Hope you have had a wonderful February! Since it is February, I am posting my five favorite pins of this month.
Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin.
#1: Bucket Drumming 101
This helpful blog post has some great suggestions for starting bucket drumming! I'm about to do a bit of it with my 4th graders, so I appreciated reading this!
#2: Orff Orffestrations
This pin leads to 15 FREE Orff arrangements! Woo hoo! I'd love to try "Tideo" soon; the arrangement looks accessible and fun!
#3: Tips and Tricks from Level II
I have not taken my Orff levels yet (although I would love to!) so I loved reading about someone else's experience. This blog post has some great ideas gathered from the author's level II, including how to teach the difference between low and high on Orff instruments!
#4: Stomp Unit
This pin leads to a blog post about a Stomp Unit...and it includes a free worksheet to help your small groups create!! I've always wanted to do a Stomp unit so would love to try this!
#5: Free music notation images
Have you ever wanted to create a worksheet or poster but couldn't find music images? Download all of these for free!
There are my five pins! If you'd like to see more pins like this, make sure to follow me on Pinterest.
Make sure to check out the blog posts below, of other music bloggers writing about their favorite pins! Happy pinning!
My first few years of teaching, I sat down for hours at a time, on Saturday or Sunday, and planned all my lessons for the next week…by hand. Now, having kids at home, I really prefer for my weekends to be family time, and make sure to have time during the school day or right after the school day, before I go home, to write lessons (and I do them all by computer!)
I realize that some music teachers have little to no planning during the day (as I’ve been there) so today, I’m writing a blog post with different options for when to lesson plan.
During the weekend
Like I wrote above, you could simply take a chunk of your weekend, sit down with a few cups of coffee, and knock them all out for the next week! It can be great to not have to worry about lesson planning during the week—especially if you have little to no planning. Another benefit is that once you’re in lesson planning mode, it sometimes goes faster. The disadvantage is that you lose a decent amount of your weekend. And if you have kids at home, you may not want to go this route!
During a big planning period
A few years ago, on my Fridays, I had a big planning period. This is when I tried to do my lesson planning, or at least a big chunk of it. I liked that I only had to worry about it on one day, but the disadvantage was that if I were sick on a Friday, I had to write the lesson plans on another day, likely on the weekend.
As you need new lessons
For much of my career, my schedule was all over the place. I’d have one first grade class on Mondays and Fridays, another first grade class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and another on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, because of snow days, assemblies, and missed days,one class might be four lessons ahead of another class. Back then, I’d write lessons as I needed to. So if I had a new lesson on a Wednesday, I’d write it on Monday or Tuesday so it was ready for that class. I had to be careful to track which class was on which lesson and make sure to look at the list every day so I didn’t miss any new lessons, so it felt a little hectic.
A little every day
At this point in my career, I am on a rotating ABCDE schedule (which you can read about more here.) I see everyone once each rotation for 50 minutes (and Kindergarten for 35 minutes.) Although I miss seeing them more, it evens out a little bit in that when we have a snow day and that was an A day, the next day becomes an A day! Now, except for in cases of sick days or assemblies, all of my classes are on the same lessons, which really makes my week feel much more seamless! And now, it’s much easier to figure out when to lesson plan.
On my A day, I just feel out the new lessons and don’t write any lesson plans. On B day, I write lessons for Kindergarten and first. On C day, I write lessons for second and fifth. On D day, I write lessons for third and fourth grade. And on my E day, I print out all my lessons and put them into my binder, make sure all my materials are ready, and type up all my agendas (you can read more about my agendas here.)
This is by far my favorite lesson planning schedule, as I know exactly what I’m doing each day. I also love that on my A day, I don’t have to worry about lesson planning, and on my E day, all I have to worry about is getting the lessons ready.
Something to consider when choosing your system is how long it will take you to write each lesson plan. This depends on each person, on your training, on how many details you include in your lessons, etc. I find that it takes me around 25 minutes to write each lesson plan if I'm writing it from scratch, so that can really add up when you have several lessons to write each week! (If you’re wanting more information about lesson planning, see this blog post, which includes a YouTube tutorial.) I do sometimes re-use lesson plans from previous years, but always tweak them for this year's students. In that case, it may only take me 10 minutes to write a lesson.
You'll also want to consider how far out you want to lesson plan. For example, some people may not be comfortable writing a lesson plan for the next day's lessons--and in some buildings, your administrator may require you to turn in your lessons a week ahead of time. I prefer to have taught the previous lesson before beginning to write the next lesson, as sometimes you think you're going to get something and it just doesn't happen, or there are gaps in the students' learning that you didn't anticipate! Again, this is a personal decision, which is sometimes affected by outside factors, such as if you're required to turn in lessons.
Whichever system you choose, it’s of course one that has to work for you, your teaching schedule, and your life! Which system do you use? Feel free to comment below, and happy planning!
This past week, my fourth graders performed a program based on the book, "Olivia's Birds" by Olivia Bouler.
The book is a really inspiring true story about an 11-year-old named Olivia who helped Audubon by donating her art to people who contributed to the Gulf Clean-Up Campaign. All of the art and text throughout the book is created by Olivia! Today, I'm blogging with a summary of songs and dances I used for the program, as well as scenery ideas and an idea for donating to Audubon!
I did this program with fourth grade, but it could easily be adapted for third or fifth. Here are the details; keep in mind that I jumped around a bit in the book, since the book isn't exactly chronological.
I split the text up between 28 narrators, but I didn't use all of the text, and I added a little text to suit my needs (I'll include the text I changed.) Most of the book is about different types of birds, so you could exchange some of the songs I suggest for different bird songs.I had three narrators come up and read the text in the book from "Birds are fascinating..." to "even on your roof."
After those three narrators, I had students sing "Shoheen Sho"; I believe it has the same melody as "Suo Gan" and "Gently Sleep." Here is the notation:
I had students sing the song, then a select group play the song on recorder, then all students sing the song again. For the select group, I had students audition and chose students who played with good sound, correct rhythm, and correct notes. I had a few students from every class, but you might choose an even smaller group, or have everyone play!
I had one narrator read "You may not notice..." but then I created this line to fit my needs:
"For example, the pigeon, one of the most intelligent birds, often perches on the ledges of apartment buildings."
Then students sang "Magic Feathers," a Chippewa folk song, shown below (for more materials for this song, check out this set.) I had one class perform on instruments, with some students playing ti-ti repeatedly on drums and other students playing the rhythm on rattle-type instruments.
Then I had a group of five narrators come up and read from "Did you know that birds learn" to "Birds are flying elegance."
Then I had two classes perform this dance, called "Wandering Bird":
I simplified the dance a little bit: for the B section, I had students do: step, step, left right toe, left right toe, left right toe, left right toe, step step. Then repeat. I searched everywhere for a recording of this and couldn't find one, so I made a mp3 from the YouTube video with this site. There is a little background noise, but it was the best I could do! Another option would be to use another bird dance, such as "Bluebird" from this Sanna Longden resource.
I had one student read "Some birds can be elegant when they walk too!"
Then I created this text for two narrators to read: "The tinikling birds of the Philippines are known to be very graceful as they walk in between grass stems." Then, "The tinikling dance you will see imitates the graceful motions of the tinikling birds."
My colleague Jenna prepared a class for the tinikling dance, and I loved watching it! For more about how to teach tinikling, see this comprehensive blog post by my friend Tanya. The kids really loved it (and as an aside, one of my only memories from my one year of general music in sixth grade is performing tinikling at a music program!)
Then, I had two narrators read from "Most birds live in trees" to "far away from civilization." Then I had students sing "My Owlet," which can be viewed here, and had one class perform an Orff accompaniment. I used the Orff accompaniment found in this set.
Then, I had one narrator read "Some birds do the most unusual, interesting things," and another narrator read a line I created: "Some birds make very curious calls." (pause) "One of these is a kookaburra, whose call sounds like a laugh." During the pause, I had a short track of a kookaburra laugh play. Then, after "sounds like a laugh," we sang "Kookaburra" with this accompaniment track. We sang four verses, and on the third verse, the students did a 4-part round.
Then I had one narrator come up and read from "Whether the unique calls" to "don't seem like birds at all." Then, we performed this Chinese chant:
Peacock feathers on an old plum tree, (ti-ti tika-tika ti-ti ta)
You can try, but you can't catch me! (ti-ti ti-tika ti-ti ta)
After chanting it twice, I had one group say the ostinato: "Can't catch me" (ti-ti ta) four times. Then we added another group saying the ostinato: "Peacock feathers on a tree" (ti-ti tika-tika ta rest) twice. Then the rest of the students said the chant twice, layering on top of the ostinati.
Then I had two narrators come up and read from "What do you think of..." to "proudly with our flag." Then the students sang four verses of "Old Bald Eagle," which can be found here. I accompanied the song on dulcimer.
Then, I had seven students come up and narrate from "The bad news is..." to "even a child can make a difference."
Then, I had students perform "Einstein," a song about making a difference, by my friend Lessia Bonn (a song my students LOVED!) I just collaborated with Lessia to create a set with materials to teach the song; you can view it by clicking below:
This is a great song to bridge the gap between folk music and more contemporary music. I've shied away from using pop music, partly because I believe folk music is so important to a child's music education, and partly because so many pop songs have inappropriate lyrics, but this song sounds contemporary yet has a great message (and WILL get stuck in your head)!
Then, I had one more narrator read from "Olivia's message" to "protect them."
The students and audience really seemed to enjoy the musical, and I was also able to get them thinking about a cause greater than themselves! My art teacher had all the 4th graders create birds out of cardboard, and then he affixed magnets to the back of the birds. We then put tape on the back of the magnets and affixed them to trees from Carson Dellosa, like shown below:
Then, after the performance, I told all the parents that they were welcome to take their child's magnet, but that we had a suggested donation of $1 that we would send to Audubon (and that they were welcome to leave less or more). I am happy to say that we collected around $150 to send to Audubon! Since our school's theme this year is giving, this tied in nicely and was a wonderful way to end the program!
The fourth graders really enjoyed this performance, and I was very pleased with what they did musically, from singing, to dancing, to playing instruments! Hopefully I've explained everything so that you could recreate it or adapt it for your own students.
If you're looking for more programs that are accessible and easy to use with your students, check these out:
You can also read about another fifth grade performance, based on "On the Day You Were Born," here, and a fifth grade performance, based on "Wangari's Trees of Peace," here.
Which programs have worked for you? Let me know, and feel free to send me any questions. Good luck, and have fun!
Recently, I wrote a blog post with 10 things they don't tell you about teaching elementary music, and realized I should have added one more thing to the list: that you'll have to remember hundreds of names. Certainly, no one told me that I'd have to remember so many names! One of the great things about being a music teacher is teaching so many students...but that means there are a lot of names to memorize! I often have a hard time remembering a person's name after meeting them at a party, but yet, I CAN remember 650 or so student names. So how do I do it? Here's my list of strategies!
#1: Gathering song
At the beginning of my Kindergarten and first grade classes, I sing "Here we are together," to the tune of "The more we get together." Instead of, "'cause your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends," I sing all the students' names around the room, so the lyrics are like:
"Oh here we are together, together, together,
Oh here we are together in music today.
With Jenna, and Macy, and Scott, and Aileen....
Oh here we are together, in music today."
Is it hard at the beginning of the year? Yes! Especially with Kindergarten, whose names I'm just learning. But it forces me to really learn their names so it doesn't take so long to get around the circle!
#2: Solos
After the gathering song, I listen to 4-5 students sing solos. I'll sing to them "Hello ________," using solfa we're preparing/ practicing, such as s-m-s-m or s-l-s-m, and they sing back "Hello Mrs. Miracle." Then I'll ask them a question, such as "What's your favorite color?" or "What did you do this weekend?" or "What's your favorite food?" It helps me get to know them better, helps me hear who well they are matching pitch, AND it helps me learn their names better!
#3: Name games
One of my favorite name games is called "Rickety Rackety," and goes like this:
Students put the beat on their laps as they say it, then each child says their name, and we all echo. (So we say the chant, a kid says his/her name, we echo, we say the chant again, etc.) I love this name game because it's great for steady beat and it's a GREAT way to get their names in my head! I also have had them clap their names, which is a great way to prepare/ practice rhythm!
For the older grades, my all-time favorite name game is called "Jump in." Here is a similar rendition to the one I do with my kids:
#4: Studying pictures of each class
My first year at my new school, ALL the students were new to me, so I took a picture of each class and labeled their names to help me remember. I kept this list in with my seating charts for a quick reference, and would often just sit and study the pictures to help me remember.
#5: Seating charts
Speaking of seating charts, these are a great way to remember names! I have used the Smart Seat app, which allows you to take pictures of each student, but you could also just have a written out seating chart and look at it as you are teaching to help call on kids.
#6: Mind games
Sometimes I just have to play "mind games" with myself to help remember kids' names. Remind yourself that Molly has a mole and her twin sister Ava doesn't. Or if the are truly identical and impossible to tell apart, memorize which twin is in which class. Or if you have a hard time mixing up siblings, tell yourself that A comes before S in the alphabet, so therefore Adam is the oldest and Sean is the youngest. Or just tell yourself, "She LOOKS like a Sydney." These little tricks seem to work for me!
With seeing my students less than before--just once a week--I have been making more mistakes with names (or maybe I should blame that on getting older?!?!) When I make a mistake (most often calling siblings by their other sibling's name) I gently remind students that I know exactly who they are, but with 600+ names to remember I sometimes make a mistake, and that I'm sorry. They are pretty understanding!
Besides the benefit of being able to give directions to a student without saying "Hey, you," by memorizing all of these names, you are telling your students that each one of them is important to you. And that's a pretty cool thing!
What are your strategies? Feel free to comment below!
Over the 17 years I have taught elementary music, I have learned so much about my profession, about the students, about music, and about education. Today, I'm blogging about the things I didn't learn from a workshop, from a book, or from a blog post, but instead just from experience!
#1: You will lose your voice...and if you're not careful, you can damage it forever. My first year of teaching, I lost my voice EVERY single weekend. It shocked me how much I had to use my voice as a music teacher: singing, giving directions, managing my class. I wasn't expecting to barely be able to talk to my family and friends, or to barely be able to speak to my students! I soon began to worry about getting vocal nodes, and also realized that I was using my voice incorrectly (as I started as a trumpet player and wasn't employing proper vocal technique or breath support.) I started voice lessons, and I didn't lose my voice quite as much. I still have to be careful though, by drinking lots of water, not singing with my students all the time, and using some of the strategies in this blog post to help save my voice.
#2: You have to be ON all the time! Teaching elementary music is a very active profession. You are singing several songs, playing instruments, dancing, and more all in one lesson. It doesn't matter if you are sad, or tired, or whatever...you have to be ON and ready for the students to walk through the door!
#3: You have to be able to switch gears very quickly. Teaching 5th grade music is a bit different than teaching Kindergarten...so you have to be able to switch from one to the other smoothly (and make sure to not treat the 5th graders like they are five years old...it doesn't go over too well!)
#4: Many people will assume you can play piano. I once had a staff request that I accompany them on the piano for a Christmas party, so they could sing carols...but I'm a mediocre piano player, and I kind of wanted to just relax at the party instead of having to practice and stress out! In the end, I fudged my way through the carols and they were probably surprised I wasn't great at the piano....but I never said I was! Some people assume that you play the piano because their music teacher did, which brings me to my next point...
#5: Some people will assume they know what happens in your classroom. I had someone in the same school district ask if the reason I didn't play piano with the kids was because I wasn't very good at the piano. I was a bit offended. It's true I'm not a stellar piano player, BUT she just assumed that she knew what should be going on in my classroom, and that because I wasn't playing piano I must not know how to. I calmly explained that the best way for children to match pitch was to sing unaccompanied, matching someone else's voice instead of an instrument, but I'm not sure she believed me. I also had a custodian in the same district ask incredulously why I needed to use the blackboard... So you may have to inform people of what goes on in your classroom. Invite them in. Talk to them about what the kids do. Tell them to ask the students what you do. Host an informance (read more about that in this blog post.) Educate them about what you do, because otherwise they may assume you do exactly what their music teacher did, which is probably not true.
#6: Some people will assume you would rather be teaching high school band. While working at a band camp my first year of teaching, my former high school band director's husband stated that I must have wanted to use elementary music as a stepping stone. Again, I was a bit offended. Why would he assume that? I calmly explained that teaching elementary music was exactly what I wanted to do. Some people think of high school band as the most important job, and while I have immense respect for my friends who teach secondary music, teaching children the basics of music, in my opinion, is pretty darn important!
#7: You will sometimes be thought of as a babysitter. Even at the most supportive school, you may run across a teacher or two who thinks of you as a babysitter first and a teacher second, because in most situations, you are providing that teacher with planning time. I love my planning time too, but it is frustrating and disheartening. The best thing you can do, in my experience, is to keep doing what you are doing, and the teacher will soon hear their students singing as they work, or making cross-curricular connections they discovered in your class, or talking about how much they love music, and hopefully they'll get that you're much, much more than a babysitter!
#8: You may have to teach something you thought you'd never have to. Hopefully you took all sorts of methods classes in college (strings tech, double reed tech, vocal tech, etc.) because you will likely have to get out those old binders and teach something you thought you'd never have to! When I was in college, I never thought I'd have to teach strings or 7th grade general music, but I've done them both (and enjoyed them both!) Was I sometimes only one page ahead of the kids? Yes. Were there violinists who'd been playing since they were three and were better than me? Yes. But still, we all had fun and learned!
#9: You will watch the students grow into young adults, and it will be very hard to say goodbye. The fifth grade "clap out" at my school is very difficult...because I have had these kids since Kindergarten. I saw them on their first day of Kindergarten, their eyes wide with awe, and watched them grow into young adults. I watched them grow as musicians, from not finding their singing voice to singing beautifully, from squeaking on the recorder to confidently playing "Mary had a little lamb." Even though I may have only seen them once a week, I saw them for six years of their lives. These students are near and dear to our hearts, and it is not easy to say goodbye.
#10: You will be reminded often of how amazing your job is. Teaching music, given the frustrations listed above, can be hard. But then you'll hear your choir sing beautifully, or your students tackle a round for the first time, or students make a really awesome connection, or a student tell you how much they love your class, when you will think: "This is the best job in the world. I get paid for this?!?" And that is what makes it all worth it: the joy.
I would love to hear what you've learned over the years about being a music teacher! Feel free to comment below, and thanks for reading!
I'm excited to have a guest blogger today! Tamarie Sayger will be writing about a game to help incorporate the Kodály philosophy into the band classroom. You can read more about her at the end of this post; thanks to Tamarie for sharing her expertise!
As someone who has been lucky enough to teach elementary music as well as secondary band, I love finding ways to incorporate Kodály philosophy into instrumental instruction. Kodály training taught me how valuable different aspects of music education, other than just performance, are for children.
This article explains how I would use The Envelope Game in a beginning band class, but can easily be adapted for any of the elementary situations below. The music - free to download here- is written for beginner clarinet, trumpet, French horn or keyboard. It can also be used for teaching do, re, mi, so, la in key of C with stick notation. The envelope game helps me teach objectives such as aural discrimination, melodic recognition, note naming and performance. It is also ideal for assessment since students must individually show their understanding to choose the correct answer.
Here are a few places you can use variations of The Envelope Game:
Younger elementary students working on stick notation.
Older elementary students working on reading music on Orff instruments.
Older elementary students working on recorder. (Range would need adjustment)
Younger secondary students learning to play instruments in band or orchestra.
Preparation Before Class
Print the Great Big House in New Orleans Envelope Paper. (Download Free Here)
Copy enough for each child in your room to have a set (on cardstock if possible).
Laminate.
Cut into 4 motives. (2 measures each)
Put one set in each envelope - enough for a class set.
Before Beginning The Game
Give each child an envelope with the melody cards inside. (If playing this game with young children you can appoint a ‘postman’ to ‘deliver the mail.’)
Have them ‘open their mail’ and take out all 4 cards and put them in front of them on the stand (or floor for elementary students).
Have students be sure the stars (asterisks) are in the top right corner. (I purposely don’t use clefs and cut off the final bar because that would give away the first and last card which would make it too easy. You can be sure students don’t have it upside down by having them check that their ‘stars are in the sky.’)
First Round
1. You sing (on loo) or play on an instrument the first 2 measures of the song. 2. Students identify which card is correct. (In this song example of Great Big House in New Orleans measures 1-2 and 5-6 are the same, so they can choose either.) 3. Demonstrate the first 2 measures again and have them check their card. If it is not right they can switch it. Have them hold up their card where you can see it and be sure everyone has the correct card. (If they are having trouble you can also sing on solfége or note names to help them identify the correct card.) 4. Students sing/handsign the card with solfége. 5. Students sing the note names while fingering the notes. 6. Students play the 2 measures on the instrument.
Second Round Repeat the steps from round one for the next 2 measures, but after playing measures 3-4, play measures 1-4.
Third Round Repeat the steps from round one for the next 2 measures, but after playing measures 5-6, play measures 1-6.
Fourth Round They will know the last card is the 4th one. Repeat the steps 4-6 and then play the whole song. (Another option to challenge them is when they have picked the 3rd card, have them immediately put the 4th card back in their envelope. Then see if after the third round is complete anyone can figure out the last 2 measures without looking at the card.)
Optional Final Round
1. Have students mix up the 4 cards again. 2. Have students sort them into the correct order by themselves. 3. Sing on solfege and note names. 4. Play the entire song again.
I hope this game is a huge hit with your students! For more ideas on teaching band, head over to www.BandDirectorsTalkShop.com and be sure to like us on Facebook.
For a similar version of this game - the Rhythm Envelope Game - along with a free printable, click here.
Tamarie Sayger is a music teacher in Texas with experience in elementary music, secondary band and private teaching. The website she contributes to regularly, BandDirectorsTalkShop.com, is a collaboration of band directors, former band directors, administrators and private lesson teachers who provide practical articles you can use in your band room today. Learn. Share. Inspire.
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