One Thing At A Time

I am loving my new method of teaching one topic across all of the grades! It is working so well!!!
Not only am I not going crazy as I try to organize my thoughts, but I am able to quickly remind students what we did last year to cover the same subject. I love seeing that little light bulb go off in their heads as they make these connections. I even had one of my 5th graders tell me "I think I'm getting music more this year than ever".

I was trying to think of some examples from the past two weeks (Tempo and Dynamics) to post on here, but really the things that have been working the best came from a book! The Music Zone has a bunch of songs to help students remember various topics. The songs are fun and catchy and really stick with the students. They have topics at all levels and each song comes with an activity or a game idea. I will definitely be getting The Music Zone 2!

Fun Friday

This month's Fun Friday plan... Dance Dance Revolution!!!!

1st Graders concentrating very hard. :)

I think we need more stinky feet! Everyone loved being allowed to take their shoes off (myself included!).

Some Changes

Realized I had some majorly under-used space with the back of my piano! A little paper and copies of my kodaly hand signals later and voila! 

I have a laminated poster board where my Musician of the Day gets to write down what we learned in class. My new addition is the music topic of the day. I've decided to start having one blanket topic to cover over the course of two weeks. Each grade will work on that topic at their own level. To show the students how we continue to build and learn music, I thought I would let them know the blanket topic and challenge them to write something specific that their class learned.

This week's topic was Tempo. I forgot to take the picture before erasing what the students wrote, but some examples were 1st: Fast and Slow and 4th: Adagio and Allegro.

One of my schools let me use some money not in the music budget to buy handchimes!! My 4th and 5th graders will be using these beauties at our Winter PTO to play Jingle Bells and Joy to the World. 

I'm so excited!

Music Leaves Me Happy!

Changing seasons means changing bulletin boards!

Nice Pitch! Each softball has a solfege syllable.

I almost did "What You Autumn Know", but most of my students were not amused with my "Welcome Bach" punny board.

September

The first 6 weeks are officially over! Hard to believe report cards go home Monday. Here are some highlights from September.

4th Grade reviewing dynamics by putting the signs in order while listening to a song.

1st Grade played a game of "Beat, Beat, Rhythm". It's like duck duck goose, but differentiating between steady beats and rhythms.

2nd Grade did a  listening where they had to draw a picture and write a sentence about what the music made them feel. We listened to Vivaldi's Winter.

5th Grade practiced drawing treble clefs and drawing notes on the staff. The third line should be a quarter note and the third space a half note.

I brought in my copy of "Just Dance" for the wii for our Fun Friday this month.

Kindergarten studied high and low pitches by putting Boomwhackers in order from tallest to smallest. 

Getting Organized

Being organized is difficult for me because I usually have a hard time deciding how to organize things. Do I organize my music based on the theme? Theory concepts? Grade level? 

Here are some of my attempts for 2012-2013: The Year the Music Room Makes Sense.

Music K-8 Magazines in order by Volume and CDs all in the same case!

I finally put together a Substitute folder with 2 weeks of plans! Hopefully I won't need them consecutively.

I also made a lesson plan binder. One page has the Music SOLs I'm covering for the week and also the materials needed. I go to a different school everyday, so writing down what I need to pack is quite helpful. In the back I have the county's pacing guide, the state SOL standards and a copy of the written assessments I've been forced to give this year.

Speaking of tests...

I don't have desks. 

But I got a new rug!!

We've Got Rhythm!

Last week we reviewed Steady Beat and Rhythm.

These boys are looking at different metronomes. The digital one is mine that I use when I teach private piano lessons and the older one was my grandmother's. She was also a piano teacher!

3rd Grade reviewed their types of notes by coloring all of the quarter notes to reveal a hidden picture. The worksheet came from Beth's Music Notes.

1st Graders used plates as drums to practice playing a steady beat.

5th Graders created their own rhythms by using body percussion.

This year, I alternate which school I am at on Fridays. At one of my schools, I have to teach in the computer lab. However, at the second school, I am allowed to take the students for an extra music period. I have decided that this extra music will be Fun Fridays! Upper grades were broken into three groups and rotated to different activities. Lower grades enjoyed Mary Poppins and Richard Scary's Best Learning Songs Ever.

Here are some 5th graders playing Wii Music. I was so blessed that the new PE teacher does not like the idea of playing video games in the gym. I am now the proud new owner of a new TV, a Wii and some Dance Dance Revolution pads. Responding to music with movement is one of my SOLs, so I'm excited to get to play video games at school!

A second station was continuing our review of note values. It is a game called Over the Edge that I stole from Pianimation. Jen has so many awesome games with free printables!

Here is a view of all three stations. The third was an instrument match game just like Memory. I got it out of my Ultimate Music Game Book.