Throwback Thursday: Beginner's Guide to Elementary General Music

Throwback Thursday: Beginner's Guide to Elementary General Music

Hi everyone! Since today is Thursday, I decided to try out my very first Throwback Thursday linky party!

On Throwback Thursday, I will re-post one of my favorite blog entries from months or even years ago! Today I'm re-posting one of my favorites from April 2012, "A Beginner's Guide to Elementary General Music." If you are a teacher blogger, make sure to see the directions at the end on how to join...it's pretty easy...just re-post a previous blog and link up! Here goes...

For the last four weeks, I have had a student teacher in my classroom. She is the third student teacher I've had, and the experience always reminds me of those little things that have just become second nature to me after years of teaching. My current student teacher isn't new to music education--her mom is also a elementary music teacher--but some of these discoveries have still been surprising, as they were for me in my student teaching! Some thoughts and observations about elementary general music:

• Break it down: Kids in elementary school need things broken down, and broken down again, and yes, again! They are capable of more than some give them credit for, but the material still needs to be broken down into small steps--built from the ground up. 
• If you hesitate, they will talk: Even if you pause for five seconds to figure out what is next in the lesson, they will take the opportunity to talk! It's not that they are misbehaving, it's just human nature. Have you ever been to a staff meeting where there is a momentary pause? Adults will talk just as much (and sometimes, even more!)
• Periods of relaxation after concentration are very important!: If the students are asked to concentrate for a few minutes in a very focused setting, they need a break! (Don't we all?) Give them a break by singing and playing a game. They need that breather!
• Rehearse your lesson: I just told my student teacher today that I have at times rehearsed my lesson--after school, sitting in front of the computer, in the car. Maybe the person in the car next to mine thought I was crazy, but I knew that lesson inside and out by the time I taught it--what I was going to say, how I would transition, how many times the students would play the game. Rehearsing allows us to think through every aspect of the lesson.
• Pacing is key: If you don't stick to your lesson, your pacing will fall behind and you won't get through everything. And if you talk too much....your pacing will fall behind and you won't get through everything! Talk little, sing lots, and keep the lesson moving! The students will be more engaged and will be far less disruptive.
• Planning takes time: Those of us who have taught for even a year know how laughable it is when someone says, "Oh, so you're a teacher. Must be nice to only teach until 4 every day AND get the summers off!" Planning lessons (and the million other things we have to do each day) takes much longer than 8-4 every day. It takes late nights, weekends, and summer days. It takes dedication and time. Especially those first couple years, when writing a lesson takes at least an hour (and you have ten to write in a week!)
• Teaching is like acting: Sometimes, we are having a horrible day, and we just want to sit in front of the T.V., crack open a gallon of Ben and Jerry's, and cry. But when you're teaching, you just can't. You have to smile and put on that happy face and act like you want to be there. Sometimes, you actually act yourself into reality, and you decide you really do want to be there! (And other times, well, you just act, and hope the kids don't notice your forced smile!)
• Kids are funny: My student teacher has a "Funny moment of the week" in her journal entries. A few funnies: When she observed a friend of mine teaching music, she watched several kids pick their noses...and yes, eat what they found (Ewww!). A first grader just told us the other day, "I know where babies come from....your B-U-T-T!" (Uh...quick change of topic was in order there!) This year, I was showing my 2nd graders the "What a Wonderful World" book and explained that the song was sung by Louis Armstrong. "He's the guy who walked on the moon!" a student yelled. "No..." I said, "That's Neil Armstrong." The excited reply: "Is that his brother?!?!" One of my faves from years ago...when a fifth grader asked me if I was pregnant, I told her, "No, I'm not pregnant-- I'm not married." Her response: "That's not the way it's done in my family!" Ah, out of the mouths of babes!
• Teaching is WORK, but when it becomes second nature, it feels more like fun!: As stated above, teaching is really time-consuming, and it can be hard. But when my kids are singing beautifully, and smiling, and laughing, I think, "Really? I get PAID for this?" 

Any other observations to add? I'd love to hear them (or just hear your funny moment of the week!)

Make sure to click the links below to read other Throwback Thursday posts. Happy teaching!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five Favorite Pins of March

Five Favorite Pins of March

So now that it's almost the middle of March, it's time once again for my monthly linky party!

#1: Creative and respectful ways to quiet a class

This blog article has lots of fun ways to get your students quiet! Sometimes, I feel like I get stuck in a rut with the same old techniques, so it was fun to read some new ideas (and I appreciated how many of the strategies were musical!)

#2: Encouraging Critical and Creative Thinking

I am always looking for ways to encourage critical thinking (which is why I created my Critical Thinking in the Music Classroom Bundled Set) so I was excited when I found this blog article from Teaching with a Mountain View. I could see her think tray working really well in the music classroom--have a tray full of musical instruments/ accessories, and kids have to remember what they see! Great for instrument identification AND memory!

#3: Treble Clef Note Reading Centers

This site had lots of ideas to practice treble clef note reading in centers!

#4: Ten Flashing Fireflies

This beautiful book, by Philemon Sturges and Anna Vojtech, could be used with the Japanese song "Hotarukoi" or the American folk song "Firefly." I need to go buy this!

#5: Zoorchestra App

After reading about this fun app, I bought it, thinking if nothing else, I could have my 18-month-old play around with it. I could see it working well with K-2 as well, as a way to familiarize them with different instruments and pieces of music. Very fun!

Those are my five favorite pins of this month...what are yours?  Make sure to click on the links below to read favorite pins of other music bloggers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Solfa manipulatives

Solfa manipulatives

Today I'm linking up with Lindsay Jervis' Monday manipulatives linky party, to blog about solfa manipulatives!

 One of my favorite ways to have students use manipulatives is solfa manipulatives. I first came upon the idea of solfa manipulatives when I was studying in Hungary. My friend Bonnie presented about it to our level III class; she had learned about them in a previous level. I adapted the idea she presented a bit, and came up with laminated circles. Here is a picture of my students working with solfa manipulatives; usually I have them work individually, but this class was so big they had to work with partners!

The idea of solfa manipulatives it that each student has a bag of his/her own solfa circles; I make 4 circles for every solfa the student knows. So if the students are working on "la," then they would have 4 sol circles, 4 mi circles, and 4 la circles. Each solfa is made in a different color, so they are easy to organize and easy to assess!

What I really love about the manipulatives is that the students don't have to worry about the staff-they just think about which solfa they hear, and then whether there are steps, skips, or leaps in between each note. It's like a precursor to working on the staff. I've also noticed that for many students, rhythm comes much easier than solfa, so I love having a strategy to really focus on melody!

Even though I don't have them work on the staff, some of my students found my floor staff and wrote it on there. Love it!

I made mine by using an ellison die cut and construction paper. Once I cut out the paper, I wrote the solfa on each, then laminated each circle and cut it out. It was a very time-consuming process, but totally worth it, as I'm still using mine from 12 or so years ago! I have included a set of solfa manipulatives in each of my melodic sets, like "Songs and Activities to Teach Do," shown below.

Here are a few ways in which I've used solfa manipulatives:

• Put magnetic tape on the back of a set of the manipulatives, like shown below (click on the picture to buy the magnetic tape on Amazon; I think it's one of the best inventions EVER!)

• After putting tape on a set, sing a pattern to students on solfa, then have them "write" the pattern with the circles, then put in the contour, remembering the steps and skips.
• Next, you can do the same as above, but you play the pattern on the recorder or "loo" the pattern.
• After students work with the manipulatives on the board, they are now ready to work individually or in pairs. You can start with the same process-singing a pattern on solfa and having them write, then, when they're ready, play the pattern on the recorder or "loo" it.
• Have students work individually or with partners to compose their own pattern, then sing it aloud.
• Work in learning centers and assess students in small groups. This is eye-opening, because you can really tell whose melodic understanding is where it needs to be and who still needs a lot of help!

I try to use the manipulatives with every new melodic concept. It is such a great way to improve melodic understanding and inner hearing, and a great step to working on the staff! Hope you're able to use them too! Thanks to Lindsay for hosting the party! Click the picture below to read the other posts.

Five Favorite Pins of February

Five Favorite Pins of February

Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I realized it's time for my linky party for February!

If you are a blogger, feel free to join the linky party by following the directions at the end of this post. Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin.

#1: Self-assessment folders

This pin shows how you could use these folders to have students assess themselves with exit tickets. I recently posted about The Bulletin Board Lady's exit ticket set, and I think these folders could be a great way of both collecting exit tickets AND having students assess their understanding.

#2: Quotes from children's literature

This site has fifteen wonderful quotes from children's literature. I'm thinking of choosing a few of them, printing them, and posting them in my room!

#3: Penguin Waddle Race

I love the clip art of Pink Cat Studio, but I also love the interactive games she posts! This one is a freebie you can use to suit your needs--ask whatever questions you want to five different teams or five different students, and watch the penguins waddle ahead. So creative and cute!

#4: Sound houses

This is such a cute game for instrument identification! Could be done in small groups and would only take a section of a lesson.

#5: Pondering on group projects

I just blogged about group work, so I was very interested to read this blog by Teach123. I was especially intrigued because she used a scene from "Dead Poets' Society"--one of my favorite movies--to illustrate a point about conformity and group work. She posed some thought-provoking questions that have me re-thinking how I might adapt group projects in the future!

Those are my five favorite pins of this month...what are yours? Make sure to click the links below to read the favorite pins of other music bloggers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Music Manipulatives: Staff Writing with Erasers

Monday Music Manipulatives: Staff Writing with Erasers

Today I'm excited to once again link up with Lindsay Jervis for her Monday Music Manipulatives linky party, to blog about staff writing with erasers.

Today will be a simple and short post about staff writing with polar bear erasers! My first graders have been deep in sol-mi preparation. I've been getting them used to finding lines and spaces on the staff, and then figuring out which line or space (3rd line, 4th space, etc.)

Once students were comfortable with that (which took a few lessons of working on the skill for a few minutes), I handed a staff paper to each student, as well as two polar bear erasers, which I found on Oriental Trading.

Then, I had students put one polar bear eraser off to the side, and the other on the second line of the staff (or wherever you want.) I circulated around the room to make sure students were all finding the second line. I gave the students a few more places to find with the first eraser--fourth space, third line, etc. and each time I checked all of the answers to make sure everyone was getting it. If I saw that a student was not correct, I said to him/her, "You have your eraser on the ____________." Can you find the _____________?" and waited to make sure he/she was able to find the correct line or space correctly. This was a great formative assessment, as I was able to provide intervention to students who needed it and give feedback to others who were finding lines and spaces correctly.

After working with one eraser, I had students add their second eraser next to their first eraser. For example, you could have students put their first eraser on the third line and the second eraser on the second line, to the right of the first eraser. The most common mistake was for students to write it backwards, wtih the first eraser on the second line and the second eraser on the third line. I modeled the mistake on the SMART board and then discussed how to fix it. This is a simple and effective way to prepare students for writing on the staff with sol and mi!

Thanks to Lindsay for hosting this linky party, and to friend Mia for her wonderful ideas! Make sure to click the picture below to read all of the other ideas!

Five Favorite Pins of January

Five Favorite Pins of January

Hope you have had a wonderful start to your year! Since we are well into January, I figured it was time for my Five Favorite Pins of January!

If you are a blogger, feel free to join the linky party by following the directions at the end of this post. Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin.

#1: 36 Clever Ways to Decorate Your Classroom

There are SO many great ideas here about how to decorate your classroom, like contact paper to spice up your file cabinets, stenciling quotes or phrases on your walls, and so much more! I will especially be looking at this at the beginning of the school year next year when I'm re-decorating my classroom!

#2: Fiddle Sticks

This game was designed for vocabulary words, but it could easily be adapted for rhythm patterns, for use in centers! A student pulls a stick; if he/she reads it correctly, if not, the stick goes back into the cup. If a student pulls a stick with the red tip, then all their sticks go back inside the cup. The player with the most sticks at the end of the time is the winner!

#3: Tweet Music's "Clip it" game

This is one of my favorite purchases on TpT, because it is such a great formative or summative assessment tool! Students listen for a specific pattern and then put a certain colored clothespin on that pattern. The teacher can circulate and see who can identify the patterns and who still needs help. So far, I've bought the sol-mi set, the ta and ti-ti set, and this set (and each time a new set is posted, she's been putting them on sale for 50% off for a limited time!) This week, I used the sol-mi set on my SMART board; I had a sample card on the board, and played a pattern on the recorder, and students had to vote on which one I played. Oh, and even better...you can use them any time during the year, because she has included cards for many different holidays and seasons!

#4: "I like winter" bulletin board

This is a cute bulletin board in and of itself, but for the music room, wouldn't this be cute if all the cups were music notes, and the heading was "I like music because..."? I will have to work on that!

#5: Civil Rights Picture Books

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow, and Black History Month coming up in February, I'd really like to find some of these books and see how they could fit into my lessons. The website posting this list is an amazing resource for all sorts of children's books!

That's it for January! Make sure to click the links below to read the favorite pins of other music bloggers. Happy pinning, and happy teaching!

Five Favorite Pins of December

Five Favorite Pins of December

This December has been pretty busy, between preparation for the school-wide singalong (which is tomorrow), my choir concert (which was last week), and Christmas shopping (which is constant!) Still, I wanted to take some time for my five favorite pins of December!

Those of you who are teacher bloggers, feel free to link up! Directions are listed at the bottom of this post. Here are my five favorite pins of the month:

#1: How to Read Music Visual

How cute is this? I plan on printing this out and posting it in my room. It would be especially beneficial to my band and recorder students. If you click the picture above, it will take you to the website, where you can print this out for free!

#2: Show What You Know Bulletin Board

I'm not sure who originally posted this (as the pin is linked to a picture, not to a blog or website), but it is so cute! You can use speech bubbles as exit slips, or to have students write about a specific concept. You might even have students write their speech bubbles in learning centers, then post on a bulletin board later. For example, if the learning centers are about instrument families, then the students can write what they know about instrument families. I was excited to find the speech bubbles below for free on Teachers Pay Teachers; just click the picture to download the clip art!

#3: Cup stacking activity to "Carnival of the Animals"

In her blog, Mrs. King discusses a cup stacking activity for "Tortoise" from "Carnival of the Animals." Great for listening to the piece AND to improve problem solving skills! Click the picture above to read the blog.

#4: Music Lesson for "I See a Song" by Eric Carle

Click the picture above to watch a really cute video of a lesson for "I See a Song." Kindergarteners create their own compositions with instruments, inspired by the pictures in the Eric Carle book. Love it! 

#5: Early Finisher Cards

I found this blog by Ashleigh and loved the idea of having a way to keep students engaged when they finish early. I also loved the cute way she displayed these cards with a flip flop holder...but as cute as her cards are, they wouldn't work in my classroom, since I teach music.

So I brainstormed and came up with my own music cards for first grade music, which I have just posted to TpT. Mine look like this:

If you're still trying to wrap your mind around how exactly to use these in your music room, here are a few ways I think they will work well:

• If students are working on a worksheet or assignment and get done early, they can hand in their papers and pencils, then grab one of the five sets of cards (which include vocal exploration, musical vocabulary, critical thinking, rhythm cards, and song titles.) Then, students individually work on these (saying the rhythm patterns inside their heads, singing the vocal exploration patterns inside their heads, etc.) while the rest of the class finishes. If you have more than 5 students who get done early, they can pair up with a friend. (I am going to preface this activity with my kids telling them that if they argue with their classmates over who gets what, then they just have to sit quietly!)
• I can also see this working during centers. Sometimes I have centers that don't take as long as the other centers going on, and then students are just sitting there waiting (or drawing pictures on the back of their worksheets!) Instead, students can grab one of these sets of cards and have something to do.
• I also think these would work really well while students are lined up waiting for their teachers to pick them up. Sometimes I have students sing songs, and sometimes I ask them questions, but these would be really effective to keep them engaged until they leave the room!

Here is my bundled set:

I included directions in the sets on how to display the sets using flip flop holders from Boottique like I did (the holders are $10 each, plus shipping), but I also included directions to store the cards without the flip flop holder. 

These pins have once again inspired me to try out something new and engage the students in new and exciting ways! I hope you found something useful too.

Make sure to click the link below to see the favorite pins of other music bloggers. Happy pinning, and happy teaching!

Turkey Rhythms

Turkey Rhythms

A few weeks ago, I found a pin on Pinterest that I thought was really cute for classroom teachers:

I wondered if there was a way I could adapt this idea to rhythm. I was excited when I found foam turkeys on Oriental Trading. When they came in the mail, each set looked like this:

They actually came with one more smaller paper plate, but I discovered that overlapping and then gluing paper plates together was much harder than it looked, so I turned it into a one-paper-plate craft!

After gluing all the parts on, the turkeys looked like this:

Each turkey came with six feathers, but I only used five. For the "Miss White" turkey above, I wrote out each 4-beat pattern of the chant on four feathers. On the fifth feather, I wrote a trick pattern that didn't belong to the chant. I made five turkeys for each of the five songs/chants: Miss White, We are dancing, Apple Tree, 2, 4, 6, 8, and Bee Bee. Then after singing/speaking each song/chant with the first grade class, I split the class into five groups, and each group got a turkey with five feathers. I told them to figure out which patterns went in which order, and to fan them out. They had lots of fun writing! They simply placed the feathers where they thought they should go--no glue needed!

After each group was done, I had them stand up so I could check their work. If a group got done earlier than other groups, I told them they could then put the feathers into whatever order they wanted. One student suggested that they take turns clapping rhythms, and the members of the group would have to figure out which feather they clapped. Love it! I used this for ta and ti-ti, but with my leftover turkeys and feathers, I still have enough to make another set for next year for a different rhythmic concept!

Looking for more Thanksgiving activities for your music room? Check out this set:

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hope you are all able to spend some quality time with your family and friends. Enjoy!

Five Favorite Pins of November

Five Favorite Pins of November

I've been so busy lately participating in the linky parties of other teachers that I forgot about my own! Here goes my monthly linky party, this time for my five favorite pins of November.

If you are a teacher blogger and would like to participate, see the link-up directions at the bottom of this post.

#1: Before John was a Jazz Giant

I love children's literature, and I love jazz, so I was super excited when I found this book on Pinterest! The illustrations are beautiful (by Sean Qualls, the illustrator of Dizzy, another jazz book) and the text looks poetic. I just bought my copy (you can view it on Amazon by clicking on the picture above) and I think I may play John Coltrane in the background as I read.

#2: Italian Folk Dance

This is actually a pin that I pinned to Pinterest myself. I was searching for Italian folk dances, as I was writing a program for my third graders based off the music of Europe. (At my school this year, we have a school-wide theme of continents, so that each grade level is assigned a continent. Since third grade's continent is Europe, I am creating a program based off of European music for them.) Anyway, I couldn't find any Italian folk dances in any of the resources I had, so I decided to search You Tube, and I found this really cute dance!

The group of students who performed this are in pre-school (which, if you ask me, is pretty impressive given the part of the dance where they were creating bridge after bridge!) I think the dance could work well with grades 2-3, so I am going to teach this to my third graders for their program. The music is "Tarantella," and can be found on Amazon here.

#3: Teaching Music

This looks to be a very comprehensive music education site, based out of the UK. It's free to join, and has lots of great articles. I especially enjoyed the article on creativity and Kodaly's principles by Mark Penrose. I will have to continue to dig deeper into this site!

#4: Letters to Students

I've talked about David Row's blog before, but hadn't read all of his blog entries to date. I found this on Pinterest, and really liked his idea of writing personal letters to each student throughout the year. (Click on the picture above to see his original blog post.) With 500 students, this would take a long time, and since it's November, I might choose to only do one letter per student, but it is an ambitious and wonderful idea to really connect to every student. Thanks to David for the idea!

#5: Practice makes progress

I found this on Pinterest and just love it!

So many of us have grown up hearing that "Practice makes perfect," but how many of us have been frustrated when practice didn't make perfect? Perfection is pretty unattainable, so I love this saying, and will post it in my room soon! If you click on the picture above, it will take you to a blog where you can download the sign as a PDF.

Before I give instructions about joining the linky party, just a reminder to enter into my 700-Followers Giveaway if you haven't already! I will be announcing the winners next Tuesday, November 26 (oh, I just realized...that's my birthday! Perfect timing!) You can click on the picture below to enter the giveaway.

Directions for the linky party:

If you are a music teacher (or a classroom teacher whose ideas could work in any classroom), and you are interested in joining the linky party and blogging about your five favorite pins this month, here are the directions:

• Save the linky party graphic above onto your computer (by right clicking), then include it into your post, with a link to this post.
• Blog about your five favorite pins. Include pictures with links when possible.
• Click this button to join the linky party!