How I Spent MY Winter Break!

I spent my break traveling to my sister-in-law's house and spending lots of great time with my little family!  I've also spent some time planning for the 2nd part of the year.  One of my schools may be part of a pilot assessment in music and I have a lot of work to do to ensure that my students will be successful on the assessment.  If not this year, they will be assessed at some point in the coming years.

Today, one of my co-workers and I spent a good bit of time doing lesson plans and discussing program ideas for the winter and spring.  Our 3rd-5th grades will have a talent show in March and our 1st and Kinders will do a program in May!

While in SC, my children got to play with their cousins and had lots of fun opening presents!  It has been a great break and I'm a little sad to see it go but, I am looking forward to getting back to my students!

Fall Leaves Lesson

I had inspiration for a fall leaf lesson for my kinders and 1st graders!  In North Carolina one of our standards is for students to interpret iconic symbols for notation.  I found a leaf coloring page that I enlarged on the copier and then shrunk to make large and small leaves.  One of my colleagues and I made up the following lyrics:
Leaves, leaves, falling down
We can see them on the ground
They were green but now they're brown
Leaves, leaves, falling down

The tune is as follows:
Sol, mi, sol, sol, mi
Sol, sol, mi, mi, sol, sol, mi
Sol, sol, mi, mi, sol, sol, mi
Sol, mi, sol, sol, mi

I created a SMARTnotebook file to use as well as the actual manipulative's.  I have a lesson plan and the SMARTnotebook file I would be glad to send if you're interested.  After working through the song, discussing sol and mi and quarter and eighth notes, I would play quarter notes and eighth notes on an alto xylophone and have the students walk with the beat in their feet around the room.  It really ended up being a GREAT lesson!

Getting started!

This week is going to be my first week in front of students as an elementary music teacher!  I am super nervous!!  And VERY excited!!  I will be going over the rules and starting to learn names and then doing a couple of fun songs.

Being on a cart is going to be an intersting challenge!  You always hear the negative points of it - I'm going to spend my time trying to find the positive things.

Do you have a favorite song that you love to do the first weeks back to school?

Super Excited!!!

After spending the last five years as a school media specialist (which I enjoyed very much), I am really looking forward to being back in a music classroom.  I have taught middle school band and worked as the children's choir director for several years, but I have never taught elementary music.  I plan on using this blog to share ideas and lessons that I find effective.  I hope you enjoy!