2/4 Tuesday: Fun Instrument Labels and Great Choral Rep

Welcome to 2/4 Tuesday! Link up below to join the party!

Below are 2 ideas from my classroom!

1. Cool Instrument Labels!

Classroom tour photos are still to come, I promise! In the meantime I thought I would share photos of my newly organized instrument shelving.

First off, my white shelving gets pretty scratched up so I decided to put shelf lining on my shelves. $1.00 a roll from Dollarama! 

I got a wonderful gift from a teacher friend who knows my retro 90's style! What cute mixed tape labels  from Target! They go perfectly with my room. I use them to mark where on the shelves the instruments should go. Aren't they cute?!

2. Choral Picks for Fall 2013

I have chosen some rep for my 2013/2014 grade 4-6 Choir year! I am excited! Here is what our choir is singing for Fall 2013.

Murasame by Victor C. Johnson

This is a beautiful and neat arrangement of a Japenese folk song. I can't wait for my kids to sing it. Click HERE for a sound clip! See below to hear King College Choral Arts Camp perform the piece. Lovely!

Amani Utupe by Patsy Ford Simms. 

This is a gem and you have most likely heard it or worked on it with your students. Easy to learn Swahili text and upbeat, catchy music. Have a listen HERE!

One Voice by Ruth Moody

This is a beautiful piece originally sung by the Wailin' Jennys of Manitoba! We have some amazing folk artists here in Manitoba and Ruth Moody is definitely one of them. She has arranged the piece for various choirs, and an Orff arrangement is also available! Check out a live recording of The Wailin' Jennys below and check out Ruth Moody's website HERE for the sheet music and Orff arrangement.

Thank-you for checking out this week's 2/4 Tuesday!

Freebie Friday! Fun High Five Positive Reinforcement Posters!

Yay for Mrs. Q and Freebie Friday! Check out her blog and other bloggers that linked up to her party HERE!

I just posted fun, musical high fives in my Music room this week! This idea stemmed from... you guessed it! Another classroom teacher blog! I found an idea for hand outlines and posters for practising sight words. Words were inside the hand prints and posted as high fives at the classroom entrance. Various activities were used as an exit slip with the high five sight words.

I decided to make some high fives of my own! This might be a great idea, or a complete disaster! I have posted my high five sign and high fives right next to the Music room door. Students will high five a statement that is true for them, relating to the Music class they just had. As they walk out, students high five their chosen statement.

Here is my original High Five poster:

Here is the black and white version of the High Five sign. I used this instead and printed it on lime green paper.

Here are some examples of hand outlines (there are 10 in total) that I have posted on my wall under the poster and that students can high five on the way out of class!

Click HERE for all of my high fives and both posters for FREE!

We will see! I'll let you know how it goes. It will be fun, but maybe too much fun! Noise in the hallway could be a problem after high fiving with the posters. Only time will tell! It's worth a try!

Thanks again to Mrs. Q for hosting Freebie Friday!

FREEBIE! Barred Instrument Labels

I was inspired today by Emily over at Mrs. Q's Music Blog. She created very functional and cute barred instrument labels! Check out her labels!

I decided to create my own labels to match the fonts, boarders and colours in my room right now. 

I decided to go without colour so that I can just print onto coloured card stock.

Click HERE to print the FREE labels for yourself!

Music Room Uplift!

I am soooo affected by my space! I teach in a room with no windows, and only a small window on my door. I desperately want/need new carpet, and with half my room being taken up by built in risers, I sometimes feel that I live in a dungeon!

I wanted to give the Music room an uplift, not only for me, but for my students. Having a welcoming, organized and creative space helps students too!

 

First I chose a colour scheme of green, blue and purple. I found some great tips for classroom organization on a budget from School Girl Style and some great decorating tips from Another Day in First Grade, including a cool scrunching technique for bulletin board boarders.

Front of class 

Before:

After:

To add more colour at the front of the room, I posted green and white chevron wrapping paper on the bottom half of the wall. Our hand mural that the students created brings all of the classroom colours together and serves as a great focus of the room.

 

I added a bulletin board beside my Smartboard. It includes the Music room expectations, positive and negative consequences, a small white board, and class lists to keep track of bass bar assignment.

 

I also tacked up those small blue boxes from Dollar Tree for markers and my board eraser.

I like using colourful tacks and binder clips together to attach things like this to my wall!

 

Front Instrument Organization

Before:

After:

I have already posted photos of my new labels, but I thought I'd post them again! 

 

I wanted opaque bins for everything, but I couldn't find ones I liked for my non-pitched percussion instruments. At least they clear ones still match my colour scheme!

Right Front Side of the Room

Before:

After:

Better, but still not crazy over this space! I wish I had cabinet doors! I really like my target bulletin board with erasable outcomes here. Have a look at my earlier post to see closer photos and how to make it!

I added new bins and labels in this area as well. I got rid of my wrapping paper covered coffee cans and bought sand pails on sale form Michael's for only $0.75 each! In these pails I labeled borrowed recorders, mallets and rhythm sticks.

Back Right Corner

Before:

After:

Brand new bulletin boards up! On my guitar club bulletin board I have a chord chart, picks, capos, sign up list, and photos of guitar icons. I also do a monthly program with my students called "Manitoba Musician of the Month" where I teach a lesson or unit that features a Manitoban band or artist. Each month I change the bulletin board to include musician photos and facts.

Back of Room Entrance

Before:

After:

I wanted to have something bright and welcoming at the Music room entrance! I added a bulletin board beside the door. Here is that chevron wrapping paper again! I also used scrunched up wrapping paper to create a boarder. I included the Noteworthy charts on this board (check out an earlier post to learn about the classroom management program). I also have slips for students to add their names into a Manitoba Musician of the Month draw when they answer a trivia question correctly, as they are waiting in line for their classroom teacher. I draw a name every month and the winner wins things like a CD, T-shirt or concert tickets!

Left Side of Room

Before:

After:

I wanted this bulletin board to be my changeable board, where as the other ones stay the same. Each month I will change this bulletin board. September's was a Music Mooooves Me board.

Front Left Side of Room

Before:

This is where I used to have my outcome silouettes (that was one of my first posts!), but I decided on something different this year to post grade level outcomes.

 

After:

I painted and laminated these colour coordinated posters! Each poster represents a grade. For example, inside the radio are Kindergarten outcomes and inside the ipod touch are grade 6 outcomes. In the notes above the posters are outcomes that apply across the grades.

 

I have gotten so many compliments from staff and students about the Music room space this year. The bright colours, student made artwork and organizational improvements help create a more inviting and creative space to make music in!

 

- Steph



Music Targets!

Most of the classroom teachers at my school have a target poster in their room and use it to reflect on learning goals with their students. I wanted to do something similar to be consistent with classroom teachers and because I think it's a great visual to help student understand what they are working towards or what they have achieved. It also helps answer the "why?" for some students, especially older students who sometimes wonder why the heck we are dancing around the Music room clapping our hands. Haha. 

Anyways, I have always found coming up with a target poster idea a challenge because I see so many darn kids! I am working on different goals with different students all the time. I needed a way for all current goals to be presented and for them to be able to be quickly changed on the poster.

So, with the help of my uber-crafty grade 1 teacher Ms. St. Laurent, I created a target poster that I can easily use with my students in Music.

I used page protectors from Dollarama, so that I can use dry erase markers to write our grade level goals. This way, I can add new goals quickly and get rid of ones that we have achieved just as fast. Do not use the fancy name brand page protectors though! The marker won't wipe away as well (thanks for the tip Ms. St. Laurent)!

I cut each page protector in half (vertically), placed a coloured paper inside, and taped the edges closed with clear tape. I then folded one end into a point so that our goals could "point" at the target.

For my target, I simply cut different coloured circles out of bristol board, glued them into a target and had it laminated.

And voila! A target poster that is very functional in the Music room! If only I had room on here for some goals that span across the grades. Any ideas?

Let me know what you all use in your classroom for goal setting! I would love to hear your ideas.

-Steph