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!
High Shoals Elementary School Music Blog, Oconee County GA, Orff Music Instruction
This unit plan for Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales "General Prologue" is comprised of five lesson plans which include pre-reading questions, creative writing assignments, and assessments.
Year 2014 - 2015 Curriculum choices and changed can be found here. Fall 2015 brought more changes. Little Miss is still using Sonlight and Math-U-See, and it continues to be a great fit for her and for mama. The teens are now dual enrolled at a local college, and continuing Mr. D Math at home. (Our first year of homeschooling we used AOP SOS, then switched to AOP Monarch. We used Monarch for five years. You can read more below.) *********************************************************************** Starting our homeschool journey in the Fall of 2008. Our method of homeschooling is computer-based traditional learning. I never felt the call to homeschool, and actually kicked and screamed about it before finally agreeing to give homeschooling a try. Our older children had attended a Christian school K-4th. I don't enjoy doing craft projects or science experiments with my kids, or look forward to putting together different curricula. I had never even attended a homeschool convention! English isn't my native language even, for goodness sakes!! Our main reason for homeschooling was the flexibility it would allow our traveling family, and finding a program that allows me to be more the assistant than the teacher. We started homeschooling in 5th grade using AOP Switched-On-Schoolhouse, and from 6th grade on we have used AOP Monarch with our four older children. Both are great programs. Each student has their own laptop, and while they have the same material, they each work at their own pace. The first year we weren't involved in many homeschool activities (it was all about surviving), but for half of 6th grade we attended a homeschool co-op, and also attended various other fun homeschool activities every week. We are also big on PE outside, every single day! We did some preschool work at home, but Little Miss attended local preschools (both in Florida and in New England). For K-1st Little Miss used Critical Thinking First Grade Bundle and Hooked on Phonics, and for second grade she used Dew Learning. Our motto with homeschooling is: "If we can do it, anyone can do it!!" :) Our kids sometimes talk about things they miss about going to Christian school, but so far have always come to the conclusion they'd rather be homeschooled. These past four years have definitely brought our family closer as we have traveled together and spent more time together. Sure, there have been some terrible-horrible-very-bad days, but now we have learned to close our laptops and head outside for PE or go to the library on a field trip on those days. We also love our school uniforms: pajamas on many days ;-) You can click the cartoon to view it larger.
Dual language education provides a unique and powerful opportunity to strengthen children's highest cognitive brain potentials.
In general, the apostrophe s (‘s) serves two functions: to contract words and to indicate possession. Let's take a look at this closely in this infographic.
Questions a Critical Thinker Asks #onted
Fun and engaging hand clapping game to teach your kiddos!
Most of us teach multiple grade levels. I teach 4 year olds through 94 year olds. I skip 12 year olds through somewhere in the 60's, though. I think that probably needs explaining, right? I teach Junior Kindergarten through fourth grade and also facilitate music and drum circles at an assisted living center every 2-3 months. The youngest were probably my most difficult age to plan for starting out as a brand new teacher and I continue searching for great material to add to my "collection". We all know how it is - in a singular 30 minute lesson with the younger kiddos we might go through 10-15 activities! Interestingly, my oldest sometimes seem the same! I seek materials from various sources; blogs, bools, fellow teachers, and websites. Several years ago I found a childrens music performer named Nancy Stewart. Each month she posts a Song of the Month! You can search by category, year/month, and alphabetically, and even better - all her songs are downloadable, some have visuals to download, and most have the sheet music to download - all for FREE! YES! There are songs for Eid, Christmas, St. Patirck's Day, Diwali, Valentines, seasonal songs and everything in between. Most of the music is original and I have found some really wonderful material! One of my favorites is the Rhythm Stick Song. Nancy so kindly gave me permission to share the song with you here - the mp3 is available on her site - click the link above. Hope you enjoy it - my kiddos do! We also make up additional verses - "With my sticks I run...", walk, hop, etc. My favorite rhythm sticks are the Basic Beat Combination Sticks pictured below. I love these - perfectly sized at 8" long, no splintering, and one is smooth and the other ridged. They are about $3.00 a pair, and an awesome investment! You can get them here from West Music. Have fun with these! Happy New Year!
Song Index
CUPS are an amazing resource. You can drink out of them, they hold things (like popsicle sticks for one of my favorite games- BUSTED), and they make music! I don't know about you, but especially last year with the popularity of Pitch Perfect, my students LOVE cup games. All classes from 3rd grade and up have mastered the basic cup pattern most of us know and love so I have to up my game and introduce many more variations on that pattern, or new cup games that get progressively more difficult. Pitch Perfect 2 is coming out soon- so I am sure CUPS will be popular for a long time- but even if they aren't in the movies, CUP games are so fun! I always find it hard to remove myself from the game because I love them so much and my students are always asking to play as a reward because THEY love them so much. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite cup games and activities- sound off in the comments about your favorites! CUP MAGIC TRICKS! ABRACADABRA! Students start to see cups early on when I do rhythm cup magic tricks. I learned this at a work-shop a few years ago and students love it! Unfortunately, I searched high and low for who taught this to me and I could not find the handout! If this was you- so sorry you aren't credited! Let me know if this sounds so familiar, that you think you may have taught it at a workshop in Ohio 4 or 5 years ago :) Basically I have four cups on a table (or music stand)- each representing a beat. Hidden underneath all of the cups is a cup cut in half to represent ti-ti. We tap the cups, think of "magic" words that only have 1 sound (Bam!, Poof!, Trick etc.). We do this for a little, moving the cups around- stacking and unstacking them, etc. and then I tell them its time for the magic trick. We say A-bra-ca da- bra! and the Ta Ta ti-ti Ta pattern is revealed! They then come up with a few "magic" words that have 2 sounds and we practice more patterns. (Poof! Poof! Magic! Poof!) Sometimes the ti-ti half cups are revealed, sometimes they are covered up. This is great for Prep OR Practice of Ta and Ti-ti- with prep, you can just continue to use magic related words when reading the cup patterns, but once they know the rhythm names, you can reveal a pattern and have them read it on rhythm syllables then notate it with manipulatives. They love this activity! The teacher does have to practice a little to make the reveal of ti-ti cups smooth, without cups or cup parts falling all over the place! My 1st graders are always impressed though- even if half a cup gets stuck... If you do not want to deal with actually cutting some cups in half, I am sure a thick black line drawn down the center of the cup would work just as well. This would be less parts that could fall on the floor- though the kids are always super impressed when I slice the cup in half without scissors :) CUP RHYTHM/ MELODY WRITING You can also have the younger students write out their own rhythms or the rhythm of a song using cups as well. Use big beat strips with hearts for each beat and then have students use BIG cups for quarter notes and smaller cups in a different color for beamed eighth notes. I have also seen using clear cups for rests. This idea I found on pinterest so check out the original pin HERE. Rhythm writing can be done in a different way as well- by writing 1 beat patterns on the edges of foam cups and then having students spin the cups until they find the pattern they want (great for dictation too!) and then writing in on a worksheet. You could also having staff cups with the musical alphabet written on the edges of the cups and they spin the cups to write a song. Take it up a notch by combining the two. This also comes from pinterest so check out the orginal pin HERE. CUP CIRCLE PASSING GAMES As for cup passing games, I start but just teaching the typical pattern I learned at camp when I was 10 (and is the same pattern from the Pitch Perfect Movie). Once the Pattern is learned on it's own I add it to I've Been to Harlem (AKA Turn the Glasses Over)so students can practice it continuously. When we are good we get fast and faster and students who mess up move to another circle so we can see who can do it the fastest and longest without making a mistake! I also use it with Kodaly's Viennese Musical Clock. We do the cup pattern in a big circle on the A section and then students lead non-locomotor movements to the beat on the B, C, D, etc. to show the Rondo form. When teaching the pattern I use the following phrases to keep my students on track, but I have seen it a few ways in various resources such as Game Plan so use what works for you and your students! Phrases are in 4 beat patterns (beats are separated by a comma). After the 1st phrase, all actions happen on the beat- even if I say more syllables. I have indicated a pause with a z to show the rest. Clap, Clap, Tap-Tap, Tap Clap, Move-It, Over, z Clap, pick-it-up, hit-your-left-hand, down Switch, Tap, Pass, z I hand out the following half-sheet so students can practice at home- one side is just the words above and the other side (shown) explains each move in more detail. 3 other cup passing games I love are: la ti do ti do ti la, Chevaliers de la table ronde, and Ludaim One changes directions every other line or at cue of the teacher, one has changing meter (3/4 vs 4/4) and one has 2 cups (and a tricky time signature 8/8 broken down as 3/8+3/8+2/8). ALL are super fun and challenging! I have made videos of myself demonstrating the patterns for 2 of the games- slowing down and explaining each step. They are slightly awkward because I am by myself BUT hopefully they will help you figure out exactly what the directions below mean (as I know written directions can be confusing). I hope to be able update this post in the future with videos of student hands playing! 1: la ti do ti do ti la-This melody is really familiar to me but I can't place it. For this game, the ultimate goal is to change directions at every line OR at the cue of the teacher. Directions: Most beats have an action on the first half of the beat and the 2nd. These actions have been separated by a slash. Beat 1: Tap the floor to the right of the cup with your right hand (RH)/ Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your left hand (LH) Beat 2: Clap/ Tap the floor to the right of the cup with your RH Beat 3: Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your LH/ Pick up the cup with your RH Beat 4: Pass the cup to the person on your right, being sure to place it all the way in front of them. Once your students have mastered the above pattern- reverse it to be as follows: Beat 1: Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your LH/ Tap the floor to the right of the cup with your RH Beat 2: Clap/ Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your LH Beat 3: Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your RH/ Pick up the cup with your LH Beat 4: Pass the cup to the person on your left. Eventually students should switch every other line of music for a fun challenge.. A Super Challenge is to have the students switch at the signal of the teacher. The video shows how to do the motions both ways slow-mo style. 2: Chevaliers de la table ronde- This one has changing meter AND you can change directions for a challenge! Super fun and it has a beautiful melody! Translation: Knights of the Round Table taste to see if the wine is good. Taste see- yes yes yes. Taste see- no no no. (I usually just say this is about the knights of the round table when asked!) This first video is a YOUtube video of men singing the song on a street in France. Directions: When there are 3 beats in a bar the cup is passed as follows: Beat 1: Pass in front to the person on the right Beat 2: Clap Beat 3: Pick up new cup (passed from person to your left) When there are 4 beats in a bar the cup is passed as follows: Beat 1: Pass in front to the person on the right Beats 2 + 3: Tap the rhythm ti-ti Ta on the cup Beat 4: Pick up new cup (passed from the person on your left) Challenge! When the melody repeats, change directions! There is no slow-mo video for this one because the motions are fairly self explanatory but I do hope to upload one of my students singing and playing the game soon, as they are learning it right now! This is one the teacher has to practice before teaching A LOT to be sure they are changing at the right time. A tip is you are tapping "Ti-ti ta" in the 4/4 measures when you are singing "oui oui oui" or "non non non" so the words fit the movements really well at those parts. I prep this game by having students first just read the rhythm and show the changing meter by hitting the floor on beat one of a measure and then clapping the other beats. Next we do basically the same pattern as the ultimate game, but on their laps before putting cups in their hand. When it says pass students would tap the floor to their right and when it says pick up new cup students tap the floor to their left. A clap is still a clap and when they would normally tap ti-ti ta on their cup, we tap our legs. Only once most of them have mastered this action do we add the actual cups in a circle- and even then, it still takes a few weeks for some to master but it is still super fun! 3: LUDAIM- This is the one with the funky meter AND 2 cups! Super fun! Translation: Geese, Geese. There were twelve. All of the twelve were white. (Note: this comes from google translate so it could be a little off, but I think I got the basic meaning). Directions: Hint- start with cups of two DIFFERENT colors (ex. everyone has a red cup in their left hand and a blue in their right), because you always keep the cup that starts in your left hand! This way you can tell if you are on track when the patterns always alternates colors. If you have two cups of the same color next to each other, something is wrong! 1st Eighth note: Pass cup in right hand to the person on your right while simultaneously passing the cup in your left hand to your own right hand. 2nd eighth note: Clap 3rd and 4th eighth notes: Clap the rhythm ti-ka ti (ti-ri ti) on the cups (Right-Left Right) 5th eighth note: Click (Snap) Fingers (this is always on the 2nd half of a quarter note in the melody so be sure to snap BEFORE you sing the next word!) 6th eighth note: Pick up both cups 7th eighth note: Cross hands and set cups down (cups switch places so cup that WAS in your right hand is now on the left and cup that WAS on the left is now on the right) 8th eighth note: Pick up cups to begin again! This one I start right away with cups (after knowing the melody and words of the song of course!) The visual of having the two colored cups really helps in figuring this one out. Of course we start slow, and without singing at the same time. They are always so excited when they get this one! I think this year I may make a recording of the students singing the song after they have learned it so that they can then play the game to the recording and sing along when they are ready. Update: I attended a workshop this summer (July 2015) and we used these same motions with the song Land of the Silver Birch. It worked really well and I can't wait to use it in my classroom. My students learned Silver Birch last year so we will be starting the year off right- with a cup game! The video just shows a slow breakdown of the movement so you can kind of get a visual. It is not as hard as it seems! I learned all 3 of the trickier CUP games in Hungary last year from Lucinda Geoghegan during her Singing Games Class and they are great for upper grades. All are challenging enough to motivate kids, but not so difficult that students will give up easily. I had a lot of fun learning them all! In addition to playing cup games, I love to share the HARVARD CUPS! Videos. 2009 is my favorite, but the Harvard Percussion Ensemble THUD makes a CUPS! video every year. Check them out on Youtube! I also just saw this other great CUPS video that uses the traditional cup pattern to accompany Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Super Cool! I may have my older students make up their own CUP passing patterns to a given song this year- It would be a great activity for a sub. Rhythms we use in class would be a must in their pattern, but other than that they would have creative freedom! Since it is currently winter (though I know... Christmas is past...), I have one more fun activity to share which I found via pinterest. This is a great Nutcracker Cup game made by Eric L. Young. So fun! My students loved this activity- and making up their own cup movements to other Nutcracker songs this year! Share your favorite cup game or way you incorporate cups into your classroom below! Do you use them for listening like with the Viennese Musical Clock by Kodaly or Trepak activity from the Nutcracker? Do you use them to practice steady beat/ rhythm/ mixed meter?
Song Index
“We hear the terms ‘formative’ and ‘summative’ assessments all the time in schools. As educators, we learned about the differences while in college in our educati…
On Wednesdays we have a special schedule and with my first and second graders I have been doing a lot of centers and rotations. As explained by a classroom teacher, a Center is an activity or station where students choose to go and choose how long they spend at that place. A Rotation is where all students experience the same things for the same amount of time and rotate through the various activities. Once introduced, these games and activities are perfect to leave for a sub! If you are on a mobile device, scroll all the way to the bottom and click, "View Web Version" and on the right you will see all the posts that are tagged with "Centers" and "Rotations". One of my new favorites is this pop it game with dice. Someone posted this on instagram last year and it has become a new favorite. Use foam dice from Dollar Tree and write your rhythms on all sides. For me, this is a Leveled Game with Level One using quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rest. Level Two adds half note and Level Three adds sixteenth notes and eighth, sixteenth note combinations. On the game itself, sit in front of the TV one night and use a Sharpie to draw quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests on each "pop". I keep the dice, games, and directions in a 2-gallon ziploc bag with my other rotations and centers. Here are the direction cards: Enjoy!
Song Index
A Taxonomy Tree: A Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Graphic
A collection of lesser-known facts about the great composers, from the sublime to the ridiculous
Song Index
What African drum languages have to do with women’s emancipation, radioactivity, and the future of the web.
We are well underway into the school year! Lots of great things have been going on in my classroom. My 7th grade band is to die for! 65 students and perfectly balanced with a low brass section that is huge! I have four tubas in my 6th grade bands (2 tubas per band) and the 8th graders are adapting well to our funky split class schedule-22 minutes, lunch, 22 minutes. Not ideal, but we will manage. I have started working on my first goal per my last post which is to implement e-folios. I am using our district Google account and Google Drive to accomplish this. I created a mailing list with my students' emails and sent them a "practice email" requesting them to respond to me to make sure they got the email. Later this week, we will head up to the learning center (aka media center) and our learning center specialist will work with the students to make sure they understand how use Drive-downloading assignments, uploading assignments and making sure the students share with only me. Google Drive is pretty slick. I have created folders for each band, and within those folders subfolders for each students which will contain their online assignments that I will share with them, so it will be more organized than just a bunch of emails coming at me from my students. The 7th and 8th graders have an assignment that they will complete and send me in the next week. Typically I do this during class, but we will test this out to see how it works. I am hoping that there won't be too many complications. SMARTER goals are an extension of SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Actions, Realistic, Time frame, Enjoyable, Resources. By no means am I taking credit for any of this! I believe many schools are implementing SMART goals, but we wanted to add on to this. Many students, and adults, find goal making to be tedious and often associated to something that is not enjoyable. So, we decided to put a spin onto it so that students realize that goal setting is important and the process as well as the product can be enjoyable. This is what my students will be completing, sharing with me and storing in their Google Drive folder. So, we will see how this goes. I am hoping that this will be beneficial to the students, as well as myself. A side benefit will be less paperwork and passing back. Just a few clicks of the button and away we go!
Song Index
One of my favorite lessons to teach in my short story unit is the Hero’s Journey. I enjoy teaching the hero's journey because I love seeing my students’ aha! moments - the moment when they get it, and they start making the connections between the content I am teaching and their favorite books and movies. Their faces light up, and faint chatter about Harry Potter, various Disney movies, and other stories slowly fills the room.
A quick post today with a song you can use for upper grades. Add a body percussion pattern (patsch, clap) and raise fisted hand on "Hey" and add T (teacher) clapping/students echoing body percussion patterns (in the score). Create an additional section to create a rondo: C Section: T. plays 4 beat pattern on drum, students choose an adjective to describe themselves that is the same letter/sound as their name: I used Fabulous Pfitzner for myself, I had "Interesting Isaac", "Amazing Allison", etc. Four students, one at a time, say their adjective and name over 4 beats, next student says theirs over the next four beats, etc. My fourth graders LOVED this!
COPD is a condition of chronic dyspnea with expiratory airflow limitation that does not significantly fluctuate.
I do not usually have very much student work to display since my students' "work" happens during our class performances. However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show off the 4th and 5th grade Stomp Projects. Each group completed a worksheet to show the rhythms they chose, the instruments they played, and an explanation of their performance. The students really enjoy finding their group's work in the display and checking out all of the pictures! Update: After many requests, I have decided to share my Stomp: Trash Percussion Group Project! Click here if you would like to download a copy. :)
I have been sick for 3 very long days (tummy bug) and am finally feeling better. Finally!!! I had my first of three concerts this morning and it went beautifully, of course with 4, 5, and 6 year olds something always happens that makes me giggle, and today was no exception. I introduced one piece and the kids started saying, "yes", "I LOVE that one", "ME TOO", etc. The crowd died laughing and truthfully, so did I... it was soooo funny!! :) Having been sick for most of this week, I was ready to do something fun with my third graders today after our practice and they loved the Trepak Bucket Drum Routine from here. So, I knew I had to make another one to go with one of the pieces we are practicing for the concert! Jingle Bell Rock is one of their favorites, and my daughter is in third grade and loves to listen to this all year long! Here is the bucket drum routine: Perform in a circle, one bucket drum per student or two students sharing in concentric circles, inner circle facing out and they will pass left while outside circle passes to the right. Music can be found here:
Song Index
Visit the post for more.
An education blog with strategies, tips and information for teachers about teaching students with disabilities in the inclusive classroom.
Song Index
In case you've been snoozing for the past few months, this is what you've missed:
Mozart, Beethoven and of course Rachmaninov in full, towering glory.
