Caroling in the Classroom

One of the traditions I started the first year our school was open was Caroling in the Classroom.  On the morning of the last day of school before winter break I take the 5th grade members of chorus around the school and we sing one carol in each classroom.  Our students, teachers and parents love this.  This year we sang Rudolph and I had a very expressive soloist add her own movements to go along with her part. 

We don't go to every classroom, that would be hard to do because we have around 7 classes per grade level, plus VPK and ESE rooms.  So, I put a sign up sheet in the mailroom about a week before we go caroling and allow teachers to sign up for a time.  I know that most classrooms have a packed schedule of holiday activites, so this gives teachers the option.

Here is the sign-up sheet I use:

Some years I have had a majority of teachers sign-up.  When that happens I ask for chorus parents to volunteer to guide a group around the school.  I then split the 5th graders into two groups and we divide and conquer.

If you would like this form, you can request it in the Freebie section of my blog.

The Countdowns Begun

Yippee!!!  I made it through the holiday concert.  My kids did an amazing job tonight.  We performed at our local Barnes and Noble, which was a nice change of pace.  They cleared a nice space for us and our parents crammed in around the bookshelves and it ended up being a nice intimate setting.  I think I will definitely do another concert like this but maybe with less instruments.  I tried to limit it but then it felt like I took everything but the kitchen sink.  I'm not good at packing light.

This morning we had our dress rehearsal at school and I snapped these photos of our set up.  Typically I like to use my FlipForm risers for our orff set up but after being sick this week I didn't feel up to any extra movement.  Instead, I used my stash of carpet squares for comfier seating, as well as boomwhackers.

For one of the musical selections we were using boomwhackers with octivators.  I like how they sound when struck vertically against the floor, so the carpet squares were great for this.  When you strike them against tile floor you get an awful plastic sound, not ideal.

Now the that our performance is over, the countdown to winter break is on. 10 days to go!  :)

Jingle Bell Dance

The other morning I had to suddenly change my plans for Kindergarten because I had forgotten that the class I was going to see that day were my Spotlight Performers (a monthly featured class).  I could have taught my planned lesson but it would not have been great for film, so I decided to swap it with the lesson for the next rotation, Jingle Bells.

After settling on doing Jingle Bells with them, I decided why don't we do a dance!  Great for steady beat, and same/different.  So, I quickly came up with a dance to go with the version of Jingle Bells I had (Frank Sinatra).  Using this video as inspiration, I created a little dance for us to do.

Since I was planning on doing this with Kindergarten, I made some changes.  We really have not done any dances before, I thought a circle would be a bit much.  Can you imagine it?  I could see kindergarteners crashing into each other while others called out "No go that way" "Nu-uh that way".  :)  So, instead we used scattered formation.  

The Frank Sinatra recording is a bit different than the one in Dr. Amchin's video, so here is what I did with my little ones.

Formation:  Scattered

Introduction - Still for 8 beats

32 beats - sway hips from side to side (This one gives me the giggles.  If you try it you'll see what I mean!)

Jingle Bells - same as in the video, play the rhythm of the words, then walk hand in hand with your partner to the beat in any direction, repeat 

32 beats - sway hips again

Wave Goodbye

I am sure this is probably not the most fantastic dance out there but the kids enjoyed it, great practice of steady beat and it didn't take long to teach.  We were able to learn the dance and do half of the lesson I had originally planned.  

If I had more time to work on it, I probably would go ahead and do the circle.  I think my K kids could handle it with more time but this was one of those last minute things.

Holiday Videos

There are some very cool videos being pinned and I thought I would share some of my favorites so far...

The Maccabeats (Kids L-O-V-E this!)

Jingle Bells 17 Ways

Judy Garland - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (I just love this one, personal favorite.)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love the holiday season!  For me it starts with Halloween and runs through New Years.  I just love everything about this season; the food, family, music, lights, etc.  Today I started my series of holiday lessons with my students and it really made going back to work a bit easier.  The kids eyes sparkle every time they hear music from the Nutcracker and it is just precious to watch.

This year I am trying out Artie's Parachutes and Ribbons and Scarves, Oh My!; there are some wonderful Nutcracker lesson ideas and I am loving them already.  Now, I was a bit of a slacker over Thanksgiving break, I was supposed to go out and buy 3 sets of plastic plates to use in a lesson for March from the Nutcracker but do you think I got it done?

Well, I remembered this morning about 20 minutes before my kids arrived for our lesson, so I had to improvise.  Here's what we did:

1.  First listen:  enjoy, think about where you have heard it before.
2.  Discuss the piece where it comes from and composer.
3.  Second listen:    listen to a section at a time and decode the form.  (This turned into a great
     discussion of the music and differences between sections.)
4.  Talk about Rondo Form
5.  Learn movement for A - I gave them movement for this.
6.  Create movement for B and C.
7.  Move with the music.

While I could have used one of the other lessons Artie created, I liked doing this because it turned out to be a great foundation.  I feel like from here we can move on and try out some of  the other fun activities from the book.  It was a happy accident.

Something else I'm trying out is focusing on a holiday per grade level.  I'm starting this year out by trying it with 1st grade.  We will be focusing on the music and traditions of Hanukah.  I have found that it can be frustrating to try and fit every holiday in, especially on my extended rotation, so I'm hoping this will be more impactful than jumping from holiday to holiday.  My plan is to continue with this by selecting a holiday per grade level with music that supports our goals during that time of the year.  I'm just trying out my lessons this week, I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope you like the holiday design!  My home is semi-decorated, so I thought my blog should have some holiday cheer too!  :)

First Grade: Thanksgiving Rhythms

I wasn't planning on doing much with my 1st grade class today because they had gotten ahead of the other classes and it was their Thanksgiving Feast, so I figured they would be wound up.  But, then I realized it was my gifted class and I thought showing a video would be more work than just doing a lesson with them, so spur of the moment this is what I decided to do.

I had seen this worksheet pinned (it's a free download from Teacher's Pay Teacher's):

I like this worksheet a lot but I hadn't planned this out, so I didn't have copies and didn't have time to download it.  Plus, this may have been a bit over my 1st graders heads.  So, instead of 2 beat rhythms, we simplified to words that matched Ta and a column of words that matched ti-ti.  

I was impressed with the words they came up with, especially Mayflower.  It took a bit of prompting but they discovered that it combined the two note values.  Now, this was my Gifted 1st grade group, so I'm not sure this would have worked quite as well with my other classes.  

Once we had our lists, we used white boards and in pairs created 8 beat rhythm patterns.  They could use any of the words they wanted but they had to make sure and practice clapping their rhythm.  After about 6 minutes of writing and clapping, we performed our rhythm patterns for each other.  

Afterwards, I recorded a few of the groups performing their patterns.  What was great is some of them were already trying to use ta and ti-ti instead of the words to read the patterns.  

Take a look at the first pattern in the video.  These girls used Mayflower and figured out on their own that it would take up two beats.  I thought that was pretty spectacular for 1st graders!

Favorite non-Christmas Songs

To go along with my previous post, what are some of your favorite non-Christmas songs?  I know we can all probably benefit from a few new ideas.  Please leave your thoughts in the box below.  Thanks.

Creating a Program: Favorite Resources

This is the second post in my series on Creating a Program.  Last week I wrote about coming up with a concert theme and this week is all about some of my favorite (holiday) resources.  Below are some of them.

Anything by Randy and Jeff is perfect.  They have a number of publications that are perfect for the holidays; Highlighting the Holidays, Making the Most of the Holidays.  Check out all their publications  here!

The link below is to a cool book with short stories that are perfect for orff dramatization.  Add a few sound effect instruments and they are a lot of fun.  Plus, these are a great jumping off point to create your own stories for Orff Dramatization.
http://www.amazon.com/Holiday-Stories-dramatization-Robin-Uhr/dp/B0006YH5QC

The Duet Recorder
Recorder Duet
Duet Time
Recorder Express

I'm not big on using recorded sound tracks, so all of these resources have orff accompaniment or none at all.  If you are looking for a performance track I would look at Music K8.


Next week's post, Creating a Program......making things fit.

Thanksgiving Freebie

I love using my pocket chart for rhythm/composing activities.  I recently used one during 2nd grade to learn about unbeamed eighth notes.  It is easy for kids to manipulate the rhythm cards and create patterns to play.  These are some halloween rhythm cards that I used recently with my 2nd graders but I also have Thanksgiving and Christmas sets.  Below is a sample of the Thanksgiving quarter note cards.  If you would like to download and print a set for your classroom visit the Freebie section of my blog.

Countdown

I am so blessed to have a job that I love.  Working with kids is wonderful and making music with them, even better!  But, let's face it, being a Music Specialist is not my life.  It's a fun job I do to make money to help support my family.

So, I find that it's important to do fun little things for myself while at work.  One thing that I like to do is Countdowns.  This is something just for me.  Countdown to the next vacation, holiday, or special event.  I keep it on a little calendar next to my desk.  It's not something I dwell on but a nice little reminder of something special to come.  I don't count weekends, just work days.

With that all said,

Afro Circus

Today was our annual Book Character Parade.  Each year our guidance counselor does a fantastic job of creating a week of events to celebrate being drug free and the week culminates in students and teachers dressing up as some of their favorite characters and parading around the school bus loop.  

Each year our specials team has a theme.  One year we were witches, another characters from Alice in Wonderland but this year was the most fun!  We were all Marty from Madagascar 3.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Watch this!

We paraded around the school in all our afro splendor chanting lyrics that were similar to Marty's.  (In reality the chant changed each time we started it!)  Below are two of my teammates Mrs. P and Mrs. M.  We opened the school together a few years ago and now I can't imagine my day without them.  

I know this is not really on topic but something fun that I enjoy from year to year.  While not part of my classroom, I think it is important for specials teachers to participate in these events.  The kids notice and so do the other adults (parents and teachers).  It's a great way to show that you are an important part of the school.  

1st Grade: Spooky Rhythms

I happened across a post on The Sweetest Melody and it inspired me to do some Spooky rhythm patterns during my 1st grade lesson this rotation.  We've been working on reviewing ta and rest from the end of kindergarten and experiencing eighth notes.  After singing a song that had eighth note patterns that we moved to, we looked at our Ghost rhythms.

I asked my kids to tell me how these rhythms looked different than the rhythms we read during our last class.  They said "Some of the beats have 2 ghosts".  So I asked them what they thought would happen and their response was exactly what I wanted "there will be two sounds".

So, we played our spooky rhythms saying ghost for one sound on a beat and spooky where there were two sounds.  Oh my goodness did they love this!  Afterwards I gave them an opportunity to compose their own spooky rhythm.  I kept it to 4 beats since this was our first composing experience this year.

I didn't have any Halloween themed manipulatives but these worked.  I had some cardstock that was cut into 8ths and some button shapes that had been donated.  I separated them into baggies, each bag had 4 pieces of cardstock and 8 buttons.  The cardstock is to represent the beat and the buttons the notes.  These are nice because I can use them throughout the year.  I think I will give each group 8 beats next time for a longer composing experience.

Hear is some video of my kids working on their rhythms.  Sorry my voice is so loud, you can't really hear it in the video but the class was kind of loud as they worked in their groups so I had to speak up so my little ones could hear me.  Unfortunately, my cell phone picked my voice up more than anything else because I was so close to it.