Some of you are "lucky" and are still on winter break. . .. I'm not one of those "lucky" ones. But, it's all in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?! It was a really fun first day back. The kiddos were really excited to share about their break and ready to get back into the swing of things. Speaking of getting back into the swing of things, we brought this favorite back in 4th grade today. We used it in 3rd grade for low la but are bringing it back now to prepare syn-co-pa (feels like I've been prepping this forever. . . . .). Here's the song: This is a fun boomwacker part that we added with it in 3rd grade: And here's a really EASY Orff accompaniment that my 3rd graders this year did for our Parent Engagement Night: As I mentioned, we're prepping syn-co-pa so here's a new PowerPoint that I made: First, we have lyric slides: Then there are some low la prep slides that I included for next year's 3rd grade: After preparation comes practice, so here are a couple of the practice slides we'll use for review with 4th grade as a warm-up when prepping syn-co-pa: Here are the rhythm preparation slides: And here are the practice slides: After syn-co-pa is presented we'll sing it on solfége, using the stick rhythm and maybe even play "Remote Control" with it: And we'll practice reading the solfa on the staff, with the rhythm. Again, we might use an inner hearing game for this: I mentioned in an earlier post that I know I need to do a better job practicing reading Absolute Pitch Names, so here are those slides: Once we've read syn-co-pa in numerous songs we'll finally get to these cards. I made them for the Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer game but never got to them. Things happen and the kids we're prepared enough, so we "rolled with the punches" and had to change our pacing: I'm presenting at CMEA (Colorado Music Educators Conference) at the end of the month: one session called "Upping the Ante" and another one called "Manipulative Mania". This is for the "Manipulative Mania" session, sponsored by ROCKE (so, all you Colorado folks, you can buy this at CMEA this year!). I LOVE the way this turned out and we'll be using this as an assessment in a few weeks. Here's the beat board, the oars act as barlines: The students will have four canoes and they must put them in the correct order to match the song: Using the back side of the canoe, they can compose their own 4-beat rhythms on each canoe using a vis-a-vis marker. The boards can also be used with other die cutes such as fish, boats, seashells. Here's a couple fish thrown on: If you would like a copy of the PowerPoint above, it's available at my Teacher Pay Teachers store and includes the non-holiday song sorting game from the Rudolph file. I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!!

So, I've created my first concept specific packet for Teachers Pay Teachers. This is something that I have been debating to do. I want to make products that are accessible and usable for teachers, regardless of their training, experience or background. But I'll be honest that my products are created with the Kodály metholodogy and sequence in mind. That being said, I also don't want to undermine or sell products that you really need to create on your own when taking a Kodály level. I know, sounds kind of mean and selfish. Let me explain. I did my levels at Portland State (four years worth) and then two more (level II & III) at Colorado State University and I'm going to be teaching level II this summer at CSU. At Portland State I learned pedagogy from the brilliant, amazing Susan Brumfield. Then at CSU I had Sue Liethold-Bowcock and Ann Eisen, who, too were amazing and wonderful. Each of these teachers presented things in a different way. Some of the things that they taught me are amazing and I use them each and every year. There are other ideas that I pull out from time to time (you know what I mean. You go back to your notes or you go to a workshop and you recall something from levels and you say to yourself "oh yeah! I forgot about that activity or song!!") And other ideas flopped because either I was so overwhelmed with everything going in my brain that I forgot how to do the activity or I wasn't sold on it and in turn my kids didn't "buy it." Each of us are going to develop our own style and ways to prepare, present and practice melodic and rhythmic concepts. You get all these tools and ideas in levels, from your teacher and from your peers. Some are going to work beautifully and some need to be adapted and tweaked to meet the needs of your kids. When I started thinking about creating concept specific files I didn't want to give away my concept plans or some of my specific preparation and practice activities because I know that the plans HAVE to be specific to you and that some of the things I do you have to see in action because they are too complex or complicated to explain. You have to choose your song literature, you have to choose the activities that you like to teach (because face it, you won't sell it to your students if you don't like it). And with the activities, it's back to the old saying that there's more than one way to skin a cat. There are a gazillion ways to prepare and practice each concept. Each are wonderful and amazing and quite frankly creating and selling a file of things that I do that are concept specific overwhelmed me because of how vast of a task that would be!! So, I decided to go to the bare bones of ways that each of us prepare and practice elements and make things that really exam at the critical attributes of that element. So, the meat of this file is 10 PDF files (that you can run like a PowerPoint, the instructions are included or that you can convert into a PDF) that are adaptable so you can use them for either preparing, presenting or practicing Ta & Ti-Ti: There is notation for 15 songs and chants and games, if applicable. And I included my ta & ti-ti flashcards. Here are the songs that are included (I know, three of the songs are in the Bee Bundle, and these are similar but made specific for ta & ti-ti): There are also worksheets (I'll show you a couple more down below): Here's an example of one of the PDFs, they are all set up exactly like this, so you can choose what to use out of the file. There is a lyric slide: Then a beat slide(s): Then a rhythm prep slide with iconic representation: Then the presentation slides. This notation presents ta and ti-ti written both with and without note heads: Then immediately applying this knowledge to the song: Then reading it, this can be for immediate practice (same lesson as presentation) or later practice: And then one more time with note-heads: For every PDF there are two matching worksheets (which are in color and black & white): There is one that is a rhythm chart: To go with this, for practice after ta & ti-ti I created rhythm strips. There are multiple rhythms. I suggest in the file to print each set of rhythms out on different colored papers. Cut along the lines and then I tell you how many of each rhythm pattern to have in each set that you will then put in an envelope. This way, you can use the same set of envelopes with all 10 songs (rather than cutting all these strips and tailoring them for each song) AND the color coded strips make it REALLY easy to assess. As you look around you class to see who has the correct rhythms all you have to do is look at the color: There is a writing worksheet for that goes with each of the 10 songs in PDF form: And then I included rhythm preparation cards. I have to say that these are one of my favorite visual ways to prepare ta & ti-ti. (There are cards that match each of the 10 PDFs and the hearts for the chart). The idea is that the hearts only are in the chart. The class (or you could use this as a station) derive the way the words go. This is an example of "Jean Jean": (this is my big chart, it can actually hold 16 beats:) After your kiddos know ta & ti-ti, we then use this in early practice to go from the iconic to the symbolic representation. As you can see, the first line has been replaced (I usually just stick the cards on top and then sort them later): And here the whole song has been replaced: I also use the hearts on a chart like this. There are paperclips that I inserts into slots that I cut using an exacto knife that hold the cards in place: Same idea, then the rhythms replace the icons: This is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

Warning: this idea is 100% completely stolen from my good friend Tanya LeJeune!! Be sure to view her blog by clicking here!!! I saw Tanya present this at the Colorado State conference a number of years ago but it wasn't until this year that I finally made a formal "remote" for the game (before making these manipulatives I would simply write the words on a board). You'll notice in the picture below that there are two remotes: the one on the left I use with 1st and 2nd grades & the one on the right is used with 3rd-5th grades. This is a late practice activity and students will be most successful when they are familiar with the song(s) that this is played with. Basic principal of the game: Have the practice song written on the board in stick notation with the solfege written below the rhythm and the text to the song below the solfa (similarly to the way Jill Trinka notates her songs in her books). I have the remote hanging on my magnetic board. The students read the song by performing it on each of the "channels" (the buttons- ie. they sing it on the words all the way through the song, then they sing it on the rhythm all the way through the song, then the solfa all the way through the song and then (for grades 3-5) the absolute pitch names). After that, if the game is new to the students, I explain how we are going to "channel surf"- this a concept that we are all familiar with. ;-) This means that as the song is sung I am going to have them switch from singing the song one way to another (i.e. they may sing phrase one on the words of the song and then the second phrase on solfa and so on.) I tell them which "station" they will start on and give them a starting pitch. Then, using another magnet (mine is a Fantasia Mickey Mouse that a former student gave me), I place the magnet next to the starting station and as the song is sung move the magnet to other channels as the phrases change. Here are a couple variations to make it more difficult: instead of using stick solfa, have the song written on the staff with the text below. have the song written on the staff but without the text. have them sing all of the song from memory. This one is fun to do with a song/game that the kids ask to play over and over again that they know VERY well. There is one thing that I have haven't touch on and that's the "mute" button: works just like a real mute button and is wonderful for inner hearing. I usually use it as an independent button (not in combination with other buttons), but you can do it in combination with the other buttons as a way to really challenge students. Thanks again Tanya for sharing this game!!!

Confession time: I'm sometimes a Sunday night planner. Okay, a lot of times I end up planning on a Sunday night. Now, I have my year, trimester and month plans scoped out of what I want to teach. What I find myself on Friday nights doing is putting down how I'm going to teach it and the song literature and activities that go with that. My first are practicing ta & ti-ti and of course "Jingle Bells" a good song for isolating ti-ti ta ti-ti ta on the "jingle bells, jingle bells" part. Now, pardon my rush but the only version of Jingle Bells on my computer is in augmentation of how I sing it and have my kids read it: We're going to be doing some reading work of ta ti-ti in the high concentration portion of the lesson and deriving the ti-ti ta ti-ti ta on "jingle bells, jingle bells" is going to be my transition into the "change of pace" portion of the lesson, which will be a dance that goes to Jingle Bells. There are two ways that I do this dance. The easier version uses a parachute and the more advanced version has concentric circles with partners. Here's the parachute dance directions: Formation: circle, everyone holding on to the parachute. Action: Verse (32 beats total) Beats 1-4: heel-toe-heel-toe with the right foot (dashing through the snow) Beats 5-8: four slide steps to the right- like a side-ways gallop (in a one horse open sleigh) Beats 9-12: heel-toe-heel-toe with the left foot (o'er the fields we go) Beats 13-16: four slide steps to the left. (laughing all the way) Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats Chorus (32 beats total) Beats 1-2: with parachute in hands, three pats on feet to the rhythm (jin-gle bells) Beats 3-4: three pats on knees, to the rhythm (jin-gle bells) Beats 5-8: four pats at waist, to the beat Beats 9-16: lift the parachute over the head. I call a color and those students with that color let go of the parachute, turn around in place and re-grab parachute. Now, if your students are really careful those students on the colors called can run under the parachute to another spot of that same color. This is the FUN way to play! ;) Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats. When I do this with older kiddos we do it in a concentric circles. Formation: concentric circles, facing partners (one in the outside circle, one in the inside circle) Action: Verse (32 beats total) Beats 1-4: heel-toe-heel-toe with the foot that leads in the counter-clockwise direction. This is the right foot for the outside circle and the left foot for the inside circle (dashing through the snow) Beats 5-8: four slide steps counterclockwise- like a side-ways gallop (in a one horse open sleigh) Beats 9-12: heel-toe-heel-toe with foot that leads in the clockwise direction (o'er the fields we go) Beats 13-16: four slide steps clockwise. (laughing all the way) Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats Chorus (32 beats total) Beats 1-2: with right hands, partners pat each other's hands three times to the rhythm (jin-gle bells) Beats 3-4: with left hands, partners pat each other's hands three times, to the rhythm (jin-gle bells) Beats 5-6: with both hands, pat three times as in the first two steps. **This will NOT match the rhythm Beats 7-8: clap own hands three times. **Again, this will NOT match the rhythm Beats 9-16: join hands with partner and do a full circle turn Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats, with the exception that in the last step, after the full circle turn everyone takes an extra step to the left and then has a new partner. This has a really nice flow and even the older kids enjoy it! Have a great day!

music lessons for home schoolers, music lessons for the young child, peter and the wolf, rhythm, teaching musical form, melody, elementary music

Bim Bum

Happy Almost-New Year! Yesterday I met my friend Tanya LeJeune for lunch but before we ate we went to the local teacher store (sad, I know, considering we're on vacation.) At any rate, I saw some cute "slug bug" die cuts and that sparked this idea. I'll be using the rhythm version in a few weeks after my 3rd graders learned ti-tika and I'll use the melodic version of the game with 2nd grade when we learn re later this year. Here's the song that's the basis of the game: The kids love to sing this song, and the actions are quite fun! Here's the "Slug Bug Melody" game that I'll use with my 2nd graders: •These cars can be used to practice re in phrases that are extracted from folk songs. All Around the Buttercup, Blue, Closet Key, Button You Must Wander (x2), Cocky Robin, Do, do Pity My Case, Firefly (x2), Frosty Weather, Grinding Corn, Hot Cross Buns, Ida Red (Final Phrase), Knock the Cymbals, Let Us Chase the Squirrel (x2), Old Aunt Dinah (x3), Rocky Mountain, Sammy Sacket (x2) •Slug Bug Game: –Divide the class into “teams” (2-4 teams would be best). Each team is given a “hand” swatter (Go in with a colleague and buy some: http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-Hand-Shaped-Fly-Swatters-Pack/dp/B0057TTB5Y ) –Taking turns with the flyswatter, a “representative” from each team comes up to the floor where all the “Slug Bugs” are scattered. (You can also put magnets on them and put them on a magnetic board. This makes them visible for all students, but tougher for the swatters to do this safely). The teacher will sing a pattern, the first person to swat the correct “Slug Bug” earns that car for his/her team. A new “representative” for each team comes up and another round is played. Play continues until all the “Slug Bugs” have been slapped. The team with the most slug bugs at the end is the winner. –Levels of difficulty •Easiest: the teacher sings the phrase using solfége syllables. •Medium: the teacher sings the phrase on “loo”. •Harder: the teacher plays the pattern on an instrument. Here are the cards: First, I made "smaller" cards: But when I printed them out I thought it would probably work better with larger cards, so I re-did them with two cars on a page: The Slug Bug Rhythm game that I'll be using with my 3rd graders is identical, but it's focused on ti-tika: •These cars can be used to practice ti-tika. •Slug Bug Game: –Divide the class into “teams” (2-4 teams would be best). Each team is given a “hand” swatter (Go in with a colleague and buy some: http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-Hand-Shaped-Fly-Swatters-Pack/dp/B0057TTB5Y ) –Taking turns with the flyswatter, a “representative” from each team comes up to the floor where all the “Slug Bugs” are scattered. (You can also put magnets on them and put them on a magnetic board. This makes them visible for all students, but tougher for the swatters to do this safely). The teacher will perform a pattern, the first person to swat the correct “Slug Bug” earns that car for his/her team. A new “representative” for each team comes up and another round is played. Play continues until all the “Slug Bugs” have been slapped. The team with the most slug bugs at the end is the winner. –Levels of difficulty •Easiest: the teacher claps and says the rhythm pattern. •Medium: the teacher claps the pattern. •Harder: the teacher plays the pattern on an instrument. And then I made a "Slug Bug Mix-Up" Game. This can be used with high do, as that is the most difficult melodic element in "The Car Song." •Using either the stick or staff notation, give each student four cards (containing each of the first 4 phrases of the song). The students must put the “Slug Bugs” in order to create the notation for the “A” section of the song •Stick to Staff: the students must match the cards with stick notation to the correct cards with staff notation. These files can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Happy Slug Bugging! Slug Bug Melody Slug Bug Rhythm Slug Bug Melody and Rhythm Games (with smaller car-cards) and Mix-Up Game

I just finished this fun activity to teach Rondo. I do this activity with first grade students each year to teach RONDO, but I recreated the graphics and added the notation to make it snazzier than my hand drawn set from college. These sandwich pieces can be put together to create a Rondo Sandwich. First, teach the students how to sing the melodies on each of the sandwich pieces (all melodies use Sol, Mi, or La). Hand out sandwich pieces to the students. Every other student should have a piece of bread (thus the rondo form). Then, the class will create a sandwich in the middle of the room. My students sit in a circle, so we make the sandwich in the middle. When it is each student’s turn to sing their ingredient, have them sing it and place it on top of the sandwich being made in the middle of the class. After creating our sandwich, we discuss how making a sandwich is like rondo form, sharing how the bread could be called “A” and each ingredient gets a different alternating letter. You may wish to label this on the board with my “form cards” that are available for download in my teachers pay teachers store. If you have time, mix up the ingredients and have students create another sandwich. Great form and solfege reading/performing activity! Happy Sandwich Singing!

Binders, binders, binders. It is the year of binders. Because of our school being an AVID school, all students are required to have a 3&quo...

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

Don’t miss out on one of our favorite toys for targeting all kinds of developmental skills...while making music!

I’ve been asked several times about how I go about creating posters and resources for my classroom so, today, I would like to describe that process to you as well as highlight some tools I us…

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!

Montessori-inspired music themed learning activities for kids.

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

I'm so excited: CMEA (Colorado Music Educators Association)'s conference is this week. I haven't been since I was pregnant with my daughter AND I'm presenting two sessions this year (nervous and excited about that.) But, also, I'm really excited because Mary Alice Amidon it will be presenting this year too! I LOVE the resources that the Amidon's have produced. They are high quality and a must for every music teacher's library: This year they came out with a new resource and one of Mary Amidon's sessions will be on this book: There are a lot of high quality songs for your little ones in this book, including this gem: My kinders sang this song this week, it's totally cute! For the first half (Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman. Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.) they start in a curled up position on the floor and SLOWLY rise so they are standing tall at the end of that phrase. Then for the second half of the song they SLOWLY descend, back into the curled up position. In the book, they state that you can have your students make up new versions: ie. "once there was a snow fort," "once there was a snow girl," etc. I will be using this song in my Manipulative Mania session on Friday, sponsored by ROCKE (The Regional Organization of Colorado Kodály Educators). Here's a little preview at what we'll be doing with it AND will be available for purchase at ROCKE's Make-n-Take session on Saturday. (There will be a couple other ideas presented on how to use the snowmen die cuts, as well). With snowmen die-cuts, I made beat charts for my kinders. Essentially, with a beat chart, they keep a steady beat while tracking the beat. This reinforces the literacy fluency skills that they are working on in their classrooms (your kinder teachers will love that!) and is a pre-music reading activity. Here's the beat chart (notice I gave the snowman on the left a black hat. This helps these little ones know where to start. .. some of them still struggle with right and left. .. ): And here are some of my kinders singing the song while tracking the beat (I made enough for all of them to have a chart to use. You can also do this with half a classroom set and them sharing with a partner): See that little kinder in the white shirt in the picture below? That's my all time favorite kindergartner (I can say that, I'm his mom!!!): If you're going to CMEA, I'm presenting two sessions: one on Thursday, January 24 at 10:20 called "Upping the Ante" and the "Manipulative Mania" session on Friday, January 25 at 1:50. Don't forget to attend Tanya LeJeune's sessions: Thursday, January 24, SMART board assessments at 3:00 Friday, January 25, Electronic Engagement at 8:00 with a repeat session at 11:30 The ROCKE Make-n-Take is on Saturday, January 26 from 10:30-12:30

Teach active listening to your piano students or music class with these free thermometers and holiday listening worksheets. Learn why students get bored.

Song Index

Musical key characteristics are something that are never talked about for some odd reason. It's not like professional songwriters choose a random key...

I have recently seen a post floating around Pinterest showing a way to organize your Boomwhackers. Rainbows Within Reach shows a cardboard file stacker turned on its backside with cardboard dividers inserted into the slots to separate each boomwhacker. Although she has many great ideas for organization around the classroom, I kept scratching my head when I saw this picture. (Please note that this system does not belong to Rainbows Within Reach. She took the picture when she was visiting another elementary music classroom.) I'm all about organization; I have an entire Pinboard devoted to it. But when I look at a post on organization, the first thing I ask myself is, "how long would it take someone to create that?" One must evaluate their system to make sure they're not wasting their time with details that are not necessary. When I saw Rainbow's picture of storage system, I didn't understand why each Boomwhacker needed it's own little cubbie hole. I just thought of the time it took to cut the cardboard dividers and to get them to fit just right snug in their place without moving around while the children are getting the Boomwhackers in and out. The individual cubbies are not necessary. Also, some of the smallest Boomwhackers looked difficult to reach because the cardboard was taller than the Boomwhacker. (To solve this, the teacher could put something in the bottom of the slot so the Boomwhacker does not fall all the way down. Something quick and easy could be wadded up newspaper.) Here is a picture of my Boomwhacker storage system: Each pitch has it's own slot, but there is really no need for each Boomwhacker to have their own cubbie space. I have stored my Boomwhackers this way for 6 years and the cardboard boxes are still in pristine condition. It does not require any maintenance. In the picture below, you can see that I reused boxes that came from brand new sets of hand drums. The smallest frame drum boxes are shorter so it is easy to reach even high do! If you were not fortunate enough to have purchased a brand new set of hand drums, any set of narrow boxes would do. You could cut the height to the correct size for the shortest Boomwhackers. (I also like organizational systems that you can make for free! I always think twice about something before I throw it away. I also have a pinboard devoted to repurposing.) I do not have any of the long lower octave Boomwhackers, but I do have some Octavator Caps that make the pitches lower. I store them in a plastic index file and just stick the box in the open space near the upper octave. I have a set of 8 and they fit perfectly. This index card box was something I had laying around, so no money was wasted purchasing something new. I keep my box of Boomwhackers in the bottom of my storage cabinet. When I need them for a lesson, it is easy to just slide the box out and put it back out of the way when finished. I especially like the fact that students can easily put the Boomwhackers away without teacher assistance. During clean-up time, I call only one pitch/color at a time and rarely do I have a kid put their Boomwhacker in the wrong slot. Also, with this arrangement, the students can visually see the progression from low to high (long to short). They almost always make the connection to how the xylophones are arranged. This is the system that works in my classroom. I hope someone else finds it useful as well.

Oh my goodness, I so hate packing up my stuff at the end of the year. And I thought I was organized! Oh well. While I was cleaning, I took a few snapshots of some posters/anchor charts I've created for my room. If I can create them, you can create them. I've elaborated under the pictures in case you'd like to try it yourself! Category One: Anchor Charts/Posters for Listening Activities, Composers, and Musicians Here's a poster I based off of a Pin about "while authors write". It was pretty easy to draw everything and has been a great reference all year long. This is Maestro, our conducting elephant. Students of all ages love to use him when we try out a listening piece (it is a great motivator/reward for appropriate listening behavior). One student holds one end of the poster and another student holds the other. One student, the "conductor" stands behind Maestro and "conducts" through the whole. The conductor gets to use a long gray sock, just like the elephant's trunk. Here's another great reference poster for students to use when listening to a piece. Sometimes I ask for a specific question to be focused on, but usually I have the students prepare mental answers for at least one purple question and one black. I've used this poster as a reference for student-created posters (5th grade) during our Jazz unit. Students are supplied with the materials, a picture of the artist, a short bio, and 10 interesting facts. They need to create a neat, organize poster that includes at least 5 facts and present it to the class (working in groups of four or less). Category 2: Rhythm and Melodic Posters/Anchor Charts Here's a chant I created for K and 1 to help with our steady beat/rhythm lessons. There is a steady beat side (and we practice pointing to the hearts - I also have heart beat maps for this that they use individually) and stomping to the beat while saying the lyrics. I add some students to hand drums. And here is the rhythm side. Students practice chanting the rhythm on "ta" and "titi" while clapping, then using rhythm sticks. Here is a reference pocket chart the older students can use (it is up all year round): I love this music staff poster. The students can refer to it as they learn the lines and spaces on the music staff. Even my little ones know the poem: This is a poster I created for 2nd - 5th grades as we worked on sight-reading songs. It mirrors the format of most of my powerpoints. We often discuss things in the "cherry on top" as we go: Here's a simple poster for use in pentatonic Orff music (especially with Mallet Madness): This is a poster I use when discussing, well harmony, chords, and accompaniment (it does all three). You can use these in rock songs (or with your own or the students' own piano accompaniments) to discuss the harmonic progression of the song. Because there isn't "too much" here, 4th or 5th grade students can benefit from a mini-lesson on harmony, even if, like me, you don't delve into chords too much. Of course students can accompany a favorite song by following you as you point to each chord and playing their respective boomwhackers. I'm working with more of a specific lesson plan to use these chords with, hopefully including some favorite songs of the kiddos - will post soon! Category 3: Misc I did this lesson with my 4th and 5th graders two years ago, my first year at this school (they were going to see some live performances and needed to learn about the instruments - fast). First, I let them decorate their folder while listening to some instrumental works. While the works were playing, students could read about them on the screen at their leisure. In subsequent lessons, the students filled in the middle with facts, notes, pictures, and musings about the instrument families. I had a worksheet divide into four (one for each family) and the students were asked to write 3 facts, list all instruments in the family, and choose a favorite. I used sfskids.org as the main source of info, augmented with live examples and videos on youtube. On the back, the wrote about their favorite instrument out of all the families and reflected on the performances they saw. Best of all, they can take this with them and have a reference for their middle school band selections. This is "Brenda" (named after my own mom who always looks awesome when singing) and I used her as a reference during choir rehearsals. I attached her to my stand and all I had to do was point at a specific part of the poster to give the kiddos a reminder when something needed to be fixed. I told the kiddos, "This is why I don't teach art" but they seemed to love Brenda and I plan to give her a permanent spot in the room next year. I can't wait to create more over the summer!

Songwriting Tips, Tools & Free Printables!

Fruit Canon (Mango Mango Mango)

These posters are an educational way to brighten up your Orff instrumentarium! All posters are formatted to fit an 8.5 x 11 size or a quarter sized page and can be printed in vibrant colors or a simple black and white. PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE PREVIEW by clicking the green preview button above, to see more images of this product! Set includes: *10 Orff Instrument Set-up posters: Diatonic, C Pentatonic, D Pentatonic, F Pentatonic, G Pentatonic *23 Instrument Labels: Glockenspiel, Soprano Glockenspiel, Alto Glockenspiel, Metallophone, Soprano Metallophone, Alto Metallophone, Bass Metallophone, Xylophone, Soprano Xylophone, Alto Xylophone, Bass Xylophone, Bass Bar, A Bass Bar, B Bass Bar, Bb Bass Bar, C Bass Bar, C# Bass Bar, D Bass Bar, E Bass Bar, Eb Bass Bar, F Bass Bar, F# Bass Bar, G Bass Bar, Mallets *20 Orff Rules Posters (also titled Guidelines and Procedures): Walk around the instruments not over, Carry the instruments with care, Respect the instruments, Walk around the instruments, Mallets stay in rest position before and after songs, Mallets stay in ready position during songs, Take off bars with two hands, Place extra bars in front, not inside, Place extra bars in front, Play in the center of the bars, Bounce mallets in the center of the bar, Return mallets when you are finished, Alternate both hands, Stop when the director stops, Stop when the teacher stops, Play as a team *Blank templates as JPGS for you to add your own posters. *7 BONUS PRINTABLE cheat sheet worksheets in black and white. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This product is part of a huge Spanish & English Music Classroom Decor Set! See more Orff-inspired products: Going to the Amusement Park: An Exploratory Activity for the Orff Barred Instruments See Saw Orff-based Rhythm Composition Teddy Bear Orff-based Rhythm Composition ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Follow me on Facebook for updates and freebies!

Classical composers are sometimes just as good at quotes as they are at music. Take a look at these amazing, inspirational quotes from some of the greatest composers of all time.

Digital Sheet Music for Lay Me Down by Sam Smith, James Napier, Elvin Smith scored for Piano/Vocal/Chords; id:445157

At the start of the school year, my focus for beginners is to develop excellent, comfortable bow holds and perfect position. We played by rote for a couple of weeks and have since been learning rhythm and note names. I don't like to drag note-reading out for too long. All they have to do is learn 8 notes and they can play so many tunes! INTRODUCING THE FIRST NOTES Students are usually excited to begin understanding music and reading notes. I teach the open strings first. I introduce the staff by comparing it to a highway with lanes and lines to show that notes are drawn (they travel) from left to right across the staff. I then teach students that notes are 'parked' on the staff. Some notes park in a space, and other notes park right on a line. I tell a story about a person driving an expensive BMW who didn't want to get their car scratched, so they parked right on a line. I have found that some students new to note-reading need the explanation that notes can be drawn ON a line. This goes against all kindergarten/grade school coloring rules when they're told over and over to stay in the lines! Student learn open string notes so quickly - it only takes minutes. I use my dry erase packets equipped with a staff and a dry erase marker. I show each section of the orchestra where their open string D is 'parked' on the staff and tell them to memorize that spot. I tell a story about I time I went to the zoo and couldn't remember where I parked and was wandering the parking lot for 30 minutes before I found my car! I explain that open D will ALWAYS be parked in that spot. We also learn where open A is parked. Next I call out various patterns of D and A and students draw them on the staff. (D, A, D, D), (D, A, A, D), etc. Students race to be the first one to draw the notes and hold up their packets. After a few minutes of this, students are allowed to create their own arrangement of D's and A's on the staff and perform them pizzicato with their stand partners. MEMORIZING NOTES My favorite method to get students to memorize notes is to use the foldable flashcards from orchestrateacher.net: http://www.orchestrateacher.net/2013/08/13/foldable-music-note-flash-cards/ I copy a set for each student, but only pass out one string at a time. Students spend 10 minutes in class memorizing the D string notes and passing them off with their stand partners. For flashcard pass-offs, students must say the note name on the flashcard and pluck the correct note on their instruments. I require students do this in 10 seconds or less. After a week or so, we add the A string notes and students must pass off all 8 flashcards in 20 seconds or less. I try to pair up students with piano/note-reading experience with those who are new to note-reading. WRITING NOTE NAMES Sometimes we may underestimate how much a student can learn at one time. When I was seven, I begged Santa Claus to bring me a recorder for Christmas. I didn't know how to read music and had never tried an instrument before, but Santa delivered me a quality recorder and a book. It was easy to look at the diagrams and understand the notes and fingerings. I immediately wrote in all the note names for the first few pages and was able to play several songs. After that, I got sick of having to look up note names for each note, so I decided to memorize them. It didn't take long...in 10-15 minutes I had memorized the notes and no longer had to write them all in. Allowing students to write note-names in their music hinders and slows their progress. Unless a student has special needs, expect students to memorize the notes! USE THE FORCE Sometimes it can appear students do not know the notes when they struggle to play through a simple exercise. One day after some painful minutes working in our method book I became worried that my students were not fast enough at note-reading. After having them say note names I realized this was not the case. Students were slow at reading the notes because they were looking at their fingers instead of the notes on the page and they were getting lost. I joked that they need to 'use the force' to find notes and stop looking at their fingers! The next day, I did a lesson to help students learn how to find notes on their instruments using their sense of touch and hearing. They can't always use sight to find the note - it's a lot better if they listen and train fingers to land in the right place. To help students learn the skill, we watched a short clip from YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljybsB1LwVY) showing Jimmy Fallon and Taylor Swift attempt to draw each other without looking at the page. After the clip, student used blank paper and tried to draw their stand partners without looking at the page. They LOVED this activity and the pictures were hilarious. We began reading a few exercises in the method book and it was totally different from the day before. Students were more focused. They were following the notes on the page and not looking back and forth between their fingers and the page. They sounded so much better! ASSESSMENT Every week I have been given my students note-reading assessments to make sure they are on target with note-reading skills. Students must know that you are serious about them learning the notes! I have students play the exercises are far as possible with NO hints written in the music. After that, I allow them to label notes and fingerings to reinforce speed and memorization. Students also complete bellwork exercises each day during tuning to reinforce note-reading. I use my book, 'Be An Amazing Note-Reader,' 'Rhythm Packet,' and 'Rhythm Bellwork.' Here are a few assessments I have used in the last couple week. Happy note-reading!

There's more to the instrument than "Mary Had A Little Lamb.”