Eggs and Wish Lists

Hi there everyone, it's me, Amy Abbott.  If you are a reader of my blog you know that I have a SLIGHT obsession with Easter Eggs.  The incredibly ironic thing is that I don't even touch Easter in my classroom  I just thing they are fun little things to use to incorporate reading or other concepts into your teaching.  And since on my own blog I'm hosting a "Wish List Wednesday" on my blog (and I get a lot of people asking which ones I get and how I use them) I thought I would link up and join the Linky Party.

But, instead of discussing Teachers Pay Teachers Products that I would like to get, I thought I'd share some of the new Easter Egg Finds that I have seen in the stores this year and how I'm going to use them in the Kodály Classroom.

The first find, FROGS:

These I found at Walmart.  They are sold in packages of three for $1.00.  My third graders are finishing up concert preparation and then we're diving into ti-tika and these will be used as a practice activity with the song, Frog in the Meadow:

I will most likely make song sort cards.  Each card will be one measure in length and be written in stick notation.  The students will sort out the song and put it in order.  An extension idea would be to have half the eggs have stick notation and half be written in staff notation.  Once students sort out the song, they find someone with the other notation and make sure their answers match.

The next egg find is RABBITS, also found at Walmart:

These will be used with the song Old Mr. Rabbit.

This song is a GREAT song for third grade for low la but is also great in lower grades for improvisation.  One thing I've found about improvisation in the lower grades is that it can be very intimidating.  Sometimes there are so many choices and they have a hard time narrowing down their focus.  I've found one way to prep them and to give them more of a framework is to help them narrow their choices by having some pre-determined answers written out.  So, with "Old Mister Rabbit" in improvisation portion comes at the end where they insert a different vegetable.  With the Rabbit Eggs I'm going to put two cards in each egg, with each egg containing a different vegetable name.  This way the students still have a choice, which it what improvisation is about, but it makes it less intimidating.  This is the first layer of scaffolding this activity.  The next time they come they would try to insert a vegetable name without using the eggs (the second time I would give them the option to use the eggs or not and the third time it wouldn't be a choice.)  By the third lesson they should be able to insert a vegetable without the eggs.

The next egg, and this one I'm excited about: DARTH VADER.

These can be found at both Target and Walmart.  I bought some last year AFTER Easter (they were on sale, hurray!  But there weren't many) so I bought more this year at Walmart.  The downfall, they contain candy so they're more expensive.  The upside, they contain candy!

Those of you that might follow my TpT store know that I have some Rhythm War files.  I plan on using them for rhythmic dictation and composition by using the cards from my Scrambled Eggs file and putting them inside the eggs, like so:

The other way I'm going to use them as a song sort for Augie's Municipal Band, which is a low so practice activity.  Here are some sample cards that I'm going to put in the eggs:
They are written in stick notation, which is the easiest to decode:

 But to differentiate I'm going to challenge my higher readers to use the staff notation:

The next find, GEMS!!!  This one has SO many possibilities!!!  But, again the downfall is that they're more expensive because they contain candy, but the upside is they contain candy.

 Again, they can be used with my scrambled eggs file.  Here's how that would look:

This could be used with upper elementary grades for dictation and composition in conjunction with songs such as "Queen Alexandria" (and could be used with solfa instead, which is in the Scramble Eggs file.  Or it could be used for 6/8 and ti):

They could be used with Peg Leg the Pirate for syncopa and low la practice:

They could be used for practice re with Sailor, Sailor on the Sea:

Or with King's Land:

But one of the ways I'm really excited to use them is with Kindergarten.  Using either "Queen, Queen Caroline"

 or "Good King Leopold"

I'll have different types of way to use your voice: sing, speak, high, low, loud, soft, Mickey Mouse, monster, robot, etc.  They'll get to pick a gem and the strip of paper inside the gem will tell the class which voice to use.

Of course the song choices to use with these eggs is infinite!!

So, I hope you got some ideas and don't spend too much at Walmart and Target!!!

Speaking of sales, there is a big site wide sale at Teachers Pay Teachers this Thursday and Friday.

Many of the contributors of this blog will be participating, so head over and visit these stores:

Aileen Miracle
Amy Abbott
Lindsay Jervis
Karla Cherwinksi
Kate Klotz
Tanya LeJeune
Jamie Parker
Chrystine Tinney