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!

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!

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!

Steady Beat and Ta/ Ti-ti Student Sheets

I am always looking for quick meaningful ways of assessing my students. One super easy way of seeing if your kids are ready for the presentation of steady beat is to use beat tracking charts. When I pull out a beat tracking chart during the prepare stage, I never label it as the "steady beat". I simply say "help pat our knees while I point to these pictures of the snails" 

 or "Watch me point to the trains as they leave the station!" 

I call their attention to how I point from left to right and where I go when I get to the end of the first line (the beginning of the second line). All of these things help or reinforce what the classroom teachers are doing to teach these young ones how to read.

After they have watched me point lots of times over a period of time, and they seem like they are able to keep the beat in their laps, I ask other students to use my pointers to help us follow the trains. They all want a turn to use the fancy pointer and be the leader and so I usually have to spread it over several class periods so everyone can get a turn. While one student is pointing at the white board, the rest of the class can watch and pat, play classroom percussion instruments like the sand blocks or rhythm sticks or they could practice pointing at their own beat chart (like my student beat charts above). 

After we have labeled the steady beat, I use heart beat charts for a while to reinforce the terminology:

These heart beat charts from my beat charts packet on TpT. It includes hearts and a variety of other clip art to go along with songs from your folk song collection.

 Available here!

When practicing, student beat charts make for a fast assessment. I can walk down each row while we sing and watch to see if students are able to keep the beat by pointing to the icons. 

After I present ta and ti-ti I use a student sheet like this so that they can practice writing the rhythms on each beat. I tell them that each bar is one beat.

I could even have them write the rhythms to a new or familiar song without telling them the title using my dictation sheets:

These student sheets for beat and rhythm (ta & titi) are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.

This set is 32 pages and includes beat and rhythm pages for the following songs:

Apple Tree
Bee Bee Bumblebee
Bounce High Bounce Low
Engine Engine Number Night
I Climbed Up the Apple Tree
Lucy Locket
Queen Queen Caroline
Rain Rain Go Away
See Saw Up and Down
Snail, Snail
Starlight, Starbright

Plus four pages for dictation/mystery song.

I have also added the student rhythm writing worksheet for Bounce High Bounce Low as a freebie in my store. Click here.

Just one more thing: I hit a personal goal yesterday selling my 100th item on TpT. To celebrate, I will throw a 15% off sale- TODAY ONLY!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Chants for Steady Beat and the "Way the Words Go"

When preparing/practicing steady beat and rhythm as "the way the words go" I have a few chants in my collection that my kids love. I also use these for comparatives: fast/slow, loud/soft, high/low.

I have put together a collection of five chants with slides and activities that is available on my TpT store here.

It includes slides for:

Teaching Ideas

Lyrics

Steady Beat Icons

Rhythm Icons

Rhythm Notation using Stick Notation

Printable beat tapping charts for students

The chants included in this collection are:

Bee Bee Bumblebee

Cinderella at the Ball

Engine, Engine Number Nine

I Climbed Up the Apple Tree

Queen Queen Caroline

Here are some sample pages from the set:

Bee Bee Bumblebee

Cinderella at the Ball

Engine Engine Number Nine

Activities: I usually pair with the book "The Freight Train" or "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain".

We add sand blocks when we are preparing and practicing fast/slow.

Train whistles- vocal exploration

 I Climbed Up the Apple Tree

 

We add this ostinato on Orff bordune. You could use this or make up your own.

Queen Queen Caroline

I use Queen Queen Caroline for loud/soft and high/low and connect with "Old King Glory" and the loveliest princess vocal exploration as learned from Jo Kirk so that we have a royal family day. They will make another appearance when Old King Glory travels to Boston to buy his wife a comb! ;)

All of these rhymes are also sold individually on my store.

What other chants do you like to use in your classroom?