Thanksgiving Week {Take a Peek at my Week}

Looking for some ideas for your elementary music classes in the days or weeks leading up to Thanksgiving?

1) Ho Ho Watanay - I used this song with kindergarten and first grade this week. In kindergarten it was perfect timing as we are practicing loud/soft and introducing the term "lullaby". We also tapped on the feathers to the feel of the music (preparing the steady beat). In first grade, we review the beat tapping page, but then take it a step further and look at the rhythm of the song. It is great ta and titi practice. We play the rhythms on hand drums as we sing.

You can find slides for the song "Ho Ho Watanay" here. This file teaches loud/soft, lullaby, prepares and practices steady beat, prepares/practices rhythm of the words and ta/titi.

2) Children's Literature for Thanksgiving in the Music Room
I introduce the song "Ho Ho Watanay" with the book "Northwoods Cradle Song". I sing the song on the page turns following every page that reads "Sleep, little warrior, sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep." I have looked all over for a song or melody to go with this book from the Menominee tribe, but have not found one yet. Ho Ho Watanay is actually an Iroquois lullaby, but because of the theme of the book and song, I pair them together.

I used the book, "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims" last week with kindergarten. They enjoyed comparing the lives of the pilgrims and Indians in the book. 

I love to use the "I know an Old Lady..." books. I have several of them and they may great "fill in the blank" books as Jo Kirk would call them. I sing most of the book, but give the students a special part to sing, in this case the "perhaps she'll die". Thank goodness she doesn't die in this book. She just inflates until she becomes a balloon in the Thanksgiving Day parade. Hopefully none of us eat that much over Thanksgiving! ;)

3) Pumpkin Patch Rhythm Compositions

I had to be gone a couple days this month, so I left this "Pumpkin Patch Rhythm Composition" activity for a few classes while I was gone. It was easy for them to do while I was away, gave them more practice writing and working with a specific set of rhythms. I had them do these compositions with a partner and then on a later day, they combined with another pair and taught the other pair their composition and created one long composition out of the two that was 16 beats. The group of four then performed them for the class when I was there, so I was able to use it as a composition and performance assessment and assess two different skills. Working with a partner and then teaching their composition to another pair was really neat to watch. I could tell that because they were writing, manipulating, and teaching it, they really "got it". 

You can find this Pumpkin Patch Composition lesson here.

4) Turkey Trot Rhythm Races

My kids love rhythm races. They are fun and competitive. I love that it gives me a chance to see which kids really are getting it. I divide the class into teams. My classes have about 25 kids, so I do five teams with 4-5 kids on each team.

The teams stand in lines next to their team color turkey. I read/clap/or play a rhythm and one player from each team races to the other end of the room. When they get there, they see piles with turkeys of their team's color. They must locate the correct rhythm and bring it back to their team. The first team to bring back the correct rhythm gets 2 points. If they bring back a correct rhythm, but they are not first, they get 1 point for their team. If they bring back an incorrect rhythm, they get 0 points and they have to go take it back because they will eventually need to find that rhythm.

(Photo shared from the classroom of Shelley Potter).

You can find this game here.

I hope you have enjoyed a peek at my week and some of the things I am doing right before Thanksgiving!

Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo

I wanted to share something that worked for my sub while I had to be out of the classroom yesterday. I was introduced to the book, "Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo" when a family member bought it for my daughter (Find it here on Amazon). She is two and LOVES listening to us read it. Since my husband is a band teacher, she is quite familiar with instruments and can name all of them and has been to many, many concerts between his 5-12 bands and my K-5 programs. 

When I look for things to leave for a sub, I try to find things that a non-music sub can do. Books with recordings have worked really well for my subs and the students seem to really enjoy them while I am away.

I left this book and some extension activities for my K-2 classes yesterday and both the sub and the students really seemed to enjoy the book. It has a CD that narrates the story along with an accompaniment. 

After they finished the book, students talked about concert etiquette. In the story, the boy falls asleep and the animals break out of their cages and take the stage as the musicians. So they talked about staying awake and paying attention when they go to concerts. They also recalled some of the instruments that were played in the book. 2nd graders were able to say what instrument families those belonged to.

Then, each student got a response sheet that asked them to draw (and write for the older ones) their favorite instrument from the concert outside of the zoo.

Click picture to download the file for free.

Here are a few of the finished response sheets:

If you would like to use this mini lesson with your students or leave it for a sub, I have uploaded it for FREE on TpT. If you have my sub survival tub, you already have it!

If you have already used this book with your students before, please let me know if you do anything different with it. If you use this with your class, I would love to hear how it goes!

Make sure to hop over to Aileen's blog and see what other tried and true ideas music teachers are sharing!

Night Time and Lullaby Books

I am linking up today with Emily's Kodaly Music. The topic for her books this week is "Night Time or Lullaby" books, so I thought I would link up and share a few of my favorites. You can check out her favorites by clicking the picture below. She blogged about "When You Wish Upon a Star" which is also one of my favorites. The illustrations are so beautiful!

1) All the Pretty Little Horses

This book is great for teaching loud/soft, lullaby, and would also be a great choice to pull out in February for Black History Month. It is believed that this song comes from African American women, who would sing it to the children they were caring for as they were away from their own children.  

2) Hush Little Baby

This is a great one to use in kindergarten with loud/soft. I picked it up at KMEA last year and actually love to use it at home with my 2 1/2 year old. It would be fun to use in your home if you have little ones, in early childhood music classes, and up to kindergarten, but I wouldn't go much past K with it.

On the pages before the lyrics, it shows the older sister knocking over the cradle, the baby crying, the older sister trying to soothe the baby (like the cover). The older sister goes with papa to find all of the different presents for the baby.

3) Over the Rainbow

I don't know if I just love this one because I am from Kansas and the connection to the Wizard of Oz, but this book takes the song out of Oz and sets it to some of the loveliest illustration by Eric Puybaret. I haven't connected this to any of the concepts in my sequence yet, I just love to sing it to my kids. It is good for them just to be sung (and read to) for the sake of hearing you sing expressively!

I hope you have enjoyed these book ideas and have found a new one to put on your wishlist or add to your collection!

What are your favorite books for night time/lullabies?

Yearly Planning for Music Teachers

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!

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!

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!

Making Music More Interactive

Happy Thursday!

I found this picture on The Inspired Apple's Blog: http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/2013/08/aint-no-tired-like-teacher-tired.html

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?

End of the Year

At the end of the year, I enjoy wrapping things up by saving a day or two to sing and play the kids' favorite songs, games, and stories. You know how you have the kid who asks you every time they see you "Mrs. Jervis, are we going to play Closet Key today?" and you always have other things planned, well I think it is more than ok to let them re-live their most exciting musical memories. I even let them pick songs/games/books from previous years. I display our favorite books where they can be seen and explain  that it is going to be a students' choice day. I call on several quiet hands and we make a list of possibilities on the board. After we have a good assortment, I have the kids close their eyes and vote for two favorites. We start with the game/activity that has the most votes and go from there. Most classes have time to play 3-4 games in 30 minutes, it just depends on the activities.

It is fun for me to see what they remember. Some students picked games all the way back from October!

With every class they really seem to be amazed how many songs/games/books we did throughout the year, and they really just scratched the surface.

It makes for a really great review of the songs and concepts from throughout the year.

Another thing I do with my first graders to review the comparatives (Fast/Slow, Loud/Soft, High/Low) is a little End of the Year Comparatives Quiz.

I put it up on my Teachers Pay Teachers store as a flash freebie. For those who may not know, a flash freebie is free for a certain amount of time. You can take advantage of this free PDF today (5-14-13).

 Here is a list of the songs/chants that I use that correspond with the clip art above and an answer key.

"Two Little Stars" is an altered poem. I might use the Bella part and my pink star manipulative for number 8. Find the poem here.

"Mortimer" is a book that I use for loud/soft. The kids just love Mortimer. This book is great for loud/soft, fast/slow, high/low and vocal exploration, but I bring it out specifically for preparing loud/soft.

You can buy it on Amazon here:

I've also included a blank one in case you have different songs you would like to use in the download from my store.

You can find the file this quiz here.

What kind of activities do you do to wrap up your year?

2, 4, 6, 8 and the Featured Item of the Week- click to see!

Thank you for visiting my blog! For those of you who are new to my blog or Teachers Pay Teachers store, every week I feature one of the items in my store. In the past, I have advertised the what the item is on my blog and on my Facebook page. This week, I am changing it a little so you have to click on the picture to see what the sale item is. If you take advantage of this sale, please take a moment after reviewing the product or using it in your classroom and leave feedback on the product page on Teachers Pay Teachers. This helps me to know that you found it to be accurate, a valuable tool to your teaching toolbox, and hopefully that it saved you some prep time and that your kids LOVED it! If you find any errors please let me know so that I can fix them. If this ever occurs, I almost always have the item fixed that same day! By leaving feedback you also earn credits towards any future purchases on TpT! It's a great way to save on excellent resources created by teachers for teachers. 

Don't forget to enter my April Giveaway to win any item your choice of any item from my store. The winner will be drawn on May 1st. 

I just finished some really adorable slides for the song "2, 4, 6, 8." This song is awesome for teaching rhythm as the "way the words go" or in your prepare/present/practice of ti-ti.

Here's a preview of some of the slides and student worksheets:

Title Page

Lyrics

Icons for steady beat- I use these before I introduce the heart beat, if I am preparing steady beat.

Lyrics added: 

Now with heart beats:

Heartbeats plus lyrcis.

Icons for "the way the words go", rhythm, and visually preparing ta and ti-ti.

I have also come up with the following student worksheets that are great for tracking the steady beat, and pre-reading ta and titi with "long and short". Print one for each student or print and laminate a class set to reuse. 

"2, 4, 6, 8" Is available on my store here.

Thanks for stopping by!