All about my life

It's officially SPRING BREAK! Wohoooo!  I was exhausted this week! I could barely keep my eyes open! The kids are ready for a break too. I shared these videos with my kids this week to take a 5 minute chill break. After each video, we discussed what we enjoyed and what we maybe didn't enjoy while watching the videos. Check them out! The Vegetable Orchestra Soooooo neat! I had a lot of students who, after watching this, attempted to make their own at home! Cello Wars by the Piano Guys This is awesome! I LOVE Star Wars and so many of my students do as well. Especially boys.  This was a great opportunity to talk about electric instruments that we usually hear as acoustic.  You Da One- by The Pentatonix This is a great video and all of their arrangements are amazing! Rihanna is coming to our city soon, so a lot of the older kids got extra excited for the concert as we watched this video (waaaaayyyyy more appropriate than a Rihanna video btw...). After watching this, we discus...

Here's part 2 of my Planets Unit post! Check out PART ONE (which included a Smartboard intro activity to the piece and a funny Holst video) . Activity #2 During the next class, I had students write a paragraph about Holst. They prepared for this by doing their web hunt (from Part 1), watching my biographical video and doing their own research at home. Activity #3 During this same class, we listening more closely to Mars and Venus. You all have to check out Sofia Lopez-Ibor's latest resource entitled, "Blue is the Sea" if you haven't already. It is amazing and has a section on teaching students about The Planets! In her book she includes a chart for students to fill out as they listen to Mars and Venus.  Buy it  HERE ! I adapted the chart to suit our goals. I found that the chart really prepared students for our art and listening activity. It made the kids think about movement, instrumentation, emotion, etc. in connection with the pieces. Activity #4 For the next ...

I love "The Planets" by Gustav Holst! I have studied little bits of it with my kids in the past, but this year I decided to really expand on some ideas and create a unit that has lasted about 8 classes. Manitoban students study the solar system in grade 6 Science, so the cross-curricular connections have been great for students to get engaged! Here is what we did! Day 1 I introduced our unit by putting together a Smartnotebook file that included:  Brainstorm what we know about planets already.    Discover/discuss how Planets are named after Roman gods.  How all of this relates to music. Touch each planet to find out! Discuss what we hear in the Mars and Venus movements (instruments, phrasing, mood, etc.). Click HERE  for the FREE Smartboard file! I promised that I've shared it this time! Day 2 Next the students did a Gustav Holst Webhunt! I had a list of questions for them to answer. Students used the internet to find their answers. I took all of their answers ...

I have been working with my grade 3 class on creating music for the book "Pete the Cat, Rocking in my School Shoes". It is really coming to life!  These are the steps we took before getting to our end result. Step 1: The first thing we did was read the book "Pete the Cat, Rocking in my School Shoes" by James Dean and Eric Litwin. Find it  HERE  on Amazon. Step 2: The students then composed a melody (as a class) to match the reoccurring speech pattern from the book. We used a Smartnotebook file to help us. We changed things and voted on ideas as we went along. Here is our final melody: Click HERE  for the FREE Smartnotebook file. It looks like this: Step 3: Next I divided my class into 4 groups. Each group represented an area from the story, where Pete was wearing his shoes. Each group was in charge of creating a soundscape to fit their area (busstop, lunchroom, library, playground). While choosing instruments and creating their soundscape, the groups were to wri...

I am currently finishing up tons of I Love To Read Month activities. I tried something new this year that is really working out! I am having older classes (grade 4 and 5) write recorder compositions inspired by books that the younger classes are currently using. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin My grade 4 classes are using a reoccurring rhythm pattern from "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type" to compose a BAG recorder piece in pairs. The pairs will then share the story and their composition with grade 2 classes students! HERE  is the free composition printable for you to use as you wish! - Steph