Welcome!

This blog has been created so others can follow my adventures of returning to a music classroom! I spent my first year out of college as a Middle School Band Director, then as the Music Associate at my church for five years. During that time I decided to make a change and began pursuing my Master's in Library Science. I spent five years as the Media Specialist at a primary school and deeply desired to return to my true calling. I've been given that chance in two elementary schools and I am really excited!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

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!