Testing Like a Real Subject

This year, my county required me to have a formal assessment for each grade level. Kindergarten and 1st did aural assessments as a group, but I made grades 2-5 take an actual written test. Each grade took the test within the first 6-weeks of school, at the 18-week mark and again last week as their final assessment.

Instruments laid out for Kinders identification of instruments by sight and sound.

So many papers!

I don't know which was worse: making these tests, grading these tests, or sitting quietly for a whole period while the students took the tests! I am definitely not a sit still and quiet kind of person. That is for sure.

BONUS: April is the Modern Period! Time to learn a bit about Prokofiev, Sousa and Joplin!

MIOSM - Part 2: Revenge of the Notes!

Last week we celebrated Music In Our Schools Month by doing Rhythm Centers! Grades 1-5 got to do different activities in small groups and then rotate so that they could do a little of everything. Here are some of our centers.

I made a giant beat strip for the song "Apple Tree" as a review for my 1st graders. They have learned their quarter note and paired eighth note, but I really want them to have a full understanding that a paired eighth note makes two sounds, but is only one beat. I stole this idea from Music a la Abbott.

My upper grades had a boomwhacker station where they had to figure out the mystery song. This was really great for 3rd graders to help them understand the importance of playing together as a group to create the song. I might have to do something similar with 2nd grade to get them ready for ensemble performances.

 

3rd and 4th grades reviewed their note values with the game Over the Edge (stolen from Pianimation)

2nd and 3rd grade reviewed note values by matching clothespin notes and rests to index cards with 1, 2, 3 and 4 beats written on them. I saw this as a sight word activity on Pinterest and just knew I had to translate it to music! As far as assessment, I just had to give a quick glance and could tell how the students were doing.

The floor staff got a lot of use this week (even though it's not really rhythm). 

- 2nd and 3rd graders reviewed how notes can move by step, skip or repeat. The "leader" would call out a pattern (step, step, repeat) and whoever was "it" had to move that way on the staff.

- 4th and 5th graders reviewed their treble clef notes. Some did relays where the "leader" would call out a letter and see who could stand on its place on the staff the fastest. Others tried treble clef twister!

Water painting. 1st and 2nd grade practiced drawing the different types of notes and rests that they are supposed to know by taking paintbrushes dipped in water and drawing on the chalkboard!

Here is a picture of a 1st grade class. They were a small group that day, so they only had three centers. 

1) Water Painting 

2) Rhythm Stick Echos

3) Apple Tree Beat Strip

*A center that I didn't get a picture of was Music Math Flash Cards. I made flash cards with picture problems like quarter note + half note = and the students had to answer. This was good for 3rd grade as a review of note and rest values. It was also great for 4th and 5th graders who are working on building measures in different time signatures. A super fun review!

During March I am also reviewing the different families of instruments. I couldn't think of an activity for Brass so we watched a fun movie. Woodwinds were last week and we made paper whistles. 

This week we will be doing Percussion and Strings. We will make maracas out of plastic Easter eggs and put different sized rubber bands around a shoe box to make a string instrument. We will also be having "Student's Choice" which is where the students can pick any song, instrument or game we have done in class. It's always fun to see what stuck out to the students as a good lesson.

MIOSM Part I

March is Music In Our Schools Month!! 

 For the first half of the month, I have been trying to have a music presence known through bulletin boards, posters and books. I've also been bringing in instruments from home so that students can have some hands-on experience with things like trumpets, violins and snare drums.

I tied in Read Across America day by reading some music themed books. We also sang a couple of songs to Dr. Seuss.

(To the tune of Old MacDonald)

With your rhymes so crazy

You are number one!

You make us laugh and wonder

You make reading fun.

We love the Cat in the Hat

Sam I Am and Fox in Socks

Dr. Seuss, we love you

We really really do!

If You're Happy And You Know It...

 - Hop on Pop!

 - 1 Fish 2, Red Fish Blue

 - Hear a Who

... and your reading surely shows it!

Decorations for Read Across America Day! 

Some of the books include Pete the Cat, Music Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!, Story of the Orchestra, Oh the Places You'll Go, and I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today

I had to do the bulletin board in the lower hall this month, so I stole an idea from Music K8 and did "How to Conduct Yourself"

Singing faces done by some of my lower grades.

March is the Romantic Period. Our composers include Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Wagner.

Close up of out timeline that we are slowly building this semester.

I made a time signature anchor chart based off of the idea from the North Pointe Music Room. 

Very happy with how it turned out and how the students are responding to it. 

A Game Called Listening

We played a game with 3rd & 4th grade that was sort of like a musical treasure hunt. One student went to our starting position and closed their eyes. Then four other students had to get them through the classroom to the finish line simply by playing instruments. If they played a drum, the student moved forward. Tambourine was a step back. Maracas were left and a Triangle was right. I don't have any pictures of the game in action, but it was a lot of fun!

Here is a random picture of our "Today in Music We Learned" board. Some days it feels like the students get it more than others. I can't help but cringe a little if the student writes "singing". We learn so much in every class!

Posters for our K, 1st & 2nd performance coming up in March!

February

My kindergartners will be singing "New Way to Walk" for their spring concert. When I told them to come up with a new way to walk, they organized themselves and made a train! 

February is focusing on the Classical Period. The students were very excited to see Beethoven on the board.

My kindergartners and 1st graders helped me decorate my "We <3 Music" board.

From a kindergartner.

I was very impressed with this 1st grader because we just learned the official notes for quarter and eighth last week!

Pitch, Please!

Kindergartners discussed high and low pitches. Jenny over at The Teaching Studio came up with this great idea of having students pick out pictures and deciding if they represent high or low. For example, an ant would be low because they crawl on the ground and an airplane would be high because they fly. The students then went to the piano and played the corresponding high or low pitch.

My 4th and 5th graders did centers to reinforce the the treble clef and staff. One was a matching game.

I put electrical tape on the floor to make a staff and students used paper plates to spell out words and have relays.

Another center was with the glockenspiels. I gave the letter E and the students had to figure out how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by ear and then write it on the staff.

All in the Family

I was much older than I would like to admit before I realized that you can look at any instrument and be able to tell what orchestra family it would fit into. I thought you just had to know that a trumpet was brass but a saxophone was a woodwind. Because of my ignorance, I try very hard to make sure that students learn what characteristics an instrument needs to belong in each family.

We made anchor charts for each family. I wrote it, but had the students tell me what to write.

My older grades did a review of instruments by playing a guessing kind of game. They had an instrument on a sticky note on their head and had to ask their partner yes or no questions to try to figure out what instrument they were.

My 2nd graders discussed each family and then color coded a seating chart for an orchestra.