2/4 Tuesday- Exciting Music Apps!

Link up with me for another 2/4 Tuesday! All you have to do is blog about 2-4 ideas and link-up!

I am on the hunt for great music education apps for my new iPad! Here are four apps that I am excited to use in my classroom.

1. Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra APP!

I am really excited about this app because our grade two classes are going to the orchestra this year and will be listening to excerpts from Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Check it out! I will let you know what I think!

2. ABC Music APP

This will be a great one for my little grade one and Kindergarden students. This looks like an app that would really be fun for kids to explore various instruments.

3. Jelly Band 

This looks so fun! I think this would be excellent for my young students to prepare them for Garage Band compositions in grade 6. I plan on using this with my Grade 3 students this year.

4. DoReMi 1-2-3

This looks fantastic for all sorts of reasons! Pitch matching games, composing and more!

I will try this out with my K-2 students.

Has anyone tried these apps out? I am looking for more apps for my older students. Any ideas?

Don't forget to link up and to check out the linked up bloggers!

2/4 Tuesday Linky Party! Four Neat Finds for the New School Year!

Welcome to the first ever Stay Tuned Linky Party! Steps on how to link your blog to our party are found at the end of my post. If you are here just to look at ideas, be sure to check out the linked blogs below! 

Here are my four ideas for the 2/4 Tuesday!

1. New Musicals!

I'm so pumped for the new school year! Here are two of my favourite new musicals from Hal Leonard. They are both great!

Have a peak at Arf On the Rooftop! HERE

Have a peak at Summer Camp HERE

2. Mozart Printables!

I am so excited that I found these! I am going to use them for my first composer bulletin board.

Thank-you Sara Bibee for creating this excellent resource!

Click HERE to download the super cute Mozart printables! 

3. String Instrument Video

I am pumped to share this with my grade 2 and 4 classes when we do our orchestra units! This video features sound examples of each of the string instruments. Check it out!

4. My Freshly Painted Desk!

Can you guess what my favourite colour is?! I painted my desk to brighten up my room a bit this year. I love it! Who knew you could paint over nasty laminate so easily?! Click HERE for an easy to follow tutorial from Centsational Girl.

How Instruments Are Made Videos!

Yesterday was the last day of school! Yippeeeeee!

When school is almost done and it's always nice to find easy, low key and interesting activities to do with the kiddos that are also at least somewhat educational!

I found some really interesting videos of how different music instruments are made. 

I had grade 4, 5 and 6 students watch the videos and complete (in writing) the following statements...

"Something I knew before watching this video was..."

"Something I learned from watching the video was..."

"Something I found interesting was..."

Here are the three videos that grade 4-6 students responded to last week.

How It's Made- Cymbals

How It's Made- Acoustic Guitar

Making a Djembe

Enjoy!

-Steph

Cool Find! Mozart Finger Puppet!

I found the coolest thing at a local and amazing toy store, Kite and Kaboodle! A Mozart magnet! And then I picked it up and realized it was also a MOZART FINGER PUPPET! Whaaaaat?! Last one there too! It was my lucky day today!

You can check out finger puppets including Mozart, Beethoven, Veri and Puccini, as well a variety of many others including (Obama, Rosa Parks and Salvador Dali) HERE at the Unemployed Philosophers Guild website. The site is so fun and full of great gift ideas so check it out! My Mozart puppet will be great to use with Fun with Composers resource! Click HERE to see that resource!

My Mozart just loved coming home with me! 

He got along with Lola right away! 

After getting settled in, Wolfgang found my metallophone and started composing...

And playing his compositions for us!

He is so fun that guy! I can't wait for the kids at school to meet him!

- Steph

Must Haves- FUN WITH COMPOSERS!

You have got to get FUN WITH COMPOSERS, if you haven't already! This is an excellent resource that many Music teachers here in Manitoba use. Deb Ziolkoski has created many amazingly engaging lesson plans that always include classical music, stories, movement, and fun! Her Fun with Composers series is a compilation of these creative lessons. I am curious to know though- is it in every Music teachers "Must Have" collection? It is definitely a must have of mine! 

Click HERE to go to the Fun with Composers website to check out resources. There is currently a free lesson from the book on-line! The newly released "On s'amuse avec les compositeurs" is now available!

Here are my kiddos moving to Dvorak's Slavonic Dance with our teacher candidate. 

The Great Barnyard Dance!  

What are your Music teacher resource "must haves"?

- Steph

Instrument Match Up- Free Smartboard File and Quiz!

My grade 4 students went to the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra this past week! 

As we were preparing for the field trip, one of their goals was to identify instruments and organize them into the proper instrument families. I created this quick Smartboard group activity to activate their instrument knowledge prior to the concert. 

Click HERE to receive the FREE Smart Notebook file!

With the help of some of our educational assistants, I created bundles of popsicle sticks that were each labeled with an orchestral instrument. Each student practiced grouping the instruments on their own. This was harder for them without the pictures of the instruments, especially since many of my students are EAL learners. 

The following class we reviewed photos and sounds of each instrument, to help them with the instrument words. They did the popsicle stick activity again.

Working on it...

Not quite...

 Ah, there we go... 

After attending the Orchestra concert, I had students do an instrument match up quiz. One page had pictures and once they were finished that sheet, I gave them another match up sheet with the instrument words. 

On the back of the second sheet I had them write and draw a reflection of what they enjoyed at the concert.

What kinds of music events do you take your students to? It's so valuable for them to gain experience as an audience member!

- Steph

Neat Videos!

It's officially SPRING BREAK! Wohoooo! 

I was exhausted this week! I could barely keep my eyes open!

The kids are ready for a break too. I shared these videos with my kids this week to take a 5 minute chill break. After each video, we discussed what we enjoyed and what we maybe didn't enjoy while watching the videos.

Check them out!

The Vegetable Orchestra

Soooooo neat! I had a lot of students who, after watching this, attempted to make their own at home!

Cello Wars by the Piano Guys

This is awesome! I LOVE Star Wars and so many of my students do as well. Especially boys. 

This was a great opportunity to talk about electric instruments that we usually hear as acoustic. 

You Da One- by The Pentatonix

This is a great video and all of their arrangements are amazing! Rihanna is coming to our city soon, so a lot of the older kids got extra excited for the concert as we watched this video (waaaaayyyyy more appropriate than a Rihanna video btw...). After watching this, we discussed a cappella music, and what each person's role in the ensemble was in this video.

Enjoy!

What cool videos do you find on Youtube that are appropriate for the Music room?

- Steph

The Planets! Part 2- Art and Listening Activity!

Here's part 2 of my Planets Unit post! Check out PART ONE (which included a Smartboard intro activity to the piece and a funny Holst video) .

Activity #2

During the next class, I had students write a paragraph about Holst. They prepared for this by doing their web hunt (from Part 1), watching my biographical video and doing their own research at home.

Activity #3

During this same class, we listening more closely to Mars and Venus. You all have to check out Sofia Lopez-Ibor's latest resource entitled, "Blue is the Sea" if you haven't already. It is amazing and has a section on teaching students about The Planets! In her book she includes a chart for students to fill out as they listen to Mars and Venus. 

Buy it HERE!

I adapted the chart to suit our goals. I found that the chart really prepared students for our art and listening activity. It made the kids think about movement, instrumentation, emotion, etc. in connection with the pieces.

Activity #4

For the next few classes we embarked on a music and art adventure! Since reading "Blue is the Sea", I have really integrated much more art, as well as movement, into my teaching! Lopez-Ibor integrats art so seamlessly into her teaching. I love it! So, while listening to "Mars", students painted abstract art to portray what they heard, felt and thought of from the music. They did the same while listening to "Venus" and painted on the other half of their page.

This is what they came up with:

It was pretty funny because most of them think "good" art as being concrete and realistic. This was hard for many of them to just let go and paint what they hear, feel and think, instead of what they see.

I found a super cool art project from Katie at Adventures of an Art Teacher. I adapted it a tiny bit for us. Students chose their favourite part of each of the two paintings and traced a circle, then cut it out. The circles were pasted onto black construction paper. Students embellished there background with oil pastels, making it look like planets in outer space.

It was super neat when the kids were adding details because they had so much fresh knowledge from their Science unit!

This student's painted planets really portray the peaceful serenity of the Venus movement and the contrasting red, fiery chaos of the Mars movement.

As a wrap up assignment, I had students listen to the two movements a final time and reflect on which piece they liked best and why. Because we had explored the music in unique ways, the kids had much to say! 

It was so cool watching music, visual art and science come together so beautifully.

- Steph

The Planets! Part 1

I love "The Planets" by Gustav Holst! I have studied little bits of it with my kids in the past, but this year I decided to really expand on some ideas and create a unit that has lasted about 8 classes. Manitoban students study the solar system in grade 6 Science, so the cross-curricular connections have been great for students to get engaged!

Here is what we did!

Day 1

I introduced our unit by putting together a Smartnotebook file that included:

 Brainstorm what we know about planets already.

 

 Discover/discuss how Planets are named after Roman gods.

 How all of this relates to music. Touch each planet to find out!

Discuss what we hear in the Mars and Venus movements (instruments, phrasing, mood, etc.).

Click HERE for the FREE Smartboard file! I promised that I've shared it this time!

Day 2

Next the students did a Gustav Holst Webhunt! I had a list of questions for them to answer. Students used the internet to find their answers.

I took all of their answers to create a Holst autobiography. Click HERE for the video. Students studied from the video to prepare for a short quiz about Holst.

 

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 and 3 of The Planets unit!

 

- Steph



Mad Lips App for Composer Study!

Grade 6 students are studying Holst and his composition "The Planets". They spent one class on a web hunt finding and citing facts about Holst. I used their findings to create this video using Mad Lips! Feel free to use this video with my lips and Holst's face, or try the Mad Lips app on iPad or iPhone to create your own! There is a free version HERE!

The kids got a total kick out of this!

- Steph

Painting Music

My grade Grade 4 students have been studying the orchestral piece "The Harvesters" by John Estacio for our upcoming concert Musical Adventures, presented for students by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. We are so fortunate to have access to such an excellent program!

We listened to and discussed the music. We noticed that within the piece there are many instrument parts that overlap one another. Students portrayed these layers in their art as well as any other elements that they heard. Students then reflected on their art and its connection to the music. This is what they came up with! 

Students used watercolour paint, salt, and marker to simulate the overlapping layers in the music.

- Steph

Technology Tuesday- Melody Street and Young Music Genius!

I am currently working on orchestral instrument families with my grade 2 students. I have been trying out some different tech resources to help us learn about this. Check out my post Orchestra Activities for the Smartboard to find on-line resources that I have tried out earlier this month.

Thanks to Brittany over at Making Music Memories who commented about how wonderful Melody Street is! Thanks for introducing me to Melody Street Brittany! It was actually one of those many things that I had pinned and then forgot to look at. Oops!

Melody Street is FANTASTIC! It is great interactive story for iPads but also works on your Smartboard or just anything that will project a video from your computer. We started by using Melody Street on our Smartboard. We listened to the story of "The House on Melody Street", starting with chapter one. Watch it on Youtube: 

The House on Melody Street

After watching each chapter and learning more about the instruments, we played the instrument guessing games found HERE on the Melody Street website. There are many different games, but we played the "Memory Card Game" and "What's That Instrument?" on the Smartboard as a whole class and it worked well.

During the next Music class the students tried "Young Music Genius", a great iPad app and it's free! In pairs, my grade 2 students used the iPads and played an instrument sound matching game on the Young Music Genuis app. There is also a memory card game that's fun to play. They loved both games! 

Young Music Genius

I love sharing ideas! Please let me know what you think of these resources! I would love to her what you do with your students as well!

- Steph

Tech Tuesday- Orchestra Activities for the Smartboard!

Here are some great interactive sites for students to learn about the orchestra! I used Orchestra Fact Files to introduce my younger students to what an orchestra is!

Kids Mozart

Orchestra Fact Files

What technology do you use when teaching your students about the orchestra?

- Steph

Classical Music Videos with a Twist!

Technology Thursday (sometimes Tuesday) begins now!

Every year in January and February, my grade 2 and 4 students prepare to go to the orchestra. Here in Winnipeg we have an amazing symphony concert series designed especially for elementary students. The performances include dancers, artwork, visual effects, and children performance collaborations!

As we study orchestral instruments and the concert repertoire, I always like the children hear or see different interpretations of the pieces. Here are two excellent Youtube videos to show your students, especially if they have already heard the orchestral versions.

"Ode to Joy" by James Turner

Beatboxing Peter and the Wolf

So cool eh?

What are your favourite classical music videos with a twist?

- Steph