All about my life

Technology Thursday (sometimes Tuesday) begins now! Every year in January and February, my grade 2 and 4 students prepare to go to the orchestra. Here in Winnipeg we have an amazing symphony concert series designed especially for elementary students. The performances include dancers, artwork, visual effects, and children performance collaborations! As we study orchestral instruments and the concert repertoire, I always like the children hear or see different interpretations of the pieces. Here are two excellent Youtube videos to show your students, especially if they have already heard the orchestral versions. "Ode to Joy" by James Turner Beatboxing Peter and the Wolf So cool eh? What are your favourite classical music videos with a twist? - Steph

Holiday concert is over and vacation has begun! I thought I'd post a couple costumes from the concert. This year my grade 1 to 3 students performed the new Hal Leonard musical "Twinkle and Shine" by John Jacobson and John Higgins. I loved it, the kids loved it and I heard a lot of great feedback from the families and our staff. I left most of my pictures at school so I will show more costumes later... but in the meantime, here are two of the bird costumes that a parent volunteer made. Besides for forest birds, the musical also included pine trees! I made these with the help of some amazing educational assistants and teachers! I found a couple Youtube tutorials from Expert Village to make the NO SEW ponchos! Link on the videos below for the tutorials. I measured my ponchos to be 1metre x 1metre. They are soooo easy! No-Sew Fleece Ponchos: Supplies for Making a Child's Poncho No-Fleece Ponchos: Trimming the Edges No-Fleece Ponchos: Cutting the Neck Hole for a Child'...

Here is the last of the Tips and Tricks for Engaging Rehearsals! I will start posting photos of my concert costumes, props and backdrops this coming week! Yay! FUN GAMES TO MIX IT UP A BIT! Sometimes I notice that my kids are getting restless during a rehearsal. I take 5 minutes to play a quick game that will get their jitters out! Four Corners Most of you probably already know how to play a version of this, but here is the version I play with my kids that I got from the teacher I was student teaching with 5 years ago!  1. Create 4 cards that each represent a different song you are working on.   2. Post the cards in different corners of your room.  3. Choose a caller to stand a t the front of the room. The rest of the students start in the middle of the room and the caller turns away closing their eyes.  4. The caller then says, "Choose your corner. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1". The rest of the students go to a corner while the caller is not looking.  5. Before tu...

Report cards are done- YIPEEEEEEEEEEE! I have been MIA on my blog with those darn things, concert prep, the flu, aaaaand a lame car accident this week (no one was hurt thankfully)! Our school's K-3 concert preparation continues. 10 days until concert night number one. The kids are doing a fabulous job, but it is starting to peak a little early. At this time, students are getting close to the point where they are sick of the songs. WE CAN'T HAVE THAT YET! Here are some more tips and tricks to keep your kiddos entertained as they continue to practice their concert songs over, and over, and over again... I am not a fan of blog posts without photos, mostly because I have the attention span of a 6 year old... So I am truly sorry that I have limited pics for this post! I know it's a long one but it'll be worth the read! MORE TIPS AND TRICKS FOR ENGAGING REHEARSALS: How Does My Voice Work? Show them this neat and super short video about the voice. As the video plays, stop it t...

I sometimes forget that there is great value in simple activities that don't necessarily have tons of pizaaazz, props, and fancy visuals that I love!... especially when kids are developing their own musical ideas and sharing them with their peers. During the last couple of weeks, I have really been working on reading standard notation with my grade 4 students before they begin learning recorder. Once we get into recorder, it can all become soooooo overwhelming: reading rhythm, reading melody, doing both simultaneously, figuring out a new instrument, and then doing all of those things at once. I find boomwhackers so useful for students to use while reading music! It gives forces them to track, they don't have to worry about their instrument too much since it's so simple to play and it gives them a fun focus tool while working in independent groups. Back to Basics Reading Activity with Boomwhackers: 1. Using four different 4 beat melody cards (I have the Hal Leonard ones, the...

I love the holiday season! Yipeeeee! And as much as our holiday musical songs can drive me crazy (I wake up in the middle of the night with them stuck in my head!) I love preparing for our annual Holiday Musical! To keep from kids getting bored (as well as myself), I always like to add quick, fun and meaningful activities in my rehearsal plans. For our holiday musical, all of our grade 1 to 3 students learn the songs during their Music class and are the chorus on the stage for the musical. Grade 3 students choose whether or not they would like a speaking part and practice during lunch time. Here are some activities that I love to do with my kids to keep them engaged, especially during that time where the kids think they are pros at the songs. They don't see the point in singing over and over and over again, but you know better!  Visuals For Vocal Flexibility Ribbon Sounds I use this as a warm up or an "inbetweener" for rehearsal. All you do is draw different shapes with t...

Oh my goodness! It has been so long since I posted! The AOSA conference in St. Louis was fabulous and I finally caught up on all of my work last week from being away!   I like giving my students Mad Minute note naming sheets for a quick look at how they are doing with treble clef notation. I came across this website today to make your own Mad Minutes quickly and easily online. Click here to try it out:  Second Runner Up .   Check out my first Mad Minute using the site! Let me know what you think!     - Steph

Weeeeeee! I am currently sitting in the Minneapolis airport waiting to board my flight to St. Louis for this year's AOSA conference! I am so excited to be spending the rest of the week with a bunch of other kooky Music teachers! As a Canadian, I am extra excited for a trip to the States, not to mention take part in the Amerian Orff Schulwerk Association's HUGE national conference. Click HERE  for the AOSA conference website! I have chosen my sessions and am looking forward to learning from clinicians who I have seen before, whose resources I love using in my classroom, and clinicians who are brand new to me! Some clinicians I will be seeing are Doug Goodkin, Sofia Lopez-Ibor, Paul Corbiere, Patrick Ware, and Artie Almeida. I use resources by each of these clinicians in my classroom! Other clinicians who I don't know too much about, but am really looking forward to attending their sessions are Cheryle Lawrence, Kris Oleson and fellow Canadian Sue Harvie. St. Louis here we co...

We are starting to play recorder again soon. Grade 4 students will be playing for the first time! How exciting! I better start taking some Advil to school with me... Just kidding! Anyways, I thought having a bulletin board that reviews note names in the treble clef staff would be very useful! Here it is!  Hockey tape for making the staff, orange foam dollar store circles for the notes!  The kids got a kick out of their friends being characters on the bulletin board! This guy looks like he should be working with Captain Kirk! Do you have any note name bulletin board ideas? - Steph

My grade 6 students have been working on the tune "Duke's Place", an arrangement of Duke Ellington's C-jam blues. This arrangement by Doug Goodkin is found in his book, "Now is the Time", published by Pentatonic Press. While learning the Goodkin written words, barred instrument parts and working on improvising, we have been identifying and talking about the 12 bar blues.  In preparation for their assessment at the end of the week, we had a sorting contest today! I created cards that had I, IV or V on them and put them in packages of 13 cards (one extra to make it more tricky!) paper clipping them together. After reviewing 12 bar blues with students for the millionth time (...well it felt like it...) I put them in pairs and gave them a package of chord symbols. They were to leave their pack face down with the paper clip on. When I said, "Go!" the pairs needed to organize their cards as fast as they could in order to create the 12 bar blues pattern. ...

I am currently getting music centres organized and I am having so much fun! I came across a great idea from Sing A New Song . She uses lego blocks with her students in order to build rhythms. I was in Dollarama yesterday and came across these! A pack for only $3.00, so I bought two.  I bought mini labels and cut them to fit the blocks. I was going to keep these rounded off pieces out of our centres, but then I thought they looked like feet! I thought, "We could make robots!" Students will have three different activities to do at the Robot Rhythms centre. While in pairs, one partner builds a robot with the blocks. When finished, their partner must clap and say the rhythms from head to toe and then toe to head. Partners then switch jobs. The second activity is similar, except the student rolls a die before building their robot. The number they roll, will show the amount of beats their robot must contain.   I still really like the idea of how Sing a New Song has the students...

I have been playing a Trick or Treat rhythm game with my grade 1 and 2 students this week! We sing a song about trick or treating that I am actually not sure who wrote. The words are: Up, down, up and down the streets. That's where I go for my trick and treats. Scaring all the ghosts... oooooooooh! Scaring all the cats... meow! Scaring all the witches in their big black cats! If you know this song and you know where it is from, please share! I have also played this game with grade 3 students and we sing Boogie Woogie Goblin by Alice Oleson (a great song for reinforcing  ti-ka-ti-ka). Any Halloween song works for this game, especially songs about Trick or Treating. Students sit in a circle around a bucket or cauldron. Inside the cauldron are candy cutouts with a rhythm on the back of the picture. I give one student a wooden spoon to begin. While everyone is singing the song, the person with the spoon, walks around the circle GENTLY tapping everyone's back to the beat of the song...

I am so excited to get going with our holiday concert! I always send home a note to inform parents about concert dress, etiquette, check in time, and any other reminders that they may need. Because our school is growing, we are trying something new this year. Our primary concert will be two separate nights and we are performing at our community high school theatre rather than our school gym.  Usually I don't send the parent information letter out until mid November, after we have our cast all figured out. With all of the changes this year, I thought it would be fun and beneficial to send out a Save the Date card! First, I went on a hunt for digital frames. I found these free frames at  vectorjungle.com . They are so cute! I cropped and copied my favourite frame and pasted it in Powerpoint. From there, I created some text boxes, entered the information I want to get out to families asap, and dragged the boxes around in the frame until I was happy. I am having them printed on ca...

Sometimes I finish a lesson early and have about 2-5 minutes left at the end of class. For K-3, I sometimes fill that time by playing one of their favourite songs and playing the Freeze Dance game! I play the music and they dance, then I stop it and they freeze or they are out. Simple hey? I know. Now, I am finding kids who are even in grade 5 and 6 just want free time to dance. I know, it sounds crazy! I have been playing Freeze Dance with my older kids now too and they love that time to try out new moves of their own.  On a completely different topic, I have my own weird obsession with GLOW STICKS! I love wearing them and moving with them. This year I decided it would be fun to combine glow sticks and Freeze Dance for the ultimate experience! And no better time to do so than Halloween! Glow sticks are on sale at Michaels right now! A pack or 12 is only $2.00! And because the glow sticks last long, I can use them with different classes for a whole morning.  I have p...

Oh Freddie, I love you! I used the Freddie the Frog books for the first time! I LOVE them! In September, I used Sharon Birch's first book in this series, "The Thump in the Night", to teach notes in the Treble Clef staff to my grade 3 students. The series connects stories to musical concepts, making it much easier for students to remember. Each book focuses on a specific musical concept. "The Thump in the Night" focuses on learning about half of the notes in the treble clef staff.  Students learn about Treble Clef Island, where Freddie lives, and each character or landmark is found in a particular area on the island. Each character or landmark corresponds to a letter on the staff. For example Freddie's home is located on the most northern part of Treble Clef Island (where "F" on the line is located). We have also read "The Secret of Crater Island", which identifies the rest of the staff notes and D, C and B below the staff.  The series inc...

Props always seem to help make learning fun for kids! My kindergarten and grade one students, as well as all of my choirs, begin each music class with vocal exploration type sounds. This might include slides, waves, spins, animal sounds, and random noises that I’ve made up. In order to keep things interesting, I sometimes bring out the SOUND CUBE for these vocal warm-ups. Thanks Ms. Cornish, my student teacher, for making this one! WHAT YOU NEED: ·        poster board ·        pencil ·        yard stick ·        permanent marker ·        masking tape ·        clear tape WHAT YOU DO:   1. Have a look at the cube template from History Tech . Your cube outline will be similar to the template, but with different dimensions. The squares you draw will be 6.5” x 6.5”.   2. Using a yardstick and pencil...

I am soooo affected by my space! I teach in a room with no windows, and only a small window on my door. I desperately want/need new carpet, and with half my room being taken up by built in risers, I sometimes feel that I live in a dungeon! I wanted to give the Music room an uplift, not only for me, but for my students. Having a welcoming, organized and creative space helps students too!   First I chose a colour scheme of green, blue and purple. I found some great tips for classroom organization on a budget from School Girl Style and some great decorating tips from Another Day in First Grade , including a cool scrunching technique for bulletin board boarders. Front of class   Before: After: To add more colour at the front of the room, I posted green and white chevron wrapping paper on the bottom half of the wall. Our hand mural that the students created brings all of the classroom colours together and serves as a great focus of the room.   I added a bulletin board beside m...