Lip Sync Battle - A Fun Music Activity FREEBIE

I don't know about you, but I am obsessed with lip syncing! Jimmy Fallon makes me laugh in general, but his lip syncing competitions are hilarious! My students are also talking about it and really enjoy seeing their favorite celebrities getting a little silly.
This sparked an idea in my brain - why don't we do this in music class? Now, I don't want to take time away from the those core musical standards that we need to meet. However, this would be a great way to spend a reward day, early out and the last few minutes of class.

Let me just tell you - bring a camera! The kids really get into the music and their performance. It's also really special when another staff member comes in and joins them. They go nuts! I also like splitting the class into two groups and have them perform as a group. Their creativity and happiness shines so bright!
Well, I have enjoyed it so much that I decided to share it with you all. Here's what's included in the file when you download through TeachersPayTeachers.com:

Any song will work, but I like to include a variety. It's also a fun way to practice or finish up program songs after a concert. Sometimes, I let the students choose their own songs (as long as they're appropriate). You can do it for fun or create competition, too!

One of my favorite parts of this fun activity is the reminder of etiquette. It's important for the audience to show respect, but also for the performer! 

I also included reward certificates that you can print off to hand to students, create stickers, a hall of fame, etc. The options are endless! You can even use a fake microphone for extra giggles. 

Don't forget - it's FREE! You can project the slides or print them to use in your classroom. 

I'll leave you with one of my favorite (not necessarily appropriate) lip syncing videos:

Crow Rooster!

I went to an awesome workshop this summer all about singing games. Today, I'm going to share one of my favorites with you: Crow Rooster! I can't wait to bring this out for the first week of school. It's great for the older students to refresh their head voice.

I like to add a fun twist on it with beanie baby roosters. You can find them on eBay, at garage sales, or you might still have some in your house. I use the bigger ones, but the mini ones work well, too. I have ended up with 15 because I (hopefully) won't have more than 15 pairs in my classroom at once.

 With all singing games, there are variations from teacher to teacher. The original game directions are listed above, but I'm going to share with you my variation.

Crow Rooster

1. Divide class into partners, putting one across from the other about two feet apart. This should make 2 straight lines down your classroom. Give one partner the rooster to start.
2. Leader (teacher) starts the song, with students taking four steps backward on the beat. On the echo, students take four steps forward to their original position.
3. On the first "crow rooster," the first partner tosses the rooster to the other partner. On the echo, the rooster is tossed back to the original partner.
4. The last line should be clapped and patted. Clap the rhythm of "ku ku ri ku, ku ku ri ku" and pat the beat for "work for everyone." Repeat. (Students with the rooster should do their best at clapping and patting). 
5. If the rooster was dropped during the "crow rooster" part, that pair is eliminated. They sit out, still singing, clapping and patting.
6. All pairs that are still in the game take a step back. Repeat the song. 
7. After each time, the gap gets bigger and bigger. More pairs are eliminated until there is a winner. The kids love to see how far they can get and still catch the rooster!

The "crow rooster" part is a great way to get kids into their head voice at the beginning of the year. The tossing of the rooster is also great for kinesthetic learning. Sometimes my lower voiced students need that tossing motion to reach higher notes. It's also a nice reminder of the difference between clapping the rhythm and keeping the beat. Finally, the kids LOVE a competition! My room is quite large, so I'm excited to see how far they get - especially those athletic kids that have been at sports camps over the summer. 

Hope you enjoy this fun lesson for the first few weeks of school!

TPT Seller Challenge, Week 3 - Make Your Masterpiece

It's week three of the TPT Seller Challenge! This week was a busy one. Hopefully, you had a chance to check out the great freebies, deals and sales from all of the wonderful music teacher sellers!
This week was "Make Your Masterpiece" and I created my freebie for the event. If you haven't checked it out, it's still free and will be in my store from now on. You can also purchase the full version, complete with many patriotic listening glyphs.

Five Favorite Music Freebies!

Two blog posts in one week? Wheww, I'm on a roll!

Today, I'm linking up with Noteworthy By Jen to talk about freebies. Teachers Pay Teachers is full of freebies, as every seller has to post them. It gives you fun activities, guidelines, and/or samples of work from the seller to see if you'd like to purchase more things from their store. There are so many to choose from - it was hard to only pick five! Each picture is linked to the TPT site where you can grab the freebie!

1. Garage Band Rap Project Lyrics Sheet and Final Grading Rubric
   
   I am so excited to be the recipient of a grant for iPads next year (more on this in a future blog post)! Now, I’ll need more things to utilize the apps, including GarageBand. This project freebie looks great for my older students to express their creativity!

2. FREE Create Your Own Mystery Song
   
   I love Cori Bloom’s mystery activities! This free blank template allows you to create your own mystery song to use with your students. There are two choices for you to use depending on what you want your students to discuss.

3. American Composers Flipbook Freebie
   
   American composers are sometimes left out because we focus so much on Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. This flipbook allows students to learn and collect important information about American composers, including a new favorite, John Williams. There are more from different eras if you like what you see!

4. This Year Rocked! End of the Year Memory Book FREEBIE
   
   What a fun activity for the end of the year! My students love going over their favorites and sharing with their friends. It’s a great memory keeper and reminder of a whole year of learning in music.

5. FREE - A Soup Opera (Children's Lit & Music Mini Lesson)
   Now, for some shameless promotion! This is my new freebie in my store and it’s so fun! The   lesson is great for music teachers, but also works well for substitutes or those who aren't musically inclined. The story is "A Soup Opera" and features a CD attached with the book. It's a great lesson to talk about voice types, plot, and opera, while allowing students to brainstorm, write and share their ideas. Check it out!

Make sure to click on the linky party picture to be directed back to the main site - you can see everyone else's top music freebies!

Read Across America week

March begins an important month of advocacy for music education. In our school, it's also a time for "Read Across America" and celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. I like to advocate for my program by demonstrating that it relates and collaborates with so many other disciplines. Music is it's own thing, but can greatly strengthen other programs and subjects.

Here are some of my favorite ideas for RAA and Dr. Seuss week!

1. Seussical

This one is a given! I am lucky to have the "Spotlight on Music" series which features an entire mini review of "Seussical." My kindergarteners actually did a whole program last year about Dr. Seuss. I love having the students learn the songs and dialogue that fits in with their favorite stories. We also watch a few clips so they can see the costumes and props that make the stories come alive.

2. Seussical Musical Instruments

Last year, I found this wonderful bulletin board about students creating their own wacky instruments. I thought this would be a perfect time to review instruments, but also allow students to show their creativity like Dr. Seuss. We also share them all at the end - it can get pretty funny! Here is the sheet I hand out to my students to begin creating:

3. My Many Colored Days

This book is so fun to read! The colors are beautiful and really helps the students get in touch with their feelings and expressions through music and text. We read the story aloud and then students go off to write and decorate with their favorite colors. Not only do they write the colors, but also how it makes them feel. We share these with neighbors and compare - it's a great learning experience about differences. I also like using this playlist from OMazing Kids Yoga. With my little ones, we choose a scarve, wave it on our color and everyone waves on "rainbow." You can dig deeper into the music and feelings with each separate color track. This song is a wonderful cool down at the end of the lesson:

4. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Wow - I didn't realize how popular this story is! I have had numerous teachers tell me it is a favorite of their children. It's also wonderful for beat and rhythm. I read the story first, with them keeping a steady beat (you can use beat buddies here - fun!!). For older kids, you can isolate different words and put the rhythms in. You can also put them on cards and have the students sort them to complete the page you're on. It's a good center or partner activity. My favorite part is the drumming! I've seen several teachers use hand drums, but I love bringing out all of the drums! I stumbled upon this awesome video, where Sue Bowcock uses the pages to tell the story and everyone echoes after her on their drum. It's a great time for assessment, too! Plus, what kid doesn't love banging on lots of drums for music class? I'm not sure about copyright issues with the story, though....

5. Read Across America song

Our building does a great reader's exchange at the end of the week. Students go to their previous teacher and read together for the last few minutes before dismissal. We're adding this fun sing along from NEA to celebrate the week. It was written by Glenn Weiss and has a fun rock feel to it. Here's a snippet of it:

There are so many more amazing ideas to connect music and reading. I encourage you to collaborate with your fellow teachers and find a way to really inspire students through music and reading. Have a great week!

Join Chorus!

School starts this week - ahhh! It seems like it always sneaks up on me, even though I've been in my room several times throughout the summer. Still getting everything up and running - then, I'll take you through a room tour.

This post, however, is all about chorus. I originally taught 5th & 6th grade chorus. However, as more students have come into the district and class sizes are becoming smaller to better assist students, my schedule became too full. Now, I am just responsible for the 5th grade choristers. This is still no easy task. I start with these students in September, with 3 concerts throughout the year (December, March & May). I only see them twice every 6 days from 2:30-3:05. This is especially difficult during the winter and early out days because I don't get the end of the day and the letter days get messed up with missed days.

Behavior & attendance is also an issue. Chorus & band are during the end of the day. If the students choose to participate, they miss their last recess. This isn't a battle until the sun comes out and it gets warmer in April and May. Suddenly, I have students who "forgot" or just don't show up at all. They do get feedback on their progress, but our district is trying to move away from stamping a letter grade on everything.

In the past, I have spoken with each 5th grade class individually and occasionally in the hallways, as well as a letter I send home. This year, however, I'm changing it up! I recently saw some awesome chorus templates from Beth at http://bethsmusicnotes.blogspot.com/2011/02/chorus.html. I loved the pamphlet idea and the "cutting lines" and "keep...return to" spots. This seemed extra helpful. I immediately emailed her and asked about purchasing the template. She was extremely nice and glad that her ideas are helping other teachers. However, the program she used (Adobe Reader, maybe?) wasn't compatible with my laptop. She suggested just finding a basic template I liked on Microsoft Word and imput the things I liked and change the things I didn't like. So, off I went!


Here is what I ended up with:

Hopefully, this will work better for communication with the students and parents. I will also be coming up with a better attendance and rubric system in the next week or so. What ideas & suggestions do you have for chorus? What has worked or needed to be changed?

Sub Form

As a music teacher, I tend to have a lot of subs throughout the year when it's time for music programs. Each grade has one program each year because my classes range from 100-130 students in each. I always try to be detailed with my sub notes, but it ends up being a complete page. This leaves no room for the sub to write good/bad things or any questions/problems that came up throughout the day.

I spotted this gem from http://creatingandteaching.blogspot.com/2011/06/substitute-binder.html

It's a free sub template that comes with other sub binder ideas. If you like this template and want to see more, you can go to Erin's store and download it for free: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Substitute-Teacher-Binder-Pack-135734

Since this form is very "classroom teacher" based, I chose to edit it a little for my own tastes. Here is my version, though I give all the amazing credit to Erin and her wonderful design tools.

The graphics are more music friendly and I changed "students" to "classes," as I usually have more problems with classes as a whole with substitutes. Let me know if you'd like the form - I'd be happy to share!