All about my life

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...

I had a large purple wall front and centre in the Music room with nothing on it! My overhead projector screen was mounted on that wall, but now I have a Smartboard in a different location and the purple wall is bare! I tried posters and such, but didn't like that too much. On that wall, I wanted one decorative focal point in my classroom and something beautiful, meaningful and not too complicated for the students to make. I decided to incorporate student artwork into a school start-up activity in order to create a removable mural! Our theme for the artwork was "Ryerson Hands Make Music". Every student in the school ended up creating a hand outline with a phrase on it that began with "My hands..." along with their name. Students had to finish the phrase with their own idea such as "My hands play the drums" and decorate the hand cut-out. For each class, we brainstormed different activities that we do in Music with our hands. I also let the older kids sha...

Most of the classroom teachers at my school have a target poster in their room and use it to reflect on learning goals with their students. I wanted to do something similar to be consistent with classroom teachers and because I think it's a great visual to help student understand what they are working towards or what they have achieved. It also helps answer the "why?" for some students, especially older students who sometimes wonder why the heck we are dancing around the Music room clapping our hands. Haha.  Anyways, I have always found coming up with a target poster idea a challenge because I see so many darn kids! I am working on different goals with different students all the time. I needed a way for all current goals to be presented and for them to be able to be quickly changed on the poster. So, with the help of my uber-crafty grade 1 teacher Ms. St. Laurent, I created a target poster that I can easily use with my students in Music. I used page protectors from Dollar...