GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am ALL for an awesome giveaway!  Here's one from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade and Katie from Thrity-one Gifts.  You can read all about it here!

Sunny Days + Thirty-one Giveaway

I love following Denise - she does great things with her students!  If you have never used Thirty-one products - I highly recommend them!  I have the thermal tote that I use EVERY day for my lunch!  I am currently crushing on the All-in-One Organizer Tote...just can't decide what print!  LOL!!!

Good luck!

Rhythm Caterpillars

Second Grade students used paper circles that I drew various rhythms using quarter notes and rests, eighth notes and half notes.  They placed the circles in any order then clapped the rhythms.

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Music + Poetry = LOTS of laughs

5th grade students have been writing Haiku poems about something they like, love or are passionate about.  I have really enjoyed reading them and listening to why they're writing about their subject.  This week they will be setting their poem to a tune in the pentatonic scale that they are creating.  Will try posting some next week!

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African - American History Month

This month I have been focusing a little on jazz and the African-American musicians that made this style of music so popular.  I found several great resources on http://discoveryeducation.com and http://www.brainpop.com to assist with this venture.  We have been doing lots of active listening and the students have to complete a "Musical Jumping Jacks" form as they listen.

One of my favorite jazz musicians is Dizzy Gillespie because we share the same hometown.  Best laugh of the week - a student, "So, you went to school with him?  That's cool!!"  Ummmm...can we tell who wasn't listening!?!  But, it did provide a moment to go back and re-teach about time periods in history.

One last thing I wanted to mention about the sites listed above - they require a paid subscription and I highly recommend both if your school/district doesn't already subscribe.  I so couldn't teach without either!

February Freebie

Over the next 2 weeks, my 1st and 2nd graders will be learning the song This Candy Has Words from Music K-8 magazine Vol. 22, No. 3.  At one of my schools there has been a big focus on character education, especially kindness and compassion.  The students will be creating "candy hearts" to share with their classmates.  We are taking part in Rachel's Challenge and the students have been creating chain links of kindness which has been going well, but some of the students have lost a little interest in it.  So, I thought this would be a great way to re-energize their interest in the Challenge.

I've created this worksheet for students to write kind words to some of their classmates.  ENJOY!

Today's class

I just HAD to brag on my 5th grade class today!!!  We've started a new group project using improvisation and the students were to use the words "Beep", "Honk", "Twrrrrrr" and "Ding" to create a Musical Machine.  They were in groups of 3 or 4 students and as a group they created a 4 beat soundscape using the words.  Last night, as I was preparing for today, I started to get really concerned about how it was going to work.  This class tends to have less than excellent behavior...so, I said, "Self, if tomorrow blows up in your face it will be a lesson learned.  BUT, give them a chance!"  And, boy, did they rise to the occasion!!

My co-teacher told me she's had her students enter the room and sit quietly to listen to a selection of music for a listening exercise.  So, I thought - that's GREAT!!  I'll try it!!  That was a GREAT GREAT GREAT way to start the class.  They had to sit quietly and LISTEN!  and that's what they DID!!  Woohooo!!!

Then, we started on the activity and they did such a great job!!!!  I can't WAIT til next week to see how they complete their work and we're going to put their creations all together to create a "machine"!  This lesson came from the book Making the Grade: Creative Standards-Based Lessons for the Music Classroom by Valeaira Luppens and Greg Foreman and can be purchased at www.alfred.com.