Making Music Interactive and a Music Teacher Facebook Frenzy

Happy Wednesday,

I am linking up today with I'm Lovin' Lit's Thursday Throw Down: Ways to Make Learning More Interactive with ways to make music more interactive plus a link to some cute interactive notebook ideas for music teachers.

Usually when I think about the word "interactive" I think about technology and interactive notebooks. I haven see some really cute ideas for music interactive notebooks at Emily's blog The Sweetest Melody, but I haven't really taken the interactive notebook plunge in my music room yet (future goal for sure!).

Picture from The Sweetest Melody

Picture from The Sweetest Melody

But looking at the word, something else comes to mind.

DANCING!  and more specifically, square dancing!

There are some wonderful square dance and folk dances that you can find. I use a lot of resources by the Amidons for my students. 

When you are square dancing, you are have to listen and respond to the music (or the caller) as well as communicate (mostly non-verbally) to your partner, corner, and the other members of your square.

At my school we do a HUGE Kansas Day celebration and part of that evening is folk dancing and square dancing. Each grade performs a dance on the stage for the parents. I really want to expand this in the future to a community folk dance night, but until I get really comfortable with teaching the dances, I will just stick with the kids! :)

This is such a great, interactive way to make those connections between music and dance and preserve a part of our culture and heritage. My kids LOVE to dance, and my fifth grade boys even beg for it!

I cannot count the valuable social aspects, especially when you start early. Dancing becomes a part of their culture. They forget about the opposite sex and cooties and just have fun and try to keep up. 

If you don't have your kids dancing in the music room yet, I highly suggest trying it out! 

If you are already dancing with your kids, you might be interested in this movement and folk dancing word wall. I use it to reinforce terminology that is new to them such as "longways set", "allemande", "dosido" and lots more! 

Here are a few sample pages:

Are you a music teacher on TPT? We are currently searching for some music teachers to take part in a Facebook Frenzy in early December. Here's a little info on how it works. Basically it's an organized Facebook event that is held during a weekend where teachers offer a free item via an application that is downloaded to your business facebook account. It cannot be something that is currently offered in your TPT store. This means that anyone who comes to get your freebie simply has to "like" your facebook page, and then there is a direct link to the next music teacher's facebook page once they have grabbed your freebies. Its a great way to build up followers and collaborate with music teachers around the world. 

The requirements for this frenzy are you have to offer a Winter/Christmas themed freebie and you must have a facebook business account (if you don't have one, now would be a great time to set one up!). 

If you are interested in joining the Music Teachers Facebook Frenzy follow this link:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=29363

This is a preliminary sign up, just to make sure we have enough music teachers to participate. A real sign up will follow soon!

If you are not on TPT and want to get started, here are some tips. Feel free to use my referral link. I'd be happy to help you get your store up and running in any way that I can! Just copy and paste this into your browser. It will look like the normal TPT site, but it tracks that it is from my referral link.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:LJervis

If you're not interested in selling, you may still be interested all of the fantastic freebies that will be available during the frenzy so make sure that you are following my Facebook page, Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom or blog so you don't miss out!

Happy Thursday,

Lindsay

WOOHOO! Surprise Weekend Sale!

TPT reached 100,000 likes on their Facebook page! To celebrate they just announce a site wide sale of 10% off your purchase with the coupon code: FB100K. This promo code is good through Midnight on Monday morning.

I have most of my store an additional 20% off as well to celebrate!

The promo code is not listed on the website unless sellers choose to display it on their store banners.

Now would be a great time to stock up for Halloween! I have tons of great Halloween songs and games available in my store:

Click on the pictures to see the item!

Bundle of songs and activities for Fall - Over 400 pages of visuals and activities for Fall and Halloween!

Pumpkin Pumpkin: a fun song for teaching tiri-tiri

Pick a Pumpkin Rhythm Game (files available bundled or individually).

See the Old Witch: a song for teaching sol-mi and ta rest

Skin and Bones: a song for teaching low la and a spooky game

Naught Kitty Cat: a song for teaching la and ta rest

Candy Corn Rhythm Races: a fun way to practice your rhythmic concepts (available bundled or individually)

Vocal explorations for Halloween

Are you a seller on TPT? Take advantage of my FREE store banner and Halloween pennant clipart:

Happy sale!

Lindsay

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?

Preparing Steady Beat: Johnny Works With One Hammer

I can't wait until next year when I will see Pre-K and Kindergarten (woohoo!), but my first grade babies this year are working so hard! I am getting very close to presenting steady beat with them (probably next week). When I was in my level 1 training, my teacher Jo Kirk had these wonderful hammers with bells inside that we used to tap the steady beat. I couldn't afford to buy them and don't currently have the time or know-how to make them (although that is on my list), but last year at Target, I did find some hammers in the dollar bins so I picked up about 25 or so to use with a few of our favorites for preparing and practicing steady beat.

They sure do take up a lot of storage space, but they are awesome to have!

I first pull them out when using "Johnny Works With One Hammer." First we sing the song as an action song. 

After we know it pretty well, we form a circle and I go over procedures for the hammers, what it's resting position looks like, and what happens if you don't take care of the hammer (you will have to put it away and just use your hand!). 

We pass them out so that everyone has a hammer, and we sing the song again tapping the floor:

Mending our shoes:

And tapping our neighbor's knees, which they love! 

Then we move back to our seats and I put up the hammer icons on the board. I usually find that my beat visuals are the most successful after the kids know the song really well, so the visual preparation is usually the last thing I do. I use one of the hammers or a pointer to tap the beats while the students pat their knees.

Once they get the hang of this and know how I move from one line to the next, I invite them to come up and try to be the pointing maestro: 

(Notice, my projector screen is too high, I think I am going to put in a work order this summer to have my projector point down so that I can use the board and not the pull down screen. There's lots of times that I would like to write on the slides and the screen doesn't work too well for that, plus it's a little high for my kids. When my kids point to this one, I erase the top two lines of hammers and say that when they get to the end, they go back and do it again. So we learn repeats early! :)

Sometimes I have my students who are not pointing at the board point to their own beat sheet or play "the hammers" on their rhythm sticks.

My hammer beat sheet is available for FREE on my TpT page - click here!

Monthly Freebie

This freebie is open to those who follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, my blog or who have "liked" my Facebook page:  Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom

https://sites.google.com/site/teacherspayteachersfreebies/

This month my freebie includes two beat charts- one in color and one in black and white. You could project these onto your board, or print student copies. If printing copies, I suggest card stock and laminating so that you can use again and again!

Thank you for being my follower!

Please feel free to share my blog, TpT page, or Facebook page with others, but do not share this freebie directly.

This product is for your classroom use only, it cannot be repackaged and sold.

Thanks!

Lindsay

Freebie! Engine Engine

FEEBIE!!!

I just started a Facebook page for my TpT store. For anyone following my blog or my facebook page I wanted to share a new freebie. This will not stay a freebie forever, so hurry and download!

This is the version found in American Methodology:

This is the version how I learned it:

 

Student beat chart:

Student rhythmic icon chart:

If you download this freebie, I would love for you to take time to provide feedback on my TpT page. This helps me know what you think of my products, if there is anything I could improve, and if you have any questions about my product.

Happy Saturday!

Lindsay