This Saturday, Kodaly Music Educators of Kansas hosted Amy Abbott from Music a la Abbott in Wichita for our Spring KMEK workshop.
Over 60 teachers from Kansas and neighboring states attended Amy's session, "Say, Say, Oh Playmate," which was packed full of fun singing games for upper elementary. Those are the kids that I am always finding I am needing additional resources and games for, or maybe I just get bored of some of the ones I have... I don't know. Either way, this session was just what we needed to motivate us to keep the joy going in the music class as the end of the year draws near.
Amy has so graciously said I can share some videos that fellow KMEK members shared and I will try to cite where the songs come from.
I definitely recommend looking into these sources for more information as well as having your local Kodaly chapter invite Amy out. I can say that she was definitely among my favorite presenters! :)
Little Swallow - stick passing game
Source: 150 American Folk Songs
Epo I Tai Tai - performed in 4 part canon.
Source: Amy learned this song from Susan Brumfield. If you have a primary source, please let me know.
Source: Amy learned this from Kathy Hickey. If you have more source information, please let me know!
Cobbler,Cobbler (Pass the Shoe)
Source: Jill Trinka
Have you played any of these before? I hope you enjoyed a peek into our workshop. We definitely have some amazing things going on in Kansas. We hope you can join us in Wichita for MKMEA 2015 this October!
My first year teaching (during my pre-Kodaly training days) I planned for each day and and no real long term vision for my classes or from year to year. During my Level 2 training, Lisa Simmelink really helped me understand concept and long range or yearly planning. One of our assignments was to map out concepts for the whole year for one grade level.
Every music
teacher wants to get their year started off on the right track, reviewing where
they left off with each grade level and getting new students caught up to
speed.From there we hope to stay on
track progressing through the musical concepts we have planned for that grade
level. In addition to that, we are thinking about our music programs and performances and how that all fits in to our yearly calendar and planning. Having a plan in place helps to guide my planning for the whole year.
So let's get started with yearly plans. When I do long term planning, I like
to start with yearly plans and break it down by month, just looking at
concepts. What do I want my students to be practicing by that month? Will I be
preparing any new concepts? Will I be presenting a concept? Make sure that you are always
working both melodically and rhythmically in every lesson. Go month by month for
each grade level deciding about how long you will spend preparing/practicing
each concept. Remember to be flexible!
Here is a sample of what my long range planning looks like. This is for kindergarten from August through December. I make different colors for different concepts (pink for Kindergarten concepts, yellow for rhythmic concepts, blue for melodic concepts, and the older grades also include scale and meter). I separate by month across the top and the light shades of each color represent concepts that are in the Practice stage (known concepts), while the darker shades represent the concepts that are being prepared and presented.
Want to see more?
These templates are samples from my planning sets on TPT which includes both yearly plans and song lists by concept for each grade level.
Getting from Yearly Plans to Lesson
Plans Once you
have the concepts you want to teach for each month and each grade level, make
song lists for each grade level. Make a list of all the concepts you included
on your Monthly/Yearly plans for that grade level (I’ve started one for you for
each grade level, but you may need to adjust it to fit your needs). Under each
concept heading make a list of all the songs you plan to use while working on
that concept. That way when I are look ahead to my third grade planning
in September I can see I want to be practicing re and tiri-tiri and preparing ti-tiri, then I would go to my third grade song list and find a song list for ti-tiri to find songs under that concept to weave my lesson plan together.
Here's a sample of what my first page of my 3rd grade song list looks:
For the
little kids I like to have a ton of songs/games/activities in each lesson
(probably 7-10) in a 30 minute lesson. For the older kids, I choose less song
materials per lesson, but go deeper with the songs. Plus by then, their songs
are a bit longer.
Want a closer look at my "Ready, Set, Plan" yearly planning set? Check out this video:
Do you have different strategies for long term planning? I'd love to hear them in the comments below!
I will begin by saying I am NOT the expert on older beginners. I was only in my second year of teaching when I started at a new school with grades 1-5 where the teacher before me was not a Kodaly inspired teacher and music literacy was not a priority. When I came into this school my students had no method of counting rhythms and had never heard of solfege. I had just completed my level 1 training and during my first year teaching I only saw grades K-2 so the upper grades were pretty new to me. I knew I wanted to teach them music literacy and I also knew there was no way I was going to accomplish this with songs like "Starlight, Starbright". I started searching for best practices for teaching older beginners.
I looked for games they would love and ways to trick them into singing. My first year I really devoted to learning to read rhythms and getting used to singing beautifully without the crutch of CDs or piano. This year we have really taken a dive into melodic concepts starting with mi-re-do and I think thet are surprised by what they are now able to read and analyze!
I think a good starting place is one that lays a foundation for future concepts through games, nurtures the singing voice, anddevelops a sense of steady beat.
I have also found that m-r-d is a better starting place for older beginners than sol-mi since more of the age appropriate music begins and ends with m-r-d.
I am sure there are other teachers out there with similar situations, whether they are in a new school or just starting to take their levels training, so I compiled some of my kids' favorite songs and activities for those basic concepts. I know I would have really loved to have these resources when I started out!
I have included 6 songs like the following and activities that I have done with my older beginners.
I have also included 26 slides for the song "Mighty Pretty Motion". It can be found in 150 American Folk Songs to sing read and play. My kids really enjoy the game that goes with it.
After we've played the game several times and we are getting close to presenting sol, I show them this:
(They think my hula dancers are funny!)
(repeats 2 more times)
(three times)
We could look at it on the staff:
back to the staff:
This packet for older beginners is available on my teachers pay teachers store here. It is by no means a complete comprehensive method for older beginners but more of a tool or starting place with ideas that you can build upon.
Comment below if you have other great ideas for older beginners! I am always looking for things to do with my 4th and 5th graders until we are "caught up".
If you have any questions about this or any of my other posts or products on TpT please email me at LindsayJervis@hotmail.com
My kids really enjoy this song. I bring it out when preparing/presenting/practicing ti-tiri by isolating just the last line of the song.
We play the jump rope game that goes with it, substituting "Ella" for the name of the kid jumping in. When the people spinning the rope sing your name, you get to run in and jump. If they make it past 4 letters, we just continue counting regularly in a speaking voice.
This song makes an appearance again when we work on tiri-ti. I think they are a little surprised that there was an unknown rhythm in this song since we just isolated the last line previously.
It also is great for reading fa!
Lyrics:
Steady beat (this also helps to make sure that the jump rope is being spun steadily!):
Rhythmic icons:
Known rhythms plus icons for new rhythm:
Introducing our new rhythm. After, I immediately follow with practice reading this rhythm from flashcards and other songs.
Stick notation with solfa- new note
Someone new has moved into Meldoy Street
Icons for pitch with lyrics:
Icons for pitch with solfege - new note:
Icons on staff:
After we learn fa, I have repeats of those last slides with fa filled in as the mystery note (both on and off the staff) Below it is pictured on the staff:
Finally we get to read it from the staff in standard notation!
On Fridays when we have a regular full week of school, the PE teacher at my school and I combine to do Music and Movement with our kids. We have two classes in the gym at a time and sometimes this can get pretty crazy, but we generally have a good time and the kids look forward to it.
We do lots of folk dancing, parachute activities, and espesically in the month of February, we jump rope! Our PE teacher is in the middle of Jump Rope for Heart.
She has asked me to teach each grade some different long rope songs and games.
The following slides will be ON SALE for the rest of Feb. on my Teachers Pay Teachers Page.
This is the easiest one for them to jump with because there are only two lines of text before the numbers:
This one "ups the anty" a little with four lines of text before counting the number of doctors it took to save poor Cinderella. So far, the high score in my room is 62 doctors.
Uh-oh... this one has the word "boyfriend". I know what you're thinking.... "my kids won't go for this". I actually learned this one from my kids. I guess it's the hot rhyme on the playground these days. They also have another variation "Ice cream, soda pop, cherry on top, how many boyfriends do you got? 1... 2... 3..." I chose this one because I don't like "do you got".... I'm really not a grammar snob, but that does bother me.
This one is great if you are working on so-mi-la. Throw the rope on "overhead".
I thought this one would be too hard for my little kids who have a hard time jumping over the rope, and too babyish for my upper grades because of the text, but having to do the actions in the long rope really makes this a fun challenge for them. I have fifth grade boys chanting "Teddy Bear"! We do chant this one, like the rhythm in Susan Brumfield's book, "Hot Peas and Barley-O"
I project these in my room when we are using that particular song/rhyme, but for Jump Rope For Heart I have each of these laminated on different cards that will be placed around my music room with long ropes for different stations.
