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!

Sweet Dollar Store Finds!

I was so inspired the other day by my good friend Renee over at 

The Reading Corner. She found some really great dollar store finds! 

So good, that I decide to take a little trip to Dollarama myself!

Here's what I found!

1. Mini Hockey Nets.  

 My brother was obsessed with mini sticks growing up! I have many students who are also hockey lovers. Wouldn't it be fun to make a hockey target shot game out of these and have rhythms hanging as targets? Oooooo the possibilities!

2. Cd Cases

I thought I would adapt my Note Name Battleship game to fit into a CD case! Neato! I was looking for folders for that purpose and found these instead! 

3 for $1! Woot woot! I'll try it out and let you guys know what happens :)

3. Stylus Pen

 I totally copied Renee on this one! I bought a stylus for my new iPad too! Two bucks baby!

4. Ice Cube Trays!

I am most excited about these! Yay! At first glance they just look like ice cube trays, big whoop. But just wait! They can magically turn into tools for students to manipulate rhythm patterns in 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4! I love spying on classroom teacher blogs! I get great ideas from those gems... I've seen word and math work being done with ice cube trays, and thought... "Hmmm, I must have a use for these..."

5. Cute Pencil Case

 Unfortunately, I didn't find a cute iPad case but I did find this super adorable pencil case. I will keep my favourite pens, pencils and markers safe in here!

And ta-da! There ya go, five cool finds from a Dollarama. Love it!

What treasures have you found?

Please comment below and share a fave find that you have bought from a dollar store! 

Light It Up!

The grade 1 to 3 students performed "Twinkle and Shine" by John Jacobson and John Higgins for our Holiday Concert in December. I was excited to use some kind of extra light during the concert, especially for the ballad "The Light at the Top". 

I found these cool finger lights at Dollarama! They were only a dollar for a pack of four! 

Each student had a light on their finger for the song. The kids loved doing the choreography with light on the end of their fingers!

We loved it! The kids received so many compliments from the community too! This piece was by far the favourite of the evening!

- Steph

Tips and Tricks for Engaging Rehearsals #2

Report cards are done- YIPEEEEEEEEEEE! I have been MIA on my blog with those darn things, concert prep, the flu, aaaaand a lame car accident this week (no one was hurt thankfully)!

Our school's K-3 concert preparation continues. 10 days until concert night number one. The kids are doing a fabulous job, but it is starting to peak a little early. At this time, students are getting close to the point where they are sick of the songs. WE CAN'T HAVE THAT YET!

Here are some more tips and tricks to keep your kiddos entertained as they continue to practice their concert songs over, and over, and over again...

I am not a fan of blog posts without photos, mostly because I have the attention span of a 6 year old... So I am truly sorry that I have limited pics for this post! I know it's a long one but it'll be worth the read!

MORE TIPS AND TRICKS FOR ENGAGING REHEARSALS:

How Does My Voice Work?

Show them this neat and super short video about the voice. As the video plays, stop it to clarify certain ideas. After the video, have your students place their hand high on their chest, near their throat, and say something together. They will feel a vibration and think it's so cool!

Thanks Denise on Pinterest for the cool video! 

Voice Production Video

Movement Words

Once students know the words to their piece, internalizing activities are super fun and really work the brain. Choose a word that repeats throughout the song. Have students do a non-locomotor movement instead of singing that one word. For example, instead of singing the word "tree" in one of our songs, I had the class jump. You could have them raise their arms, clap, or even stand and sit 

(they get a real kick out of that one).

Hula Hoop Internalizing

This is another internalizing activity that kids LOVE! Have one student stand inside of a hula hoop in front of the class. The class sings their song with a background track or piano accompaniment. The student in the hula hoop decides when to hop outside of the hula hoop. Once he/she does that, the class must internalize the words as the accompaniment continues. Once the student hops back into the hula hoop the class continues singing.

Positive Feedback from your Neighbour

I know this sounds simple, but it is a great easy trick for engagement. I went to an engagement workshop a couple months ago with Eric Jensen and he used this throughout the day. All you do is have the class say different things to their neighbours! For example, if you hear something good have your students say "You have a beautiful voice" to a neighbour or "Wow, you are a great singer!" or "Congratulations you just learnt a new part!" and give a high five.

Spot Call

Dollar store foam cutouts are my BFF. I use them for a million different things, but during rehearsal time they are fun to use for Spot Call. Spread out foam cutouts on the ground and have students sit on them when they come into Music class. Have a chart of the different colours on the board, either with dry erase markers or create a colour chart with construction paper. During a song, point to a colour and have the students sitting on that colour stand and sing. It's simple but a blast. They really get a kick out of internalizing! Plus it gives you a chance to hear individual voices more clearly.

Other Stuff

I also use tricks from my past posts for rehearsals. Click on the activity to link you directly to the post here on my blog.

Jitter Sticks

 

Movement Ball

Tempo Turn

What are you doing to get your kids ready for Winter Concert time?

- 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

Glow Stick Movement!

Sometimes I finish a lesson early and have about 2-5 minutes left at the end of class. For K-3, I sometimes fill that time by playing one of their favourite songs and playing the Freeze Dance game! I play the music and they dance, then I stop it and they freeze or they are out. Simple hey? I know. Now, I am finding kids who are even in grade 5 and 6 just want free time to dance. I know, it sounds crazy! I have been playing Freeze Dance with my older kids now too and they love that time to try out new moves of their own. 

On a completely different topic, I have my own weird obsession with GLOW STICKS! I love wearing them and moving with them. This year I decided it would be fun to combine glow sticks and Freeze Dance for the ultimate experience! And no better time to do so than Halloween!

Glow sticks are on sale at Michaels right now! A pack or 12 is only $2.00! And because the glow sticks last long, I can use them with different classes for a whole morning. 

I have played glow in the dark Freeze Dance with my kids while we listen to Thriller and Monster Mash and they love it! What a fun Halloween game!

- 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