Welcome back to another 2/4 Tuesday! If you are a blogger, post about 2-4 ideas and link up below! If you are a blog lover, don't forget to check out the great blogs linked up below!
I love posting these on my "Rhythm Stew" October bulletin board. My students use the rhythm cards to create ostanati and/or create rhythm poems. Find them for FREE HERE!
Thanks to Aileen at Mrs. Miracle's Music Roomfor hosting Five Favorite Pins of September! Here are my five favourite (note the Canadian spelling :) ) pins of September! I hope Aileen does one for October too! I love this idea for a Linky Party! Please check out the other blogs that have linked up!
Click on the link to go directly to Ashley Queen's blog for teachers. It is EXCELLENT! This is a cute and fun centre using fake fruit to create rhythm patterns.
I love this idea. I wish I had a big bulletin board outside my room for this one. The original pinner is not named. If this is your board, let me know so I can recognize you!
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!
Join my Linky Party! Or at least check out all of the links! Thank-you to everyone who linked up last week, even our late arrivals!
I'm including a couple random ideas. My classroom tour photos are still to come this week!
1. The Best Beatbox Video You Will Ever See
So I have to teach a double class in my little room. That's about 50 grade 5/6 students in my itty bitty room. So to get settled into the space for the first time, we watched this amazing video! I fast forwarded his talk at the beginning though, a couple jokes that wouldn't be good for the kiddoes ;)
2. Student Workbook/Journals
This is something new I am trying this year. It's quite a bit of work, but I think it will be worth it. Hoping anyways! I am trying these Music workbooks out with my grade 2 and 3 classes this year.
First, I bought a whack of notebooks from Staples (4 for 99 cents!) and cut them in half.
Then I decided what I wanted inside them. I decided to put three copies of each work page (that I know for sure I'm using) in each booklet. One copy for each term, which also helps with having consistent assessment. I used glue tape from the dollar store put the pages in.
I decided to do "Composer of the Season" this year instead of monthly composers.
Youtube performance video reviews (reflective thinking).
Rhythmic dictation sheets.
Simplified rhythmic dictation as well.
Self-assessment sheets for singing. Students mark a plus sign, checkmark or minus sign beside each sentence. Plus means "I do this every time", checkmark means "I do this most times" and minus means "I need to work on this".
Ta and ti-ti worksheets for grade 1. Poem from Doug Goodkin's Intery Mintery.
Ta-a worksheets for grade 2.
Click HERE for everything I have included in journals.
I like the idea of this because written assessments are in one spot and progress from term to term can clearly be seen. We'll see how it goes! What do you do to keep track of written work?
I love anything that makes students motivated and comfortable to sing by themselves. Being brave to sing alone needs to be celebrated!
Children love stickers and also love when people are proud of them. I thought my students would really appreciate a sticker that celebrates their accomplishment and they could wear it for others to see!
I created a simple template for sticker labels that I will be printing off for my kiddoes.
I love games and so do my kiddos!
During the month of June, I included this fun game in our primary centre rotation.
BUSTED!
What you need:
A container of some sort. I used empty Lysol wipe containers.
Coloured tongue dipressers. I got mine from Michaels.
A thin permanent marker that you will write rhythms with. Don't forget to include some BUSTED sticks! I did 1/5 eighth notes, 1/5 quarter notes, 1/5 quarter rests, 1/5 half notes, and 1/5 Busted!.
I made a nifty label! For the upper elementary ones that I will do next year, I think I'll make a vertical label...
Put all of the sticks inside the container, with the rhythm side of each stick at the bottom.
And voila! Your game is ready to be played!
Click HERE for the game instructions and HERE the FREE printable label!
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!
I love doing my train themed unit with my grade 1-3 classes! I collect my songs from various sources.
I love the Game Plan series by Kriske and Delelles! Two songs that I include in my unit for grade 1 are "Engine, Engine" and "Little Red Caboose".
Click HERE for more information about the book. If you haven't already started collecting these books and manipulatives... you need to!
The song that we spend several lessons on however is "Train Song" from "An Orff Mosaic from Canada", edited by Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming. My American friends- you need to get this! Canadian friends- most of you already have it! It's a staple for sure! Click HEREto check out this collection of songs!
Here is what my grade 1 classes do with "Train Song"
To extend our piece, my grade 1 students each composed a non-pitched percussion B section to play with our Train Song. First the class decided on instruments that they thought could simulate sounds a train would make. They decided on claves, hand drum, shaker egg, maraca, and sand blocks.
In order to compose their music, students were given a "My Instrument Train" sheet that included train tracks. I pre-cut different coloured train cars and each student had to choose 4 to glue on to their train tracks. They then had to glue a white square on top of each coloured square.
Each train car represents 4 beats. Students got to choose one instrument to draw in each train car (measure). They could repeat instruments, create a pattern, what ever they wanted. The only rule is that only one instrument could be drawn in a train car.
Hahaha... this composition is shaker egg, maraca, shaker egg, maraca.
After completing the compositions, students each received an instrument and we played some of the children's rhythm trains! Playing the instrument trains was great practice for tracking, concentration, and beat.
Next class, we will be organizing a rondo with out Train Song, by using the grade one compositions as B, C, D, E, etc. sections!
I am currently finishing up tons of I Love To Read Month activities. I tried something new this year that is really working out! I am having older classes (grade 4 and 5) write recorder compositions inspired by books that the younger classes are currently using.
My grade 4 classes are using a reoccurring rhythm pattern from "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type" to compose a BAG recorder piece in pairs. The pairs will then share the story and their composition with grade 2 classes students!
HERE is the free composition printable for you to use as you wish!
