Make It / Take It for Music Teachers

Last Winter I organized a Make It / Take It for the Kodaly Music Educators of Kansas.

I thought I would share with you what we did at this make it/ take it in case other districts, chapters, or groups of music teacher friends are interested in putting together their own "Make It / Take It".

We decided that we would make the following manipulatives/games at our workshop:

1) Solfege texting sticks

For this manipulative, each teacher got a set of Popsicle sticks and a pentatonic page of the texting tone ladders to cut out. We stuck them to the Popsicle sticks with rubber cement. It was a little sticky. Hot glue might work better, but glue along the top edges of the paper will help keep students from picking the paper off the sticks. Download a FREE template here.

(Photo credit: Jennifer Patterson)

A few ideas for using them:

-        Sing a known song on solfege and have students use finger to “text” the solfege as they sing

-        Sing a known song on words and have the students “text” the solfege

-        Sing do pentatonic melodic patterns and have students echo as they “text” the pattern

-        Sing melodic patterns on neutral syllable and have students respond with the solfege as they text. 

2) Foam rhythm cubes

Teachers got a set of 16 cubes. You can order them in bulk here. They could chose what rhythms to put on the sides. I really wanted a set for just ta, titi, ta rest, and takadimi (tika-tika, etc.), so I left two sides blank. Leaving those sides blank opens up the opportunity for student composing or improv if they can fill in their own rhythm on those empty beats. 

Ideas for use:

-        Students use the cubes in centers or small groups to find the rhythms of known songs (8 or 16 beats)

-        Compose new rhythm

-        Dictate 4 beat rhythm patterns

-     Compose or improvise new patterns on the blank cubes.

3) Sorted bags of colored transparent bingo chips to use on student high low charts or staves

There wasn't anything to make at this station, but a lot of teachers wanted these bingo chips to use on their high/low charts and staves. I have a high low chart, a staff without the clef, and a staff with the clef that is laminated for each student in my class. These chips are cool because although they are colored, they are transparent, so students can see the line going through the middle of them if it is supposed to be on a line and they fit between the lines perfectly for space notes. Each teacher got 250 chips and they could put however many they wanted in bags depending on their class sizes. You can order these chips in bulk here.

Ideas for use:

-        Use the chips to notate, dictate, or compose melodic patterns on student staff paper

4) Four Beat Heartbeat Charts

Teachers got 120 heart die cuts and 30 strips of paper that were cut/punched out ahead of time. They glued down the hearts four to a strip to create 4 beat heartbeat charts. 

Ideas for use:

-        Students may tap the beat to known folk songs or recorded music

-        Students use Popsicle sticks to dictate patterns on top of the heartbeats

-        Students use erasers, beads, etc. to show how many sounds they hear on each beat

5) I Have, Who Has game cards

I had a class set of "I Have, Who Has - Tika-tika" cards printed for KMEK members. If you want a ready to print set of cards, you can find them in my TpT store here (lots of different concepts are available), or you could create a rhythm list and create your own cards by handwriting them. If using my set with a big group of teachers, email me at lindsayjervis@hotmail.com for special pricing on additional licenses. The teachers who attended the workshop just had to cut them out and laminate them! 

Prep Work Before the Workshop

To prep for the make it / take it workshop, I spent a lot of time looking for ideas on Pinterest. I put together a Pinterest board with some ideas and let KMEK members comment in our Facebook group to say which manipulatives they would like for us to make. You can see the idea board here.
Once we decided what we were going to make, I ordered all of the materials. Some KMEK members helped in advance cutting out all of the heart die cuts cutting strips for the heart beat charts. Once we had enough materials for all of the participants, we sorted everything into bags for each teacher and I printed up a contents sheet with instructions and ideas for use for everything in the bag. Download the instructions page we used here and feel free to edit it for your own personal use!

Participants had to pre-register for the workshop so that we could anticipate how many sets of materials we would need to order. There was a lot of prep work that went into this workshop to make it a success, but it was a lot of fun, and our students got to have lots of new hands on manipulatives and games to use in music class as a result! It is always so much more fun to make these things with a group of friends than on your own, and you can benefit from buying in bulk if you are splitting the costs between several teachers.

Here are a few more photos of our make it / take it workshop:

If you have any questions about our make it/take it workshop or organizing your own, please do not hesitate to email me at LindsayJervis@hotmail.com

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

Hello, I am hosting another Monday Music Manipulatives Link Up where you can see some wonderful manipulative ideas by my friend and guest blogger, Jody, as well as link up or find other music teachers who have linked up to get even more ideas. 

Hi there. My name is Jody Scott and I teach K through 5th music in Wichita, Kansas. Lindsay asked me to guest blog this week about manipulatives I use in my classroom. It was a crazy Valentine’s week, but I did manage to get some photos of things that I used with my kids. Here are some of my favorite manipulatives, ones that I use on a regular basis.

At the beginning of the school year I picked up these reusable dry erase pockets. You can find them here. They have been so useful because I can put any worksheet or visual inside and the kids can use it over and over. They erase like a dream and stay so clean. We have used them a lot and they still look new. Here you can see my first graders working on one and two sounds to a beat.

A few years ago I made these heartbeat charts. I have gotten so much use out of these! Since they are laminated, we can write on them with dry erase markers, put small manipulatives or erasers in them and write with Popsicle sticks. I found the little Popsicle sticks at a craft store and they fit perfectly in the hearts. Here are my 3rd grade students practicing sixteenth note writing and my first grade students practicing one and two sounds to a beat.

During the school day, I always have a blank page open on my Smart Board. I use it to show iconic representation of rhythm and pitch with about every grade level. One of my kindergarten favorites is to do vocal exploration with all the creative pens. Some of the pen options are rainbow, smiley faces, and snowflakes. Of course they love to make their own vocal exploration and individually show the class how to do it (Great for assessment!). This week I gave each of them a chenille stick (pipe cleaner) right after we did this activity at the Smart Board. They made their own roller coasters and of course got very creative. I was excited to hear them individually this week because their voices are really starting to match the visual representations they are making!

My first and second grade students get a lot of use out of these little packets I made a couple of years ago. I picked up a bunch of math counters at our instructional support center and cut ribbons to help the kids practice beginning staff writing. I have used a one line and two line staff with them. I like to do it this way before I move to paper writing. It really keeps the attention of the students better than paper writing and I can walk around and give immediate feedback about “on a line” or “in a space.” We practice putting the finger spaces in and putting the eighth notes close together. Then we point to them as we sing the song fragment we are writing. I can see so quickly who is getting it and who needs help.

Foam shapes are a staple for me in my classroom. You can find all kinds of shapes at any craft store. I love them because I don’t have to laminate a thing and they last forever. I can just write on them or cut them up and go. This week, we used these crowns shapes to figure out how to write “Queen Queen Caroline.” I am moving from pictures to stick notation with first grade, so I added sticks for one and two sounds. I was able to make four sets and, after we did an example as a class, the kids worked on the “puzzle” in small groups.

Another fast and easy manipulative make and use are envelopes with rhythms in them. I don’t always have time to print and laminate the cards I want the kids to read, so I cut up sentence strips with the rhythms of the song we are using and put them in an envelope. I usually make 4 or more options so we hear a variety of rhythms. Since this past week was Valentine’s Day, we used these cute little felt envelopes I found at Walmart. The game is simple and can go with so many Valentine’s and non-Valentine’s songs. The student or teacher walks around the outside of the circle while the song is being sung and delivers the letter. My 4th and 5th grade classes played the game with “I Got A Letter” and the 2nd grade classes played with “Messenger, Messenger.” The envelope game is always a hit and a super easy way to assess.

There you have it. I hope you got some new ideas or were reminded of some old ones. Thanks for letting me share. And thanks to Lindsay for asking! Jody


If you want to join this Monday Music Manipulatives Link Up, here's what to do:
1) Write a blog post about a few of the manipulatives that you use in your music room. Include the "Monday Music Manipulatives" image from the top of this post and link it back to my blog post.
2) Add the link to your blog post in my "in links" at the bottom of this post
3) That's it! Easy peasy!

An InLinkz Link-up

A big thanks to Jody for this lovely post! Did you find a new manipulative that you want to make or already LOVE using in this post? Let Jody know by leaving a comment below!

Monday Music Manipulatives

Welcome to another Monday Music Manipulatives Link Up! This time I am so excited that my friend, Mia, is going to be my guest blogger to share some of the great manipulatives that she uses in her music room. Mia went through all three Kodaly Levels with me at Wichita State University, and we are both working on our Masters together. She is so passionate about teaching music and inspiring her students! I just know they adore her! If you want to link up and share some of your music manipulatives, feel free to join at the bottom of this post and please be sure to give Miss Nightingale a warm welcome to the blogging world! :)

Hello! My name is Mia Nightingale and I teach K-5 music in Wichita, Kansas. This month begins my 4^th year teaching. I am blessed to have been hired right after student teaching at the school where I student taught. I completed my Kodaly certification just this last summer from Wichita State University along with Lindsay. My Kodaly teachers (Mrs. Jo, Lisa Simmelink, Susan and Royce Tevis, Gabor Viragh, and Shawn Chastain) are my biggest inspiration and I can undoubtedly say I am pretty much obsessed with each of them.

I am so excited and honored that Lindsay asked me to be her guest blogger! When she asked me to do my blog about some manipulatives I use in my classroom, my response was, “What if nearly all my manipulatives are your creations I bought on your TPT?!” Ha!! Even the ones I am going to talk about today are not my original ideas – I steal all my ideas from other fabulous Kodaly teachers! J

Today I am blogging about a couple manipulatives I used last week for 1^st/2^nd grade rhythmic and melodic dictation.

For rhythmic dictation: Each student had a plastic baggie with 12 colorful Popsicle sticks. I played 4 beat patterns with rhythm sticks this week using the rhythms ta titi and ta rest.  The students form the rhythms with the sticks.

The first time I ever do this, I do have them “figure out with me” how we can make the ta titi and ta rest (trickiest) with the sticks. It is important for me to mention that when I play the pattern, I say “beat, beat, ready here I go” or simply “beat, beat, beat, beat” and move my sticks from their left to right with each beat as I play for visual aid. By the way, you don’t have to just use popsicle sticks. I have also made a set of cut up colorful straws that I used this week, too, that work almost better than popsicle sticks because they are smaller and take up less room. 

( As you can see in the pictures, my students have assigned seats on the floor. My honor choir is the only group I ever use chairs with.)

For melodic dictation: I have laminated staff paper (lined on one side – blank on the back) and use small colorful “chips” that the students place on the staff. (I got these chips from the Instructional Support Center downtown).  I start with 4 chips each, and eventually will use up to 8 each. 

What I do not have pictured here is my smartboard where I have projected my own staff paper. I always do the first couple with them. Also on my staff paper that is being projected, I draw the do clef and sometimes change where do will be this time. I sing or play the melody being dictated. The first time we ever do melodic dictation, I sing in solfege the first couple of times. Then I use a glockenspiel to give them a visual aid. When I know they’re ready, I sing melody on “loo” or play at piano. Also, after a couple weeks of doing dictation with the colorful “chips”, I pass out dry erase markers and they can use those instead to draw their own noteheads and add stems. After everyone has marked their answer, they help me do mine that is being projected on the smartboard.

Trying to understand a young child’s handwriting / music notation writing skills can be quite the challenge.  I have found that using these manipulatives can give a clearer assessment of what the student understands and hears before having them write it down.  Feel free to comment below with any questions or suggestions you might have for me!

Mia Nightingale

"Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime." --Zoltan Kodaly

How to link up
1. Write a blog post on your blog titled Monday Music Manipulatives. Include my Link Up picture with a link back to my blog
2. Add your link below so that other music teachers can find you!
3. Don't forget to pin to pinterest so people find it!

Making Musical Transitions

When I first started teaching I had no concept of musical transitions. I would simply move from one activity to another. Often during this time the kids would get off task waiting to see what the next activity was going to be. During level 1, I got to see how the fabulous Jo Kirk would weave her songs together through stories and though I am not as creative as she is, I began to create stories to connect the songs I was using with my first and second graders. After my Kodaly Levels 2 and 3, I feel like am better at making MUSICAL transitions.

A musical transitions will guide your students throughout your entire lesson, connecting songs with melodic and rhythmic activities. These should never be drills, but simply a way of getting from point A to point B.

Here are some examples of melodic transitions using the melodic element "fa" and the songs,  "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" transitioning to "Chairs to Mend"

Students sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on solfa with hand signs.

Teacher then shows 4 or 8 melodic flashcards. Here's the key. They are NOT FOR DRILL! The flashcards should be purposefully selected, not just "let's do a stack of flashcards". The first flashcard should have some tonal pattern from the song you are coming from and ending with a tonal pattern of the song you are going to. In between are tonal patterns of known songs. I would write down the exact tonal patterns I was going to use in my lesson plans including what songs they are from so that I could have all my visuals ready.

Here's how it would look: 

(pattern from "Twinkle Twinkle"

(pattern from "This Old Man")

(Pattern from "Are You Sleeping?/Brother John")

(pattern from "Chairs to Mend")

Which leads right to our next song! Sing on text then add canon:

Another way to get from songs with similar tone sets would be to use a tone ladder. Taking the same two songs, you could first sing "Twinkle Twinkle" then point to the pitch ladder having students sing on solfa with hand signs. You could do the whole song, then move to song fragments from other known songs ending with your starting phrase of the next song in your lesson. Your tone ladder could be projected onto the board like this:

Or you could use cut outs like these:

Rhythm transition activities:

Another rhythmic transition that could be used here would be flashcards. Again, the use of the flashcards is not for drill, but to guide us from one song quickly to the next for a seamless transition with no wasted time.

I could start with:

(from "Chicken on a Fence Post")

(From "Dinah")

(From "Golden Ring Around the Susan Girl")

(From "Old Brass Wagon")

And off you go with singing "Old Brass Wagon" and performing the square dance!

One of my goals for the upcoming school year is to work on including more musical transitions like these for grades 2-5. What other kinds of transitions do you use? What are your goals for the upcoming school year?

If you like the transition resources I have used in this post, they are all available at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store:

Fa Melodic Transition Staff Cards {FREEBIE}

Tone Ladders (Over 50 Pages of tone ladders that you can project or cut out and put on your board)

Rhythm Flashcards - Available by concept or in a Mega Set-The ones I used in this post were from my tiri-tiri (or tika-tika, takadimi, etc.) set