Allison and Charlie

ALLISON AND CHARLIE

 No, these aren't students names of mine, but they are names in music activities we did in 2nd grade and Kindergarten today.

"Allison the Camel" holds a near and dear place in my heart.  A certain educator friend informed me that when her daughter was in my music class and we sang this song and did activities with it, it became ingrained in her head.  And therefore, became a permanent fixture wherever they went.  

She sang it in the car, she sang it from afar.  She sang it in a tree, she sang to you and me. 

You get the point.

Allison a.k.a Alice the Camel is a very easy countdown song.  Today in 2nd grade we differentiated an easy song to be more challenging for this age.

In the book Listen, Sing, Rattle, Ding there are many popular, easy kid songs that help add those misc. instruments into the song.  I have a great deal of instruments in my room, but don't want to just "add" them in.  I want them to have a purpose. 

Allison's Camel begins with the song, teaching it to the few who might not have heard it before.  Next adds a rhythmic pattern using body percussion.  4 moves of pat legs, clap, snap and tap head are used with specific patterns.  We created a "Coda" to play on the last verse since the words change to "'cause Allison is a horse".  Coda, in Italian, means end and we discuss what this means in class.  I was so thrilled when I had several students remember it from last year when posed as a question.

Finally we transfer body percussion to instruments.  4 moves becomes 4 instruments.  They have kinesthetically played the rhythm on their body, now they transfer one of the rhythms onto their instrument.  Grouped together, they quickly figure out how to play the pattern or watch around to pick it up.

 

Drums play on "Boom, Boom, Boom".  Appropriate, right?

Rhythm sticks play on "Allison's Camel has".

Tambourines play on the "5 humps".  We had clapped this previously so tambourine is a natural transfer.

Triangles are on "So go, Allison, go". 

Sorry the video is so short.   They struggled holding it together on their own if I wasn't doing the body percussion.  :)

Today was the first day of Kindergarten specials!  They've been in school for 1 week as of this point.  They rotate between Music, Library and P.E. for 90 minutes.  Us 3 teachers are usually exhausted, can you imagine these poor little 5-year-olds?!?

They did really good today, especially since we had to go over expectations for the first few minutes.  Many new faces that enter my room and see "toys" and "when do we get to play with them"?

After expectations were done, we started off with a great Kindergarten game, "Charlie Over the Ocean".  In essence it is a glorified game of duck-duck-goose.  The difference is that "Charlie" walks around the outside of the circle and only touches one head at the end of the song on the words "can't catch me".  Then they chase around the circle racing back to their spot.

I learned this song at a class, by the teacher.  She taught us the 3rd phrase being "Charlie in the bathtub".  Being a folk song, who knows what the original words were. 

The video is a great demonstration that not all kids know those good ol' games we think they do, or maybe I didn't take the time and explain it good enough that he was supposed to race to the other person's spot.  This is why it's a great Kindergarten game.  They don't care.  They laughed and giggled, and cheered each other on.  It was a great start to Kindergarten specials and I can't wait to see what's ahead.

Let us Chase the Squirrel

This week has been full of review, expectations and meeting new friends. We had around 40 new-to-our-district students this year. That's a huge number for us. 

My beginning of the year classes usually involves seating charts, classroom expectations. I've been teaching at West Marshall long enough now that it usually goes very quick. That allowed us for some time to play. 

3rd, 4th, and 5th grades had time at the end of class to play a game we've played before. "Let us chase the squirrel" is a very easy song to learn and the game is very simple. We reviewed the song and got to the game. 2 students are the tree and 1 student is the squirrel. At the end of the song, the tree raises its branches and the squirrel has to go find a new home as fast as they can. There are always extra squirrels also trying to find a tree (similar to musical chairs). 

When all squirrels have a tree we start singing again and go. The game is very fast-paced with little to no downtime. About 10 minutes of this game is enough time to get everyone a chance to be a squirrel. 

Below are 5th graders playing on the first day of music. Great first week. 

And we're off and running..............

Rachel 5th, Brittany 6th, Seth 3rd and Laura (a.k.a. Mrs. V) 35th grade or something

Welcome school year 2015/2016.  I can't believe I am beginning my 15th year of teaching.  Where have the years gone.............

My first teaching job was right out of college when I thought I knew everything.  I was 23 and teaching high school band.  I was basically their same age.  I was terrible at marching band and that was the highlight of the program.  It was not the greatest start to my teaching career.  I loved the students and staff that I worked with, just maybe not the greatest match.  But, ending student teaching in December, this was one of no other jobs available mid-year.  

Next I moved on to a K-6 1/2 time music position.  When I was in college I swore I would never teach elementary music.  Now that I've been teaching this age for 13 years I'll admit that I was wrong just this once.  1/2 time teaching was not the job I thought I was destined to have, but then having 3 kids in 4 years it was ideal!!!!

Now I'm beginning my 7th year of teaching at West Marshall Elementary in little State Center, IA.  We've had a lot of changes in this time.  My first 2 years I was sharing the space with Title Math and I was also 80% time teacher and 20% time aide.  Learning 450 names that first year was one of the hardest parts.  Whew, I'm glad I only have to learn Kdg students now.

As a teacher with 14 years of experience, I sometimes think I know everything I need to know.  Then I do a serious hand-to-the-forehead thump and realize I'm not even close.  Our students are learning in new and unique forms every year.  We as educators have to constantly keep up with them.  I am always finding new ways to teach the same musical concepts which makes it more fun for me as well.  

If you were to walk into my music classroom on any given day this year you might see/hear some or all of the following:

Singing (obviously)

Dancing (as well as other big loco-motor moves)

Playing music games

Instruments

Discussing

Music Centers

Folk dancing

Parachutes

Snow-ball throwing (not until winter months of course)

Riding Noodle Horses

Hula Hoops

Mimio activities (Interactive whiteboard)

I'll stop there because I need to get my kids ready for bed.  My point is, in my class I have learned that kids don't learn the same so I can't teach one way and expect them to all learn the same concept. Sometimes my classroom looks/sounds very chaotic, and it is, but those are some of the most fun days in my class. The creativity is contagious.  I'm very grateful that I have the freedom to teach music in the capacity I do.  I help out in some of the core teachers' classroom and...........  Let's just say I'm in the position where I belong.  I could not do what they do every day.  I like that I only have to count to 4 and I'm going to try and keep it that way (lol, that's music teacher humor).

Here's to another great year for West Marshall. I am so honored and proud that I work in this field and for this district.  My goal this year is to use this blog to keep parents, families, friends and colleagues up-to-date on what is going on in the music world at West Marshall Elementary.  

Happy School Year!