Elementary Music Programs 17/18

Time to share my programs from the previous year! With my pregnancy, they were not my best showings or preparations. But, the kids had fun! 

Don't forget to check out my programs from previous years. You can search for them or use the sidebar. Let me know if you have any questions regarding my programs. Have a great weekend!

Celebrating 100 Days!

So, apparently the 100th day of school is a BIG DEAL! This was something that no one ever told me about in student teaching or even my first year or two in the classroom. I've finally started to understand that for lower elementary, the 100th day of school is awesome!
The kids start the day by breaking through a big banner. How cool is that? The rest of the day is spent counting, moving, and creating with 100. As a music teacher, I've always wanted to be a part of the celebration, but couldn't figure out what to do.
This year I've come up with a few ideas of things to do tomorrow (our 100th day) and I want to share them with you!

Sing

Music K8 has some great songs for the 100th day of school. Some are easier and some a little harder. I usually like to project the lyrics through Powerpoint so the kids can see them nice and big. Here's a few suggestions:

• One Hundred Days! (22/3)
• The 100th Day of School (9/3)
• One Hundred Days of School (3/3)
• Happy 100 to Us! (3/3)
• See How Much We've Learned (27/3)

You can also find free songs on Pinterest that take a traditional tune (Oh Christmas Tree, I've Been Working on the Railroad, etc.) and give it different words to celebrate the 100th day.

Movement

If you haven't heard of GoNoodle, you need to check it out ASAP! They have dances, yoga, brain breaks, and more stuff for kids. A lot of our teachers use the "Indoor Recess" mixes to give the kids some activity when they can't go outside. I love using the Kidz Bop guided dance videos or the calming ones at the end of a lesson. 

They've created two fun videos for the 100th day! You can choose Skip Count to 100 or Count to 100. Both look great for a quick mention of the 100th day if you have other things planned. Share with your classroom or PE teachers, too - they will thank you for it!

Instruments

The final suggestion is the activity I'm going to be using with my students this year. I love "The Peas" series by Keith Baker. I've mentioned in a past blog post about using his other story "Little Green" for vocal exploration. He's a wonderful author. His "Peas" series includes books about the alphabet, seasons, and counting. It just so happens that his counting book goes from 1-100 in ones and tens - perfect for the 100th day!

I like to use books with drumming, but you can use any percussion instrument in your classroom. First, I read the story to the class. Then, I introduce and place the drums in different groups (i.e. bongos station, gathering drum, lollipop drums). From here, I read the story and have the students echo the text on their drums. Example: One pea searching (tap tap tap tap); I find that it's easier to project the Kindle version (Amazon) up on the whiteboard as I read so I can walk around and help the kids. Once we've read & played through the story, the kids move to the next station and we do it again. 

The story gets tedious by the last class of the day, but the kids love it! It also helps them work on hearing a steady beat, playing with others and working on sounds. You can always branch out into what rhythms would represent the text or have the kids create their own ideas for the 100th day. Then, have them write it and play it on a nonpitched percussion instrument. 

Best of luck on your 100th day! Make it great!

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!

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!

Manipulatives!

I'm joining another linky party, this time by Lindsay over at Pursuit of Joyfulness.

I've been several workshops and have seen lots of posts about manipulatives. I just started using them these year and I think it's going well. Here are two I've used recently:




1. Popsicle sticks

                These were awesome! My 3rd graders have just learned tiri-tiri and it's really nice for them to start dictating rhythms and writing their own patterns with them. They worked alone and in groups with this, helping one another to correctly create the rhythm patterns. Can't wait to do more with these!




2. Fall scatter shapes

 

I saw a post on this in September and was excited when I found them at Target. I used brown or red leaf for "ta" and pumpkin for "ti-ti." The kids went crazy for these! They loved making patterns of their own and sharing with others (awesome for student-centered learning!).