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

Halloween Music Manipulatives

This week for Monday Music Manipulatives I am sharing some Halloween themed manipulatives for the music room.

1) Halloween Themed Erasers

You can use these Halloween themed erasers to show how many sounds on a beat by placing them on beat charts, or for melodic writing and dictating on individual staff pages. I have a class set of staff pages like these below that are laminated and having different erasers keeps it fresh and fun for the kiddos. 

I picked up some of these erasers over the years, usually from the Target dollar section.

These kitty cat heads are perfect for Naughty Kitty Cat:

The ghost ones are fun for Skin and Bones, Ghost of Tom, or using to show the rhythms of Miss White.

2) Halloween themed table scatter

I found this pumpkin table scatter one year at Target and it is great for melodic dictation and writing (like with the erasers above), or to show the rhythms on top of beat charts.

3) Foam Halloween Shapes

You can write rhythms, rhythm patterns, solfege, etc. on these! Scatter them around and have students see if they can figure out the song. 

You can also have them compose their own pumpkin patterns using these. You could easily pair it with these Pumpkin Composition Pages.

4) Rhythm Blocks

Use these rhythm blocks to show the patterns from Halloween songs. You can find these pre-made rhythm blocks in lots of colors here. Read more about them in this blog post.

Valentine's Rhythm Boxes

Hello,

My name is Tina Morgan, and Lindsay invited me to do a guest blog post. This is my 27th year of teaching, and I frequently create new activities to keep everything fun for ME!  My first 7 years, I taught grades K-6.  I then spent 13 years teaching only 5th & 6th graders before transferring to my current school as the violin teacher for grades 2-5.  Four years ago I moved into the general music position and now teach Pre-K-5, so it’s been an adjustment learning to deal with the really young ones!

I thought I would share a fun activity I created for my kindergarten students.

I bought these boxes at the Dollar Tree.  There are 4 designs and I bought 2 of each.  I used them to make a game for my Kindergarten students, who can read 4-beat rhythm patterns using quarter notes and quarter rests.

In a Word document, I created 6 hearts with rhythm patterns on them.  I used clip art from Dancing Crayons to create the rhythm patterns. 

  

I printed the hearts on card stock, cut out the hearts, and then laminated them using my little laminator that I bought from Amazon last summer.  I’m not sure how I’ve lived without it for so long!  The laminator at my school was broken for ages, and the film isn’t as sturdy as the sheets I use in my small machine.  For small jobs, it’s perfect!

Grab these hearts for FREE here.

This year I am lucky – my largest Kindergarten class has only 20 students!  For some classes, I can put the students in pairs to play the game.  Other classes may have a few groups of 3.  Each group has a box containing the rhythm hearts.  The students take turns finding the rhythm pattern that I say and clap, then put the heart in their box.

What are your favorite activities to practice rhythm reading during Valentine's week?

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!

Folk Song Friday {Let Us Chase the Squirrel}

I am so excited to announce a new series on my blog: Folk Song Friday! I can't commit to or promise that every Friday I will have a new post up, but when I can, I hope to post one of my students' favorite folk songs and share with you what I do with that song in my classroom.

Song of the Week: Let Us Chase the Squirrel

Hardest Rhythmic Concept: half note (ta-a or ta-o)

Other Rhythms: ta and titi

Hardest Melodic Concept: re

Other Pitches: d m sl

I have two different games that I play with this song.

Game #1: Students are in long ways sets, forming arches with their partner as the "trees in the forest". Whenever the teacher plays on the triangle, the two students at the end of the set duck down and run up the trees going through the arches and forming a new arch at the end. The sets can travel all around the classroom this way.

Game #2: Students are in groups of three around a circle. Two form a tree and one is the squirrel under the tree. Any leftover students go to the middle of the circle and are squirrels. On the word "tree" all of the squirrels must go to a new tree and the squirrels in the middle can try to steal a tree. 

Here's a video of my students playing the second game:

If you are looking for visuals for the song, I've redone my "Let Us Chase the Squirrel" file to give it a fresh look and include slides for re. It has gone from 12 pages to 67!

If you own this file:

 

It has now become this:

I project this page and have them tap along with the beat when I am working on half note prep. Eventually, the kids will find a sound that lasts for two beats.

I bring this song back out when we are working on the melodic concept, re. We play the game during re prep, and then after re has been presented, this song provides lots opportunity to practice re. On the slide below we would sing from icons on the staff.

Click on the pictures above to check it out if you are looking for  complete ready-made visuals for this song or to re-download and get the updates for free if you had purchased the older version!

Grab a FREE sample of this song file here. 

Do you have any other ideas, games, books, or visuals you use with "Let Us Chase the Squirrel"? Collaborate by sharing below in the comments!

Are You Wild About Music?

March is Music In Our Schools Month, and it is just around the corner! Last year, I put together an advocacy bulletin board set for MIOSM titled "Wild About Music".

It came with several cute posters like these:

It also came with printable student sheets where students could write why they are wild about music.

I wasn't able to get it printed in time to use last year, but Jena Hudson did and she created a cute little banner to go along with it here.  Here is the finished bulletin board from Jena's classroom.

This year I hope to display this board and it will fit perfectly as I am currently prepping a circus themed program with my first and second grade students!

I love seeing finished bulletin boards from things I have created, so I thought I would do a little giveaway! If you send me a picture of your finished bulletin board using my "Wild About Music" bulletin board set from 2/14/15 - 3/31/15, I will send you any (one) set of my "Wild Rhythm Races" games FREE! You don't have to enter to win! Everyone who sends me a picture via email or posting it to my Facebook page will get a free copy of the Wild Rhythm Races concept of their choice!

When you send me the picture of your bulletin board, please include which concept of the "Wild Rhythm Races" you would love to have. Here are your choices:

- Ta and titi
- Ta Rest
- Half Note
- Tiri-tiri
- Ti-tiri
- Tiri-ti
- Syncopa
- 6/8

Do you already have a different theme in mind for MIOSM? If so, what is your theme going to be?

Monday Music Manipulatives {Cotton Balls & Bingo Counters}

Welcome to another Monday Music Manipulatives!

I am so excited to share this neat idea that I found from my good friend, Erin Johnson, on her Facebook page. Erin went through all three levels of Kodaly with me at Wichita State University. :)

She had been working on preparing ta rest and was actually doing dictation with it, without labeling it. 

She had found two sided bingo counters and used them to make ta's and ti-ti's. 

Then for the beats with no sound, she passed out some cotton balls, and the students were able to dictate on which beat they heard the piece of silence. I love this idea! Cotton balls are cheap, and fun for tactile learners. 

Today she used the beat charts and left the hearts where they heard a piece of silence blank. They numbered the beats, showed which beat was "empty" and labeled it as silent. She then presented the ta rest notation, moved right to flashcards to practice and on they went!

A big thank you to Erin Johnson for sharing her pictures and letting me blog about her idea!

Do you have a fun manipulative you want to share? Link up below! Here's how:

1) Save my "Monday Music Manipulatives" image from the top of my blog

2) Insert it into your blog post and hyperlink it to this post

3) Blog about your own music manipulatives 

4) Copy your blog link and link up below!