December Means NUTCRACKER!!



Happy December everyone - well it is almost December!  This is Karla from CMajorLearning and I hope that everyone has had a few days of rest, too much good food and great company of family and friends.  I know I did and it was just what I needed to begin my dash through December at Indian Trial Elementary!

This month will go by so quickly as there is much going on for everyone!  I spend a great deal of time during this month preparing my second grade students for our field trip to the Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus, OH where we go to see the Balletmet performance of The Nutcracker Ballet.

Inside the historic Ohio Theater

This has become an annual field trip for our second graders, one that everyone always looks forward to, teacher, administration, and the students!   My preparation began this year in creating a Wonder Wheel for each of my classes.  This is a strategy that I learned from a second grade teacher at my school…..it is quite simple really.  Take any image of a wheel that has room to write between the spokes, write or type what you are wondering about in the center of the wheel and fill in the spokes will all the questions the students have about your topic - what do they wonder or want to learn more about?  Click here is a link to a free download of a pdf file in my TpT store. 

After we have done some “wondering”, we move right into reading the story.  I have several favorites, but my top two are The Nutcracker Ballet Vladimir Vagin 


My other favorite is  The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers 


I read each story on a different music day and then we compare/contrast the versions.  I then bring out the original book by E.T.A Hoffman.  I do not read this one but show them that the original is MUCH longer than these picture book versions.  



After each reading, I introduce the students to one of the pieces of music from the ballet.  I usually start with the Trepak or March of the Toy Soldiers because they recognize them almost immediately.  This year I was delighted to be introduced to a new listening resource book titled Active Listening Lessons:  The Nutcracker Suite by David Bretzius.  


I love that this resource has clear directions, body percussion, unhitched percussion and Orff instruments.  So far, the kids have been loving it!

The other “new” resource I have found this year is GradeCam - grading with a camera.  



This is a FREE program that can be accessed from your computer, Pad or tablet.  The idea is that you create a test that has multiple choice answers, create student answer sheets (that have the students name already assigned!), and grade the tests by using your devices camera or document camera.  Really - how cool is this!  I am super excited to try this new technology with my second graders on their listening assessment.  In the past I have used clickers (individual remote controls that work through my SmartBoard), pluckers (which Jamie Parker just blogged about last weekend here on the KodalyKorner) or just paper pencil…..all have worked great but required a lot of set up time (entering names and creating student id’s) or grading (I have 277 second grade students right now!).  Because my district subscribes to the GradeCam service, my classless came pre-populated with the students names and unique id numbers so all I have to do is create the test, print the grade sheets and grade them by placing them in front of my camera!  I can’t wait to try it out!!!  Here is the link to the GradeCam website - there are link on that page to the App store and Google play for use on your devices.  http://www.gradecam.com/  

We have also been reviewing rhythms along with our field trip prep work and you can find several activities incorporating The Nutcracker Ballet available through my TeacherPayTeachers store. 

There are many many great resources available on TpT and I encourage you to search for what is best for your students but here is the link to my TpT store’s nutcracker files.  Also - there is a big sale going on December 1 and 2 ONLY - don't miss out on some great deals.  

What activities do you use with your students when learning about The Nutcracker Ballet?  I would love to hear form you!!! Have a great December!

2

Using Plickers in the Music Classroom



Hi, everyone!  This is Jamie. A few weeks ago, my district had a school improvement day, and I had a technology professional development session. One of the topics discussed was the use of Plickers in the classroom. Before I went to this session, I had no idea what “Plickers” was, so I thought I would share with you what I learned.




Plickers is a student-response app that can be used to track formative assessments. Here’s how it works:
  • The teacher presents a multiple-choice question to the class.
  •  The students respond to the question using their own personal QR code. The students will choose the answer (either A, B, C, or D) and point their answer in the air.
  • The teacher will scan the classroom using either a smart phone or tablet to collect the data.
  • The app will store the data for future reference.


The best part of Plickers is that it is FREE! Here is an example of some collected data:



If you are interested in using Plickers in your classroom, here’s what you can do:
  • Go to www.plickers.com
  • Set up a free account
  • Search for the Plickers app on your smart phone/tablet and download it.
  • Print out the student-response QR cards on the Plickers website. You might want to laminate them.
  • If you want to track individual students, add classes to your account. You can even add the names of your students if you wish.
  • Under “Library,” add questions that you will ask your students (more on this down below).
  • After using the response cards in your class, use the data collected as a helpful tool in planning or as an assessment.


Once you have an account, the app, and the individual cards, you should be all set to go! The possibilities of using Plickers are endless, but here are some specific music classroom ideas you might want to consider:

1. Get to know your students’ preferences.
  • Plickers is an excellent tool in getting to know your students better. If you are looking for a theme for a concert, give your classes some choices and have them vote on a choice. If you want to know their opinion on a piece of music they heard, have them tell you. If you want to know their favorite instrument to play, ask them using Plickers.
  • Example Question: What instrument do you think would fit this part nicely?
    • A. Xylophone
    • B. Hand Drum
    • C. Recorder
    • D. Rhythm Sticks


2. Allow your students to self-assess.
  • After completing an activity, give your students an opportunity to assess their performance level.
  • Example Question: Can you hear and identify patterns with la?
    • A. I Can!
    • B. It’s getting easier.
    • C. It’s still difficult.
    • D. I need help.


3. Have your students identify correct/incorrect patterns in the music staff.
  • Use an activity such as “Could it be mi-re-do?” to determine if your students are correctly identifying the steps and skips between melodic pitches.
  •  Example Question: Could it be mi-re-do?
    • A. Yes
    • B. No



From my “All Things Melody: Re” bundle. The answer here is “no.”

4. Play any interactive game.
  • I love to use interactive games on my Interactive White Board, but I don’t like that only one student can give me the answer. With Plickers, all students can answer first and then a student could choose the answer with the most votes.
  • Example Question: Comes from my “Unlock the Lock Aural Game: Quarter Rest.” The students will hear a rhythm and must choose the correct answer. Please know that you could use any interactive game, but this is one I have used in my classroom.




5. Have the students identify a mystery song.
  • Put a list of songs on the board. If you are preparing/practicing a rhythm concept, tap the song for the students. If you are preparing/practicing a melodic concept, “loo” or play the song. The class must choose the song they heard from your list.
  • Example Question using syncopation: Which Song Do You Hear?
    • A. Canoe Song
    • B. Alabama Gal
    • C. Funga Alafia
    • D. Big Bunch of Roses



Since Plickers is new to me, I am hoping to try out some new ideas in the weeks to come. I hope you gained an idea or two that you can use, too!

9

Stretching Your Song Literature

Happy Wednesday everyone!  This is Amy from Music a la Abbott.  I hope that you're having a WONDERFUL fall!

I'm finding myself in a little uncharted water this year.  You see, in my district we have a rotational specials schedule.  I have been fortunate for the past 13 years to have a 3 day rotation.  This means I see my students every third day.  When I opened my current school, 4 years ago, all classes were on that rotation, with the exception of 1st grade which had four rounds and was at a 4-day rotation.  While not ideal, I've been able to get most of my concepts into my 4-day rotation classes. Last year we had FIVE 2nd grade classes.  I was able to talk my teammates into spliting one of the classes into fourths so we could stay on a 4-day rotation.  This year?  Not so lucky, both my 1st and 3rd grade classes are on a 5-day rotation.  UGH!  And everyone else is now on a 4 day rotation.  Double UGH! So, essentially my kids get music once a week.  I know many of you have dealt with this or are living this too.

So, this has made me really challenge my song choices to teach different concepts.  There are certain songs that are gems that are very specific to a concept or grade level, for example "See Saw".

This is the ideal first grade song, perfect for teaching ta ti-ti and so-mi.

What I'm finding I really need to look at are songs that I can bring back in later years to teach another concept that is too hard for the current grade level that they are in.  The folks in my level 2 Kodály class at CSU last summer learned that I call this "double dipping".

Let me give a few examples:

Miss, Miss:

Looking at this song, rhythmically it's great for first grade because it's just ta ti-ti and rest.
Melodically, if we look at just the first two measures it's only so-mi, so again, GREAT for first grade. When we look at the third and fourth measures melodically there is do, re, mi & so.   For this reason, I'm going to use it in first grade to read the entire song rhythmically (no solfége) and then isolate the first two measures to practice so-mi in a new song.  Then in second grade I can bring it back again when we learn re in one of two ways: as a mystery song in the practice stage or as a preparation song.  But when I bring it back in second grade I'm elimating a step that is sometimes time consuming: teaching new song literature.  Furthermore, this is a great choice to bring back because it has a game that is always a "hit" and a favorite with my students.  The more memorable of a game the better the chance that the students will remember it.  You can find the game direction on my blog by clicking here.

Let's look at another example, "Land of the Silver Birch"

While this song doesn't have a game the kids (or at least mine) LOVE it.  It's great for low la and ti-tika, which I teach in 3rd grade.  And I love that the ending, which can also be used as a vocal ostinato (or an ostinato on an instrument) uses both low la and ti-tika.  Then I bring it back in 4th grade for syncopa.  I know some people teach syncopa earlier, in second grade.  Which, if that is the case, it would still work for multiple grade levels.  This is also great in 3rd grade to use with The Canoe Song, as a partner song.


And, for me, the Canoe song is another one that I bring back in 4th grade.  I use it in 3rd grade for low la (first two measures) and low sol (last two measures) but then it's so great for syncopa because of how that rhythmic element happens the first two beats of every measure.

Let's look at one more example: Cross Town


This I use in 4th grade when we look at anacrusis, especially ones that last longer than one beat.  Then I bring it back in 5th grade when we learn ti.  The game is super easy: concentric circles, facing a partner.  When you sing "Cross town" you cross your arms on your chest on the word "cross" then pat your legs on the word "town".  After that it's basically patty-cack with clap own hands-clap right hands with partner-clap own hands-clap left hands with partner.  Now, once your students have that you add stepping to the left everytime you sing "Cross Town". Also, make up additional verses that rhythm with numbers. ..  so the second time it would be "when Billy was two, he learned to tie his shoe," etc. until the number "ten" when you sing "cross town, when Billy was ten, he did it all again. Hey, olley, olley, hey olley, olley, half past ten, the end!"  (the end= sol,-do)

So this is a little way that I'm looking at my song literature: what can I bring back the following year to teach the next year's concept so that I save class time not teaching all new song literature. I would like to say, however, that I think it's important to have a balance of recycled/stretched song literature and new song choices.  Students love the new songs! :)

Have a great week!

3

Ghost Melodies, Glyphs & Candy Corn,


OH MY!!!

Happy November everyone!  This is Karla from CMajorLearning.  Today, my post is going to showcase some of the activities my students have been doing the past couple of weeks.  

My first graders have been reviewing all the different voices we can use in the music room: talking, singing, whisper and calling.  This particular group of kids seems to have a harder time finding their singing voices and differentiating between their talking and singing voices than I typically have had.  While reviewing heartbeat and word rhythm as well as prepping ta and ti-ti, I have made a very conscious effort to continue to work on experiencing and using their different voices. The fall happens to bring some great opportunities for vocal exploration so I have paired the simple chant Miss White (Miss White had a fright, in the middle of the night! Saw a ghost, eating toast, half-way up the lamp post!) with ghost melodies.  After learning the chant, finding the beat and word rhythm I made a simple smartboard file that has a ghost on a black background with a sliver of a moon in the sky.  I used the white pen and modeled different "paths" (lines) that the ghost flew and the students made their voices follow the path.  The next class meeting, I modeled a couple of patterns again and then had several students write their own paths on the smartboard.  The student then lead the class in the vocal exploration.  The third class meeting, I modeled on the smartboard and then passed out dray erase boards and markers and the students created their own individual patterns.  After writing, we did a pair - share activity where each student did their pattern for a partner and then they performed the partners pattern too!  To end the activity everyone performed their melodies at the same time! It was FANTASTIC, some patterns were longer than others and some were more complex - the kids loved it!  Here are a couple of pictures of their work!






As I have shared in other Kodaly Corner posts, sometimes I double up classes when one of the other related arts teachers does not have a sub.  Not one to put in a movie or lose instruction time, I have to come up with clever ways to keep the students working and learning.  During this seemingly endless search for ideas, I came across the Fall Listening Glyphs on TpT by Jena Hudson at Sew Much Music.  

Do you know what a glyph is?  Well I had heard of it before and seen a couple done in a math class but was by no means an expert.  So what do you do, well google it of course!  According to Websters, glyphe is a carved work from ancient times.  I interpret that as a modern day picture representation of something or a type of coloring page with specific directions for completion. 

Armed with a great activity, quality recording, lots of crayons and 50 or so 2nd graders, I began class.  I explained why we were all together in music (they have come to understand this because we have to double up more than we would like), what our activity was going to be doing today and that I brought a very cool listening example for them to hear.  We talked through each item they were to be listening for and then I set them to work.  Because it was such a large group of students, they were to work in small groups of four sharing crayons but not answers!  I didn't know how that would go but they did great!  Here is some of their work!




I have since bought the Mega Bundle Listening Glyphs to use through out the school year.  It was a great assessment of the students understanding of a real life recording as well as a great way for me to see what they were missing or not yet understanding all done with 50 or so kids in my class!  These files are definitely worth looking into!

Lastly, I was delighted to see such success with my students while practicing sol and mi realding from the 3 line staff.  I had the students work on some Candy Corn Melodies from another great TpT seller, Malinda Phillips.  While researching for this post, I realized that I received my so-mi set of Candy Corn Melodies through a promotion from her store and they do not seem to be available on TpT.  BUT, she does have several other melodic elements avaliable, click here to be taken to her store.  It was a bit time consuming to cut all the candy corn pieces but well worth it when I saw the great results!

My students had just been presented sol/mi in the previous lesson and this was a fantastic way to see how they were doing on their reading of the patterns in an independent fashion.  After matching all the candy corn halves, the students picked a partner, checked each others work, made corrections (although not many were needed YEAH!), and checked again.  The students were so engaged, I couldn't believe how quietly they were working!  Here are a couple of pictures!




I know that halloween has passed and some of these activities may not be November appropriate, but I think that they could be adapted to work in the upcoming weeks with just a little bit of tweaking.  Try turkey gobble patterns instead of ghost melodies, check out the November themed listening glyphs (did I mention that they come with listening suggestions!) and candy corn is good anytime!

Have a great November!
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