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

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!

Write the Room

Wow - it's been almost a month since my last post. Sorry!

We've only been in school for a few weeks and it's been crazy. We've had temps below 0, resulting in delays and no school. Our building was also evacuated due to a bomb threat. However, the students have been resilient and doing their best during it all. On a positive note, my 5th grade chorus kids will be doing some special performances in the weeks to come. Look for a post on that in February!

Tonight, I wanted to blog about something that is relatively new in my classroom: write the room. It honestly doesn't seem that groundbreaking or new, but man, is it awesome! 

Our building goals focus on reading and writing, while our district goals add student centered classrooms and conversations. In music, this can be a struggle, as I feel I'm constantly teaching and modeling new ideas. Some days, I think I'm cramming so much into the year that they actually aren't learning anything! I know that's not true and after reading post after post on Facebook groups, I notice many people feel the same way. There are only so many school days to teach this whole curriculum! In the end, we all pick and choose, hoping to inspire, expose and teach music.

Anyways, back to the original blog post (sorry for the rambling)....

When it comes to writing, I can never find another way for the students to practice drawing and creating rhythm sequences without a worksheet. Each time, I find trace and draw things for them to do which is boring and teacher-led. Then, enters "writing the room." I received one of these products from some kind of TPT, Facebook, seller frenzy and really didn't think much of it. Then, I saw more and more popping up. So, last week I stuck up rhythm cards around the room. The product I used was from C Major Learning:

It was a blast! I had the students pick their partners (which they loved) and they shared the writing, clapping and speaking parts to write all of the patterns in the room. I loved watching them work together and hear them using music terminology. Plus, it was a great assessment tool!

I tried it again with another class this week. My 4th graders have been reviewing instruments of the orchestra in preparation for their field trip to the symphony. So, I posted the pictures of the instruments around the room, paired them up, and sent them off to name the instruments. Another option for this set was to name the family, too. Holy moly - this was even better! The kids were describing the instruments and families, having discussions instead of disagreements and working together if they were unsure. 

I thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening, instead of just standing in front of the room and talking at the students. Partners were working together, as well as helping other groups. They were showing and telling me what THEY learned, as well as practicing writing instrument names. So wonderful!

I love this activity! It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon. I can't wait to use it with my other classes in the coming weeks!

A Peek at My Week

I'm linking up to a new party this week! I love seeing what others are up to each week and thank goodness, I'm not the only insanely busy one. This week, I am joining Mrs. Laffin's "A Peek at My Week" linky party for my last week of school! Hurray! It has been a tough year, but one full of so many fun musical moments and memories.

Mrs. Laffin's Linky Party - A Peek at My Week

Monday
  This is a pretty normal day. My kindergarteners will be doing some moving and music making with Beethoven. Third grade will have their end of the year reward in the lab. They get free choice of any of the music activities on my Symbaloo. Feel free to access it here:

Mrs. Skog's Music Symbaloo

Tuesday

  Tuesday is so busy! It is the 5th grade Awards Ceremony, so my chorus students will be singing in the afternoon. The whole grade is gone in the morning for touring the middle school and then back for music. We have been learning about The Music Man for the last week, as it is set in Iowa - woot woot! The students will be in split into 2 groups to come in and watch some clips from the show. Musicals are fun to learn about and sing, but you can't teach about musicals without the students watching it! 

Wednesday

  This day is a little more low-key. I will be seeing my kindergarteners again. We'll be finishing up the year with reviewing pre-rhythms. The students have been working hard on one and two sounds to get ready for ta and titi next year. I'll be using this fun resource from My Musical Menagerie all about S'mores!

S'mores Early Rhythm and Composition Activity

  My third graders will be at the zoo all day, so I will be using the afternoon to start packing up my room and finishing all of the "end of year" paperwork for administration. I'll probably pop into a few classrooms, too, to see if anyone needs help. I love seeing other teachers in action!

Thursday

  Thursday is somewhat normal like Monday. This will be the last day I'll see 1st grade, so we will be reviewing and having fun for music class. We'll be using the original song and file "Bluebird" from Emily F on TeachersPayTeachers. It is great for reviewing so-mi and has the students use boomwhackers. We'll end class with everyone's favorite: freeze dance!

Bluebird

Friday

 Last day of school! Our school just started coming together with the parents for a PTO group. They have been so helpful and positive this year! For the last day, they are putting on an adventure day for the primary students. The intermediate students usually come down and clean my room, too, so it will just be a day of packing up and saying goodbye. 

Thanks for reading! I am blessed that we didn't have to go past Memorial Day this year. I'm excited for the summer, but I'm already planning for next year. I will be attending a workshop in Branson this June with Artie Almeida and Denise Gagne. I cannot wait! More about that later :)

Brrrr...It's Beethoven!

Well, the new year is starting off with a bang....and I mean a cold bang! Most schools in the state will not be having school tomorrow because of the wind chill and below 0 temperatures. Yuck! I'm glad we are cancelling because bus duty at the end of the day would be no fun whatsoever.

Anyways, I always start my 5th graders off in January with some discussion about Beethoven. In the past, I've noticed that history and composers is a sleepy subject for 5th graders, especially at the end of the day. I'm really working hard to add some movement, conversations and minimal hang time with our lessons this year. Here's a run down of my Beethoven lessons to start off the year:

I always like to start off lessons with literature. Even though these kids are at the level of reading independently, they can still learn key strategies from modeling. Our district is huge on read alouds, talk alouds and think alouds. This is a great opportunity to model and keep the students engaged through questioning. Plus, this book series is fun and relatable to students. Win win!

SYMPHONY NO. 9 "ODE TO JOY"

After our beginning discussion, I'm going to open up with Symphony No. 9. Most of the students will know this, but this year, I want to really dig into it in multiple ways. We'll start with a tennis ball activity to practice steady beat, but also understand the make-up and form of the song. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a video of this soon. We'll be focusing on the singing part for the movement.

Lead in - 1 bounce, hold to 4 (whole note)

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory - bounce in hand on each beat, 1, 2, 3, 4 (quarter notes)

Lord of love; - cradle in hands, shake back & forth (eighth notes)

hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the - bounce in hand on each beat, 1, 2, 3, 4 (quarter notes) 

sun above.  - cradle in hands, shake back & forth (eighth notes)

 
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;  - around waist to back (1, 2) around waist to front (3, 4,) and repeat (half notes)

drive the dark of doubt away.  - around waist to back 1, 2 around waist to front 3, 4 repeat (half notes)

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the  - bounce in hand on each beat, 1, 2, 3, 4 (quarter notes) 

light of day! - cradle in hands, shake back & forth (eighth notes)

In between or ending music - 1 bounce, hold to 4 (whole note) 

 The next class period, we will review this movement, as well as compare the structured version to 

Sister Act's "Joyful, Joyful." The kids will really get a kick out of this!

Finally, the students will get a chance to work in groups and perform Symphony No. 9 on 
boomwhackers. I put this together myself, so it's not the most precise thing in the world - 
I hope you enjoy it!

The kids will also be doing some decoding as they dig deeper into Beethoven 

and his bio. I don't like to do quizzes, so we'll probably do some kind of 

exit ticket, just to gauge their knowledge without taking a ton of

 class time for a test. Plus, they are still writing with their exit ticket, 

which is also something we are focusing on in the district.

Here's the code book I'm using for their partner work on the bio:

And, I'm really hoping to use some exit tickets from The Bulletin Board 

Lady. These look so cool and will be really functional for a quick 

assessment! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Exit-Tickets-for-Music-Class-BUNDLED-MEGA-Pack-1041225 

 

Whewww, so much about Beethoven! I have several more ideas for lessons and things, but this is the beginning of what the students will be doing. Hopefully, I see some more excitement from the students this year with these activities. If not, there is always room for improvement :) Stay bundled up!

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 :)

triangles, sticks and drums - oh my!

Sorry I've been off the radar for the past week - I've been dealing with some personal health issues. However, I am back to blogging!

My first year of teaching, I rarely used instruments. Seriously - like, never. They terrified the heck out of me and I had ZERO experience with them. During student teaching, I became familiar with recorders, but nothing "percussion" like. This is really sad because I am a percussionist. FAIL! 

Anyways, I came into the program at my school with the hope of surviving the first year. In the past, the students had used Mallet Madness and there were tons of smaller bell sets in storage. I didn't go near them until my second year, where I pulled them out a couple of times with the younger and older classes. This was a headache! It takes forever to get everything out and placed and then that is all you can do for the day because of the set-up/tear-down time in between. UGH!

This year, I vowed to instrument it up. I've been to some workshops with Orff ideas and they've been great! I love taking a poem or story and having the students choose instruments to play during certain parts. I have also been adding instruments to the song powerpoints I've been using. The kids are getting really good at reading the music, their instrument part and listening to others. In the next few years, my goal is to incorporate the Mallet Madness resources, as well as start up a recorder program. Fingers crossed!

Here are some of my favorite instrument ideas I've used this year:

I love this book! It is short and has huge pop-up pictures. Plus, you can start off with 3-4 instruments sounds and add more and more throughout the year. It gets the students talking and negotiating which instruments should be what and why!

This activity is so awesome! And...IT'S FREE! It is so good for my younger students. It reinforces our different types of voices, ta/titi/rest, a fun game and instruments. Each slide only has 1 instrument, so our new learners can see their picture really big. You can find it here, from The Sweetest Melody 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wee-Willie-Winkie-856082

Last year, I introduced bucket drumming. Wow! So much fun and so much chaos. The kids love it and it's a great way to talk about steady beat, being a group and form. Here is a fun one for Christmas from "The Nutcracker."

http://ofortunaorff.blogspot.com/2012/11/bucket-drum-routine-to-trepak-from.html

Finally, I love boomwhackers! Cheap and fun for the kids to start learning about instruments and reading music parts. I started using these last year on a whim and couldn't put them down. Here's a fun fall activity with all of the C boomwhackers. It also has an action song and ta/titi work. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leaves-a-melodic-direction-song-for-Fall-366216

I am always on the lookout for more Orff instrument books, songs and ideas to show the kids. I don't have a smartboard, but our district is 1-1. Send me any ideas you have so I can stay on my instrument track this year :)