Monday Music Manipulatives! Found Objects As Music Manipulatives!

I am linking up with Lindsay at Pursuit of Joyfulness for her Linky party!

I'm all for being crafty and making stuff, but for something different I thought I would blog about munipulatives that you actually don't have to make. Random objects that are easy to reinforce singing concepts!

1. Hulahoops

I use hula hoops for helping students internalize melody and lyrics. I place a hula hoop on the ground and have a student stand inside the hula hoop. The rest of the class or choir sings while the student is in the hula hoop. When that student jumps out of the hula hoop everyone needs to sing "inside their heads". It is a blast and the kids love it. It really helps them internalize beat as well.

2. Skipping Rope

I nabbed this idea from one of my amazing university profs. JL, you know who you are :) I still use this with my students to kinaesthetically experience so-mi. The skipping rope is used as the line on the floor and I have one student jump across the skipping rope (slow enough for us to follow), jumping sometimes above the skipping rope line, and sometimes below. We follow along singing so and mi appropriately. The kids get a kick out of this one too.

3. Red and Green Paper

A Jeff and Randy special. Check out the amazing Kriske and DeLelles resources HERE. This is another way to internalize melody and lyrics. I love using this during musical rehearsals when we are doing memory work. Simply have a green piece of paper and a red piece of paper. When the green paper is held up, students sing. When the red paper is up, student sing "inside their heads". Another easy way to get student leaders involved.

4. Ribbon Wand

I love using these to warm up my younger choirs. We do vocal slides that match the movement of the ribbon wand. Once I have demonstrated, I choose a student leader to move the wand and we vocalize appropriately. F.U.N.!

5. Anything Cool to Use as a Baton

I have a a neat light up stick that students use when they are conducting the class. It's pretty cool and it was only a buck from the dollar store. I have also used glow sticks for the same purpose. Super neat.

6. Wooden Puppet Thing

Another Dollarama find, I use my little tiger and clown every year when I teach forte and piano to my kinders. You can get these little push button guys for only a dollar! When the little guy is "sleeping" kids sing piano and when he is "awake" we sing forte.

7. Gadgets Great for Singing

This book is awesome! It is a new one by Christy Elsner, published by Hal Leonard. I just bought it and I am pumped to use it. She shares ideas on how random objects can help singing technique. Her ideas include using Oreos, balloons, building materials and more to reinforce singing technique! Click HERE to check out the resource.

Thanks so much to Lindsay for hosting this great Linky Party! I am excited to see other manipulative ideas! Please click on her blog at the top to check out the other bloggers!

Come on back tomorrow for my Linky Party, 2/4 Tuesday!

Kindergarten- highs, lows, and vocal exploration!

I love doing all sorts of vocal exploration with my kiddoes! 

"The Squiggle" by Carole Lexa Schafer is an oldie but a goodie. It's a story of a girl who find a string and creates different shapes and creatures with it. 

I read it with the little ones (K or grade 1) and we vocalize the shapes or "draw them with our voice". 

After the story, students create their own shapes with a skipping rope or draw them on the board and we try singing their squiggles!

Find the book on amazon HERE for under $7.00!

After presenting the activity this year I also showed 2 videos that reinforce high and low. The videos show excellent visual representation of sound, such as the squiggle activities do.

- Steph

Tips and Tricks for Engaging Rehearsals #1!

I love the holiday season! Yipeeeee! And as much as our holiday musical songs can drive me crazy (I wake up in the middle of the night with them stuck in my head!) I love preparing for our annual Holiday Musical!

To keep from kids getting bored (as well as myself), I always like to add quick, fun and meaningful activities in my rehearsal plans. For our holiday musical, all of our grade 1 to 3 students learn the songs during their Music class and are the chorus on the stage for the musical. Grade 3 students choose whether or not they would like a speaking part and practice during lunch time.

Here are some activities that I love to do with my kids to keep them engaged, especially during that time where the kids think they are pros at the songs. They don't see the point in singing over and over and over again, but you know better! 

Visuals For Vocal Flexibility

Ribbon Sounds

I use this as a warm up or an "inbetweener" for rehearsal. All you do is draw different shapes with the ribbon wand in the air. As you do so, the students create vocal slides accordingly. They LOVE this! Sometimes, I'll get them to draw the shape in the air with their finger as they vocalize it. Once they get the hang of it, I ask a student to come up and be the leader with my ribbon wand. I got my ribbon wand for $1.00 at Dollarama!

Parachute Voices

This is a similar idea to Ribbon Sounds, but is not my idea. I saw Artie Almeida demonstrate this at the AOSA conference in St. Louis last week. She is AMAZING by the way! And yes, she IS the Mallet Madness woman! Check out her website at artiealmeida.com for excellent ideas. I was so excited when I saw her doing this as it is similar to the ribbon wand activity that I was already doing!

Artie used a slide whistle which was super cool, but you can also use your voice to do the vocal slides. Students hold a parachute and together lift and lower it, according to the changes in pitch that they hear. Eventually, Artie moved to singing solfege and the parachute moved accordingly. This is a great way for students to visualize pitch and where the solfege sounds are in relation to each other . I have also had a student do vocal slides instead of myself, while his/her peers moved the parachute. LOVE it!

I used a small parachute as I don't have much room for movement in my room. You can order 12' parachutes for under $40.00 at Concord Supplies.

Be sure to check back for part II and possibly III of Tips and Tricks for Engaging Rehearsals!

I will also be posting costume ideas very soon!

What tricks do you use to keep kids captivated?

- Steph

I Like to Move It, Move It!

Does everyone remember that song from the 90's? Man... I love the 90's. Dance mix '95 was a classic! Anyways, this blog is not about 90's music. It's about adding a neat DIY movement prop!

I made a movement ball yesterday and I am really excited to use it! I got the idea from a Party Planning blog called The Party Animal.

Their rendition of it is a homemade "Toss 'n Talk" ball. Apparently these are pretty popular, but I had never seen them before! This "Toss 'n Talk" ball could also be used in the Music room especially if you are new to the school and want to get to know the students better. This would also be fun to make for a class review of music genres, or composers!

After coming across the Toss' N' Talk ball, I actually found a movement version of it on Amazon.

And that's where the DIYing began! 

All you need is:

A big ball

Permanent markers

Ideas!

Friends with ideas!

Write and doodle moves on a bouncy ball, fill it up and your done!

To use the movement ball, students simply toss, catch, and do the move that is beneath their right thumb! At the beginning of the year, I will also have my students choose a partner to do their move with them. That way, they'll have more confidence and fun! I also had a suggestion for another idea from a friend to have students roll the ball to the next person instead of throwing it.

I am so excited to use this! I hope you are too! I would love to see your creations!

- Steph