so our composer of the month for January was camille st saens and we had a lot of fun listening and acting out the Carnival of the Animals. My 1st and 3rd graders completed a writing activity describing their experience with carnival of the animals. They did an excellent job writing and Illustrating the piece.
February's composer is going to be John Williams. I plan to use some awesome listening glyphs and my ITunes account to download his awesome movie music.
February is another busy month with black history month/jazz month, Valentine's day, 100th day of school, jump rope for heart events (taking my kids from music class but a very good cause). My lesson plans are chalk full of fun stuff. We are also learning some songs in preparation for the concert for music in our schools month next month. We worked on "we the people" this week and had an awesome history/geography/music lesson.
I also had to decorate the front bulletin boards at Holden this month because it's music/PEs month to do this task. They turned out great! Will try and get some pictures soon.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Recorder karate
This is my new recorder karate bulletin board. I've been wanting to do one for a few years and this week I finally did. It's a work in progress. I only put the first three songs up because we are working on BAG songs. The kids loved putting their little recorder karate person up. My goal is to get everyone on white and hopefully move some up this week to yellow. They totally love this unit!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Carnival of the animals
So this week we have been learning about Camille St. Saens and the Carnival of the Animals. I have enjoyed myself this week. We've had some great conversations about the music and I absolutely love the smiles it brings when I say try being a slow moving turtle or a kangaroo. My kindergarten students were just so adorable. Loved that I had a 1st grade boy ask "how the composer made it actually sound like the animals". This lead to a great discussion. Also had a few ask why there was no singing, another great discussion.
Grades k-2 have used a PowerPoint presentation to learn the piece and each animal got them engaged with their listening ears. We used our bodies not our mouths. My 1st and 2nd graders at Holden are loving their Carnival of the Animals coloring book.
My 3rd graders have been working on a few worksheets. 2 groups did one called "what did you hear" where they had to record pitch(high or low), dynamics(loud or soft, and what instruments they hear. 2 groups are making predictions for each animal and then recording what they actually hear. Then comparing their answers.
Little background on the composer: (yes the kids learned all this)
Camille St Saens was a French composer. He shares a birthday with me: we were both born on October 9th. He had a lot of piano playing friends and he himself began playing piano before he was 3. His Carnival of the Animals consists of 14 short pieces all about a differnt animal. It is like a trip to the zoo.
Is anyone wondering about 4th grade: they did a little bit with this piece but we are in our recorder unit right now. We've started our recorder karate unit. We learn a song in class and then students play by themselves for a belt. We have a chart hanging in the room with results and hopefully will have a bulletin board soon for data. We've learned the notes BAG.
Overall, it's been a great week!
Grades k-2 have used a PowerPoint presentation to learn the piece and each animal got them engaged with their listening ears. We used our bodies not our mouths. My 1st and 2nd graders at Holden are loving their Carnival of the Animals coloring book.
My 3rd graders have been working on a few worksheets. 2 groups did one called "what did you hear" where they had to record pitch(high or low), dynamics(loud or soft, and what instruments they hear. 2 groups are making predictions for each animal and then recording what they actually hear. Then comparing their answers.
Little background on the composer: (yes the kids learned all this)
Camille St Saens was a French composer. He shares a birthday with me: we were both born on October 9th. He had a lot of piano playing friends and he himself began playing piano before he was 3. His Carnival of the Animals consists of 14 short pieces all about a differnt animal. It is like a trip to the zoo.
Is anyone wondering about 4th grade: they did a little bit with this piece but we are in our recorder unit right now. We've started our recorder karate unit. We learn a song in class and then students play by themselves for a belt. We have a chart hanging in the room with results and hopefully will have a bulletin board soon for data. We've learned the notes BAG.
Overall, it's been a great week!
Monday, January 5, 2015
Hello 2015!
What a great start to 2015! Tried a few new lessons today and they went extremely well.
Grades k-2 did a lesson called brown bear based on eric Carl's book brown bear brown bear: what do you see. First we read or should I say sang the book. Then we passed out my animal friends and I didn't realize I had so many. I even went through the growing pile at home that my daughter never touches. Then we played the brown bear singing game. Each child got to sing a solo. It was super fun to hear their beautiful voices!
3-4th grade are finishing up music centers we started before the holidays. We even added a new one called "treble twist up". It's a version of the game twister with a musical twist. Loved watching them play today. 4th grade is working on reading those notes on the staff so we can start recorders next week. Our centers right now are:
1. Worksheet- they complete a note name test
2. Color- they complete a winter color by music symbol worksheet
3. Treble twist up- a fun note name game
4. Musical pairs- a card game that helps learn treble and bass clef notes
Extra-
5. Talk about tunes- a discussion game
6. Read me a song- if we don't have time to start a new center or the whole group isn't finished they get to get a book from our library and read
7. Rhythm center- a matching game where they have to read rhythmic patterns
8. Musical pairs- matching game
9. Abc sing with me- mostly used with grade 2 but it's a fun singing game that uses rests and synergizing
Now I'm exhausted because we just had 2 weeks off. It's a good exhausted though!
Grades k-2 did a lesson called brown bear based on eric Carl's book brown bear brown bear: what do you see. First we read or should I say sang the book. Then we passed out my animal friends and I didn't realize I had so many. I even went through the growing pile at home that my daughter never touches. Then we played the brown bear singing game. Each child got to sing a solo. It was super fun to hear their beautiful voices!
3-4th grade are finishing up music centers we started before the holidays. We even added a new one called "treble twist up". It's a version of the game twister with a musical twist. Loved watching them play today. 4th grade is working on reading those notes on the staff so we can start recorders next week. Our centers right now are:
1. Worksheet- they complete a note name test
2. Color- they complete a winter color by music symbol worksheet
3. Treble twist up- a fun note name game
4. Musical pairs- a card game that helps learn treble and bass clef notes
Extra-
5. Talk about tunes- a discussion game
6. Read me a song- if we don't have time to start a new center or the whole group isn't finished they get to get a book from our library and read
7. Rhythm center- a matching game where they have to read rhythmic patterns
8. Musical pairs- matching game
9. Abc sing with me- mostly used with grade 2 but it's a fun singing game that uses rests and synergizing
Now I'm exhausted because we just had 2 weeks off. It's a good exhausted though!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
My classroom 2014-2015
Risers are a new addition this year, we use them a lot and the kids love when I say go to your riser spots. 
View of my teacher corner. Love how I got cabinets to store stuff this year. In front of the piano is my music money. Classes earn money when they complete the daily objectives and keep 5 stars. 
View of my table areas, used for worksheet and coloring centers
View of front of room. Love my new WV clock that my hubby bought for me! 
Bulletin board I got from the bulletin board lady on TPT that displays the national music standards
My September bulletin board. 
My 7 habits board. Found the idea on Pinterest and did this all by myself. I'm proud of it! 
My tiny awards. The kids love these little things. It's amazing what motivation a slip of paper is. 
List of current music centersSeptember activities
Well a new year is up and running and my students have been busy making music. I almost forgot about this blog, but hope to share some things that take place in my classroom.
Last week my kindergarten and 1st grade students had fun with apple songs and activities since it was Johnny Appleseed week. We read a book about him and sang the song "do you know the apple man?". They had a blast playing the apple tree passing game and getting knocked out to play instruments. A few classes even got to do "5 rosy apples". In this activity we played xylophones and triangles on the word apple. The xylophones played a high low pattern.
My 2-4 grade students worked in music centers for the first time this year. I was proud of what they accomplished but we didn't get to finish due to me bring out sick on Friday.
Here are the 5 centers that we used this month:
1. Worksheet- grades 2 and 3 did a rhythm worksheet showing their knowledge of quarter, eighth, and rests. Grade 4 did a worksheet to test their star spangled knowledge, where they had to fill in the missing words in the lyrics.
2. Color- they used music symbols to decorate their pumpkins. These will be displayed on the bulletin board in October.
3. Rhythm- they matched and read rhythmic patterns using quarter, eighth, and rests
4. Music symbols- they matched symbols
5. Talk about tunes- this was new to all students and I really enjoyed listening to the conversations these questions brought about.
**some students got to use the "read me a song" center and read books from my music library while we waited to switch.
We've also had fun singing our 7 habit song of the month, which we learned from YouTube.
Last week my kindergarten and 1st grade students had fun with apple songs and activities since it was Johnny Appleseed week. We read a book about him and sang the song "do you know the apple man?". They had a blast playing the apple tree passing game and getting knocked out to play instruments. A few classes even got to do "5 rosy apples". In this activity we played xylophones and triangles on the word apple. The xylophones played a high low pattern.
My 2-4 grade students worked in music centers for the first time this year. I was proud of what they accomplished but we didn't get to finish due to me bring out sick on Friday.
Here are the 5 centers that we used this month:
1. Worksheet- grades 2 and 3 did a rhythm worksheet showing their knowledge of quarter, eighth, and rests. Grade 4 did a worksheet to test their star spangled knowledge, where they had to fill in the missing words in the lyrics.
2. Color- they used music symbols to decorate their pumpkins. These will be displayed on the bulletin board in October.
3. Rhythm- they matched and read rhythmic patterns using quarter, eighth, and rests
4. Music symbols- they matched symbols
5. Talk about tunes- this was new to all students and I really enjoyed listening to the conversations these questions brought about.
**some students got to use the "read me a song" center and read books from my music library while we waited to switch.
We've also had fun singing our 7 habit song of the month, which we learned from YouTube.
Monday, February 11, 2013
It's been a while since I posted because I was off for my bonding leave with my sweet baby girl. I'm now back in the classroom and I have created a fun and exciting new thing for myself and my students. I've been trying to find a way to do music centers/stations in my classroom. I have been successful thanks to another music teachers blog where I got the idea.
My 2nd graders were the first to try them out last week. Here is the centers that we have going right now:
1. Coloring center- they are drawing pictures to go with Louis armstrongs "what a wonderful world", and we learned the song also.
2. Worksheet center- right now it is a rhythm worksheet but it will change each time for assessment purposes
3. Technology- we are lucky to have an iPad lab at my school and I was able to borrow 4. The students played the talking Gina rhythm game
4. ABC sing with me- this is a singing game tha I found online and I absolutely love it.
5. Read me a song- this is a center that the students are able to read books from my music library.
**these are stations that will soon be up and running in my classroom but I'm waiting on the laminator to be fixed.
6. Rhythm center- they will play a memory game by matching various patterns and also they will have to read the pattern to their group
7. Music symbol concentration- they will match various music symbols that we have learned or will learn in class.
8. Talk about tunes- a discussion station that will consist of a cup full of topics or questions for the students to discuss
I'm very excited about this and I think it will be an easy lesson plan but learning is still taking place and I'm assessing and grading. I will post pictures when I get a chance. I also need to figure out how to work these out for my 2nd school where I don't have a room.
My 2nd graders were the first to try them out last week. Here is the centers that we have going right now:
1. Coloring center- they are drawing pictures to go with Louis armstrongs "what a wonderful world", and we learned the song also.
2. Worksheet center- right now it is a rhythm worksheet but it will change each time for assessment purposes
3. Technology- we are lucky to have an iPad lab at my school and I was able to borrow 4. The students played the talking Gina rhythm game
4. ABC sing with me- this is a singing game tha I found online and I absolutely love it.
5. Read me a song- this is a center that the students are able to read books from my music library.
**these are stations that will soon be up and running in my classroom but I'm waiting on the laminator to be fixed.
6. Rhythm center- they will play a memory game by matching various patterns and also they will have to read the pattern to their group
7. Music symbol concentration- they will match various music symbols that we have learned or will learn in class.
8. Talk about tunes- a discussion station that will consist of a cup full of topics or questions for the students to discuss
I'm very excited about this and I think it will be an easy lesson plan but learning is still taking place and I'm assessing and grading. I will post pictures when I get a chance. I also need to figure out how to work these out for my 2nd school where I don't have a room.
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