Musical Review after a Long Break

Hi everyone! It's Aileen from Mrs. Miracle's Music Room. Since many of us are headed back tomorrow after a long two-week break, I thought I'd write about reviewing after a long break. Granted, two weeks isn't super long, but since I only see my students once a week, it will be three weeks by the time they see me again! Here are a few quick and easy ways you can review with your students after a long break, so you can jump back into your lessons.

#1: Reading rhythm patterns

Sometimes, simply reading through some rhythm patterns can go a long way to getting students reacquainted with rhythms they should know well. Since it's the New Year, I just uploaded these rhythm flashcards to my store for free! Just print them out, cut them out, then read each with your students. You might try 4 beats apart, then 2 beats apart, then the third time through, no beats apart, which is a bit trickier and requires musical memory!
Since "Star Wars" is all the rage right now, another fun way to review rhythm reading with your students is to use "Rhythm Wars" by Amy Abbott (which can be purchased in a bundle or separately). The rhythms come on the screen just like the opening credits to the movie...so fun! (For more "Star Wars" activities for the music room, see this blog post.)
You could also simply have students read the rhythm to a known song. You may even ask them before reading what each rhythm is called. Then, dive into reading!

#2: Melodies/ Poison

I like to have students echo me on solfa, in an activity I simply call "melodies." If practicing do, you could sing sol-mi-do with hand signs, and students echo, then do-mi-sol, and students echo, etc. This is a great review activity, in that all they have to do is echo you!
To make it a bit more difficult, you could only sing the first solfa and show the hand signs for the remainder, and they have to sing back all. Or, you could play it on recorder and students have to sing back!
A game that students LOVE is called "Poison." You can write a melodic pattern on the board. You sing a pattern, they echo, UNLESS it's the Poison pattern! If they sing, you could either have that student sit down, or do a teacher against class challenge--if even one student sings, you get a point, but if no one sings, they get a point. They love the competition!
With this game, you could simply write the patterns on the board. If you want them already made, I have some Poison games in my store; here is the one for sol-mi.

#3: Flipped classroom

Since I sent home recorders with my 4th graders before break, I made videos so they could review at home in front of their computers. This idea is often called "flipped classroom," in which students teach themselves at home. Even if you're going back to school tomorrow, you could notify your classes of videos they can watch to help them review, so when they come back to music class the first time they haven't forgotten everything! Here is the video to review "B":

Click here to see other recorder videos on my YouTube channel. I made them general enough that any music teacher could use them. If you want to make your own videos, you can record right from your computer (I used QuickTime) then post to YouTube!

#4: Vocal exploration

Since many students have not used their singing voices over their break, it's always good to do some vocal exploration to help them warm their voices back up. Here are a few blog posts all about vocal exploration! Even with upper elementary students, you can do vocal exploration, simply by having them echo you, on sirens, on nonsense syllables, etc., to help them get back into their head voices.

#5: Just sing!

As important as it is to teach musical concepts through songs, it is just as important to sing for the sake of singing. One of my favorites I've done this year with 3rd grade is "Boots of Shining Leather." It is a beautiful song, works well in a round, AND has a great dance which can also be performed in a round! Yes, it is a great song for 4/4, for half note, and for low ti, but it is also just a great song to sing, especially to get students singing again after break!
Here is the notation:

And here are my 3rd graders performing it in a round:

I hope you all have a wonderful first day back, and that your students remember just as much as you think they should. :) Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

1

Books for the Music Room

Hello and happy summer! This is Tanya from Tanya's Kodaly-aspiring classroom.

This summer my family and I have tackled purging many things from our house, including books.
It pains me to get rid of any books but my children are five and nine and some of the board books and picture books need to go to make room for (slightly) more mature books. (Sigh!)

Luckily, as a music teacher, I still get to hang on to several books that have played a role in the music room! Including a book reading in my already packed lessons is often challenging but sharing great books is always worth the time. I strive to include at least one book a month with 2nd through 4th grade and more with 1st grade. I also read to my 5th and 6th graders; yes, even the big kids love a great picture book as long as it's age appropriate! Here are just a few of my favorites.

The Ants Go Marching

I save The Ants Go Marching for the 100th Day of School celebration. Students love to count the ants on each page and find "the little one" among the others. The minor melody (from When Johnny Comes Marching Home,) is easy for children to latch on to and most are singing along by the third page. (And isn't it refreshing to sing a minor song with the little ones?!)

Jennie Jenkins

All of the John Feierabend folk song book adaptations are worth having and this one is my new favorite! The illustrations are delightfully colorful. Immediately after reading Jennie Jenkins to one of my 1st grade classes several students clamoured, "Can we read it again?" (And we did!)

Musicmap Series Books
Have you see these brilliant books? At first glance they seem like your basic "song lyrics turned into a book," however, each book includes the melodic contour with icons from the illustrations!

"Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky."

I picked up The Goldfish Family (a traditional Japanese folk song,)

 



and Burung Kakatua (an Indonesian song,) at the OAKE conference last March.

Each Musicmap book includes an orchestrated recording of the song (including a child singing,) that I might play for students after they are familiar with the melody.

Books to listen to
My belief is that most books should be sung to children, (music teachers have a unique opportunity and obligation to expose children to live music in class,) but there are books that include unique recordings that should be heard!

Abiyoyo
Sure, I can sing the african lullaby Abiyoyo and read this to my 1st graders, but Pete Seeger was a brilliant storyteller who should be heard, remembered, and revered. (Additionally, I'm not the banjo player he is!) The included CD has two tracks of Pete narrating and singing the story. The second track is live from a 1980 concert and, fair warning, Pete does say "damn ukulele" in that telling, (it's "darn ukulele" in the first track.)

Abiyoyo was featured on Reading Rainbow and you can watch Pete narrate the story here.

No Mirrors in My Nana's House

This simply illustrated book beautifully accompanies the recording by Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Books to play (on instruments)

Possum Come a Knockin'

Here is an opportunity to actively and musically involve students during a read aloud. After each "Possum come a knocking' at the door," students play twice on claves or rhythm sticks.

You can also add some doorbells by having students play on tone chimes ("sol mi!")

 

Hand Hand Fingers Thumb and Click Clack Moo 

Here are two more books that are great fun for students to play along with on small percussion instruments.

Both Hand Hand Fingers Thumb and Click Clack Moo are books that could easily be turned into performances/mini-musicals. (Adapting children's books into student performances is another whole blog post!)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I use this book in 1st grade when we are working on melodic question and answer.
The students quickly fall into singing the answers:

When we work on do in 2nd grade we revisit Brown Bear and play the question and answer on the barred instruments. Initially all students learn to play the answer, then all students learn to play to question. Finally, I have half the class play the question on metalophones and glockenspiels and half play the answer on xylophones.


Books to inspire/Books for older kids

Books for older students usually require more of a time investment but can provide a wonderful doorway towards class discussions on the value of music personally and in our society.

The Bat Boy and His Violin

This story set in 1948 features Reginald, a boy who just wants to play his violin. His dad, a manager for a team in the Negro Baseball League signs Reginald up as bat boy for the team.

Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead

I really love this book! I teach 6th graders at my school and this seems to be the age where many children start understanding and developing a subtle, slightly dark and twisted sense of humor. Oh, I'll just say it: snarkiness ensues! And no one has perfected snarky quite like Lemony Snicket!
(A favorite joke early in the story: "The violin section is divided into the First Violins, who have the trickier parts to play, and the Second Violins, who are more fun at parties.")
This is one you'll want to listen to; the narration and original score flow nicely together.

Indie music geek comment: The illustrator is Carsen Ellis who happens to be married to the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, The Decemberists. She has illustrated several of their album covers as well.
It's been interesting to see how her work has evolved. 

I consider the above list a "Whitman's Sampler" of favorite books; there are so many more that could be included here! What are your "must read" books for the music room?

2

Improvisation Part 1: Rhythm

Hi, everyone!  This is Jamie Parker. Like many of you, I am on spring break this week. Each year on break, I like to set aside some time to think about how my students are progressing and where they still have room to grow before the end of the year. One skill area that seems to need improvement each year is improvisation. Personally, improvisation has been an area of weakness for me, and, as a result, I feel the need to add purposeful improvisation activities to my lessons. I have decided that I’ll spend the next couple of blog posts discussing different improvisation areas, and today I’ll be going over rhythm improvisation.

(Thanks to Sonya DeHart, Kelly Benefield, and Melonheadz for the graphics)

When doing rhythm improvisation activities in my classroom, I tend to start with four-beat rhythm patterns. Before I hold my students accountable for any patterns, I always go through the following process:

• I tap and say many four-beat patterns and the students tap and say the patterns back.
• We have a discussion about each of our known rhythms and the amount of beats each rhythm takes up.
• I tell the students to think of their own pattern. Then, I give them a little think time.
• The students say their patterns at the same time as the rest of their classmates. This “babble” time gives them an opportunity to practice and revise.
•  I ask for some students to volunteer on our improvisation activity.

0

Ways to Practice and Prepare Rhythms

Happy Fall!! I hope your day has been filled with colorful leaves, cozy scarves, pumpkin bread and warm cups of tea (or whatever it is you like about Fall!)

Awhile ago, I wrote a post where I shared a picture of my "cheat sheet" I use when planning lessons. If you haven't seen it, you can read the post here.  One of our readers asked if I could explain some of the items in more detail, and I am FINALLY doing it!  Since it is a lot to cover in one post, I am going to break it up into two posts...one for melody and one for rhythm. So, without further ado, I present...

To start, I made you a pretty file that you can print out to refer to if you are looking for inspiration when planning your lessons. You can access the file here...

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ni9Idv5whCX22E5EjGrg7RFNGg4ac0DG0Lzotp1EaQg/edit?usp=sharing

I tried to provide a short description of each activity below. Please feel free to comment with any questions!

1. Rhythm Question and Answer:
The teacher asks a rhythm "question." I usually use a four beat rhythm containing the rhythm element we are using. Students respond by improvising a four beat answer. Sometimes it helps to have four hearts or beat bars displayed. Then you can point to them as the student creates their rhythm to help them keep a steady beat.

2. Poison Pattern
The teacher claps a "poison" rhythm for the students. This is usually a four beat pattern containing the rhythm you are practicing. Then you clap a variety of four beat patterns, weaving in the poison pattern every now and then. Students stand and echo clap all the rhythms EXCEPT the poison pattern. If they clap the poison pattern, they are "out" and have to sit down.

3. Beat vs. Rhythm
This is a simple way to build part-work into your lesson. Divide your class in half and have one group pat the beat while the other performs the rhythm of whatever song or chant you are working on. Then switch. This can be done in partner pairs, small groups, etc.

4. Chair Dictation/Human Flashcards
This works best for quarter, paired eighth, half note, or syncopa. It gets tricky when there are more than two sounds on any beat. Set up four chairs and then have students sit on the chairs to represent the rhythms. For example, to write ta ta ti-ti ta, you would have one student sit on the chairs that are tas and two sit on the chair that is ti-ti. Then have the class perform the rhythm. You can give students rhythms to notate, have them make their own, or have them dictate what you play.

5. Fill in the Missing Measure
Write the notation to a song on the board but leave one or more measures empty. Have students fill in whatever is missing.

6. Sneaky Snake.
A description of this strategy can be found in "An American Methodology." Basically, you write a rhythm on a "sneaky snake" and cover it up piece by piece. It is great for musical memory.

7. Post Office
Each child gets an envelope with 6-10 rhythm cards inside. All envelopes are identical. They take out all the rhythms and display them so they can see them. Then, the teacher claps, performs or otherwise says a rhythm. Students have to find that rhythm and put it back in their envelope. The goal is to try to reveal the "mystery" rhythm, by putting all the correct rhythms back in the envelope until there is only one left.

8. Oops My Eraser Slipped
Write a rhythm on the white board. Once students have performed the rhythm, you "accidentally" erase one measure at a time until all the rhythm is erased. This is great for practicing musical memory. You can also have students write the rhythm back in once it is gone to practice notation.

9. Flashcards.
Read them, play them, walk them, clap them... :)

10. Glynnis' Game
This is sometimes called "I have, Who has." It takes a little bit of work to create, but it is a great way to assess individual students. In this game, every child has a card that says "I have (four beat rhythm), Who has (a different four beat rhythm)." Students say or perform their rhythm and it passes around the room. Look on TpT for pre-made sets!!

11. Drop 4, Add 4
Students and teacher stand in a circle. The teacher speaks or performs an eight beat rhythm. Then, then student next to them "drops" the first four beats of the teacher's rhythm and "adds" four of their own. The next student does the same and this continues on. For example...

Teacher: ta ta ti-ti ta, ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ta
Student 1: ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ta, ta ta ta ta
Student 2: ta ta ta ta, ti-ti ta ti-ti ta

12. Walk the Rhythm
You can either play or say a rhythm for students to walk or display a rhythm for students to walk. Great for your physical learners!

13. Dictation
Play or say a rhythm and have students notate what you say. This can be done on white boards or with pencil-paper. It often helps to provide students with a template where they fill in the measures.

14. Play on Instruments
Drums, pentatonic xylophones, rhythms sticks, you name it... kids love to play! You can have them read flashcards or echo play.

15. Fly Swatter Game
Post flashcards around the room and divide the class into two teams. Each team sends a representative up to the start line with a fly swatter. Then, the teacher says a rhythm and the two team reps have to try to find that rhythm and be the first to swat it. Whichever team swats it first gets a point.  I use this when I am teaching "Johnny Caught a Flee" and "Shoo Fly."

16. Aural Decoding
You play a rhythm and students decode it by saying the rhythm syllables. You can also have students play a rhythm for their peers. This is a great way for them to check if they are performing it correctly!

17.  Ostinato/Partwork
You can create a rhythm ostinato under almost anything!

18. Games/Hand Jives with Rhythm
Many songs and chants have hand jives that reinforce the rhythm. For example, the hand jive to E Poi Tai Tai clearly shows that there are four beats on the whole note.  These are great ways to practice rhythm, just make sure you draw students attention to the element you are practicing and make the knowledge known!

19. Rhythm Tic-Tac-Toe
You can check out my freebie on this of idea here :)

20. Rhythm Squares/Carousel
Put rhythm flashcards out in a circle. Students walk around the circle like a carousel while you play music (I try to choose something that we are using for a listening lesson.) Then when the music stops, they stop in front of a card. You can go around and have everyone read their card, call on specific students, or ask, "Who has...." to check their reading skills.

21. Heat beats above Words
Have the students draw the hearts above the words. This is great when you are in the prepare phase of teaching!

22. Fill in the Barlines
Write the rhythm to a song on the board and have students fill in the barlines. Simple and a great way to reinforce time signatures.

23. Rhythm Baseball
I'll be honest- I have seen this used, but not used it myself. I am sure that you can come up with some fun ideas, though!

24. Conducting
Having students conduct while they sing is a great way to practice longer rhythms like half note and whole note. They really feel that there is more than one beat for the sound!

25. Mystery Songs
Display the rhythm to a song without the words. Have students determine what the song is from reading the rhythm (or hearing the rhythm).

26. Song Sorts
Write each phrase to a song on a flashcard. Then mix them up and have students "unscramble" the rhythm. I often add an extra phrase to make it more challenging. There is an example of this in my Miss White file on TpT.

27. Composition
Having students compose is a great way to practice rhythms. They have to be able to notate correctly and represent what they think on the page. You can use whiteboards, do it as a class, have students write their own... I often find that once we start composing in 1st grade, I receive many, many "notes" in my boxes of songs students write. Once, I had a student give me a set of 100 flashcards he composed on index cards when they learned to write rest!

28. Rhythm Puzzles
Take an old (easy) puzzle and write the rhythms of a song on the back of it. Then have students put the puzzle together to reveal the mystery song/rhythm. They love it!

29. Worksheets
Search TpT....there are AMAZING resources! Also, if you have the McMillan McGraw music curriculum, there are many great worksheets in the Resource Masters that align with Kodaly instruction.

30. Listening Lessons
I always try to find a piece that clearly demonstrates the rhythms we are working on for my students to listen to. If you haven't yet seen "From Folksongs to Masterworks," I HIGHLY recommend you check out this resource. It has great listening connections to use!

31. Morse Code

In this game you have students work in pairs. A student taps a rhythm into their partners hand. Then the student who "received" the message tries to decode what they tapped.

Whew! Hopefully you gained an idea or two that you can take back to your students! Have a wonderful week!! 

1

Sequence within the sequence

Hi everyone! This is Aileen from Mrs. Miracle's Music Room. 

The Kodály philosophy is widely known as being very sequential. Kodály-inspired educators teach simpler rhythms and solfa first--those rhythms and solfa common in folk songs of the students' mother tongue.

The sequence of a Kodály-inspired classroom was very appealing to me as a new teacher. It wasn't until several years into my teaching, though, that I began to understand the sequence within the sequence.

After students learn ta and ti-ti, for example, we could immediately start throwing improvisation and instrumental activities at them...but they may not be very successful. By first starting with easier practice activities, such as reading rhythms and copying patterns, then sequencing to more difficult practice activities, such as composition and improvisation, students can be much more successful. Here is a typical order in which I practice rhythm. For this list, I'll use the example of ta and ti-ti, but it could be used with any rhythm:

Reading rhythms: After presenting ta and ti-ti, I have students simply read from rhythm flashcards, or read a rhythm of a known song from the board. I do this immediately after presentation, as well as in the beginning of the next lesson, to review with students what they just learned.

Writing rhythms: Students can use pencil and paper or dry erase boards and markers to copy rhythms from the board or from flashcards. This isn't dictation yet--they are simply copying rhythms that you either show them or speak. Much like a Kindergartener writing the letter "a" several times, this gets students comfortable with writing the rhythms.

Playing rhythms: Students can use non-pitched percussion to play patterns from flashcards, or can use barred instruments in C pentatonic to play the rhythm patterns on any bars they want. Sometimes students can say and clap patterns, but having a wood block in their hand is a bit different! Being able to transfer their knowledge to actually playing an instrument is a needed step.

Identifying rhythms: Students can either encode a pattern by hearing it then saying it aloud, saying the rhythm of a known song or chant back at you, or hearing a pattern then choosing which pattern it is (from a list of three patterns, for example.) This is almost dictating, but not quite, as they may be choosing from a list--like a multiple choice test--or may be identifying the rhythm without actually writing it down.

Dictating rhythms: Now students can finally hear a pattern, then either write it with pencil and paper or dictate the pattern with rhythm manipulatives, such as popsicle sticks.

Creating rhythms: Students now can transfer their knowledge and can create rhythm patterns of their own, perhaps by improvising spoken rhythms, or perhaps by composing their own 16-beat piece with known rhythms. The possibilities are endless!

This is not to say that you have to start at reading and work your way to creating in that exact order. In order to differentiate for your higher learners, you will want to have some challenging opportunities in early practice, and for your struggling learners, you will want to have some simpler opportunities in late practice. But having this order in my mind has really helped me unpack exactly what I want my students to do, and when. I just created this set to use with my own students when practicing ta and ti-ti; each week, I will add the next level of complexity.

Do you have any other steps in your sequence within a sequence? Feel free to comment below with any more ideas, and have a great day!

3

Nurturing Musical Growth through Assessment

Hi everyone! It's Aileen from Mrs. Miracle's Music Room. A few days ago, I was excited to read Amy Abbott's post about readiness on the Kodaly Corner, as it relates to the PPP (preparation-presentation-practice) process, so I thought I'd piggyback on that to talk further about assessment.

It's wonderful to really reflect on where assessment fits into the PPP process. While assessment could be viewed as the last step in the process, we can also look at it in another way--as being embedded in the process! I remember hearing in my Kodaly training that a concept shouldn't be assessed until it has been presented, and I still agree with that--if we are focusing on summative assessment. Formative assessment, though, can happen throughout preparation, presentation, and practice.

What exactly is formative assessment? While summative assessment is the traditional approach to assessing--taking an assessment down for a grade to report--formative assessment is used to help adapt instruction and show the educator what the students still need before moving on. It can help gauge their readiness, just like Amy blogged about! Thinking about and planning for formative assessments can help keep teachers on the right track, giving us the information we need to know if students are ready to be summatively assessed, and if they are ready to move on. You can also use formative assessment to see if students are ready for presentation, to actually have data about how many of them can identify the concept and are ready for the "real" name.

Here is an example...with ta and ti-ti, I do a lot of beat and rhythm work in early preparation (just as Amy blogged about), and then move to using long for "ta" and short-short for "ti-ti" (notated like ____ and _ _ ). How do I know they are ready for ta and ti-ti? One way is through popsicle stick dictation. After working with popsicle sticks on the board as a class, I hand students bags of their own popsicle sticks and have them notate on their own. Here is a picture of the pattern "long long short-short long" (otherwise known as "ta ta ti-ti ta.")

For these bags, I used regular popsicle sticks and popsicle sticks cut in half...but I made these my first year of teaching, and they have since come out with these awesome half popsicle sticks! (Click the picture below to buy them on Amazon.) You can also use foam hearts from Joann's instead of laminated hearts if you'd like.

After students get their popsicle sticks and hearts, I have them do some guided writing, a step I learned about from my Level III teacher Joan Litman (who, by the way, is an amazing presenter! If you can see anything presented by her, you should!) I will say the words aloud, like "short-short long short-short long," and they have to notate that. It seems easy, and you may be thinking, "Why would I tell them the names of the rhythms? Why not just have them dictate it?"

Well, as some of you have experienced, some kids need that step. It's great for improving their musical memory. Studies have also shown that if you start with easier questions and work towards more difficult questions, students will perform better than they would otherwise. So I usually take these steps:

• A couple guided writing patterns, in which students have to write what you say
• A few simple patterns that students have to dictate after you clap them (like ta ta ta ta, ta ta ti-ti ta, and ti-ti ta ti-ti ta)
• A more difficult pattern that students have to dictate after you clap it (like ta ti-ti ta ta).

As I am giving this assessment, I write down the students who are absent, and then circulate around the room, looking for students who are dictating incorrectly. Next to those students' names, I write a minus, so that after the assessment, if I see four minuses next to a student's name, I know he/she is really struggling, and if I see no minuses, I know he/she has it. I then calculate data about how many students are ready for presentation (those students who answered all questions correctly or only answered one question incorrectly.)

This assessment isn't at the end of my PPP process, because it's formative, and it's used to guide my instruction. However, I could use this same process once students know ta and ti-ti and use it as a summative assessment, by having students make ta and ti-ti with their popsicle sticks instead of long and short-short, like this:

Now let's look at formative assessment with teaching sol and mi. There are many things we want students to be able to do while we are practicing sol and mi to make sure they are ready to move onto la, from reading patterns, to writing patterns, to audiating patterns, and more! One of my favorite ways to assess melodic audiation is to simply play a pattern with sol and mi on the recorder and have students sing back with sol and mi, with hand signs. It can be a quick transition from one song to the next (starting with a pattern from one song and ending with a pattern from another song.) Can the majority of the class sing back the pattern correctly, even if you do a tricky pattern like sol mi mi sol?

Games are a great way to engage students while assessing them. Here are a couple freebies for assessing sol-mi:

This fun game assesses both aural and visual understanding of sol and mi (click on the picture to download the freebie by Linda McPherson!)

And this freebie by me assesses students' transfer from stick notation to staff notation (just click on the picture to download it)! 

With these games, students are having fun, but I am getting valuable information about each student's melodic understanding. Can they hear melodic patterns and understand what they should look like on the staff? Can they transfer their understanding of steps and skips with stick notation to the staff? These games and activities can be written right into your concept plan, so that you can evaluate if you have to do more practice before moving on, or if there are individual students who need some one-on-one help.

Almost anything you do with your students could be used as a formative assessment, whether it be rhythmic writing, melodic writing, singing, improvisation, rhythmic reading, staff work, and so on! It doesn't matter whether or not you have to report grades or not--formative assessment can be used purely to adapt instruction and nurture each child's musical growth.

Need more ideas for assessment? Check out these posts.

Questions or comments? Please leave them below, and thanks for reading!

6

How Do I Keep Them Singing?

Hello, this is Lindsay Jervis, from Pursuit of Joyfulness and Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom (on facebook).

“The most important thing is to actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of music.”  (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p. 2) 

But HOW do we keep them singing as they get older?

I really do believe that the love of music and singing must be something that is instilled from a very young age (most likely before they even enter our classrooms) because of the exposure to music and their musical experience in the home, but that being said, I do believe what we do once them come to elementary school can have a profound impact on what they think of music and music class and whether they WANT to continue in music as they go on through schooling and life.

With the little ones, I have always felt this comes easy. Song, stories, and play are so much a part of what they love to do.

With the old grades (I'm thinking 3rd-5th), you have to carefully select music, games, and activities that have just the right amount of challenge to peak their interest, keep them engaged, and meet their skill level without becoming too difficult that they give up and become frustrated.

In my psychology of Music Ed class last semester we talked about the inverted U - as the challenge goes up, the performance and enjoyment of the students goes up until they reach  their skill peak. After that peak, students feel stress, anxiety and give up on the task or "think it's stupid". 

This is where it is really important to know where your kids are at and select appropriate songs for them. The songs cannot be too babyish (even if the students really are beginners and need to practice things like steady beat and basic rhythm or tonal patterns). 

I still really consider my older students to be older beginners. I started at my school three years ago and my kids had NO method of reading rhythms or pitches when I got there, so that coupled with my maternity leave my 2nd year there, and they are still not quite up to speed, but that is ok. It is better to go at the pace of the students and do developmentally appropriate literature than push ahead for the sake of staying "on grade level". 

Here are some songs and games that I have done with my students. In some of these cases, we have used them to isolate rhythm or melodic concepts, but some we have used purely for the joy they bring students while participating. If you find a song that students can't wait to sing/play again- it's a GEM! Hang onto it!

You know this one is a gem when I have 5th graders still request it every time they earn a free day. The game is very simple. Students are seated in a circle with their hands behind their back. One student is "it". I call it the "detective" with the older kids and for some reason that is cooler than "it". The first time we play I go around the outside of the circle with a key hidden in my hand. I hide the key in someone's hands. Once I have made it around the circle once, I stop and the detective gets three guesses to try to figure out where the key is. This song is great for older beginners because of the easy rhythms, it is also great for teaching re. With my older beginners I started melody with mi re do instead of sol-mi. Pre-made visuals for this song available here.

This song is great for teaching sixteenth notes and the game is a lot of fun. Set up students in a double circle. Inside circle will move clockwise, outside circle will move counterclockwise during the song. Select two chicken farmers. They stand facing away from the circle on opposite sides of the circle. All students in the circles join hands and teacher selects one "window" in each circle. On the last word of the song (I only use verse 1 when playing the game), the selected partners hold their arms up to create a window. The two farmers must race, only going through the "open windows" to get to the middle. I usually borrow a rubber chicken from my PE teacher to throw in the middle. The kids think it is hilarious. 

This play party is played in longways sets with two lines facing each other (typically one line of boys and one line of girls). Verse 1, the first girl skips around both lines and back to her place. Verse 2, "pretty little Susie skips around set and boys line follows until all are back in their places. Verse 3, cast off, or "peel the banana", head couple forms an arch at the bottom of the set and everyone goes under the arch and the song starts over with a new head couple. Use when preparing and practicing tiri-tiri. If you would like visuals and assessment tools like the one below for this song, you can find some here.

I use this song when preparing and practicing tiri-ti. I have one person travel around the circle with two envelopes. Ones says "Ida Red" the other says "Ida Blue".  Inside each envelope is an action like crawl, skip, gallop, twirl, crabwalk, hop on one foot, etc. On the last word of the song, the person with the envelopes stops between the two closest people and hands an envelope to each. They take out one card then when I say go, they race around the circle performing that action. If I feel one has an unfair advantage (like crab walk vs. run), I can make one go around twice. The winner gets to be "it" and the game resumes.

This one is great for low la!

 The following two songs were a lot of fun for my fifth grades to create an arrangement of for our Fall Program last year. We used these plus "Who Has Seen the Wind" and added ostinato patterns and added Orff instruments. Each class was responsible for arranging how they wanted to perform the song. They might have chosen to singing sing just the ostinato, then add the melody, then sing and play on barred instruments, and then sing a capella as they traded spots with the next class who was moving onto the barred instruments. It was different for each class and it allowed for them to take something that we were working on in class, take ownership and polish it so that it was something we could present to parents.

I used Mamalama strictly for the joy of it last year. It was a great "ice breaker" game for back to school time. My kids loved the challenge of learning the words. I had one girl nail it the first week, which was really cool. You could use this in prepping for fa but it is probably not one that I would use to present fa.

This is another one that was played for the joy of it. My kids aren't to low ti yet and the syncopated rhythms are a bit above my kids, but they still need to sing and play this hand clapping game because it is fun. 

Here's a video of the hand clapping game:

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A Couple "Games" for Reading and Writing Unknown Rhythms

Hello there!!!  This is Amy from Music a la Abbott blogging.  I hope you all are having a fabulous spring!  I'm wrapping up school, with tomorrow being my final day with kiddos and then a work day on Friday.  As I reflect on the year there were many things that were accomplished in my classroom and one of the goals for my students this year was for them to become more proficient and successful at reading unknown rhythms.

Those of you familiar with the Kodály methodology known that reading unknown rhythms comes in the later practice stages of teaching a rhythmic or melodic element.  Today I'm going to focus on two rhythmic late practice activities that we did in my classroom this year, with one of them being in the last week of school.  Crazy, I know!  Practicing rhythmic reading still in the last week of school, but when done in the situation of a "game" the kids don't know that they're actually (shh. ..  . . ) working!!!

Unknown rhythm reading #1: "High Five Rhythms"

This is actually a play on a paper plate relay activity that I presented at the Colorado Music Educators Conference in January and I'm going to give credit to Jenna Olschlager (an amazing colleague, friend and music teacher in CO) for this idea.

I found some foam die cut hands in the dollar bin at the local Target at the beginning of the school year.  On these, I wrote one beat rhythms: ta, ti-ti, rest, tika-tika, ti-tika & tika-ti.  (I used this with 2nd grade at the beginning of the year for review but other than that I used these in 1st and 3rd grade for late practice).  On the back I placed a magnet:

On the board I placed 4 hands, like below:

The students, sitting in a horse shoe shape facing the board had a partner.  Each set of partners was given one had between the two of them that had one of the known rhythmic elements.  One of the partners was assigned the "taker-offer" and one was assigned the "putter-oner".  The essential idea was that the first set of partners would come up, the "taker-offer" would remove one hand (of their choice) and the "putter-oner" would put their hand up in the place of the one taken off.  The class would then read the new rhythm.

Then the next set of partners would come up, take a hand off and replace it with the hand that they had and the class would read the new pattern.  This continued until we made it through all the sets of partners.

To "kick things up a notch" I also recorded their time and their class would "compete" against the other classes to see which class could have the fastest time.

Here's an example of how this looked with 3rd grade rhythms:

Something I'd like to add to this next year, since this year's first graders have done this, is to use the foam mittens that I have to prepare half note.  Wouldn't it be cute to have two mittens with "tas" on them tied together with a mitten clip to represent the tie when they're learning the critical elements of half note?!

Some "house keeping": I get asked a lot on my own blog how I organize my manipulative, well, here's one way.  I LOVE the 80 cent plastic shoe boxes that you can buy at Walmart for storing manipulatives:

They keep the manipulatives looking nice, the boxes stack well and I can write with a Sharpie on the side of the box what the manipulative it that's inside so I can find it easily!

Unknown rhythm reading #2: Rhythm Dice Boggle

Last year on my blog I posted about rhythm and solfa blocks.  I'm a big believer in getting as many uses as you can out of a manipulative.  So, this past week we played rhythm boggle with my 3rd graders to practice ti-tika.

I already had my blocks sorted into sets of 16.  In groups of 2-3 they were given a set of block, they rolled them out onto the floor

And then put them into a 4 x 4 grid like this:

Then, using a tally sheet, the student wrote as many 4 beat patterns as they could find in 3 minutes. The blocks had to be adjacent (next to or diagonal from each other) in order to write a rhythm.  They recorded them on this sheet:

This worked so well that I actually made some pre-made worksheets so I can use it in centers or leave it for a sub next year:

The other thing I liked about this was that with my higher level thinkers I could have them compare answers and any identical answers they had to "cross off" their list, just like with the real game of Boggle.

I hope that you all have a wonderful end of your school year (if that's your calendar, I know some of you are out of the United States or on year round schools).  I'm off to start summer! :)

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