SUMMER!

We are packing for our almost 2 week vacation in Disney World!  I am so excited!  After our trip we have several fun outings planned.  I am also working on a few projects to share for my classroom.  Pinterest has been an excellent resource for activities and other ideas!  Have any of you found ideas that you're going to try next year?

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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Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

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!