Tempo Turn

I love my tempo cats. The kids love the tempo cats. They are great! I refer to them all the time when singing and playing instruments with my students.

Sorry for the glare!

The cats have been around for a while and also are in a million different Music rooms. I wanted to think of some other creative way to quickly incorporate tempo so that the students don't get bored with our kitties! I still love those cats!

I found something called a Tempo Turn spinner on Pinterest! Unfortunately the link was broken so I couldn't see where it was from or anything. I used the photo as inspiration and here is what I came up with!

I just got it back yesterday from laminating. I can't wait to use it!

- Steph

I Love Labels!

I decided to reorganize and redecorate my classroom this year! After inspiration from Another Day In First Grade I started with a colour scheme, bought new storage tubs and labelled EVERYTHING! I got some great fonts at Sweet Rose Studio to create my labels. Here are some before and after photos of my shelf.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Spending a few minutes to print off nice, clear labels is so worth it!

- Steph

Noteworthy Behaviour!

Once in a while I like having a music games class after students have demonstrated great teamwork. This year, I will be doing a program called "(my school name) Is Noteworthy!" When students have a great music class and demonstrate amazing cooperation and teamwork, they receive a music note on the chart next to their class name. Once the class receives 10 music notes, we have a music games class!

To make the chart, I simply typed up the class names in a table and printed it on coloured paper. I then inserted the paper into a black frame from Dollarama and hung it on my bulletin board with a tac and binder clip. I use dry erase markers to mark the music notes, and voila!

-Steph

Back to School Books!

Yay! It's back to school week although I actually don't begin Music classes until tomorrow afternoon. Last week was super busy for me as I was preparing for a day long reading session workshop that my friend Sean and I presented on behalf of St. John's Music. About 90 Music teachers gathered to sing, see and listen to new publications including choral pieces, musicals, resource books and videos! It was tons of work to prepare, but fun to collaborate with St. John's and my friend.

I wanted to feature some resource books that I scoped out and am super excited about using!

Blue is the Sea by Sofia Lopez-Ibor is my absolute favourite new resource this year!

This book is all about arts integration in K-6 Music and how you can tie visual arts, movement, games and music together in order to enrich the musical experience for children. I am excited about this because I think one of the most important jobs as a music teacher is to foster creativity and Sofia's lesson examples really lend themselves to doing just this. Most of the lessons/units are organized thematically and include a song, an Orff arrangement, some musical recording examples, movement ideas, games and art activities. I LOVE it!

All Blues by Doug Goodkin is also a gem among the new resources!

I absolutely love using Doug's Now is the Time. I use the Jazz/Blues arrangements and lessons every year with my grade 5 and 6 classes. It's great for teaching chord progressions as well.

All Blues is more Jazz for the Orff ensemble! Unlike the previous book, All Blues includes a CD (Now is the Time CDs were not included) with students playing the Orff arrangements that are included in the book. I would explore Now is the Time first if you haven't already and then check out All Blues for more Jazz/Blues arrangements and lessons!

One other resources you should for sure check out is "Hot Jams" for Recorder by Jim Solomon.

I have been doing some of these songs with my grade 5 and 6 students for a few years now and the kids love them! Jim shared some of these recorder pieces at a workshop I attended at the American Orff Schulwerk Conference. Each piece has the guitar chords written in as well as a non-pitched percussion part. A CD recording of the songs and accompaniment tracks is included with the book as well. The chord progressions are simple enough to have students play the guitar or Orff instruments as well!

Stay Tuned for my favorite new musicals and choral pieces!

-Steph

Music Room Website!

I am trying out my very own Music room website and I am so excited! I think I will use it especially for information of upcoming events, posting PDFs of notes, and to show parents what we are doing in the Music room! I am completely new to this, so please give me some tips or let me know if you have a classroom website or blog and what you use it for!

I used Weebly for mine. I wanted to keep it nice, simple and easy to use! Weebly is super easy to set up! Weebly can be used for classroom teachers too. Ms. St. Laurent at my school just created a great one for her grade 1 class and plans to add a blog to it for her kids to interact on-line!

Check out my Weebly page ryersonrocks.weebly.com!

Stay tuned!
-Steph

DIY Jitter Sticks

I call these my "jitter sticks"! I use them when I notice students getting jittery or when we need a little pick me up! These would be great for classroom teachers to use too!

Simply type up various fun movements and tape each one around a popsicle stick.

Put your sticks upside down in a small container. I used a mini Pringles container and covered it with wrapping paper. A can would work too. When you see a busy body getting the jitters, have them choose a jitter stick for the class to do! 

I want to make more! Please share any movement ideas for the jitter sticks!

- 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