Being from Kansas, I originally created this bulletin board set for Kansas Day. It's actually not a bulletin board at all, just the side of one of my file cabinets.
Most all of my kids have seen the Wizard of Oz and they loved these posters and I loved that they had a great music advocacy tie in.
Since then, I've had several other teachers send me pictures of the bulletin boards that they have come up with using this set and they are so creative!
How cool is the detail on this one:
Below is a picture from my friend, Kendra, who used this set for a door decor contest! I love the rainbow and lyrics she added to the side!
Then, I had a music teacher ask for student response sheets where they could explain in their own words why there is no place like music. So I came up with these:
You can talk about each character and what they were hoping to get from the wizard. Relate those things to the way that music makes us feel or how music improves our lives. Example – the lion wanted courage because he was always scared of everything. Music makes me feel brave/courageous when____________. I have included several different formats so that you can pick what will work best with your students.
The first layout simply shows the character and shows the word of what they wanted. Younger students can draw on these pages to show how music makes them feel these ways or you can give your older kids a different prompt (Ex. This song makes me feel brave________ ) and they can write and draw.
On the second and third layouts, the prompt is given along with the character clip art and trait, ex. “Music makes me feel at home when…”. The second layout provides room to draw and/or write (unlined). The third layout provides room for them to write (lined) and a smaller drawing area.
Here are some of the student responses. They are backed with construction paper and hung up in the hallway for everyone to read!
If you have used these sets, I would love to see pictures of your displays! I hope this set has helped my own students to think about and realize all of the amazing benefits of music.
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!
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?
Informal music making between a parent and child has a greater impact than CDs or shows that teach music
Informal music-making in the home from around the ages of two and three can lead to better literacy, numeracy, social skills, and attention and emotion regulation by the age of five
Music making should be playful
Voice is a great place to start
On my Facebook post, someone wrote "I have no money for lessons. What do I do as a homeschool mom. Any suggestions?"
YES! I have lots of suggestions for parents whether you homeschool or not.
1) Sing to your child -
Whether you think that you can sing or not, it is SO important to sing to your child. Singing in early childhood not only helps with bonding between the parent and child, it build literacy, fluency, and helps your child to be tuneful. Not sure what to sing? Start with children songs from YOUR CHILDHOOD! These songs have stood the test of time and are a great place to start when building song repertoire for you and your child.
These could be songs you sing together as well as songs that are just for them to listen to.
Here are some of my three year old's favorites to sing alone or with me:
1) Old MacDonald
2) ABC song
3) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
4) Baa Baa Black Sheep (does your child notice that this sounds the same, or has the same melody, as Twinkle and ABCs?)
5) Ring Around the Rosie (with game - they LOVE it)
6) London Bridges (play as a family, making an arch and letting your child go through the arch, they love being captured when the bridge falls down at the end of the song)
7) See Saw Up and Down
Here are some of her favorites that I sing to her:
1) All the Pretty Little Horses
2) Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree
3) Hush Little Baby
4) The Crabfish
5) The Gypsy Rover
I also sing her several of my favorite songs from musicals.
Need more ideas for building song repertoire for you and your child to sing together? I highly recommend any of Jill Trinka's CDs. Again, the point isn't just to listen to the CD in the car (although that is good), but to learn the songs so that YOU can sing them with or to your child.
The book includes the singing games, but if you just want the songs, they are available on iTunes as well. Listen to a sample here:
2) Make music with found sounds
Find different kinds of sounds around the house. These do not have to be "real instruments". Kids can turn almost anything into a noise maker. Pull out your pots and pans and hand them stirring spoons, fill empty butter containers or Easter eggs with things that they can shake. The possibilities are
endless.
3) Listen and MOVE to all kinds of music
My husband and I have very different tastes in music so our daughter has been exposed to so much in her 3 years. He is a 5-12 band teacher and he loves jazz so much that he got a double major in music education and jazz performance. He has exposed her to so many different things in that genre and she can identify most instruments after hearing just a few seconds of something. I was in music theatre growing up, so I love listening to showtunes. I also love listening to classical music, oldies, and a lot of things that are on the radio today (don't judge).
One thing that you will find with kids is that when they are young they have the ears for all kinds of music and they are not judgmental about music that sounds "different", "out there", or "weird" like many adults will. We have been careful to let her form her own opinions about the music she listens to and not influence her opinion of a piece.
I strongly suggest exposing your kids to varied kinds of music.
The music becomes more a part of them if they PLAY with it. For kids, this may mean rocking to the music, patting their laps to help them feel the beat, dancing with your child, etc. They so desperately need to move to the music they are listening to.
4) Bring songs to life with illustrated picture books
There are SO many illustrated nursery rhyme and song books out there. Snatch them up! I usually don't use a book to introduce the song or rhyme to my daughter. If it is a rhyme we might act it out, do a fingerplay or actions if there are some to go along with it. If it is a song, I sing it to her a few times before I pull out the book because I want her to imagine whatever she will and not have preconceived illustrations in her mind. Let them use their imagination.
Here are some of our favorite books to sing (Note that not all of these are lullabies. You need some fun, silly books too!)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (I do love these illustrations)
This hardcover is one of my daughter's favorites. It has 170 different nursery rhymes and folk songs and includes favorites like "Hickory Dickory Dock", "Brahms Lullaby", "All the Pretty Little Horses", "Hot Cross Buns", "Little Sally Walker", and SO many more.
Oh my daughter thinks this one is hysterical!
5) Incorporate singing into make believe/pretend play
When playing with doll, puppets, stuffed animals, house, or whatever it happens to be, we find was to incorporate music, whether that is different high or low voices for different characters, sing-songy play, or just expression. My daughter has Joy and Sadness plush toys from the Disney Movie, Inside Out and she makes their voices sound different. What a fun way to play with expression.
This summer we added nursery rhymes to our chalk time outside like this:
Little Miss Muffet
Jack Be Nimble
If you are a homeschool parent looking for ideas for school age children, I would also recommend looking into different music educator workshops in your state or area, attending conferences, and being a part of professional organizations like OAKE or NAfME to get more training and ideas. As a Kodaly trained teacher, I think it would be great for homeschool students because the voice is the primary instrument used. You could also look into Suzuki lessons for the child and parent to take together, but for the purposes of this post, I wanted to really focus on early childhood music in the home.
What are some of your favorite ways to make music with your kids? Sound off in the comments below!
I hope 2016 is off to a great start for you! I am linking up with Aileen Miracle today to share some of my favorite products for planning in the music room.
1) Ready Set Plan! - A Yearly Planning Guide for the Kodaly Music Teacher
I have blogged about this set and included a free sample here. Having these song lists, yearly plans and concept plans has been a huge help in keeping me organized and on track for the year. I can see what I hope to accomplish each month and continue working towards that goal with the appropriate song literature for each grade and concept they cover.
2) Concept Starter Pack for Grades K-3 by Aileen Miracle
In addition to my own concept plans, I love to peek in and see what other music teachers are doing to get more ideas. Maybe they have a song that wasn't in my folk song collection or a different idea on presenting a concept that is even better than what I had. This set from Aileen has given me some new songs to add to my concept plans for K-3. I also love the layout of her concept plans!
The next two resources are ones I don't have yet, but I am hoping to add to my collection of planning resources soon!
3) Purposeful Pathways
Roger Sams presented at KMEA two years ago and I loved his ideas for adding movement, improvisation, and composition into his lessons. It was a lovely blending of Orff and Kodaly that seemed so musical. I would love to try some of his ideas out with my students.
4) Zin Zin a Violin - Sub Plan by Shelley Tomich
Unfortunately, music teachers have to plan for the event that they might be gone. I've been eyeing this resource because I already have the book and it looks like a great lesson to add to my sub tub or leave next month when I am at KMEA.
If you are wanting to stock up on some great planning resources, Jan. 20-21 is a great time to do so! Teachers Pay Teachers is holding a site wide sale and everything in my store will be 28% off when you enter the promo code START16 at checkout. Start 2016 off on the right foot!
