadn't previously been aware of. 7) The Song Garden (Book 1, 2, 3) by Carol Heath - I believe these are out of print. I couldn't find them on Amazon or Ebay when I looked, but they are a treasure trove. Unfortunately, these three are just collections of songs. There is a book that goes with these that tells what you do with each song and how to teach it, but I don't have my hands on it... yet. 8) An American Methodology by Ann Eisen and Lamar Robertson This was basically our bible in level 3, and that's where I really learned how to utilize it and what the breakdown of physical/aural/visual looked like and countless activities for each during each concept. It also included a variety of ways to practice each concept that are really helpful to me when lesson planning. 9) Kodaly Today by Houlahan and Tacka This book was so incredibly helpful to me after level 1 when I was starting at a new school and trying to implement the Kodaly method which was new for all of my students. This book has a section specifically for older beginners and it has some really great song lists. 10) First, We Sing! Book Two (and Book 1) By Susan Brumfield I love both Book 1 and Book 2 from Susan Brumfield. She was at KMEA and I got to see her present this past year. The books come with CDs that include her students singing the songs and are great models for your students. These recordings are perfect to leave when you have a sub and the students already know the game but that vocal model can help them to sing in an appropriate range while you are away. I like that a lot of the songs in these books were new to me and there are some nice multicultural pieces in them. BONUS 11) Anything by Jill Trinka - I would be remiss if I did not mention Jill Trinka's song collections. They include a huge variety of folk songs and singing games and are definitely worth the purchase! So what are YOUR go to books in your collection? I'd love to hear!

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