Here’s 10 ways to use a parachute in the music classroom. Activities will help students learn and practice music concepts. Parachutes can be used for so many fun activities in the music room. I’ve discovered that they are especially helpful during the latter part of the school year when students are more “squiggly” than ever! […]
Elementary Music Classroom Tour 2018-2019. Organized Chaos.
Several people have asked on music teacher Facebook groups how others handle playing tests for recorders. Here is an overview of how I assess recorders . . . Procedures I teach recorder in 4th grade. For each unit, I provide at least 3 songs with varying difficulty. (Buzzword: DIFFERENTIATION!) I don't follow any particular recorder method book. I have gathered songs from several books, from my Orff levels courses, and from various workshops and conferences over the years. Lessons in the unit may also involve games, dancing, or playing accompaniments to the songs on barred instruments. At the end of the unit, I hear each student perform one of the songs for a playing test. On test day, the students rotate in centers. My classes are 50 minutes long. I try to allow 10 minutes at each station. That leaves 10 minutes for instructions at the beginning of class and maybe a couple minutes of clean-up before they line up to leave. One center is the playing test where I am stationed. I hear each student in the group perform a song and then I tie their strings before they rotate to the next center. I used to hear students one at a time and it took a long time for students to come back to me and then go back to their seat. Many times, students would be very nervous playing for me it would take forever to get them to even begin their song. In small groups, it seems less formal and the students are also very supportive of each other. While I'm formally assessing them on the rubric, they are watching their peers and offering suggestions like--"Your thumb hole wasn't covered all the way." and "You didn't have your right thumb kickstand." Before they play for me, there is a center with an exit slip or short quiz assessing any new vocabulary or concepts we learned in the unit. These students have finished their written assessment and are working in small groups preparing for their playing test. Two other stations are games or activities which reinforce music skills taught in the unit. This was the first recorder playing test and we are still learning the lines and spaces of the staff. The students chose either relay races or Twister with the giant floor staff. The next station was Treble Toss where students draw a popsicle stick and then aim their beanbag at a specific line or space on the staff. If you would like to learn more about my music centers, follow this link to previous blog posts. Rubric My rubric addresses posture, breathing, fingering, hand position, steady beat, rhythmic accuracy, and pitch accuracy. If you would like to download my Recorder Rubric, click here. If I need to save time before the rotation ends, I wait for class to finish to add up the scores. Incentives For each note the students learn, they receive a different colored string tied on to their recorder. I use embroidery floss cut to 12 centimeters. I sometimes have students or parent volunteers cut the strings for me. After the strings are tied, the students love to fray the ends. Some units introduce two notes, so the students would get two colors. Some units introduce only one note, so the students would get one string. We start on red and follow the order of the color wheel. The last string is a black string. There is a bonus string in the last unit. The last note we learn is F#. If the students can play "Frere Jacques" (in the key of D) in a round with a partner, they get a gold metallic string tied on their recorders. I store the strings in my organizer station. Each color has its own drawer. I also have drawers for office supplies like paperclips, sticky tack, rubber bands, pushpins, etc. This organizer sits on a bookshelf behind my desk and makes things so easily accessible. Follow this link for more information on how I organize my classroom, including printable labels for your own organizer. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment below!
So, I've seen bucket drumming videos all over YouTube. It got me really excited so I decided to do a bucket drumming unit in 6th grade to end the year. The only thing....where to start??? My middle school students are difficult to say the least so I knew this might be a challenge; however, they are the most capable for this kind of activity. I was hoping that they would catch a bit of success early and run with it. We started this unit in April. I wanted to write a post about what has worked and what could go better for anyone in the same boat as me. Getting Started Getting Buckets 5 gallon buckets are expensive! Ok, not Orff instrument expensive, but for what they are, they are expensive! So, one day I had a brilliant idea! Ask the cafeteria manager if they have empty 5 gal buckets that they are just going to throw away. And....they did! Woo-hoo free buckets!! The only downside: it will take a few weeks to gather enough buckets for an ensemble. Plan B: The Dollar Tree! I got several different shaped (different sounds) buckets. They had mop buckets that sound great! I also got some popcorn bowls and mini trashcans without the lids. It is really nice to have different timbres. Drumsticks: For now we have been using mallets from the sound shapes and some wooden mallets intended for elementary music. This has worked fine and no one has complained! I'm amazed! How to Teach In my class, we reviewed note values. I didn't spend a ton of time on values that they don't see when drumming. We covered quarter, eighths, sixteenths and quarter and eighth rests. Our main focus was counting! Everyone has their own way to teach this. I just made sure that there was no confusion on the eighth notes and counting 1 &. HERE is a PDF of my smartboard presentation. (For some reason, when I saved it as a pdf my drawn eighth rests have disappeared. Just pencil them in when you use this) We did a bunch of rhythm echoes! I think this is a great method to get kids to perform without all the stress of reading, especially when they are beginners. We started out with body percussion, then did a day of Boomwhackers and now on the buckets. Boomwhackers were a great help in this unit. We played echo patterns, poison, pass the rhythm and several tunes from the Boomwhacker song book. 6th grade really enjoyed this and it helped them develop their skills when playing together. It also made everyone more responsible for their part. ;) Music and Teaching Materials A great intro to this unit was "Boom Sha Boom"! This was fantastic! Everyone loved it and it really served the purpose of learning to play together and listen across the ensemble. Once we knew the words, I had them close their eyes and chant. When they were successful at that, they then closed their eyes and said the chant to themselves, silently. It is very entertaining to watch! I found a great site when I was researching materials for this unit. Bucket Drumming Stuff from Mr. Moss Music Teacher is a wonderful resource. You can download rhythm exercises and ensemble pieces here. Fabulous! And the sequencing is great! If you can't download them from that site, try HERE for the pre-levels and HERE for levels 1-7. When we finally started drumming with the buckets (week 5), I took the time to hook up the metronome to the loud speaker and make them follow the beat. As awful as that was, the results were miraculous! They are so excited and wanted to go so fast. I stared them off at 120 and it was a huge failure. I turned it back to 80 and they were a million times better instantly. I also set the met to subdivide eighths and made them play straight eighths at different tempos for a while. Also, I ALWAYS COUNT THEM OFF WITH THE SUBDIVISION!!!!! (1 and 2 and ready and go now). They melt down without it. I taught them a modified version of Eight on a Hand. We play eight clicks (4 eighths) on the right hand, 8 on the left, 8 with hands together and 8 eight with hands alternating. Set the met at 100 and use the eighth note subdivision. We play through it once, fix hand, posture, etc. then loop it 2 or 3 times. This really helps coordination, especially with the left hand. I am planning to use "Sonata for Seven Rulers" by Cathy Blair. I found it in an old Activate magazine and thought it would be a perfect "end of the unit fun song". I did buy wooden rulers and yard sticks and painted them with glow in the dark paint like the piece suggested. I have loved bucket drumming! I want to start an after school ensemble next year! I am so optimistic with this unit that this will become a core part of my curriculum. If you are interested in starting a bucket drumming unit, I really hope this helps! Questions or concerns? Let me know in the comments!
Get the kids moving and learning with alphabet movement cards!
I started really working with my students this week on understanding the concept of addition. We have been working all year on decomposing numbers, combinations of numbers, and all of those other f…
Music class is an active, engaging, and joyful experience! This is especially true when our musical activities are grounded in creative and intentional teaching strategies. One of the most important teaching strategies has to do with teaching the difference between steady beat and the rhythm of
Hi! I’m Miss Carole of Macaroni Soup, Active Music for Active Learners in cold and snowy Chicago! Let’s get the action g...
Teaching music with fun, tried & tested lessons, DIY classroom projects & ideas your students will love with Tracy King, the Bulletin Board Lady.
Continuing our epic journey towards Shakespeare's 400th death anniversary on Saturday, here is a handy-dandy board game that allows you to relive all the exciting ups and downs of this master playwright's eventful life!
Elementary Music Classroom Tour 2018-2019. Organized Chaos.
Today, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite Halloween activities to do with my older students: lights-off listening! Many of the activities I do during the weeks prior to Halloween tend to be geared toward younger students. I've struggled to find something that appeals to my older kids. Then, I came across this great product from Music with Sara Bibee: This guided listening unit is great for older students because it has information for a variety of spooky pieces, as well as videos and assessment worksheets. I immediately gravitated to the rating worksheets she provided. Students listen to certain pieces and give them a rating from 1-10 on how spooky they think the music is. You can also insert your own selections as the files are editable. I chose 9 of the pieces (and added a bonus one where they had to guess the title - it was "Jaws") for my students. I tried to include a variety so some were new, while others were recognizable for them. I felt bad about printing a page for every student when all they were doing is circling a number for their rating, so I used page protectors. This was awesome! I printed 25 pages in color and then slipped each one into a page protector. Every student was given a whiteboard marker and a small eraser (I have a set we use for rhythm writing) and spread them out around the room. They were able to circle their rating and erase it when we were all finished - no wasting of paper! Plus, I can use these for many years now! Hooray! Now, here's where the fun part comes in! My students struggle with listening at times because they want to wiggle, move, talk, etc. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter with kids every day. I knew I could hook them by creating a spooky (not scary) environment as we listened to each piece. It would also be a fun and unique memory for them. So, I stumbled upon this fun Halloween rotating light on Amazon. It was only $10 and looked really fun! After all the students had their materials, I shut off the lights in my room and put this in the middle. It glowed and created some cool lighting on the ceiling as we listened to our music. Not only was it a spooky feature for our Halloween listening, but it was calming for several of my students that need to come down at the end of the day on a Friday afternoon. After we listened to all of the pieces, we came back together and talked briefly about things like composers, history, instruments, etc. I loved hearing the kids talk about music! They loved sharing their ideas with each other and comparing scores. It was a great introduction to listening and talking about different kinds of music. Clean up only took a minute because each student wiped down their sheet with their eraser and put away the markers - EASY! I love this activity and so did the kids. It gave them a chance to celebrate Halloween music in a way that was more "mature" for them. Yes, they love playing Halloween music games but this got them thinking and interacting in a unique way. Turning the lights off helped them focus but also created a spooky way to listen. I know this experience will stay with most of them and that makes my heart happy! Have you tried a unique listening experience before? I'd love to hear more ideas! Feel free to share below!
Instruments of the Orchestra Workstations can be the perfect addition to your student of instruments and instrument families. Learn about a few easy centers to implement into your classroom and woo your students to success.
Four White Horses is a fantastic song and game for practicing beat and syncopation in the elementary music classroom.
Free LDS General Conference Printable with updated 2018 Apostles and Prophet and info on the back
A collection of children's stories with links to their perfect Classical Music pairings, great for inspiring imaginative movement.
Junk Jam Music Game: Use recycled items to Explore sound and rhythm. While the kids explore sound and rhythm they learn critical listening skills.
A great way to explore rainbows and build critical thinking skills in preschool! One of my favorite topics to explore in preschool is rainbows. Rainbows can be easily extended to all content areas of the classroom through amazing, creative, and fun opportunities. Today, I want to share with you how we explored rainbows with our whole
Your kids will love playing this editable fall board game! Add it to your fall math and literacy centers for a fun way to review any skills you would like.
A Music Fortune Teller is a great way to review musical concepts learned. If you have forgotten how to play, here is a link that describes in detail how ..
Music Inspires Bulletin Board. This music advocacy bulletin board is a great way to included EVERYONE in your building! Read about how to put this display together and inspire your school from the Bulletin Board Lady. Great for Music in Our Schools Month or any time of year.
Although most people think about art as pictures or sculptures that look like something or communicate a particular meaning, there can be a lot of benefit to process art. Art therapists will often remind clients that it’s the process that’s important, not the final product. Process art means that the focus of the art is …
Visual aids around the classroom can be a fun thing to do. Not only does it help in the decor of the room, but it allows for students to re...
Explaining and understanding head voice and chest voice is a complex problem in the singing world. This article works to deepen your understanding.
This week we got a about 3 inches of snow here in Wichita, and so I thought it was probably time I trade out my sailboat themed bulletin boards for something else. I love to have a line/spaces bulletin board up in my room for my students to refer to, especially when we work on recorders and Orff instruments. So I came up with "Snow is falling into place, on a line or in a space". I envisioned snowflakes falling to the ground with the letter names in them. I went to Hobby Lobby and Target to pick up some extras for my board. I got a 60 ft. roll of silver Christmas ribbon 50% off at Hobby Lobby along with the adorable gray fabric I used for the background. This is my first fabric backed bulletin board, and I LOVE it. A little more expensive, but I can use it again and again and not have to re-cut it. I love this pattern and think it is really pretty and calming. I also picked up an icicle garland that I ended up using along the top. I also purchased pre-made Poms for the corners. Each pom is actually half a pom. I cut them in half, and stapled where I cut. At Target, I grabbed a bag of "glitter snow blanket" to be the bottom border. I created all of the text and snowflake letters on the computer, printed, laminated and cut out. I loved the different fonts that I got to use by doing this and that the colors were an exact color match to the snowflake clip art I used. For the side and top border, I had to triple layer the ribbon. I love the way it looks though as opposed to the traditional bulletin board border. The lines of the staff are party streamers. I bought one roll several years ago and have gotten many, many boards out of it for only $0.99 or so! I use tape first to make sure the spacing is good before I staple them down, and I use some of the text to cover staples. Want this bulletin board in your music room? Grab it here: I am still trying to decide what to do on my other two bulletin boards. For now, they are still sporting sail boats. Let me know if you have a brilliant snow themed idea for my other boards below!
These DIY shakers and maracas are easy and fun to make and are bash proof too! They're ideal homemade musical instruments for kids to make!
