Happy Music In Our Schools Month!

I love this month!  I love creating an atmosphere in our building that is celebrating music all month long!  I'm curious what others do to celebrate?  Here's what's happening this month in my building:

1.  Announcements:  We have a C.A.R.E.S. model to our daily morning announcements.  Each day is a different focus on the following words, but this month will have a music theme added to it: 
                  *Cooperate (Mondays)
                  *Appreciate (Tuesdays)
                  *Respect (Wednesdays)
                  *Empathy (Thursdays)
                  *Success (Fridays)

2.  Trivia Contest:  This is something that I did with a colleague of mine in a different building years back that I have carried on to this building.  It is a school-wide trivia contest that is a weekly thing in the month of March.  Monday the new question is revealed, along with the previous week's winners.  I typically choose 2 winners per grade level and the win a very simple prize like a toy instrument that I usually can find either through Oriental Trading or a local Party Supply story like Party City.  Questions are along the lines of "How many keys are there on a full-size piano?" or "I am known as the 'King of Rock 'n' Roll'.  Who am I?"  The first question this week is, "What is the most sung song in the United States?"  The last week is the Stevenson Mystery Musician.  I have some talented staff who at one point have played an instrument!  So, why not share that talent with the building?  So I record the person playing their instrument and then the kids have to guess which teacher or staff member played that instrument.

3.  Journaling:  I have each grade do a grade-level appropriate writing assignment for me. 

• Kindergarten actually colors a music note to decorate my room with.
• 1st writes down their favorite song and draws a picture to go with it.
• 2nd grade actually does a performance this month, so no writing for them!
• 3rd grade writes a journal entry to focus to respond to the question "What would the world be like without music?"  This is an AMAZING writing assignment.  I LOVE reading their responses every year.
• 4th grade writes about what music means to them.

4.  I Love Music Because...:  I am going to be recording kids sharing a sentence or two about why they love music.  This will then be aired on the broadcast each week.



5.  Display:  Lastly, I have a calendar of "This Day In Music History..." displayed outside my classroom that I also did with my colleage at a previous building.  Everyone in the school loves reading it each year and it's a great way to start conversations about music with kids and staff.

Bass Clef Bean Bag Toss Game

So I'm a fan of the Freddie the Frog books.  For several reasons. 

1.  For elementary kids their imaginations are so AMAZING, stories and characters are a wonderful way for them to connect to pitches on the staff.  So I LOVE that "F" on the treble clef is Freddie!  "E" is his best friend Eli!  And then each place on the staff is a character or place on Treble Clef Island.  Sharon Burch, YOU, my friend, are a GENIUS!

2.  I love that there is a story that teaches "D," "middle C," and "B" below the treble clef staff.  Those pitches were always a challenge for me.  Again, Sharon...GENIUS.

and 3.  The Bass Cleff Monster book is AWESOME.  I love how it is set-up to prep kids that it looks familiar, but it's NOT Treble Clef Island anymore...You're in Freddie's dream and all the spots are different, but then you get the kids to noticed the Freddie's ABC's are still there, just in a different order and with different names.

OH! and of course...these books get introduced in Kindergarten!  So my little tykes are growing up with the knowledge of pitch names already and it will be second nature to them when they are reading music.  And, Hello?!  Bass Clef in Kindergarten.  Awesome.

Did I mention that I'm a fan of these books?!  So awesome. 

Well...I wanted to do some fun things to practice the Bass Clef pitches for the Kindergartners to get them more familiar with them.  So, I did a round of Quiz-Quiz-Trade (I posted earlier about this activity).  We did a Simon Says game on the staff (that I taped on the floor) for the Bass Clef.  "Simon Says step on the Dragon....Grass...Annie the Ant..." etc.  That was fun.  We filled out a worksheet coloring all the different places specific colors to label them.  But I was looking for one more thing that was age appropriate for Kindergartners.  Some of my resources for Bass Clef were ok, but meant for older kiddos.  What to do...what to do...?

Well, all this time of practicing the Bass Clef I had the staff taped on the floor for the time being.  Then I started thinking of a game that involved doing a Bean Bag Toss.  Here's how it goes:

1.  I divided the class into 6 teams, which ended up being 3-4 kids on a team.

2.  The team gets 3 tries to toss their bean bag to the correct spot for the Bass Clef Monster.  I would say "Toss your bean bag to the Frog Log.  Ready...GO!"
3.  1st try earns their team 5 points. If they get the correct spot on the first try, then the team sits down and they are done for that round.
4.  If they did NOT get it on the first try, then the first person rotates to the back, and the next person gives it a shot.  If they get it then on the 2nd try, they earn 3 points for their team.  Again, if they get it correct, the team sits down and they are done.
5.  If they still did NOT get it on the 1st and 2nd try, they get one more chance to try.  So the person rotates to the back of the line and the 3rd person tries to throw.  If they get it on the 3rd try, the team earns 1 point for their team.
6.  If they did not get it at ALL, no points.  At which at that point, I have someone on that team place their bean bag on the correct spot to show me they know where the Dragon, or whatever, was.
5.  After all teams had their 3 tries, everyone stands back up again and we do another round.
6.  The team with the most points, WINS!  (Which means I give them a little music sticker to wear.)

FYI:  I put little strips of tape down with numbers for their teams as a starting line AND each team had a different colored bean bag to help me keep the teams straight because of course Kindergartners didn't throw straight every time! 

The kids LOVED this game!  They got excited when they tossed it to the right spot and encouraged their friends to get it on another try...and they worked together to help their neighbor through it to the right spot if they didn't know where the "Dragon" was.

I was so proud of myself for coming up with this game last minute like I did...thought I could start hanging out in the ranks of some other music teachers that I really admire!  Ha!

Now, being the Techie person that I am, I also created a SmartBoard file to go with this beautiful game.  I'm working on a TeachersPayTeachers account to get that file available to you if you feel so inclined to download it and use it in your own classroom.  SO...stay tuned for that file!


I hope this game inspires you to try a new game or two with your kiddos! 

Agents of Change: A 2nd Grade Musical

Each year I brave an attempt at writing my own programs.  Both 2nd and 4th grade perform a program each year, 4th Grade in November and 2nd Grade in March.  When I write my programs, I try to stick to writing just one a year because it's a ton of work to do.  I then decided to alternate between 2nd and 4th grade each year.  That way when they were either in 2nd or 4th grade, they got to do an Arundel Original program!  Last year I wrote a program called Feelin' Good for 4th grade.  And this year it is 2nd Grade's turn. 
Note:  On the "off years," the kids do a "canned" program, which I often end up modifiying some or adding to again...I just can't help it!  I love musicals and performing with these kiddos!

How do I pick themes to write about? 

Well, with being an International Baccalaureate (IB) program here, the classrooms have planners (in depth units) based on a certain central idea/theme (Who We Are, How We Express Ourselves, How the World Works, etc) .  These themes are a great for basing the themes of my programs on.  With the 4th grade program, Feelin' Good, it was focused on living a balanced, healthy lifestyle (a How We Express Ourselves planner). 

Side Note:  IB asks specialists to try an make at least 1 quality connection to these planners to help strengthen these broad ideas into all subject areas.  I really enjoy making these connections because as we all know, Music is connected to EVERYTHING!  And I LOVE showing kids that particular feature of our subject area.  Now, granted there are some planners that it is a S-T-R-E-T-C-H to connect to, so I choose not to make that connection. 

This year I am writing a program for 2nd Grade and it is focused on how even ordinary people can help to make a change in this world (a Sharing the Planet planner).  In their classrooms, the kids are collecting old crayons and melting them to make new crayons to sell.  Their profits are then going towards Heifer International to buy a goat for a family in Africa.  SUPER COOL! 

What's exciting is the songs they are learning for this program are strengthening this idea of making a difference and the kids are fully on board and super-charged to put it all together!  All my songs that I pick for my programs comes from Music K8.  What a fabulous resource!  I love it solely for writing my musicals.  I usually can find enough awesome songs from these magazines and build a program around them.

So, when I came across the song "Agents of Change" in Music K8 Volume 18, Number 3...it was PERFECT for this theme!  And from there, I found a TON of others that I really had to narrow it down and came to a list of about 7 songs total.  I then began writing the script with the idea that there is a group of Secret Agents who go around the world making a difference.  AND teaching those they meet how to make that change on their own.  The agents mission is always to make the world a better place and they are always trying to fight off Dr. Nemesis (Dr. Nem) who goes around with his whisper machine making people be selfish, rude, uncaring, bully, etc. 

The kids have LOVED the idea of Secret Agents and all want to be this role in the program.  What I've been sharing is that they ALL can be secret agents right now!  That they can start making a difference in the world around them!

BBC National Orchestra of Wales Instrument Family Introductions

Have you guys come across these?!  I'm working on putting things together for my 1st Grade Instruments of the Orchestra Unit and wanted to see what YouTube had to offer.  And I came across 2-3 minute videos of each family section.  They are simple and briefly play most of the instruments of each section.  A gem of a find, in my humble opinion!

 

String

 

 

Brass

 

 

 

Woodwind

 

 

 

Percussion

 

 

 

 

ENJOY!

WOW! Where did I go?!

Hello all my fellow blogging friends!

I know it's been a while since I've written here, but holy cow!  Over 3 months is ridiculous!  I had a goal of blogging something once a week!  ...I think I fell a little short....  I only dream to be like all my fellow music educators out there who blog almost daily.  I don't know how you do it! 

So...here I go again, trying to attempt to get the ball rolling again.  This week I will try to blog about the following topics:

4th Grade Recorder Centers!
3rd Grade Pentatonic Compositions (on Finale Notepad!)


Gosh, that seems crazy...2 topics in one week, I know, I know.  I don't want to get too crazy!  Ha!

I figure if I declare it to you out there in cyberspace, I might actually follow through with it!  I believe my actual problem is the taking pictures portion.  I forget to get my camera out and then actually snap a shot of all the awesome things my kiddos are doing.  They're amazing and I want to brag about it with y'all!

Hopefully see you sometime this week!

Match Mine! A Musical Battleship

I have a FUN game/activity to share with you today!!!

On an earlier post, I shared about "Quiz-Quiz-Trade," a SIOP (ELL) strategy that I use.  My building has a very strong population of ELL students (we have 4 ELL teachers for a building of 550 students and about 1/4 to 1/3 are EL students, just to give you an idea)  Yesterday I decided to try something from the Match Mine: Music resource that I purchased over the summer.  So many fun ways to practice music terms and symbols, instruments, etc.

2nd Grade has been working on rhythm and learning to identify the names of the notes.  So I decided to try this musical version of Battleship. 

SET-UP:
The kids have 2 file folders, 2 game boards, 2 sets of different colored pieces, and a paper clip.  They first need to set-up their file folders up Battleship style and paper clip the top so they stay standing.  We found that we needed to pull the folders about an inch away from each other from the bottom in order for it to stay upright.  Then each kid gets a set of pieces and a game board to set down.

 

One person is the "Sender" and one person is the "Receiver."  The "Sender" places their pieces on the game board in random places.  Their job is then to tell the "Receiver" where to put their pieces using describing words like "Top Middle" or "Top Left Corner," etc.  They are not only trying to identify my vocabulary, but also using descriptive words to help their partners put them in the same spot as they did.  So the students were expected to use sentences like "I put the Whole Note in the Top Left Corner."  There could be NO peeking or looking, which is why I have them laying on their bellies so they couldn't look over the barrier.  They had to figure it out using words and asking questions if they need clarification or help.

 

 

 

 

 

I found it was VERY helpful to model it first on the Smart Board and do it together as a class.  (I scanned the gameboard and then made my "pieces" with the SmartBoard Notebook.)  I was the "Sender" for the class and had students move the pieces to the places I wanted them to.  I reminded them they need to know the difference between Right and Left (showed them the "L" trick with their thumb and finger) and they also need to use words like Top, Bottom, Middle. 

 

 *Looks like Left and Right got mixed up!*

 

For this activity, I wanted them to practice identifying the note names.  i.e.Whole Note, Half Note, Quarter Rest, Half Rest, Pair of Eighth Notes, etc.  But you could have them use "ta" and "ti-ti" language as well.

 

Once they were finished, they can compare their boards to see if their partner matched their board.  Then they switched jobs.  This kept them entertained for the remainder of the class period.  It was really fun walking around hearing them using the descriptive words and using the music vocabulary that I wanted them to know!

 

 

This can also be a GREAT activity for a center as well.  I would suggest pre-teaching it to the class before making it a centers activity, then the students will understand the goal of the game better.

 

So glad I made this purchase!  There other game boards for Instruments of the Orchestra, Classroom Instruments, Form, Dynamics, Ostinatos, Orff Bar Placements, Rhythms, Melodies, etc.  and it has game boards designed for ages PreK through 12!  (The older activities are designed for grades 6-12, so if you teach those grade levels, this could be a fun different way to practice music skills.)

Keeping Risers Returned to the Right Spot

I don't know about the rest of the elementary music teachers out there, but I know for myself, I'm pretty picky about the placement of my risers.  Mainly due to the fact that for the first couple years of my teaching, if I didn't put my risers back exactly the right way...I would hear about ALL day long for a couple days from my students about the risers being different.  SO...to avoid that headache, I always try to make sure that the colors always stay in the same order and the same spot.

Since my risers get used for so many things around the building, not just my programs, but for group photo things, PTA events, etc...that I always told them to just roll them back in my room and I'll place them back down.  Well, that was a lot of work on my end.  So last year I tried putting a piece of masking tape down to mark where the front of the risers would be in hopes that they would be returned correctly.  Well, kids would pick at the tape and it would be gone by the time I would need it and I ended up doing all the work myself.

My husband, being the genius that he is, suggested to put the tape behind the risers!  DUH!  Hello?!  Why didn't I think of that?!  So, this morning I put the tape down and labeled the colors as well. 

Then custodians or others can return the risers to the right spots and the colors in the right order!!!  I pray that this system works well.