Summer's A-Coming!

Busy, busy, busy!  That's the story of my my musical life over the last few weeks.  My students have successfully put on two musical programs (Lights! Camera! Action! and Hats!), celebrated Cinco de Mayo, advanced on recorders, learned about Peter and the Wolf, and began an introduction to piano.  Whew!  We're tired, but not finished yet.  We've got two more weeks to have fun together before school is out for the summer.  My plan....to pull out some popular activities that the students have enjoyed throughout the year.  We've got just enough time to revisit and reinforce.   You too can enjoy some of my best sellers, now on sale through Wednesday 5/27, at The Bates Clef.

Students were up and moving as they learned a new dance, La Raspa as part of their Cinco de Mayo unit.  From young to old(er), all grade levels had a blast partnering up for this activity.

 My "littles" enjoyed learning the song, Los Pollitos.  They sang, tapped the beat, read the rhythms, then played on the Orff instruments as an extension.

 This is one of my fave times of the year with recorders.  Not because I thoroughly LOVE listening to recorders day in and day out, but because I enjoy seeing student accomplishments.  This before and after picture is worth a million words.  As of Friday (no pic to show), three students earned their Black Belt.  They worked so hard and were very proud of how far they had come.  Not that it's a competition against others, but the non-black belts find a little more motivation to keep pressing forward once our first wave of black belts is awarded.

 This last week, first grade learned about Peter and the Wolf as an introduction to the orchestra.  I found these really cute activities through Tracy King's Teachers Pay Teachers store.  The students really enjoyed the reinforcement practice and making connections between character and instrument.

 

 Finally, 6th graders were introduced to basic piano with these super cool keyboards I received from Donor's Choose.  This was the second project through the program that I requested.  If you haven't checked out that site, hit the link above.  It's amazing!

  How are you spending your last days/weeks of school? I'd love to hear what's happening in YOUR music world!  

Some New Favorite Things!

I love good deals.  If you're like me, on a teacher's budget, we're always trying to find the next best thing for our classrooms at a great price.   Here are a few of my recent finds!

When I'm on a mission for new things, one of the first stops I make is the famous dollar bins at Target.  My heart skips a few beats just looking at all the little treasures to be found in all that chaos :)

  

Manipulatives are always needed for staff and rhythm activities.  I generally use these with 1st-3rd, but sometimes my 4th and 5th graders enjoy them  too.  This time I grabbed some cupcakes, owls, and robots (for the boys!)  Usually I work out my storage issues with something back in the classroom I already have, but then I stumbled upon these cool plastic boxes.  I love them because they stack nicely on top of each other, and I can actually see what's in them.

 My next trip led me to the Dollar Tree-a teacher's playground when it comes to plastic containers.  So, I found these cute little drawer boxes.  To keep my crayons and pencil erasers in an orderly fashion, this will be perfect for the kids to go grab what they need, then simply slide the drawer back in.  Glue sticks would work well in there too, for those fun music projects we do every once in a while.  Teacher desk organizers?  Oh yes....perfect.

 Another Dollar Tree find.  I hand out tickets for positive behavior in class, then draw for pencils every two weeks.  I was using some large buckets that were taking up too much space and weren't really that cute.  These little things were the perfect size for my shelving and the kids enjoy seeing their tickets inside.  Speaking of tickets.  Did you know Dollar Tree sold tickets?  I didn't until I found these.  I think there were 250 for $1.  I usually order the big rolls at the beginning of the year and pay much more, but these will get me through until school is out in June.  A great quick fix!

 Last, but not least.  These are some of my fave new munchies.  Nature Valley has these new nut crisp bars.  YUM!  My lunch is really late this year, so I grab one mid-morning to get my energy level back up.  They are scrum-diddly-umtious and packed with all kinds of nuts, including sunflower seeds.  Mmmmm.  My all time favorite is the dark chocolate pomegranate candies.  If you haven't tried them yet, then you just haven't lived.  These are my "go to" snack right after lunch.  About six or seven of them make me very, very happy:)  Let me know what you think!

What kind of bargains are you finding lately?

 

Winter Activities

Let's face it.  Coming back to school in January is hard, especially after a relaxing Christmas break, chock-full of sleeping late and lounging around for two weeks.  It definitely took a few good days for the students and I to get in the groove again.  Secretly, we've all been wishing for a snow day or two.  Unfortunately, here in TX, we've had no ice, no snow, just cold - brrrrrr!  Well....I say cold!  If you live in the Lone Star State, you'll agree with me that 30 degrees gives us quite the chill.  Of course because our state is a woman (I really believe this), she can change her mind on a whim.  Thirty degrees one day.....70 the next.  Yep!  Texas definitely has a female mind :) 

To ward off the cold days of no outside play, I kept the students busy with all kinds of winter/football themed activities in my music classroom.  Here's a brief summary of our Brrrrr-y good month.

1st-3rd -

We used a giant floor staff with die-cuts to practice our melodies.  They worked in small groups and had a blast helping each other.  Our biggest issue was spacing.  Most of the children wanted to stack their notes like chords.  After a few tries, they were all on the right track.  

For rhythm practice, first and seconds used Music a la Abbott's "Winter Themed Beat Strips."  Using rhythm sticks, at first I would tap and say the pictures for the line I wanted them to create.  After a few rounds, I used the sticks and said the rhythm only.  The students had to figure out what picture matched that rhythms.  Last, I only played sticks, and they had to use their listening skills to create the correct pattern.  We even used a blank space for a rest.  This was a fun activity and allowed me to assess while they played.

Since our snow day wish hasn't come true yet, the students had a "Snowball Challenge" to see who could collect (pin) the most snowballs.  Though I would normally do this in a small group/center situation, this time we grouped up and shared our boards.  This provided a great review of the concepts that the students have learned over the last few months.

4th-6th -

I love these age groups because everything is about competition.  Very rarely do I play a game with my older students where there is no "winner."  I enjoy seeing their wheels turning as they attempt to answer correctly.  It's just plain fun.

We've been doing a lot of staff practice with note names.  Soon we will begin playing recorders and I want the students to be proficient in reading music.  In the spirit of football season, AND since the Cowboys made it to the playoffs, I incorporated some football helmets into our note names game.  I began by calling one, then two, then three letters on the staff.  Students had to race to put the correct helmet in its place.  To change it up, I also called just a line or space number.  This challenged the students to not only place the helmet in the right location, but also they had to know what letter was on the line or space.

Later in the month, I used the same idea, but this time using staff words.   I called a word and the groups had to place their die-cuts on the staff to spell that word.  For some it was a challenge because of spacing their notes correctly.  I had to do a "mini-lesson" on how we read words from left to right, and music is the same.  Of course, this was a huge competition as well.  Three letter words earned 3 points, 4 letter words - 4 points, etc.

Another activity I used with 4th-6th was "Mystery Song."  I used a simple song that everyone knew (Twinkle Twinkle) and challenged them with using the barred instruments to solve the mystery.  I told them nothing about the song except that the first and third phrases are the same.  After working out the first few measures, the light bulbs came on!  It was fun seeing them READ music without me rote teaching.  My plan is to do one "Mystery Song" each month.  

 

 It's been a great month for some fun learning in music.

  Thank you for visiting The Bates Clef.

Halloween Fun

Well, October has gotten away from me.  Busyness has taken over and time is flying.   At any rate, here's a recap of my Halloween season in a nut shell.


First and Second graders had fun with "centers" where they practiced rhythms and melodic notation using manipulatives and technology.  They enjoyed working together in small groups and rotating through 4 different activities.

"Witch, Witch" was a huge favorite this season among all grade levels.  We played several times each class period for a couple of weeks.  All children were given a penny to act out the song, and the student who wore the witch hat was the soloist for that round.  Little did they know, while the kids were having fun playing, I was given the opportunity to assess each child in their singing skills.

This year, for my school's Fall Festival, my 1st and 2nd Graders presented the musical, SQUIRM!  Though I approached it with a minimalistic attitude with respect to costuming and set design, the kids had a blast and performed really well.  It was a big hit among the families to see their little one's on stage.