All about my life

The countdown begins! 24 days until I go to Nashville for the American Orff Schulwerk Association conference!  I am so excited!!!!!! The size of the conference always blows my mind. So huge! I am so fortunate that I can go to this event and that professional development is so well supported in my school division.  I am most excited to see Artie Almeida (who will also be coming to present in here in Winnipeg in 2015!) and Jos Wuytack! I always love discovering a new clinician who I love! I can't wait for that!!! Check out the AOSA website to see who else is presenting and to register! AOSA also put together a fantastic video about Orff education. It would be great to show for parent info and music education advocacy within your school community! Check that out  HERE ! Are YOU going to Nashville???!!!! This Canadian would love to see you there! I would love to meet some of my blogger friends!

I have always loved using popsicle sticks for beginner rhythm readers. Modelling for them was always tricky though, so this year I decided to stick magnets on the back of some of my popsicle sticks. I used a cookie sheet on a music stand to help me model the activity for the class.  Super basic idea I know, and some of you may already do this, but after 5 years of popsicle stick rhythms it was like a lightbulb went on!  Using popsicle sticks today, grade 1 classes worked on creating 4 beat rhythms using ta and ti-ti for a partner to clap. We also practiced dictation activities using popsicle sticks, while I clapped a 4 beat pattern.  Do you love popsicle sticks too???!!!

Dryer hose ($8.00), cut in four equals pieces becomes a "phone" that helps students hear their singing voice. And you have four of them now! Try using a "phone" as you sing into their ear instead! It really does work wonders. Hello, hello?!  Oh, there you are Singing Voice! I can hear you now!

Happy Belated Talk Like a Pirate Day! I just want to say that I loved pirates before they were cool. Kinda obsessed circa 2005. Yaar. Due t' scurvy, I have dark circles under me eaye! (pirate translator HERE )  Anyways… In honour on National Talk Like a Pirate Day last Friday, I thought I would share my favourite Pirate themed Music resources! New pirate shark stuffy: Isn't he cute??!! The musical to get kids excited and totally engaged.  Yaar matey! There is now a second Pirates musical! Check it out! This is a fun book to do soundscapes and compositions with. The illustrations are amazing!  And it's a pop-up book! Super cool. A new choral piece that I will be using for my 2/3 choir this school year! An up-beat super fun pirate piece! I am very excited for this! Happy Pirate's Day! What fun pirate-themed stuff do you use with your students?

I am very excited to introduce my very first guest blogger! Michelle is a Manitoba music teacher as well! Her creativity has inspired me since I was in university and I am honoured that she is sharing some of her unique classroom ideas here on Stay Tuned. Michelle recently came back from a mat leave and has transformed her classroom into a fun, imaginative world of stardom! I hope this post leaves you as inspired as it did me! Enjoy!                     Thank you to Michelle for sharing your great ideas! If anyone out there is interested in being a guest blogger for Stay Tuned, please let me know!

Start of the year… time to spend some of your budget!!!! You NEED to buy these! Such good, brand new resources! F-U-N 'n Games Galore! By Sue Harvie (Fun with Composers Publishing) I can't say enough about Sue Harvie! She is Am-ah-zing! This woman has so much energy and creativity it is insane! If you ever get a chance to see her as a clinician- GO! Seriously.  I was soooo excited to hear that this resource was coming out. Everything in here is incredibly engaging for kids and is also very great, musically. From games to movement activities this is jam-packed with goodness.  Composer Gallery by Jay Althouse, Charles Grace, and Mitch Wyatt (Alfred Music Publishing)  I love these posters! I find them cute and hilariously awesome. Each one is 8 1/2" x 11" and has a composer biography on the back side. Introducing Beethoven! This will go well with my super new Beethoven stuffy ! Composer Songs Arranged by Sally Albrecht (Alfred Music Publishing) I love what this gem has i...

School starts on Tuesday! It's always bittersweet… but I am pumped to make some music with those lil' rugrats again!  Thank you to my teacher friends Kati and Jordanna who came up with the owl themed idea, also to my hubs who came in and did most of it! And to Elle Ess for that sweet, dewy grass! Owls are so wise… music IS a hoot! I want to see more back to school bulletin boards! What do you have that's nice and fresh in your room?

So I found a super-awesome-amazing find! Beethoven! By the same company (Unemployed Philosophers Guild) as the amazing Mozart finger puppet that I got! And then it got even better when I got him home and found out he plays music! Beethoven is just chillin' at my place for now!  What new back to school buys have you made?

In the spring, one of the amazing teachers at our school organized a whole school Jackson Pollock inspired painting! Every adult and child in our building took part by splashing, squirting, flicking, throwing, etc. Community members were involved and even fire fighters from our neighbourhood participated! It was so much fun and a great experience for our students. Ta-da! The painting is now hanging in our school's main hallway and will be featured at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in the fall! Woot woot! In celebration of the Pollock hype in our school and the focus on mid 20th century visual art, I decided to focus on a 20th century composer with my grade 6 classes in Music. We discussed the similarities between Jackson Pollock and John Cage's forms of creative expression and how they both were very innovative during that time. We discussed aleatoric music and how during his composition process John Cage left many choices to chance. Students created their own John Cage inspired chan...

It's finally spring in Manitoba! And our new composer of the season is Bach! I absolutely LOVE the composer sets from Sara Bibee at TpT. They are simple and allow me to post information and photos, but I can create my own lessons to coincide with the composer if I wish. I pinned this RAP biography video of Bach a while ago, but hadn't used it with the kids. I got them to listen to the video the other day and then we discussed what they had learned about Bach. They LOVED the biography! I then got them to do a compare and contrast of these two versions of Toccata and Fugue in D and explain which one they liked better and why. Are you finishing the year with any composer fun?  

In preparation for Multi-Cultural Week at my school, I am teaching Rhythms of One World by Gary Fry to our whole school. I have the background track that will be great to use in the gym for our assembly. It's fun and adding some movement has made it even more fun! Click HERE to check it out on the Alfred website. There is an instrumental break in the middle of the piece and I thought it would be fun for my grade 1 students to create body compositions using text that I made up, but went well with the meaning of the song. We went through each pattern and tried it on different spots on our body.  After modeling and creating one as a class, students created their own compositions using this chart and colouring the body percussion boxes accordingly, lining up their choice up with each beat of the rhythm pattern. The kids really enjoyed doing this! Click HERE for the FREE Smartnotebook file for the composition lesson, and HERE for the student composition worksheet. I am always lookin...