Lights-Off Listening: A Unique Halloween Musical Experience

Today, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite Halloween activities to do with my older students: lights-off listening!

Many of the activities I do during the weeks prior to Halloween tend to be geared toward younger students. I've struggled to find something that appeals to my older kids. Then, I came across this great product from Music with Sara Bibee:

This guided listening unit is great for older students because it has information for a variety of spooky pieces, as well as videos and assessment worksheets. 

I immediately gravitated to the rating worksheets she provided. Students listen to certain pieces and give them a rating from 1-10 on how spooky they think the music is. You can also insert your own selections as the files are editable. I chose 9 of the pieces (and added a bonus one where they had to guess the title - it was "Jaws") for my students. I tried to include a variety so some were new, while others were recognizable for them. 

I felt bad about printing a page for every student when all they were doing is circling a number for their rating, so I used page protectors. This was awesome! I printed 25 pages in color and then slipped each one into a page protector. Every student was given a whiteboard marker and a small eraser (I have a set we use for rhythm writing) and spread them out around the room. They were able to circle their rating and erase it when we were all finished - no wasting of paper! Plus, I can use these for many years now! Hooray!

Now, here's where the fun part comes in! My students struggle with listening at times because they want to wiggle, move, talk, etc. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter with kids every day. I knew I could hook them by creating a spooky (not scary) environment as we listened to each piece. It would also be a fun and unique memory for them. So, I stumbled upon this fun Halloween rotating light on Amazon.

It was only $10 and looked really fun! After all the students had their materials, I shut off the lights in my room and put this in the middle. It glowed and created some cool lighting on the ceiling as we listened to our music. Not only was it a spooky feature for our Halloween listening, but it was calming for several of my students that need to come down at the end of the day on a Friday afternoon. 

After we listened to all of the pieces, we came back together and talked briefly about things like composers, history, instruments, etc. I loved hearing the kids talk about music! They loved sharing their ideas with each other and comparing scores. It was a great introduction to listening and talking about different kinds of music.

Clean up only took a minute because each student wiped down their sheet with their eraser and put away the markers - EASY! 

I love this activity and so did the kids. It gave them a chance to celebrate Halloween music in a way that was more "mature" for them. Yes, they love playing Halloween music games but this got them thinking and interacting in a unique way. Turning the lights off helped them focus but also created a spooky way to listen. I know this experience will stay with most of them and that makes my heart happy!

Have you tried a unique listening experience before? I'd love to hear more ideas! Feel free to share below!

Product Post

Apparently, I was bitten by the creation bug these last few months! I have several new products that I would love to share with you all!

This is a great lesson for older students. Grab the wonderful book by Anna Harwell Celenza and you are set! There are assessment pieces, as well as a fun stick game at the end.

For students of all ages, these listening glyphs are a wonderful assessment piece. You can choose one of the preselected pieces with the glyphs or use the generic ones to choose a song of your own!

This project is great for older students to share their favorite song! Students will dig into the meaning of the song and share it through writing, creation and an optional project.

If you're looking for a fun brain break, check out this Japanese game! It's very similar to rock, paper, scissors and has modifications for a variety of learning levels.

This last one is my personal favorite! My students are obsessed with "Happy!" from Despicable Me 2. Not only does it have a fun beat, but the words are positive. Pharrell Williams just put out a children's book of his famous song. This product includes a lesson plan for the book, assessment worksheets, movement ideas and a body percussion routine. EEK - I can't wait to use it with my students!


Be on the look out for a few sales coming up, too! Bye for now!

                                   

       

III
If

H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N spells Halloween!

Ha, sorry! I learned this song in elementary school to the tune of "Danse Macabre" and it's stuck with me ever since. Here's the video from YouTube that I like to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Eg8UifzmI

Anyways, I thought I'd share some Halloween activities my classes have been doing.

In the Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg

This is the first year I've really delved into Grieg. I love the music and the melody really sticks in the kids' heads! I start introducing it in Kindergarten and 1st grade with Eric Litwin's (Pete the Cat!!!) song from The Learning Groove. It takes the melody and puts in words like "I can shake my shaker egg and sneak around the room." It's fun to add egg shakers and a little movement once the students have learned the melody.

As they get older, I show my intermediate students a short cartoon of the story.

It's only about 5 minutes, but also adds in the "Morning Mood" music, which many of the students recognize. In the future, I'd like to add a literature connection. I've seen some great picture books online, but haven't picked one up yet. Soon!

I also add rhythm sticks to the main theme, with the help of Malinda Phillips' great active listening resource! Check it out - it's free :)

From there, we move on to actually feeling the beat, tempo and dynamic changes in the music. If you follow my blog, you know I LOVE Artie Almeida. She has a wonderful guiro and kickball lesson for this piece. I tried it with my third graders last week and we had so much fun! I used basketballs because we don't have enough kickballs and it still worked out just fine. Here are some pictures from my students engaging in the music:

It was Character Counts week, so they're all dressed up in the careers they'd like to have.The basketball coach had to come get the balls for practice at the end of the day, but we had a good time while it lasted. Artie's lessons are truly wonderful resources. I encourage you to check out her videos on YouTube and purchase this resource. You won't regret it!

Some other activities we are doing this week are:

• singing the story "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!" with melody from Kristin Lukow
• Halloween melody patterns from Aileen Miracle's 13 Nights freebie
• Halloween vocal explorations and "create your own" template from Amy Abbott
• Witch Witch (so-mi activity) and game from The Yellow Brick Road
• Spooky Music listening & rating from Music with Sara Bibee (this one is a fun activity for the older kids!)

The last game we are playing is a favorite of my primary students! I discovered it on Pinterest last year and the students just love it. I can't seem to find the right recording for it, though. There is a faster version and a Denise Gagne version that has a different melody. I kind of plunked it out on my own and adapt it to my student's singing ability. Here's the video of the song I use and the game:

It's really fun and a great way to reinforce steady beat. What Halloween or seasonal activities are you doing this week with your students?

Five Favorite Pins of April

Hi there! I am linking up with my favorite monthly linky party from Mrs. Miracle's Music Room's "Five Favorite Pins." Each day I find more and more pins that I love! I wonder what my first year of teaching would have been like if I had found Pinterest and TeachersPayTeachers sooner. They are gifts!!!

http://www.mrsmiraclesmusicroom.com/2014/04/five-favorite-pins-of-april.html

#1 Aurasma for Halloween

I just started discovering the wonderful things that Aurasma can bring to the music classroom. I can't wait to check out this blog post about Aurasma and Halloween music. What a fun activity to try in the fall!

 #2 Choir Self Evaluation

It is always hard to do assessment in the music classroom. I struggle with it, as well as providing data for my administration. This packet is a great way to get information from my students about the whole concert, but also their own contributions. Plus, there are a variety of forms to fit my needs.

 #3 Groovin' Monsters

This is so cute! I love Linda McPherson's materials. This one is a way to review loud and soft. If you get the answer correct, the monster dances to his iPod on the screen. Really fun, especially for the little ones at the end of the year. Plus, another great assessment tool!

 #4 Frere Jacques

I almost cried when this resource came out! The Yellow Brick Road is quickly becoming my new favorite blog and seller to go to, as we are very similar in our teaching styles and concepts. I start my 5th grade chorus students off with Frere Jacques. It's a great piece to teach as a whole group and slowly morph into part singing. This file allows you to do that on the projector, which can help me show and explain part singing a lot easier. We don't have an elmo or document camera, so helping students read their line for the first time is tough. 

And, one of my favorite pins EVER..............

#5 Glow Worm

I love this pin - it is hilarious! It's just what I need to brighten my day during these last few weeks of school. There are so many things going on and only a few more music lessons with each class - time to make it count :) 

2/4 Tuesday Linky Party!

I'm a little late, but I'm joining a new linky party! This one is from Steph over at http://staytunedmusicteacher.blogspot.com/ 

I'll be sharing a few things I'm doing in my music room this week!

1. The Five Little Pumpkins

           I love the story The Five Little Pumpkins! My kindergarteners have done a lot with this tale this week. We started out by singing the story and patting the steady beat with our beat buddies. Then, the students got a chance to act out our song story by either being the pumpkins, witches or ghosts. Our next lesson, we sang our song story again with our beat buddies AND added boomwhackers. I found this great powerpoint to help the students see their color's turn as well as follow along with our music.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Five-Little-Pumpkins-Lesson-on-Pitch-Using-Boomwhackers-PPT-version-172286

2. Tiri tiri practice

             My third graders have been working hard on tiri tiri the past few weeks. We did some reviewing yesterday by using "I have/who has." I'm new to this activity and it was hard for some of my students. However, I hope to use it more often so the students are communicating and negotiating without my assistance. Here's the version I used from Aileen Miracle:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-have-who-has-tika-tika-game-455194

               I also end the class with a game the student's love. All over the floor are rhythms we've learned (ta, titi, rest) and our new one, tiri tiri. The students dance around until the music stops, then they must find a card to stand on. There are more than enough cards for everyone. Behind my back, I pull out a popsicle stick that has a rhythm on it. Whoever is standing on that rhythm is out! We keep going until we have a winner and then start over. It's really simple, but the kids go crazy for it. It also helps me work out who can identify our rhythms pretty quickly. 

Thanks for reading! I'm excited about all the new ideas from this linky party :)