Bathtubs, soap suds and recorders, oh my!

Not many people can honestly say " I took home 75 recorders last night, sanitized them and gave them all a bath". When asked tomorrow what I did last night, this will be my answer. I love my job. 

We are finally at the end of our 4th grade recorder unit and it's time to get them clean and ready for next year's crew. 

The grant I received this fall from Donors Choose helped me purchase 80 recorders for my classroom. Having them year-round next year will allow me to do recorders in smaller doses rather than 2 straight months after Christmas vacation. I hope to also tie them into other areas of my curriculum and make it a gradual process. I have some brainstorming to do this summer. 😊

Pinterest has been a huge help in gaining new ideas and helpful hints when it comes to recorders. Pinterest is not just a time-sucker for me. I'll admit that when I need a good laugh, it's the first place I go, but it's not all about recipes, fashion and funny cat pictures. 

I use Pinterest as a means of personal professional development. Being the only elementary music teacher in my district, I don't have another co-teacher to bounce ideas off.  (side note) I had a student teacher this semester and I thought my head was going to explode with new ideas and just someone to talk to who knew what I was talking about. 

Pinterest isn't always the answer, but is often a springboard for how a new idea will work in my room. Recorders aren't super exciting to teach and for the non music students they can be torture. If I can turn playing a really ugly-sounding instrument into a game, or they get to throw a football for extra points for their team, then that's what I need to keep them all engaged. 

Go Recorders!!!!

The end is upon us....

The end of the year is upon us.  We are down to 17 days!  That is crazy and these days are going to fly by. Since our spring concert is over, I have the students make a list of last things they want to do.  Mallet Madenss is something they always ask for.  Mallet Madness is a book created by Artie Almedia and is great at using the Orff instruments that I love using. It integrates a lot of great kid books like "Click, Clack, Moo", "Caps For Sale", and "Rumble in the Jungle". After reading and using her book it inspired me to create my own from my own favorite books.

I also found pictures that I used of my 5th grade band. 

This is the nice, calm version of my group.  

This is what rehearsal looks like on a regular day. I still love them all.  

Beginning 5th grade band

After yesterday's post I dug through my archived pictures/videos and found this gem.  This is one of the first times the band was able to play a "real song" together in group band.  This was recorded September 24, 2014.

5th grade band

One of the joys of my job is teaching 5th grade band. Every year is a new adventure with them and it's a guessing game with what each year accomplishes.  What I love the most is the growth they make in that first year. No, it's not pretty in September when they are barely able to hold notes for 4 beats, but they change rapidly.

This year I've had about 50 students throughout.  A couple of students dropped at Christmas, but then I gained a few that wanted to start. Instrumentation has been tricky with this number and we have absolutely no school instruments left which is a good problem. I had 10 starting alto saxophones which is a LOT!!!!  But this class surprised me with their internal motivation. I have had anywhere from 5-15 students in practicing during recess time. Yes, some days it was to avoid the bitter winter, but they were practicing none the less.  

Our Christmas concert was their first performance and they squeak out "Jolly Old St. Nicholas", "Good King Wenceslas" and "Jingle Bells". These are all out of their beginning book and for the first debut it's not bad.  It's not great, but not bad. 

After Christmas we move out of their books and on to sheet music. They're feeling pretty proud of themselves by now.  We played for one of our school assemblies and did a very nice job.  However, they were playing a piece that shouldn't have been playable until April. I had the joy of choosing a little harder music for our concert. We played 2 pieces that were 6th grade material. 

Since our concert we are playing songs just to challenge them a little more, but I continue to have to pull new pieces as they sight-read them on the spot. Another good problem. 

During lessons is when students are pushed individually and I can meet their needs and challenge them directly. Several students are already in their 2nd book and continue to "wow" me on a regular basis. The following video is an example of this as they are adjusting to each others' part while playing a duet. This is usually something that has to be taught and comes with time, not as 5th graders.

SPRING CONCERT 2015

On April 7, West Marshall Elementary held our annual spring concert.  Each grade provides three songs all about a certain theme.  This year themes included animals, spring, patriotic, continued learning, healthy habits and humor.  The K-2 program ended with a mass singing of "Fly a Kite". The 5th grade band also played two pieces as we'll as 4th graders wowing the audience with their recorder skills.  The 3-5 program ended with a new personal favorite called "LOL". We spread students throughout the gym and got several audience members participating with us.  It was a great way to end a concert as the picture shows below. 

Next spring we'll be trying something different for concerts.  We're going to have 3 separate concerts at the elementary gym. They will be split up according to K/1, 2/3, and 4/5. This should make concerts shorter and take less of teachers' time. We also eliminate transportation issues and use of high school facilities.  I'm excited to be able to try some different ideas for these concerts.  We could use more classroom instruments or do some folk dancing or even show off some parachute movements. I'm excited to do some brain-storming over the summer. 

New post, New Year!

Starting the 2014-2015 year of school was a little easier this year.

Our school year has been off to a great start!!!  We had an awesome first day assembly that we got to get the kids pumped up for the school year.  I used Will.I.Am's video with the Sesame Street characters to start it off and that will be our theme song for the year.  Love, Love, Love this song and the words that go along with it.

Now that we're a month into school it's time to start classroom centers.  I introduced music centers last year as a panic attack.  One of my cohorts had to be gone in the afternoon and they couldn't find a sub for her.  Instead of popping in a video for 42 students, I demonstrated each center and we jumped in.  Some worked well right away and others needed some tweaking.  This year, I'm doing most of the same centers, but changed them a little to make them new to my older students.

 This center is students practicing writing on the staff.  I have laminated staff paper and dry-erase markers and a sheet of words that only use the musical alphabet.  They have to practice spelling those words on the staff paper just like they would spell words (left to right).

 I have 2 computers in my room, borrowed when our computer lab upgraded, and love using them for such occasions.  I put the kids on sfskids.org or nyphilkids.org and they are busy exploring instruments of the orchestra.

 This bag (in the background) is my Instrument Center.  There are several activities in this bag.  What the two girls are playing is a simple game of Memory.  There are matches of auxiliary percussion, ones that aren't as common (agogo bells, ocean drums, etc.).  There are also file folders matching pictures of instruments to their names followed by facts and easy-to-answer questions about that family.  Most of these printables were found on Pinterest when searching Music classroom Centers and I stumbled on this teacher's amazing website.  Many great ideas to choose from.  http://katietraxler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=466

 This group is playing musical Hi-Ho Cherry-O.  Another idea I found on Pinterest.  These board games are found super cheap at discount stores or garage sales.  I even sent an e-mail out begging for donated board games and came up with several.  The printable and idea for this game came from the following website.  http://laytonmusic.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/hi-ho-cherrio/

 This is a new center this year, but very simple.  "Clipboard Center".  I know, right?  What a great title.  I just found musical Word searches from my Music K-8 books and easy.

 They.  Love.  Musical.  Twister.  I can't believe how they almost fight over the turn to get to play Twister.  All I did was find used Twister games (again at discount stores or garage sales) drew notes on each color, drew same notes on spinner board, and done.  The spinner must say "right hand eighth note, red" in order for it to be musical.  Just hearing/seeing/doing this they are putting the names with the notes.  I am amazed at how this has helped their vocabulary.

Lastly is the Boomwhacker center.  In an earlier post last year, I showed the great number of Boomwhackers that I have.  I'm sure I don't use them near enough or as well as I should, but this is a fun way to use them.  Again with the website of http://katietraxler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=466  beginnings of melodies such as Twinkle Twinkle and Jingle Bells are provided, and I even colored them to match the color of the tubes.  Students play the order of the colors and have to listen to what they heard and match the name of the song.  This center is actually the most fun to watch the students interact with each other.  There are very different approaches to how they tackle the tubes.  It's also interesting to watch some students really "get it" and take on a leadership role.  

Other centers not pictured include an iPad center (two of them donated by our awesome PTO) where students get to experiment on GarageBand.  2nd graders (new to centers) only play with the different sounds on it.  3rd-5th graders I'm asking to start recording this year.  They aren't masterpieces by any means, but getting the idea of layering sounds and recording them to match.  Oh, what I wouldn't do for a room full of them and we'd all be composing year round.

I also have a Noodle Note Center where my husband (bless his heart) cut dozens of pool noodles into equal lengths and I drew notes on them according to the value of their size.  Students have to string them on into 4-beat patterns and then play them on a xylophone when done.

Logistically, centers can be very difficult.  Towards the end of rotating centers, it can be tricky to make sure everyone gets all 10 centers.  It's also not the best for a sub to take on as the noise level can rise quickly depending on the excitement of the game.  It takes some planning, but it's a great way for me to do assessments by walking and observing around the room.  I hope Pinterest keeps creating new center ideas for me to take advantage of the great resources created by others.

 We have been stuck inside a lot lately due to cold temps.  -30 and -40 wind chills are too much for little bodies' skin to tolerate.  Because they've been inside, they seem to have a lot of excess energy and are driving their teachers bonkers.  Instead of doing regular stuff for class, we have been doing a lot of moving activities during music time.  Today we did "pantyhose dancing".  Pantyhose you ask...

Yes.  I took a class two years ago about movement in the classroom.  Had nothing to do with music, but I've been able to apply many of them to music activities.  My friend that attended the class with me and I split a box of pantyhose.  We simply faxed Hanes company and asked for a box of irregular hose.  You get a box of 100 pieces which are single legs and open at both ends.  The kids get two legs and slip them over their feet and then the other end goes over their hands.  I play simple moving music for them to dance around the room.  Today I chose Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals.

The pieces work perfect because they're short.  At the end of each song, I have them connect themselves to another person. 

 After the next song, the partners have to connect to another group of partners.  After another song, that group of 4 has to connect with another group.  Some groups catch on quickly, then I had others who still were trying to get them on over their shoes and are fighting the hose. 

 They discovered that when connected to other people, they had to work together as a team or people would get pulled along for the ride and eventually fall over.

 They look like giant spider webs.  Lots of fun.

 Another thing I did with my Kinders today is paper-plate ice-skating.  We played the song by John Jacobson, "Let's Go Skating".  The plates easily slide on my carpet and they are burning a lot of energy through their legs pushing them into the plates.

 My 2nd, 3rd and 5th graders have been working on a project.  We call them the "Froggy" projects.  We are using the Froggy books by Jonathan London.  The books have many onomatopoeia words throughout that lend themselves nicely to instruments.  So we are making sound stories.  Their first jobs were to read through the book and find all the words.  I created a spreadsheet for them to write them down.  Their next step was to decide what instruments sounded best for that word.  Enter the instrument testing.  I have multiple Orff instruments which they are very familiar with, but I have a great deal of miscellaneous percussion which we just don't use very often.  I found printable name cards so they could put a name to the instrument they were trying.  They obviously, wanted to try out everything before they made any decisions, so needless to say, I took a great deal of Excedrin before their classes.  It was fun watching them try an instrument they had never held before.

The next step is to assign instruments, and then the details.  Details meaning, which xylophone is it? soprano, alto or bass so they are learning some of the correct terminology.  Boomwhacker? which letter?  Then they decide on dynamics.  The final step is to start practicing reading the book with their instruments.  They will have probably 2 full class times to practice then they will be presenting them to the rest of their class.  If all goes well, we will invite younger grades in to come be their audience.

This is a new project for me and was very nervous to see how it would go.  The final performances will be interesting to see what they chose and if they make sense with the words.  Examples I gave were "would it make sense for kicking a soccer ball sound "bonk" to be played with an egg shaker?"  Responses were "no, but what about a drum", so they were doing some problem-solving and higher-order thinking.  I had the groups chosen for them before they began.