Introducing Soundscape Music!!!

I am so fortunate to have a friend and colleague that I work so well with. Sean Fitzmaurice and I have been working together for years now, exploring ideas, composing music, and discussing big dreams for the future. 

Over the last two years, Sean and I have presented workshops together locally, and nationally. We are now officially SOUNDSCAPE MUSIC! We will be presenting at the Carl Orff Canada conference, "Bridges" at the end of April. We will also be presenting at the American Orff Schulwerk Conference this fall in Atlantic City! We are so excited! 

I will be moving my blog to the Soundscape Music Blog on our website

www.soundscapemusic.net

Be sure to follow us over there and maybe even book us as presenters for your chapter or school division!

Thank you so much for your support and for following my blog over the last three years!

Goal Setting in Music!

Setting goals and self-reflection are very important pieces to student learning in all subject areas. I am constantly trying to find ways to do this in meaningful ways with my students, while keeping in mind that I don't have very much time with my little munchkins! 

Many teachers in my school use targets as a way of setting goals and doing self-assessment with their students. I wanted to implement this as a regular, every day thing in music. Check out the magnetic target that I created using a pizza pan, construction paper, Mactac, and dollar store magnets!

This has been super easy to use in class as a "check-in" with students. It is a great visual for students to see and indicate where they think they are in their learning. For example, if we are working on our singing voices we will discuss the criteria of a good singing voice and assess where we think we are as a class on the target. 

How do you encourage/incorporate self-reflection and metacognitive learning in your music room? I would love to hear your ideas!

Carl Orff Canada National Conference 2016 - Bridges!

I am thrilled to announce that I will be presenting at the Carl Orff Canada National Conference, "Bridges" in Saskatoon! I will be co-presenting with my good friend and colleague, Sean Fitzmaurice, and we will be presenting two sessions: Bring on the Bugs and Phrygian Galaxy! We presented both sessions at the Canadian Music Educators' Association Conference this past summer and had such an amazing experience. We are so excited to share our original ideas and compositions at the upcoming COC conference from April 28 - May 1, 2016!

Rhythmic compositions for our song "Tons of Bugs"!

 Move and Groove Caterpillars!

 Bug Dance!

 Galactic Circle Dance!

Phrygian Galaxy played in the dark!

Click HERE to check out the Bridges conference website and join Sean and I in the fun! Registration is now open!

See you there!

Bulletin Board Fun!

I am officially back into the swing of things! I know you American teachers have been going at it for a while, but we start and end later than you. It's great for us here in Winterpeg because summer only lasts about two months...!

I decided to freshen up my room a bit this year mostly inspired by the fact that my carpet was replaced and I looooove how fresh and bright it looks in here!

 Here is my opening bulletin board for the school year. I stopped doing a "Welcome Back" specific one, because, well honestly, because I couldn't be bothered with changing my big bulletin board every month. Ha. Seriously.

 Mozart is our composer of the season! Ideas for teaching your kiddos about Mozart are HERE, HERE and HERE!

I LOVE these recorder fingering charts! Get them from Marti Chandler HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers! For some fun recorder ideas click HERE and HERE, including a super awesome hockey themed centre for reinforcing note names and recorder fingerings!

Welcome to Music with Ms. Davis- Me! I have my Noteworthy charts at the door. Classes receive a music note when they have had a great Music class, following our expectations. After receiving five music notes (next time it will be 7, then 10), they get a music games class!

How is everyone's school year going so far? I would love to hear about it!

Secret Handshake Compositions!

I did a super simple partner composition activity with my grade 2 and 3 students and by just spontaneously calling it a "secret handshake" rather than a body percussion composition, the kids were sooooooooo excited! It also led to some very interesting and creative compositions.

Step 1:
In pairs, students write an 8 beat rhythm pattern (two measures) using ta, ta-a, ti-ti, rest, and/or ti-ka-ti-ka.

Step 2:
Students decide on body percussion together that matches the rhythm pattern that they wrote. When demonstrating this, show different ways partners can connect. When students are composing their body percussion, watch for a group that clearly shows their rhythm and have them demonstrate for the class.

Step 3:
Have pairs perform their compositions for the class, having the rest of the students demonstrate their audience behaviour skills!

Possible Extensions:
Have students write out their compositions with graphic notation.
Have pairs teach another group their handshake.

It sounds simple, and maybe you already do something like this, but the kids loved it! I will forever be using the term "secret handshake" for this activity!

Phrygian Galaxy!

I had a blast presenting at the Canadian Music Educators' Conference! My friend Sean and I presented two sessions: Bring on the Bugs! and another session where we presented our original composition "Phrygian Galaxy" .

Thank you to everyone who attended our sessions and who supported us through the whole process! Click below for a video of the galactic dance used in the A section of "Phrygian Galaxy".

GALACTIC DANCE 

Enjoy and thank you for your support!

Bring on the Bugs!

I am so excited to be presenting at the Canadian Music Educators' Association conference this coming weekend! I am also very thrilled to be presenting two sessions together with my very good friend and colleague, Sean!

Bring on the Bugs is an energetic session full of music games and activities for the early years music classroom as we explore the theme of bugs. The ideas focus on literacy, singing, speech ostinati, soundscapes, composition, and improvisation... and they are all buzzing with fun!

A quick activity from Bring on the Bugs is Ladybug Vocal Slides! Vocal slide warm-ups can be a fun, energetic way to get students engaged immediately! Using their finger, have students draw their sound in the air as they "read" each vocal slide card, vocalizing each one. Click on the link below for a FREE pdf of of the vocal slide cards.

LADYBUG VOCAL SLIDE CARDS

For those of you who attended our session, click on the link below to find the manipulatives for our fun Caterpillar Crawl activity!

CATERPILLAR CRAWL