Three Things {Grizzly Bear, Loud and Quiet, and a Picture Book}

Three Things {Grizzly Bear, Loud and Quiet, and a Picture Book}

Today, I’m returning to my "Three Things" linky party, in which I blog about three things that worked for my and my students this week. Thanks to Whimsy Workshop Teaching, Kimberly Geswein fonts, and Jax and Jake for the cute clip art and fonts!

#1: Grizzly Bear

My Kindergarteners have been preparing loud and quiet. One of my all-time favorite songs for this is "Grizzly Bear," which you can see below:

The kids love the song, as it starts very quietly and gets louder and louder, until they shout, "Roar" at the end! For the game, I have students walk in a circle, counter-clockwise, until they repeat the first phrase. Then on "Please be very quiet," students stay still and put a finger to their lips. For "If you wake him, if you shake him..." students step louder and louder to the beat until they roar at the end! (I have them put their hands up like they are claws when they roar!) One child pretends to be a sleeping bear in the middle as all of the movement is going on, and then on "Roar," that kid stands up and tries to tag one student. I have one spot that is the safe zone (my white board).

The kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this game! And it's a very fun way to teach loud and quiet!

#2: Loud and Quiet lesson

Speaking of loud and quiet, I also presented loud and quiet this week to my Kindergartners. I love my presentation lesson, as it has so many great songs (like "Lucy Locket," "Grizzly Bear," and "Engine Engine") and it includes one of my favorite books, "Thump Thump Rat-a-tat-tat." It's also my first presentation lesson of the year for Kindergarten, which is exciting! You can find the lesson in the loud/quiet set below as well as a slightly different loud/quiet lesson in the Kindergarten lesson set below.

      

#3: "America the Beautiful" book

My fifth graders are preparing for their program, which will be based off the book "Wangari's Trees of Peace," which you can check out below.

Here is a blog post about the program, including which songs and dances I used. Many of the songs are Kenyan or are from other countries in Africa, but one of the songs is "America the Beautiful" (as Wangari leaves Kenya to attend school in America.) I used the picture book below to introduce the song to students:

Of course, students have heard the song before, but I love using this picture book to teach the song, to discuss what the lyrics mean, and to discuss patriotic music in general. (If you're interested in reading another post about patriotic music, check out this great post by Tracy King from Mrs. King Rocks.)

It's sometimes difficult to find picture books that work with older grades, so this is a great one! After I sang the song and we discussed, I had students sing each phrase of the first verse with me.

Make sure to check out the things that worked for other music bloggers below! Happy teaching!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Technology tips for the classroom

Technology tips for the classroom

Have you ever been teaching and a piece of technology that you were relying on for your lesson completely failed you? This has probably happened to all of us at some point, so today I'll write about preventing these technology troubles, leaving you with a smooth, engaging lesson!

#1: Think ahead

When I'm teaching, I often have to think ahead to the next activity in the lesson or even the activity after that. I have an agenda that has all of my songs, activities, etc. on it as well as my "I can" statements, and my SMART Notebook files, Powerpoints, PDF's, etc. that I need are linked in the agenda. As I'm teaching, I try to think ahead to what's coming next so I can open the file ahead of time, especially if it's a SMART notebook file, as those--at least on my computer--can take a long time to open up! I've had it happen so often that a SMART notebook file takes a few minutes to load, and a few minutes in an elementary classroom is a long time! I try to open the file when the kids are doing a singing game, working with partners, playing instruments, or otherwise engaged, so they don't have to sit and wait.

When I'm showing YouTube videos, I also have to think ahead, as in my district, I have to sign into a filter in order to show the video. The filter in my district only lasts for one hour before I have to sign in again, so if I know a video is coming up in the lesson, I make sure to sign into the filter when students are doing something else. That way, they're not sitting around waiting for the video to be up and running!

#2: Have a back-up plan

I don't necessarily have a back-up plan for every activity in my lesson, but I can improvise if I need to. For example, the other day I was trying to have first graders write the rhythm to "Bee Bee" on the SMART board, but the SMART notebook file never opened up for me (instead, the program crashed.) Once I realized it was taking too long, I drew bees on the board myself with dry erase marker and had students figure out the rhythm.

You might not always be able to think of a back-up activity ahead of time, but in the moment, if you need to write on the dry erase board instead of the SMART board, go for it! The lack of interactivity might not be as cool as what you've planned, but it's better than waiting around for the technology to work.

#3: Do filler activities

While I'm waiting for a file to open, I might have students echo rhythm patterns, echo melodic patterns, sing the song one more time, turn to a partner and tell them what they could improve next time we play/sing the song, etc. These are all activities that can improve students' musicianship, and they help to fill the time and keep students engaged while you are waiting for technology to work!

#4: The freeze button is your friend!

You may have had the experience that you are about to watch a YouTube video, and a commercial that is perhaps a bit inappropriate or non-kid-friendly comes on the screen...and you very quickly pause or turn off the video to avoid the kids from seeing anything (if they haven't already!) I now use the freeze button to alleviate this problem. Before I even hit play on the video, I hit freeze on the projector remote, and I make sure that it will actually play the video. Every few videos, it seems to show a commercial, and with some videos, it will show a commercial regardless, so you have to be careful. I freeze the projector, put the volume down on my speakers, and check to make sure the video will play with no commercial before showing the students. They don't know any different (although they may remind you that the freeze button is on), and then no worries about commercials!

You might look into using Safeshare, which is a great website that takes out YouTube commercials. I've heard there have been some problems lately with the site but I believe those problems have been solved. You will also have to check at your school to make sure you are allowed to go to the site. My district blocked the site, and I can't even sign into the site with a filter, so it will depend on your district.

#5: Technology is not always the way

As much as I love technology, sometimes kids just need to put their hands on something--to touch something, to feel it, to manipulate it. If we never have students hold things in their hand, they are at a disadvantage. I've been learning more about sensory processing disorder lately, as my three-year-old was just diagnosed with it, and I've learned that in order for some kids to learn best, they need to move, to spin, to hold, to touch. If we only put iPads and SMART notebook files in front of our students, they may not learn as well as they could. Make sure you have a healthy balance of actual objects your kids can feel with activities that utilize technology.

Looking for more technology ideas? Check out my "Techie stuff" Pinterest board!




I hope these strategies help you as you integrate technology into your lessons! What are your tips?

Three Things {Orff Rules, Plainsies Clapsies, and a Recorder Freebie}

Three Things {Orff Rules, Plainsies Clapsies, and a Recorder Freebie}

Hi everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. My family just got back from Cincinnati for a short, one-day trip, and it was fun and relaxing!

Today, I’m writing again with my “Three Things” linky party, in which I blog about three things that worked for my and my students this week. Thanks to Whimsy Workshop Teaching, Kimberly Geswein fonts, and Jax and Jake for the cute clip art and fonts!

#1: Reviewing Orff instrument rules before playing instruments

My first graders have been practicing steady beat and rhythm, so I had them sing “Engine Engine” (all on sol-mi) while playing the beat on the Orff instruments (a bourdon, on C and G.) I think the reason this was more successful for my students than in years past is that I took my time to explain how to play the instruments correctly before having students go to the instruments. I used Cori Bloom’s Orff instrument rules in the first lesson, which you can see below (click on the pic to buy them in her store):

After I went over the rules, I only had six students come to instruments, and showed the entire class how playing the beat should look. I promised the students who didn’t get to play that they would play in the next class. In the next class (which was this week), we reviewed the rules again, and then everyone got a chance to play…and I really do think it was so much better than it has been in years past! Reviewing the rules and seeing the model of just a few kids playing really seemed to do the trick! Even when students can keep a steady beat well on their bodies, they sometimes falter a bit when they get to instruments, so I was happy with how well they did!

#2: Stony Creek {A Recorder Freebie}

My fourth graders have been practicing B and A on recorder. Of course, they love playing the recorder, but they love it even more when they can play music with accompaniment! I created this freebie last year, and my kids loved playing it this week! (Click on the picture to download it.)

First we spoke the rhythm, then we said the letter names, then we said and fingered the notes, then we played. I have to say, they were pretty excited when they found out I composed it…but it wasn’t too hard to do on GarageBand!

#3: Plainsies Clapsies

My second graders have been practicing la, and they LOVE the new song they’ve learned, “Plainsies Clapsies.” (Click the title to view it on the Holy Names Kodaly website…which is an amazing resource that you should check out if you haven’t yet!) Students get to use beanbags to do all the motions, which is both challenging AND fun! It also works well to prepare 2-beat meter, as they are tossing on the strong beat and catching on the weak beat.

Make sure to read the things that have worked for other music teachers by clicking below! Happy teaching!

An InLinkz Link-up

Three Things {Instrument activity, Einstein, and I let her go-go}

Three Things {Instrument activity, Einstein, and I let her go-go}

Hi everyone! I'm excited to continue my new linky party today, called "Three things." I'm going to blog about three things that worked really well for my students this past week...things that were magical, that they beg to do again, etc. Thanks to Whimsy Workshop Teaching, Kimberly Geswein fonts, and Jax and Jake for the cute clip art and fonts!

#1: Kindergarten instrument activity

Two weeks ago, I read the book "Three Billy Goats Gruff" to my Kindergarteners, and had students use their squeaky/high speaking voice to say "trip trap, trip trap" for the little billy goat gruff, their speaking voice for the middle billy goat gruff, and their grumbly/ low speaking voice for the great big billy goat gruff and for the troll. This was a great way to explore their voices while reading a well known story! Here is the book I used, but there are many different versions out there!

Then, this past week, I reviewed the story with the students, then had some students play the gathering drum for "Oh no, you're not!", some students play the glockenspiel (on whatever notes they wanted) for the little billy goat gruff's "trip trap, trip trap," some students play the alto xylophone for the middle billy goat gruff's "trip trap, trip trap," and the rest of the students play the bass metallophone and bass xylophone for the great big billy goat gruff's "trip trap, trip trap." The kids LOVED playing the instruments, and it was a great way to introduce them to instruments and practice story structure--as they could only play for their character!

#2: "Einstein" by I am Bullyproof Music

This summer, I had the pleasure of meeting Lessia Bonn from I am Bullyproof Music at the TpT conference in Las Vegas. I then began listening to a lot of her music and love that her music not only is beautifully written, but it has a great message. My fourth graders listened to "Einstein" this week, and I loved how they were immediately grooving to it, and that they could articulate the message behind the song after only one listening! My goal is to have them create a video in small groups to the song, using iMovie...more to come on that! Here is a video that Lessia created for "Einstein."

Most of the songs I do with the students are folk songs, but I've been searching for a way to bridge the gap between the music I do with them and the music they hear every day. Pop music can be tricky, because it's so often inappropriate and it sometimes goes out of "style," so Lessia's songs are a great bridge between pop and folk, allowing students to transfer their learning!

To purchase the mp3 for "Einstein," click here, and to purchase materials for teaching Einstein as well as the mp3, click the picture below:

#3: I let her go-go

After my second graders sang and played "Bow Wow Wow," I showed them "I let her go-go" and had them figure out how it was similar. (If I remember correctly, I learned this connection from my good friend Andrew Ellingsen, who is an AMAZING presenter if you ever get a chance to see him!) Here is a video of "I let her go-go"....the kids loved it, and I love connecting the two songs and discussing the similarities!

What were you favorite activities this week? Feel free to comment below, and make sure you read the ideas of others by clicking below! Happy teaching!

An InLinkz Link-up

Three Things {Kindergarten movement, a book, and a dance!}

Three Things {Kindergarten movement, a book, and a dance!}

Hi everyone! I'm excited to start a new linky party today, called "Three things." I'm going to blog about three things that worked really well for my students this past week...things that were magical, that they beg to do again, etc. I am hoping to do this every Sunday afternoon as a way to share great activities. If you are a music blogger, and would like to link up with your three things, see the directions at the end of this post. Thanks to Whimsy Workshop Teaching, Kimberly Geswein fonts, and Jax and Jake for the cute clip art and fonts!

#1: Kindergarten movement activity

As many of you know, Kindergarteners are a bit different to teach than any other grade level! They sometimes have a hard time sitting still, so I try to add movement activities pretty often throughout the lesson. One of my favorites, especially at the beginning of the year, is simply to have them find their own self space around the room and make a statue. Then when I say a movement word like "walk," "jog," "crawl," "skip," "gallop," etc., they do that, but when I play the finger cymbals or triangle, they have to freeze like a statue! The kids love this, and it's a great way to practice gross motor movement! (I model how to skip, gallop, etc. before we do the activity.) To make it more challenging, you could have two different instruments, like a wood block and finger cymbals, and you play both, but they only freeze when they hear the finger cymbals! For more tips about teaching Kindergarten music, see this blog post.

#2: "Tap that magic tree" by Christie Matheson

This book is truly magical! I use it after students sing and play "Apple Tree." On each page, students have to do something, like blow a kiss to the tree, knock on the tree, tap the petals, etc., to get something to happen on the next page. I did this with first grade, and they were SO excited to get a chance to knock, to touch, to blow a kiss, etc.! You can purchase the book by clicking on the picture above.

#3: I love a rainy night

Last year, for my 5th grade program, I had them perform a line dance for the song "I love a rainy night," which I learned about from Sanna Longden's folk dance book, "More folk dance music for kids and teachers." You can view it by clicking on the picture below:

You can also see the dance directions here.

My fifth graders last year absolutely LOVED this dance, which uses the song by Eddie Rabbitt. I decided I had to do the dance with every fifth grade class I have until I retire, because c'mon, you know it's a good dance when fifth graders beg to do it! I taught it this last week, and one of the kids yelled out, "That was FUN!" and another kid yelled out, "That was like being at the beach!" 

A dance that is like being at the beach? Yes, let's do that again!

I also love that is easy to learn; some of the line dances for this song I saw online would be tricky to teach to fifth grade, but the dance in Sanna's book is both interesting yet accessible.

For your listening enjoyment, here is "I love a rainy night." Listen and imagine a line dance to this. It really is that awesome!

Make sure to read the ideas of others by clicking below! Happy teaching!

An InLinkz Link-up

YouTube videos for music teachers

YouTube videos for music teachers

Hi everyone! I've been having fun posting YouTube videos to my YouTube channel lately, so I thought I'd share some videos here in this post in case you hadn't seen them! If you haven't subscribed to my YouTube channel, you can do it by clicking the link above or clicking on the YouTube button on the right side of my blog.

Here is a new video I just posted with a tour of my music room. To see more pictures and explanations, see this blog post.

Here's a video I posted about lesson planning:

Watch this video to learn about creating song lists:

This video is about creating song indexes...

...and this video is about creating year plans:

This video showcases one of my favorite folk dances, "Dandiya Raas." My Level I students from last year at DePaul were kind enough to agree to be recorded! Check out this blog post for more details about the dance, and to watch two other song/ dance videos:

Let me know if there is anything else you'd like me to record. Enjoy!

Classroom Reveal {2015-2016}

Classroom Reveal {2015-2016}

I'm really excited to link up with Tracy King from Mrs. King Rocks to blog about what's on my wall and in my classroom!

Here is a view of the first part of my classroom; I chose a jungle theme for my classroom this year! I'm really, really lucky to have a fairly large space in my classroom. I have been in other situations, with itty-bitty rooms, and appreciate the large space I now have! I like to label all of my drawers to I remember what's in them...I have so many that otherwise I'd forget! The bins you see on the left of the picture are used for my grade-level materials; you can read a post about that here.

Here is a close-up of my word wall. I decided this year to try a word wall by grade (suggested by my friend Nyssa Brown, who is a phenomenal educator; check out her blog here). I've been putting up the words as we learn them instead of having them listed alphabetically. You can purchase my jungle-themed set, which includes my word wall, here.

The recorder printables are a fun way to internalize concepts and skills for recorder; you can purchase them from Teaching in Tune here.

My levels of understanding posters help students assess their own learning; they are included in my jungle-themed set. The idea of the partner poster is that students can go to the poster if they can't find a partner, and then solve the problem of no partner by partnering up with someone there! You can download it for free here.

I have to admit...this is a Pinterest-inspired idea! I took zebra-patterned duct tape and applied to my file cabinet! Easy and cute!

The three chairs are my time-out chair, the ready chair students can go to after they have thought about their choices, and my special chair students sometimes get as a reward after they are a star student. One of their favorite rewards to sit in this chair during music class!

Here is my "Wild about Beethoven" bulletin board. I am doing composer of the month this year (using this set) and am using the bulletin board to teach students about composers each month! (And I have to say, I was VERY excited when I realized I had a cartridge for my Cricut with Beethoven's signature!!!) You can find this bulletin board (minus the Cricut letters) in this set as well as the growing bundle.

Here is another bulletin board, called "Bananas about music"! You can find it in my jungle-themed set.

And here is my last bulletin board, in the hallway; it is from Amy Abbott's "We are the music makers" set; I love how bright and colorful it is!

I got the idea for my mallet jars from two sources: the ribbons around the mason jars from Pinterest, and the mallets in the jars from my former colleague Clinton. I love how organized the mallets are instead of just shoved into a drawer, and the jars were super easy to decorate! Of course, the idea could be applied to any theme!

I have these instrument rules posters by Cori Bloom posted by my Orff instruments. Love the idea of having rules just for the Orff instruments!

These bookcases are new for me this year. I needed a place to store my interactive journals (and please, ignore the fact that unfinished wood is on top. I'm not the best at putting things together...and these were actually supposed to be twice as tall!) The magazine files can be found here at IKEA; here is my 3rd grade interactive journal and my 4th grade interactive journal (I'll be blogging more about  using those in my classroom soon!) I found the notebooks at Target for 17 cents each...woo hoo!

I just posted this on my wall...love it! I have added woodwind, strings, percussion, and brass visuals to my jungle-themed set; if you've already purchased, you can re-download under "my purchases"!

Here is a view of the area students face as I am teaching. I have my agenda (templates can be found here), with my "I can" statements, posted on my SMART board. My hand signs are posted to the left of my board, and my musical symbol wall is posted to the left of the hand signs. I find the symbol wall a great way for students to apply what they've learned from me to the "real" musical names! My rules, the symbol visuals, and the hand signs are included in my jungle-themed set.

I was inspired to get this tree (from my local teacher store) from a customer named Dana who bought a very similar tree and posted one of my bulletin board sets in the branches. Here is her pic of her classroom...beautiful!

 I loved the idea, but instead of posting the bulletin board set, I'm having some of my star students put their names on the leaves. The containers to the left of the tree are for the fourth graders' recorders.

Here is another Pinterest-inspired idea; I used two different types of zebra-patterned duck tape to decorate my stool! (Lots of compliments from my students on this one!)

I would use this staff board for writing on the staff...but it is behind the students, and I have a SMART board, so instead I use it for restroom numbers and classroom jobs! The area to the right has jungle animal magnets that students can move when they go to the restroom or the nurse (see the post I wrote about that process here); the second picture is a close-up of the animals, which I bought at Michael's. My classroom jobs help me assign students jobs for each month and make my classroom more efficient; you can see my set here.

Here's another view with my new zebra lanterns up!

Here is a picture of my bookcase; the labels help me as I'm looking for resources!

I had fun decorating AND revealing my classroom! Click on any of the pictures below to either see blog posts by other music bloggers with what's on their walls, or to see sets that you can decorate your classroom with! Have fun! And feel free to comment below with what's on your wall!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lesson Planning Tips

Lesson Planning Tips

I hope you are all either enjoying the start of your school year or enjoying the last days of your summer! I just started school yesterday and it's been wonderful! Even though I will miss staying at home with my girls, I was reminded how much I enjoy teaching, and how much I enjoyed seeing the kids!

Now that I'm getting back into the swing of things, I thought I'd write a blog post with links and information for lesson planning.

Here is a video I just put together on YouTube about lesson planning. I hope it's helpful!

Here is a blog post I wrote about planning for your Kindergarten lessons...

...and here is another blog post about lesson planning.

I hope this helps as you begin planning out your lessons. Good luck, and enjoy!