menu   home About Me My Classroom Guest Post Workshops Guest Post

Pin It to Win It Giveaway

I am falling behind on my Monday Manipulatives, but I decided I would throw a "Pin It to Win It" giveaway on my blog.


With October on the horizon, I will be pulling out all of my fall and Halloween songs and activities soon, so I thought I would feature my bundle of Songs and Activities for Fall in this giveaway.







Here's what's included: 

With over 300 pages, this set is packed full of songs and activities specifically geared towards fall and Halloween in the Kodaly music classroom.

In this set you will find PDFs of the following:

I Climbed Up the Apple Tree (PreK-1st) - A fun rhyme for steady beat vs. rhythm or preparing ta and titi

See the Old Witch (K-1) - Prepare, present, and practice ta rest (or piece of silence); high/low, and sol-mi

Naughty Kitty Cat (K-2) - Prepare, present and practice ta rest (or piece of silence); prepare, present, and practice la

Apple Tree (K-2nd) - Slides to prepare and practice steady beat, ta / titi; prepare, present, and practice do

Let Us Chase the Squirrel (2nd-3rd Grade) - Slides for half note

Skin and Bones (2-4) - Game idea plus slides for preparing, presenting, and practicing low la. Rhythm slides not included since it is in 6/8


Vocal Explorations for Autumn - 13 vocal exploration pathways plus 7 for the teacher or students to draw their own lines on SMART board, Mimio or white boards.

Vocal Explorations for Halloween - 11 ready made vocal explorations pathways and 11 for the teacher or students to draw the lines on SMART board, Mimio, or white boards, plus 2 printable black and white worksheets for students to compose their own vocal exploration

Beat Charts for Fall - 15 beat charts for fall including apples, acorns, pumpkins, black cats, witches, and many more!

------------------------------------------------------

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, Oct. 9th, so you have enough time to get the goodies before Halloween. If you are the lucky winner and you have already purchased this bundle from my store, I will give you a $12 credit towards anything in my store.

Just enter the rafflecopter below!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday Music Manipulatives: Wikki Sticks for Vocal Exploration

It's MONDAY!!!

Time for more music manipulatives!



Last Friday one of the band teachers in my district gave me a package of Wikki Stix. I had never seen anything like them before. They are pieces of yarn covered in wax that you can bend to create different shapes. I thought they would be a fun toy to add to my collection for vocal exploration.

Here's what the package looks like:

Click on the picture to see where you can purchase them!

And here are some fun ways you can bend them for vocal exploration!





I'd love to get enough to have a class set, but they are sure fun to bend and play with!

Looking for more vocal exploration ideas? Click here!

Have fun music manipulatives that you would like to share? Write a blog post and then link it up using the link below!



These are a few of my Favorite Pins - September 2013

I know I have mentioned how much I LOVE pinterest. I saw that Aileen Miracle from Mrs. Miracle's Music Room was hosting a linky party for our favorite pins and I thought I would join in the fun!



1. "The Mountain Story"

This pin: 

led me to a fantastic blog by Allison Corbin named Mallets & Music. To help her students remember which end of the Orff instruments is high and which is low, she tells a story of a mountain and an earthquake. Check out her blog for the full story!

Mountain after earthquake

2.  Movement to Nursery Rhymes


This pin led me to lots of great ideas for incorporating movement with nursery rhymes. My favorite was having foam puzzle pieces connected to make a "clock on the floor" for Hickory Dickory Dock. The students can take turns being the mouse, running up and down the clock while the kids chant.
A lot of these ideas would be fun for a collaboration day between music and PE.

3. Organization and decoration ideas


This gorgeous classroom belongs to Cara at Miscellaneous Me. If you are looking for ways to make your room super cute and functional, check out her blog post! 

4. TPT Product
 
This bundled set of "I Can" statements by Aileen Miracle has been such a life saver for me this year. All of the objectives are written in kid friendly "I can" language and include cards for both preparing an element (without naming the element) and practicing elements. My principal was very happy to see these in my room and I think it is great for kids to see and label what they are doing.

5. Inspirational
I saw this pin the night after my History and Philosophy of Music Ed class had a group discussion on whether or not the kind of music we listens to has an impact on our character. What do you think? Does listening to and performing good music make your a better person? Does listening to "bad" music or music with obscene language make you a bad person? 

What were your favorite pins of September? Link up by clicking on the picture at the top of the blog post.

Don't miss out on my Monday Music Manipulatives link up tomorrow! Get your blog post ready!









2-4 Tuesday: Vocal Exploration through Children's Literature

Time for another 2-4 Tuesday! Thanks Steph for hosting this link up so that music teachers can share ideas!


Today I am going to share four books that I use in my music room for vocal exploration.

Click on the pictures to see where you can buy these great books!


My mother in law found the big book version of this. I LOVE it. After hearing a few verses, students are able to "fill in the blanks" by inserting the number of the phrases like "Over in the meadow in a snug beehive lived a mother honey bee and her little bees five." Great way to work on pitch matching and finding the resting tone.


I was introduced to this one in Level 1 with Jo Kirk. It has all kinds of opportunities for vocal exploration making train sounds, driving the six white horses, and chopping the old red rooster. I tell my students that my Aunt is visiting me all the way from New Orleans. I connect this story with the echo song "Aunt Came Back."


This has some opportunities for pitch matching and "fill in the blank" singing. There are lots of variations on this book that are seasonal and quite fun. I also have the Old Lady Who Swallowed the Leaves, Bat, Clover, Shell (Connect to song "Sea Shell"), Pie, and Bell.


This book is definitely my kids' favorite. This a modern tale of little bunny foo foo. He zooms through the forest on his motorcycles. We talk about Little Rabbit Foo Foo and how he needs to make good choices and show respect (two of our music room rules).

What are some of your go to children's books for vocal exploration? I am always trying to add to my library!

Have 2-4 music ideas to share? Link up by clicking on the 2-4 picture above.

Don't forget to check out my Monday Music Manipulatives Link Up:


Happy Tuesday!








Monday Music Manipulatives

Maybe Monday wasn't the best day for my linky party with my graduate class being on Monday night, but better late than never!


Here are a few manipulatives that I use for staff work in my classroom:


I use these with my K and 1st grade for High/Low and in preparation for sol-mi. The stars are little erasers I found in the dollar bin at Target at some point. I probably should buy stock in Target!


This is a staff I use without a clef. I use this when working in do clef and I show on the board where our do clef is going to be. I have a piece of staff paper that I put on colored cardstock and laminated to make a class set. 


I also have some with treble clef. 




I have tons of different erasers that I separate out into baggies for each student. I use apple for Apple Tree, Smiley Faces for "Hey Hey", stars for "Starlight, Starbright", "A+" erasers that I use for "Johnny's It" and "Weevily Wheat", Hearts that I use for lots of valentines songs, and the colored circles were a free find in the teacher lounge at the end of last year. I think another teacher used them as math counters.

Want to link up and share your manipulates? 

Write a blog post and then link it below. You can include my Monday Music Manipulatives picture to link to this post if you want!

Can't wait to see and hear about your ideas!



Lindsay

Announcing Monday Music Manipulatives

I am always looking for new manipulatives for my music room - visuals, puppets, toys, anything that will capture the interest of my kids and hook into my song materials.

This Monday I will be hosting a Monday Music Manipulatives Link Up Party. Connect with new music teachers to share ideas and gain a few tricks for your teacher tool kit.


How to link up: write a blog post with a few ideas for manipulatives in the music room. If they are items you have made, please include instructions on how to make them for our classrooms. If it is something you have purchased, please let us know where you found it! Check back on Monday, 9/9/13 for clear instructions on how to join the linky party. Be sure to check out all the blogs that link up. I can't wait to get a bunch of new ideas!




Making Music More Interactive

Happy Thursday!


Wow! I sure am tired today! I ended up taking a double class of first graders today since they were using the gym to get pictures taken. What a workout!

Today I am linking up with Erin from Lovin' Lit for Thursday Throwdown.


So here is my spin on making music more interactive.

1. Projectable beat charts:


Students get to take turn point to the bee beats on the board. You can get everyone involved by having the class pat their nose, shoulders, knees, ect. while a special helper taps the bees on the board. I love to use cute pointers for my kids. They are so excited to come up and point.

Students can also have a student copy so everyone can point:

2. Puppets - Puppets make everything more interactive! Students love to sing to the puppets and they really love when THEY get to be the puppets. I use puppets for vocal exploration, pitch matching, singing games and stories. 

This puppet can be purchased through Folkmanis. All of their puppets are top quality! Click on the bee to visit their website.

3. Foam manipulatives



Sometimes I like to mix it up with the technology and manipulatives that are a little more tactile. These are foam pieces shaped like crowns that I use for keeping the steady beat with the song "Queen Queen Caroline".  Students can tap the crowns using the queen's wand while the class chants. I found the foam piece at my local Dollar Tree - just add magnets!



When we are ready to being working on rhythm as "the way the words go" I replace the crowns with split crowns for two sounds on a beat. I used another color to really emphasize the difference and to help students recognize the form.

What do you do to make your classroom more interactive?






Ideas for Organizing Your Music Room

Make sure you scroll down to the very end of this post or you will miss out on linking up with other fabulous music teachers!

Here are some ideas for classroom organization:

1. Velcro spots and circle

I bought my colored velcro from Hobby Lobby with coupons. You can only use the hook side (rough side). It sticks to the floor so well! The first day we talked about taking care of our room and our spots. I cut the velcro small enough that if they are sitting on it, it won't stick out, so they shouldn't play with it. If I notice someone who is playing with it I take a moment to say "Thank you to everyone who is sitting with their pockets on their velcro and not touching it! That really helps take care of our room!" and the student who was messing with it corrects their behavior without being singled out.



I love having a circle on my floor this year. It cuts out on all the time figuring out how to make the circle and gives us more time for making music! To make a circle, I took a plastic solo cup, punched a hole in the top and fed yarn through it. I taped the cup to the floor and the cup was the center of my circle. I used the yarn to help me go around and lay down the velcro. I laid down one color at a time to keep them evenly spaced.  



Board spots: In front of my board, I have three rows of velcro and these spots are numbered with permanant marker. Each student has an assigned board spot. This also helps transition to the circle. I can call "Pinks, go find a pink spot on the circle". That has also helped us mix a little better in the circle instead of being by our best friends or all the girls on one side of the circle and all the boys on the other side of the circle. 

2. Position Posters
Position posters: I  found these on a blog and modified them a bit to fit my needs by cutting off their labels and adding my own (the green). I changed the "group poster" (pink) to the reading corner and used a sharpie to draw a chair, book and hair for the teacher. You can  find these here: http://deborahkoakes.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/three-qs-of-perfect-circle-making/ They are perfect for labeling all of the areas in our room so that I can quickly direct kids where to go and they have a visual for what I want it to look like.

3. Music Rules
I made music rules that spell out MUSIC and coordinate with my music themed bulletin boards. These rules are available on my TPT store in a few different styles and come with a song for teaching each that is set to  a folk tune.

4. Reading corner

You may have read about my ugly record holder here. I painted it a pretty light blue and re-purposed it as a reading corner in my room to have a dedicated space to songtales.

 BONUS  5. Instrument Labels

I accidentally didn't change my printer setting to print to the edge, but I think doing that would get rid of the white border. These labels are available on my tpt store here
 


Now head on over to the linky party to link up with other music teachers to see what they are doing in their classroom: