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.