Products for Prep and a TpT SALE

Here are some of the things from my store that I think will help your year get started off on the right track!

1) MUSIC Rules {Posters and Songs}

I believe it is so important to get kids used to singing, moving and playing games from the first day of music. Last summer I was really stuck on how to get in more singing on the first day while you are also worried about getting all of your rules and procedures covered. I decided one thing I could do was set my rules to folk tunes. Now, this is not a very "Kodaly" thing to do because obviously the words are contrived, but it is much more enjoyable for both me and my students to learn the rules through song. I found that it helped the remember the rules better and if a rule wasn't being followed, sometimes I would only have to hum the tune and the kids knew exactly what I meant and were right back on track.

For my rules, they spell out "MUSIC"
M- Make good choices
U- Use kind words
S- Show respect to classmates, teacher, and the music
I- Involve yourself
C- Care for our room and instruments

I have a little poster for each one.

I put magnetic tap to the back and hang them on my board. This stuff is amazing! I cut a piece for each corner that was maybe a 1/2 inch and I still have plenty left!

Each rule has a song, set to a familiar folk tune. Last year since the rules and songs were brand new to my students, I just focused on one a day so we could talk about what it meant, learn the song, but not waste our entire 30 minutes on learning the music room rules songs. So it took me five class periods to cover all of them. This year with the upper grades, since most of the kids will already know them, we will go over all of them quickly on the first day, with a bit of role playing and breaking/following the rules demonstrations, sing the song that corresponds and move on! K and 1st grade I will do as I did last year and do one per day.

Here's an example of what the songs are like:

If you are interested in a set of rules posters and songs like this for your classroom, I have these three different themes:

- Bright Chevrons, Birds and Owls

- Music Notes and Kids

- Nautical Theme (pictured above)

2) Yearly Planning Guide

In my poolside planning post, I shared a free sample of how I get started with my yearly. If you would like to see each grade level laid out by rhythmic and melodic concepts for the whole year as well as a song list for each grade level divided by rhythmic and melodic concepts, you might be interested in my "Ready, Set Plan" file which will map out the whole year, or my "Off to the Races" which will map out the first semester. 

The excel files are completely editable (for personal use) so if your kids are in different places or you need to spend more or less time on a concept, you can totally adjust as needed. The song lists should not be taken as "grade level" song lists, but more of "concept song lists" so if your fourth graders are just now getting to re it's not a big deal, you just go with where YOUR kids are at. Everyone's schedule is different I have seen a LOT of crazy schedules out there. We are all doing the best we can with the time we are given. 

3) Music Room Decor 

Whether you would love to have some new posters for your wall, instrument labels, binder covers, or ready-made bulletin boards sets, you can probably find it in my store.

This year I am going with a quotes of "Music Washes Away from the Soul the Dust of Everyday Life" and "Music is like the ocean, it belongs to everyone" as my inspiration for my nautical themed music room. 

Although my room decor isn't all up yet, I really love the way it is coming together!

I will be sure to post more pictures when I get the whole thing done!

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!

Music Room Organization {Part 1: Digital Files}

Let's face it! Music teachers have a LOT of STUFF! Our rooms are full of instruments, sound equipment, puppets, books, manipulatives and that doesn't even scratch the surface of keeping everything organized on our laptops!

On my Facebook page, I asked for some topics to blog about and one teacher requested that I write a post on how I keep all my visuals organized and ready to use without wasting too much down time!

For today's post, I am strictly going to show some ways that I (try to) keep organized so that I can quickly find what I need for each class, especially when you have classes with zero break in between and so that there is as little down time as possible DURING the class. I don't know about you, but I only see my kids for 30 minutes twice a week- each second counts!

To start off with I have anything and everything that I would ever need at school all saved to an external hard drive.

I bought two of them on sale during Black Friday.

I have several reasons for doing this, and it may or may not be something you want to look into. 

1) If anything should happen to my computer, I can take this and hook it up to ANY computer. I've had to borrow my PE teacher's laptop for a day when mine decided not to work. Having all my files stored on an external hard drive was a life saver and meant that I could continue on with my lessons as planned.

2) It gives me a permanent back up of all my files that I create or download from other TPT music teachers. (I also store many things on dropbox and google drive). I'm just SO terrified of losing my things.

3) I store a TON of clip art that I use to make all of my files, so I really need a lot of storage space.

To start off with, I save to that hard drive in one main folder with several sub folders.

Click to enlarge

Within this main teaching folder are many, many sub folders organized by concepts. I also have a big one titled "Songs" which I will explain in a minute.

So, say I am working on my lesson planning for teaching half note, I pull up my half note folder and it has ALL of my digital files for that concept.

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I start by going to my concept plan.

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(snapshot taken from my concept plan for half note, available in my Songs and Games to Teach Half Note) Here I have outlined all of the songs I can use and I make a column that says teaching materials where I list any resources I have created (or collected) that I don't want to forget. I haven't made visuals for all of the songs on the repertoire list, so I make a note of what songs I do have those digital visuals ready to go.

I use my concept plans, my notes from my Kodaly Certification, the American Methodology and Yearly Plans while writing my own plans, but this organization on the digital end helps me figure out what songs/activities I can plug where. If you don't have those materials, I highly suggest you look into them. Another thing that you might find helpful in your long term planning is my Jan.- May Planning Guide

It includes song lists by grade level as well as rhythmic and melodic concepts mapped out for when I plan to prepare, present and practice them (from Jan-May). I hope to make another set before back to school for Aug.through Dec.

Once I have my plans done, and the school day is upon me, how do I transition between files for each class/grade?

In the morning I see 4th, 3rd, then 5th, so I go to my lesson planner before school and I see what digital files I will need for the morning, and have them all pulled up so they are ready to go and I can quickly move from one to the next while my kids are singing.

If they are all songs, an easy way I have found is to have a folder that has all my song visuals. I just go to that folder and type in the song title and poof! There it is! That way I don't have to dig through all my concept folders. 

Song File contains ALL my song visuals in ABC order

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Quickly find what I need by typing in the title.

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At lunch I close out of all my 3rd-5th files and open all my 1st and 2nd. 

How to transition during/between classes:

Since all my files that I need for a class are already open, all I have to do to transition between files, is hover over the PowerPoint of PDF icon at the bottom of my screen, depending on what kind of file it is, and select my file. I always try to do this when my kids are busy doing something else. Say we were at the board to read and clap the rhythm for "Who's That Tapping At Your Window?", then we went to the circle and played the game, as my kids are going back to the board and I am transitioning to the next song (and file) I can have them sing "Who's That?" and assign soloists or if the next song is one they know well by memory, I have have them sing it while I pull up the slide. They are not sitting there waiting for me because it takes them more time to get to their spot than it does for me to switch files, and I can quickly make the switch to Rocky Mountain.

Click to enlarge

I hope this helps give you some ideas on how to organize your digital files. Later this week, I hope to blog about getting manipulatives organized for each class period.

If you have different/more efficient ways of organizing digital files, PLEASE feel free to share! :) We can all learn from each other! Either comment or link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Music Manipulatives

I think it is time for another Monday Music Manipulatives Link Up! 

If you are a music teacher blogger, feel free to join the link up (directions at the end of the post). If you a blog reading music educator, please make sure to follow any other blogs that link up at the bottom of this post for more great music manipulatives ideas.

I am trying to use the American Methodoloy and Yearly Plans books this year more in my planning and sequencing. 

During sol-mi prep one of the things it suggests is having the students place the text of the song on the board to show "high" and "low". I put the words for the song, "Rain Rain Go Away" on umbrella die cuts and placed magnets on the back. 

I was able to use this with practicing steady beat as well as having students place them on the board to show which words (or parts of words) are high and which were low.

Here are some pictures:

Students place umbrellas above the heart beats to show steady beat.

Pass out umbrellas and have students put the song in order with their umbrella either showing high or low. We talk about spacing just like when we do it on the individual student high/low charts. 

Don't have access to umbrella die cuts? Download this freebie in my TPT store.

I want to hear about and see all the fabulous manipulatives you are using in your music room! Please link up below. 

Here's how:

1) Write a blog post about your manipulatives in the music room

2) Include my Monday Music Manipulatives picture in your blog post with a link back to this post.

3) Sign up below to have your finished blog post linked to mine! 

Lindsay