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!

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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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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

    

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Valentine's Day Fun!

Hi, everyone! This is Liza. I'm excited to write my first post for the blog. My husband will be at TMEA on Valentine's Day again this year (Sigh!), so I've decided to celebrate in another way...with Valentine's activities galore with my students at school. I hope you find at least one new gem you've never heard of before, or a new twist on some of the old standards you already use. If you go to my personal blog there are some more Valentine's activities from this year and last year if you're interested. I'm the slow child in the class who hasn't yet figured out how to display a button for my blog on this page, but I'll keep trying. Until then, here's a link: http://meyersmusicactivities.blogspot.com/

Valentine Message Match

I made up a bunch of the Valentine message hearts and made sure there were at least two of each one. You could use any rhythm set if you wanted to. There's an easy and a hard version of this game. In the easy version each student gets a message, finds their partner, and they decode the message and write the correct rhythm on the paper (I used tas and titis in these examples). In the hard version, students do not see their own message because I tape them onto their backs. Then they must find their partner without any talking, helping each other with non-verbal cues to pair up. When all have found their partners each pair must say their words for the class and say the rhythm that goes with those words. Students love playing this game repeatedly. To make it even harder I set a time limit for finding your partner and those who are still partner-less when time is up or students who talk are eliminated.

You can use a similar game for many things. I've done a game in which students have to match a card with a picture of an instrument on it with a card that has the correct name of that instrument, again with the cards taped to students' backs and no talking allowed. Students who don't match name and picture correctly or who talk are out. I've also done 4 leaders who represent the instrument families and the rest of the class has instrument pics on their backs. The first instrument family leader to find all of the instruments that belong to their family wins.

 Solo Singing Games

There are two Valentine's themed solo singing games I have used with my students recently, one which is more appropriate for slightly older students because of the octave range, and one that I use with younger students because it has a more limited range and I can have students sing their responses using any tone set we happen to be working on.

I changed the words to the Who Has My Penny, Button, Key game to fit the Valentine's theme. I use a piece of hard, wrapped candy (chocolate melts and gets squishy in the wrapper), a small heart I cut out of craft foam, and a bear finger puppet. The objects need to be small enough for students to cover easily with their hands. The guesser sits in a chair and is blindfolded and then I hand the objects to 3 students who then sing the responses solo. Afterwards I take the blindfold off of the guesser and all students pretend to hold an object. The guesser names who they think sang, and then I ask them to pick the next guesser who is blind folded. The 3 students who ended the last round with the objects then get to give their objects away so we can play the next round of the game. 

In this more simple solo singing game, the class sings all but the last phrase of the song. The first day we play, I am the leader and students only sing responses.The singer secretly picks someone in the room and sings one characteristic of the person, such as "She is wearing red," or "He has glasses." Several students are called to sing answers. If no one guesses correctly, then I give another clue, etc. On later days when the song is more familiar, students may take over singing the teacher part. As I said, I often change what solfa pattern the response is sung in based on what we've been working on in class.

Will You Be My Valentine Dance

This is a partner circle game very similar to Bow Wow Wow. All students stand in a single circle facing a partner. On the first phrase students touch right "heel" and "toe" to the floor, then 3 stomps on "down the line." On the second phrase students grab their partner's hands and switch places with them. On the 3rd phrase, motions from the 1st phrase repeat but with the left foot. On the last phrase students put hands on hips and nod for "ja" and cross arms and shake head no on "nein" and then turn their back to their old partner. They will now have a new partner to repeat the song with. Continue until all have worked their way around the circle and back to their first partner.I use this song for ta, titi and labeling rhythmic form with younger grades, and for re practice.

Flipchart practicing ta, titi and rhythmic form

Flipchart practicing drm sl melody

Tony Chestnut Tempos

I use this song to practice tempo markings among other things. First I demonstrate the motions and sing the song and ask the class what they notice (that the words match the part of the body I touch). I then usually teach the song with motions by phrase. Movements are as follows: "To-ny"= touch toe then knee, "Chest-nut"= fist taps chest (think Tarzan), then taps head, "knows I love you"= touch nose and eyes, cross arms for love, point out for you. Once they have it, we repeat getting faster each time. For more practice on other days I have a flipchart with an odometer showing the tempos. A student comes up and picks a tempo for us to perform, or they can make us change tempo in the middle of the song.

For a different way to practice, I use the flipchart above. Students come to the board and touch the parts of the body on the swanky Valentine's man as we sing (or the heart or you word) as fast as they can and the class decides what tempo they were able to lead the class to sing. Students who don't know the song well often go largo. Very few students can lead us to sing presto, but they have fun trying.

I hope you found at least one helpful idea. Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

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