New Ideas

New Ideas

Once again, I'm excited to join the Blog Hoppin' Linky Party, this time to blog about new ideas!

Often, when I get new ideas, it's from collaborating and sharing with other teachers. I have a few friends in my district who I absolutely love bouncing ideas off of. Whether we are chatting about something we tried in our classrooms, or something we are thinking about trying, we can share ideas without fear of judgment. I encourage you to find a friend who teaches the same subject/ grade level as you do, and share ideas with them! 

Here are three new organizational/ management ideas:

#1: Melodic and Rhythmic Containers

My friend Matt shared this idea with me...and I'm so glad he did!  His idea was to organize all of his rhythmic and melodic materials into milk crates, filed by concept. I couldn't find milk crates, but I did find these handy containers at Staples:

Inside each crate, I placed a hanging file folder for each grade level, and then individual file folders for each concept, like this:

Inside each file folder, I placed activities for that concept. For example, in the rhythmic tub, for ta and ti-ti, I placed ta and ti-ti rhythm flashcards and my walk and running cards (which you can download for free.) In the re folder, I placed re stick notation cards, re staff notation cards, and Do Pentatonic Bingo.

Matt also had the idea of placing a sheet in each folder for new ideas for that concept. While I was organizing tonight, I found a really neat name game for syncopa, so I put it in the syncopa folder. Hopefully that way I will remember to use it!

I love how much more organized I feel with these tubs! (And thanks to my friend Matt for sharing this awesome idea!)

#2: Partner Poster

Shawn, the P.E. teacher at my school, shared this idea, and I'm very excited to use it! He has a poster in his room that is labeled "Partner Poster." Here is one I created that you can download for free (just click on the picture):

The idea is this: when students are finding partners, you can tell any students who can't find a partner to go to the partner poster. Whoever ends up at the partner poster can then partner off! Such a simple way to fix the problem of students not being able to find partners! Thanks to Shawn for the great idea!

#3: Grade-Level Containers

On Pinterest and other blogs, I've seen lots of teachers use day of the week containers (one container of materials for each day of the week.) I liked this idea, but it doesn't really work in my classroom, because on Monday, I teach third grade, fifth grade, first grade, and Kindergarten, on Tuesday, I teach third grade, fourth grade, fifth, grade, first grade, and Kindergarten, etc. I did try containers that said "Lessons for today," and "Lessons for tomorrow," but that still didn't work all that well for me. The containers ended up being a mess and I couldn't find anything, because I teach so many different lessons in one day (and even if I teach two third grade classes in a row, they aren't usually on the same lesson!) So I had an a-ha moment and realized I needed containers for each grade level, like this:

I feel so much more organized now! The materials for each grade level are right there-- I just need to go to the container and get what I need. At the beginning of each day, I make sure all the materials are in the containers, and I also take out materials that I don't need anymore. Love it!

Also, thanks to Deanna Jump for her cute labels (which I used with the concept boxes and grade-level containers.) Her Organization Station is very helpful!

I hope you found something useful. I had fun participating in the Blog Hoppin' Linky Parties all this week. Thanks for reading!

Centers for rhythmic practice

Centers for rhythmic practice

This week, I started learning centers with my fourth graders to practice syncopa (or eighth/ quarter/ eighth combination.) It's been a lot of fun for the kids (and I was able to individually assess every student!) so today, I'm sharing the four centers:

#1: Rhythm Carousel

This is a wonderful activity I learned from my friend Sue Leithold-Bowcock. I recently blogged about her sessions at the MKMEA conference; she is always full of amazing ideas (and I have to say, she is VERY entertaining!)

The idea for Rhythm Carousel is this: the class is split up into small groups, and each student has their own popsicle stick (I used foam sticks from Oriental Trading) . Each stick has a rhythm pattern written on it. A child is chosen to start, and each class says/claps their pattern until they are all done. At that point, they stand up and wait for directions from the teacher. The teacher can then tell them to go one step to their right, two steps to the left, etc., sit down, and read their new stick, starting again with the starter.

The sticks look like this:

Before using this as a learning center, I made sure the students were familiar with the activity in the lesson beforehand. I modeled first with six volunteers, then had students get into groups of 5-6. One student from that group came and asked for enough sticks for everyone in their group, and then all students set their sticks down in front of them as they were seated in a circle. I chose starters for each group and away they went!

I absolutely loved how student-centered this activity was! The kids helped each other out--especially if a student was struggling. They had conversations with each other about the rhythms, like "ooh...this one is hard!" or "Oh, I got an easy one!" After the first time they stood up and rotated to the next sticks, I just let them go for a few minutes, rotating whenever each group was done so they didn't have to wait for the other groups.

When we did this in learning centers, I had only six sticks set out, since I have classes of 24, and they were split up into four groups. I also added the challenge during centers of one of the sticks being blank, so whoever ended up at that stick each time had to create a 4-beat pattern. Fun!

Thanks to Sue for this awesome activity! You can visit her blog at http://bowcockmusic.blogspot.com/p/stuff-for-music-teachers.html.

#2: Rhythms on Recorder

At the second station, students had several syncopa flashcards set up on music stands. First, they had to play all of the patterns on B, then on A, and then on G. If they had time, they could decide which pattern they would play on which note. Great way to practice recorder playing and rhythmic reading!

#3: Thanksgiving Owl Rhythm Patterns

I'm lucky enough to have a SMART board in my room, so I like to include the SMART board in learning centers whenever I can. That way, everyone in the class can touch the SMART board during one lesson! (In this case, everyone can throw a squishy ball at the SMART board during one lesson!)

Here is my Thanksgiving Owl Syncopa Set (click on the picture below to see it on TpT):

The activity comes as a PDF which you can view as a slideshow, so it's full-screen like a Powerpoint. The home page looks like this:

Students take turns throwing a squishy ball at the SMART board. The ball hits an owl, and then that owl's pattern comes up, like this: 

After the student reads that pattern, he/she can touch the owl to be taken back to the home page. I know it seems a bit crazy (you're throwing something at the SMART board?!?!) but as long as the ball is soft, it won't hurt the SMART board (and it's so fun!)

#4: Individual Reading Assessment

At the last center, students got into a single file line, and each child read 5 patterns to me individually. A sample of the 5 patterns can be found in the Thanksgiving owls syncopa set, but you could also just take five flashcards and arrange them from easiest to hardest. I added a layer of difficulty to the assessment and asked students to read and clap the pattern (instead of just reading.) Now I have a individual reading assessment for every single student, and I was able to do it while all the other kids were engaged in other activities! I even had the students who were waiting to read or who had already read practice their recorders while waiting.

I spent 25 minutes on centers--for 5 minutes I explained the stations, then students spent 5 minutes at 4 centers. I really love to do centers every now and then as a way to foster a more student-centered classroom, to provide intervention, and to individually assess!

What are your favorite rhythm ideas for centers? Feel free to comment below!

Three Apps for the Music Classroom

Three Apps for the Music Classroom

The past two days I have been home with my sick 14-month-old Macy (poor thing has had a fever...she's starting to finally feel better, thank goodness!) I've poked around a bit in the app store and online and have found a few new apps I thought I'd share.

#1: Feedly

This app is actually not music-specific, but could be used to stream all of your music blog reading. I found out about this app when I was checking my blogger stats; it's so neat to see where my readers are and how they got to my blog. I noticed while checking out the stats that I had several views from Feedly, so I had to check out what Feedly was. From what I understand, Feedly is an app that you could install onto Chrome, install onto your Android phone/device, and install onto your Ipad/IOS device. You can populate your feed with whichever blogs you'd like, and then when you get a minute to sit down and want to browse your blogs, you can just open Feedly!

What I love about this is that I've not been great about continually checking the music education blogs of others. When I've had the chance, I've gone to my own blog, and clicked on links in my "blogs I love" list. This app makes that process so much easier! I also added a feed from NAfME and some other music education sites. It's also super easy to post something to Twitter if you find it useful. Definitely a time-saver!

#2: NotateMe

I actually found this app while reading my Feedly. It is currently in beta testing, so it is cheaper than it will eventually be as they work out the bugs. At $13.99, it still seems pretty expensive compared to most apps, but the possibilities are very exciting, and in my opinion, worth the money...even at a more expensive price! 

The idea of NotateMe is that you can hand write music with your finger or with a stylus, and it will generate computer notation above your handwritten piece. Although the app warns that it may take a while for it to adapt to your writing, it did a very nice job of notating what I wrote by hand (I tried "Lucy Locket," which you can see below! Sorry for my messy writing...I didn't have my stylus handy.) 

It also plays the notes as you notate, and can play the entire piece when you are done. From what I understand, they are continually adding features to the app (like the ability for it to notate what you sing, and the ability to save the notation as a PDF). I can see this working very well in a music classroom, for students to be able to see the difference between hand-written notation and computer notation. Computer notation can be daunting to do with students, as you are not only practicing where notes go on the staff, how to write rhythms, etc., but how to notate all of those with that particular program. This app removes those challenges while still allowing students to see both types of notation. 

I only have one ipad, so I'm thinking perhaps I might be able to use this in centers, after students have worked on their handwritten compositions. I will post how it goes!

#3: Melody Street, "My Musical Friends"

This is a really cute (and free) app for introducing instrument families. When you click on each instrument family, you can then choose one of the instruments in that family. If you touch the cartoon instrument, it will transform into a real instrument, and will play a short snippet. "Fun fact" will tell the students a fun fact about that instrument. I found the "Did you know" button not as helpful, as it tells you something about the instrument character the app made up. The treble clef buttons on the bottom will play different pitches from that instrument. I can see it being a great way to introduce families, perhaps taking a few minutes in each lesson to learn about different families. 

Melody Street also has other free apps available in the Itunes store, like Melody Street and Mozart Interactive. Very fun!

Looking for more apps for your music room? Check out this free list!

Happy teaching!

Three vocal exploration ideas

Three vocal exploration ideas

Looking for ways to improve your students' pitch-matching? Vocal exploration is such a great way for students to get into their head voices...and it's so much fun! Here are three quick ways to get students exploring their voices, especially around Halloween!

#1: "Ghosts in the House" by Kazuno Kohara

This is a really fun book, especially around Halloween! For vocal exploration, you could have students make ghost sounds to match the ghosts on the page (for the ghosts on the clothesline, students could just sing one pitch, for the ghosts who are upside down, you could have students sing from high to low, etc.) There is a witch in the book too, so you could connect it to both "See the Old Witch" and "Miss White."

#2: Ghost conversations
I got this idea from a vocal exploration workshop with Lillie Feierabend. She used ghost finger puppets to have students converse with each other, like the ghost puppet shown here:

To find the puppets on Etsy, just click the picture. Aren't the puppets cute?

The teacher can hold a ghost puppet and give another ghost finger puppet to a student. The teacher can make a ghost sound or pattern, and the student responds with something different, like you would in a conversation. This is a cute activity for both Halloween and any other time of the year! Instead of two ghost puppets, you could use the ghost puppet and the Frankenstein puppet, and have the student holding Frankenstein make monster sounds. This might help them understand the idea of having a conversation better anyway! So fun!

#3: Bumblebee animated vocal exploration powerpoint
To prepare for my Kindergarten informances next week, I made a few animated slides for vocal exploration to connect to the chant "Bee Bee." You can download it for free by clicking on the picture below!

What are your favorite ways to have students explore their voices? Feel free to comment below, and happy teaching!

Five Favorite Pins of October

Five Favorite Pins of October

We are well into autumn (and still, the weather is amazing!) Since it is October, it is time for my October Linky Party!

If you are a music education blogger, see the directions at the end of this blog for how to link up. Here are my five latest favorite pins!

#1: Generate your own newspaper article

This is a VERY neat tool! Click on the picture below to see the original source of the pin.

The idea is this: you can write your own article--specific to your students and your school--and the website listed in the blog will create a picture that looks like a newspaper article. I'm still brainstorming ways to use this, but I think it could be a very cool tool!

#2: Missus White Freebie

Just in time for Halloween, Emily F on TpT created this super cute freebie!

The set comes with the chant, a slideshow, visuals, detailed lessons, and an Orff arrangement. Thanks to Emily F (check out her blog at http://thesweetestmelodymusic.blogspot.com/.)

#3: "Bang" Rhythm Game

This is a very neat game that I think could work well in centers. As she points out in her blog, it could also work for note naming on the treble clef or bass clef staff. 

#4: Playground Composition

For several years now, I've been teaching graduate courses for Kodaly programs. This past summer, I taught Level I Pedagogy and Folk Song Research at DePaul University; the group of students had lots of fun ideas. One of those students was Cori Bloom. I found this pin on Pinterest and was excited to find out that it was from Cori's new TpT store, and that she had done some of this activity in her peer teaching. I loved it when she taught it, so I immediately bought the set. 

The composition project uses ta, ti-ti, quarter rest, and sol-mi. Students work in groups, and she has included possibilities for differentiation. It would be a great project for 1st graders in the spring, or with 2nd graders as review at the beginning of the year!

#5: Lil Liza Jane Orff arrangement

I love finding Orff arrangements to accompany songs my students already know, and even better if they are accessible AND help them prepare or practice a rhythmic concept!

The blog post by Beth's Music Notes includes the arrangement as well as a You Tube video with a jazz connection! Check out a fun hand jive to accompany "Liza Jane" here.

That's it for my five favorite pins! Make sure to click below to read the five favorite pins of other music bloggers, and happy pinning!

An InLinkz Link-up

Three fun activities for your music room

Three fun activities for your music room

Today, I'm blogging with three fun activities for your music room, that have worked well for my students and I!

#1: "Sunshine on my Shoulders" book by Christopher Canyon, words by John Denver

This is a beautifully illustrated book by Christopher Canyon; you can see it by clicking on the picture below.

You can put on the recording of the song as you turn the pages. It's a great opportunity to discuss audience behavior, and to have students listen for the meaning of a song's lyrics. We discuss how the sunshine can improve our mood, and how music can do the same. Christopher Canyon and his wife Jeanette are both illustrators and actually live in Bexley, just about 15 minutes away from my home. They came to my school a few years ago for an author visit and it was a very special treat!

#2: "Bounce High" disappearing measures

Now that my third graders know 2-beat meter, we've been playing around with inner hearing certain measures. For example, I will sing the song as the students look at the song on the board (written with barlines) but I will inner sing measure 3. They have to identify which measure I sung inside my head, and then they try to inner sing that measure.

Today, I tried a SMART board file I had created for a set I am selling on TpT, called "Songs and Activities to Teach 2-Beat Meter." The file included in this set allows the teacher and/or students to tap on a measure and watch it disappear; students can sing the song aloud but inner sing the measures that have disappeared. My students LOVED doing this... we ended up spending more time on it just so they could challenge themselves. You can view the set by clicking on the picture below.

#3: Liza Jane Hand Jive

My fourth and fifth graders are learning "Liza Jane" this week, along with this fun hand jive (thanks so much to Sam and LeeAnn from NPKC for performing this!)

 Have a great rest of your week!

Three ways to get your students moving

Three ways to get your students moving

Today I'm blogging about three ways to get your students moving in music class!

#1:  Eric Chapelle's "Movement for Creative Dance"

I found out about this CD series from a colleague I taught with at my last school. This is a wonderful CD set to help foster creativity and movement in your music room! Click on the picture below to view the CD on West Music (the link will take you to CD #2, but there are four CD's in the set.)

Each CD comes with creative movement suggestions, and the last track on each CD is called "Potpourri," and consists of musical fragments of each of the tracks on the CD, with pauses in between each fragment. I love using the "Potpourri" tracks, as students love doing what they call "freeze dance"--dancing and then freezing when the music stops. It's a great way to discuss how different styles of music require different types of movement. You can have students dance without props, or add scarves, ribbons, whatever! This is a great activity to inspire creativity AND to get your students to expel some of their energy! Speaking of CD's, you should try out...

#2: John Feierabend's "Keeping the Beat"

This is a wonderful CD for getting your kids to keep the beat! Click on the picture below to view the CD on West Music.

The CD comes with 36 tracks of short, upbeat classical pieces--perfect to get your young students moving! I often add this as a short activity to get my Kindergarteners moving to the beat. I have students follow what I'm doing, and do motions for 4 or 8 beats (4 beats on my head, 4 beats on my shoulders, 4 claps, 4 steps, etc.) and students do what I'm doing. Once they are comfortable with this, you can have them lead the motions (I find this works better starting in about January of the Kindergarten year, as they are developmentally more ready then--at least with me only having them once a week for 35 minutes!)

#3: Tennis balls

My third graders are practicing 2-beat meter right now, which is the perfect time to work with tennis balls! I first started working with tennis balls as a way to practice meter when I worked with the Dalcroze professor at my college (thank you to Tim Caldwell...I owe so much to him!) You can have students sing a song they know (such as "Bounce High") as they bounce the ball on the strong beat and catch on the weak beat. You can also have them listen to you play the piano and do the same. You can play a pattern in 2-beat meter (strong beat/ weak beat/ strong beat/ weak beat) and have them bounce, catch, bounce catch. Then you can switch to other meters and have them move accordingly (like bounce/ catch/ tap shoulders with the ball for 3-beat meter.) This is a great activity to get students to feel the strong beat, and they LOVE having their own tennis balls. Granted, it's a bit crazy and sometimes balls roll underneath desks and instruments, but the kids have so much fun! I bought my set of tennis balls 14 years ago during my first year of teaching...and they still bounce! (Okay, a few of them don't bounce as high, but still, fourteen years!!)

What are your favorite ways to get kids moving? Feel free to comment below, and happy teaching!

More fun with fruit manipulatives!

More fun with fruit manipulatives!

Since today is Monday, it is once again time for Lindsay Jervis' manipulatives linky party!

Last week, I discussed fruit manipulatives. I've really loved using these, so this week, I wanted to mention a few more uses for them!

In my last blog entry about fruit manipulatives, I had students use the manipulatives to practice ti-tika. After putting together the activity, I realized I could take away some of the fruit to practice easier rhythms. For example, if I take the raspberries out of the bags, then students could use them to practice tika-tika, by having a watermelon in every pattern. Take out the watermelons and raspberries, and students in first grade can practice ta and ti-ti! If students are practicing tika-ti, you could add artificial tangerines or clementines in the bags! Click on the picture below to see fake tangerines on Amazon.

When using these fruit manipulatives with other rhythms, you could use them as a standalone writing activity, or connect them to other songs about fruit, such as "Apple Tree" and "Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie." Another fun song that you could use for creating in 3-beat meter is "Oranges and Lemons," notated below.

To play the game, two students make an arch that the other students pass through as singing; one is secretly assigned as "orange" by the teacher with the other assigned as "lemon." On "Martin's," the students marking the arch drop their arms and catch a student. That student caught whispers "orange" or "lemon" to the teacher, and the teacher has him/her stand behind that student in the arch. The game continues until most or all students have been assigned to one side or the other, and then a tug of war ensues! The song is based on an English nursery rhyme (which you can read about here) and apparently the last verse is about chopping off someone's head. I think I may be leaving that verse out! :)

To use the manipulatives with the song, you could have students create a 6-beat pattern and say the fruit names, then rhythm names, but make sure the first beat of each three sounds strong, to help practice 3/4! You could use this as a B section, just as we did with "Red are strawberries" in the last blog entry.

This past weekend, I visited Fargo, ND and presented an assessment workshop for NPKC; the workshop was actually in Moorhead, MN, very close to Fargo. It was a fun time! After I presented about learning centers, I split the participants into four groups and had them try out the centers. At one of the centers, I combined fruit manipulatives with rhythm manipulatives, so that after they created the pattern, they had to figure out their rhythm and write it with cards. Here's an example below:

This is a great way to get students to connect the two types of manipulatives! I will write more about the rhythm manipulatives in another blog entry.

Thanks to Lindsay for the linky party, and have a great week!

Four great picture books for the music classroom

Four great picture books for the music classroom

Today, I'm blogging about four great picture books I'm using in my music classroom. Click on the pictures to see the books on Amazon (please note, these are affiliate links.)

#1: "This Land is Your Land" by Kathy Jakobsen and Woody Guthrie

Since it's Constitution Day today, I sang this to my third graders. Before I sang it, we discussed the holiday, how people sing patriotic music for patriotic holidays, and what the word "patriotic" means (it's surprising how many of them weren't sure!) The illustrations are beautiful, and there is some wonderful information about Woody Guthrie and about the song.

#2: How to Speak Moo by Deborah Fajerman

I learned about this book at a vocal exploration workshop by Lillie Feierabend and absolutely love it! It's great for grades K-2 (and even third) for vocal exploration. Each page has a different moo (high moo, low moo, soft moo, low moo, moo on trampoline, moo in tunnel, etc.) so after each page, I have students do that moo. At the end, there is a collage of all the different moos, and I have students choose their favorite and do that moo until I cut them off (which is good for teaching them to watch a conductor!) Lots of fun!

#3: "Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney

This week, I'm going to use this book with my first graders after presenting "long" and "short-short." I was going to write up the entire process, but realized I already wrote a blog about it last year. You can read that blog entry here.

#4: "Three Billy Goats Gruff" by Parragon Books

The book I've actually been using is certainly out of print (and falling apart!) so I think I'm going to buy this one for next year's Kindergarteners. Same story, but with cuter pictures! For this book, I first read the story to students and have them do vocal exploration. For the little goat, they speak "trip, trap, trip, trap" in their high squeaky voices, for the middle-sized goat they use their speaking voices, and for the large goat and the troll they use their low grumbly voices. In the next lesson, I assigned instruments: glockenspiels for the river, triangles for the small goat going over the river, rhythm sticks for the middle-sized goat, and hand drums for the large goat. We discuss how to play each instrument, and then they only play their instrument on their part. It was a fun way to introduce the instruments and how to play them, as well as improve their listening skills!

Looking for more picture books for the music classroom? Check out this post about singalong books, and check out my Pinterest board about children's books:

Happy reading, and happy teaching!