New Semester

I always like to change a couple of things at the end of each semester. Don't want to get stuck in a rut. :)

Front of my classroom. I kept the "Rockin Behavior Chart" from the beginning of the year. I changed my rules and added made some new posters.

My new set of rules... I mean expectations. They spell music!! 

Make the right sound at the right time.

Use good manners.

Show respect to all.

Involve yourself in activities.

Care for music room equipment.

I talk about pitches, notes and rests so often, I thought it would be a good idea to have a poster for each that I can refer to for those visual learners. I made my notes and rest chart like a fraction chart I noticed in a 4th grade classroom. I saw a couple of lightbulbs go off when I showed it to the students. 

New bulletin board for this semester. I am going to spotlight a period of music every month and discuss three of the composers from that time. I have blank fact sheets beside each composer for the students to fill out. I am bribing them by saying that every time they look up a fact about one of the composers, they will get candy. January is Baroque month!

Close up of Bach and his blank fact sheet.

Chy-Cough-Ski

In December we started our unit on instruments and making music. We also learned about Tchaikovsky and The Nutcracker.

1st Grade drew a picture of their favorite instrument.

Kindergarten 

Kindergarten practiced writing and coloring.

2nd Grade listened to the March and Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy and colored a picture to match. 

They also had to write a sentence about The Nutcracker. 

We watched Jim Gamble's puppet version of The Nutcracker. I think the boys liked it better because it wasn't a ballet. :)

End of November

The last week in November was kind of a mash up of catching up on things left from the short week of Thanksgiving. We began discussing timbre and reviewed notes (either duration or the staff depending on the grade). 

Kindergarten discussed Timbre by discovering the different sounds things can make. 

Their favorite was the chair drums.

2nd Graders made NoteFlakes! 

Trying to get them to learn the actual names of notes instead of the sound syllables they learned in 1st grade.

3rd Graders doing centers. There was Rhythm (drawing on a dry erase board), Reading, Over the Edge, Listening, and a music concentration game. 

Board for December filled with the above mentioned Noteflakes.

Why We Do What We Do

From one of my 3rd graders this week...

"Thanks for everything you have taught me"

Priceless.

Form

I could not teach my lesson on Form to my 4th graders on Monday because I didn't have any 4th graders to teach! I understand that homeroom teachers need certain things from their students and taking away their resource time is the only way to do this. However, it is very frustrating when I have to just cancel my lesson to accommodate them.

The two students I did have got to play on my computer at Chuck Vanderchuck. (awesome website!)

2nd grade made a form grilled cheese to learn ABA form.

Kindergarten learned about echo and got to even practice their spelling on the board!

1st grade learned about Call and Response. For this song, they had to move the scarf around during the "call" section of the song and throw the scarf in the air during the "response".

Planning Binder

I have been working on putting together a lesson plan binder this year, but it has become so much more! It is my life line to work! The state is requiring every teacher to complete an evaluation binder to show that we are in fact effective and efficient teachers. So what I have done is kind of get my plans organized around the county pacing guide and the SOLs for music. That way I can just make copies from my lesson plan binder to put into my evaluation binder. 

So here is the cover:

 Table of Contents: 

*Year-long Planning Guide *Weekly Lesson Plans *Schedules and Calendar *Music SOLs *County Pacing Guide *Student Assessments

 I am trying to really organize what I do and when I do it so that I don't leave anything out! So I have four things to think about each month: Topic to teach, Instrument for lower grades to learn, Holidays to sing about  and when I do Rewards.

 The county calendar so I can know whats going on.

 I teach at two different schools, so I was sure to have my schedule for each so that I won't get lost! I teach 7 classes for 45 minutes at one school and 8 classes for 35 minutes at the other. Annoying for planning.

 The Music Standards of Learning for K-5

 Music pacing guide for my county.

 We had to make our own assessment that would be given to the students 3 times throughout the year as a way to show that students are indeed learning what they are supposed to in music class. This was a very long and annoying process considering I was coming up with six tests all on my own. 

On the left you see an example rubric that I used for K and 1st grade. 

On the right is the 2nd grade assessment with simple matching and multiple choice.

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!