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I am thrilled to announce that I will be presenting at the Carl Orff Canada National Conference, "Bridges" in Saskatoon! I will be co-presenting with my good friend and colleague, Sean Fitzmaurice, and we will be presenting two sessions: Bring on the Bugs and Phrygian Galaxy ! We presented both sessions at the Canadian Music Educators' Association Conference this past summer and had such an amazing experience. We are so excited to share our original ideas and compositions at the upcoming COC conference from April 28 - May 1, 2016! Rhythmic compositions for our song "Tons of Bugs"!  Move and Groove Caterpillars!  Bug Dance!  Galactic Circle Dance! Phrygian Galaxy played in the dark! Click HERE to check out the Bridges conference website and join Sean and I in the fun! Registration is now open! See you there!

I am officially back into the swing of things! I know you American teachers have been going at it for a while, but we start and end later than you. It's great for us here in Winterpeg because summer only lasts about two months...! I decided to freshen up my room a bit this year mostly inspired by the fact that my carpet was replaced and I looooove how fresh and bright it looks in here!   Here is my opening bulletin board for the school year. I stopped doing a "Welcome Back" specific one, because, well honestly, because I couldn't be bothered with changing my big bulletin board every month. Ha. Seriously.  Mozart is our composer of the season! Ideas for teaching your kiddos about Mozart are  HERE ,  HERE   and   HERE ! I LOVE these recorder fingering charts! Get them from Marti Chandler  HERE  on Teachers Pay Teachers! For some fun recorder ideas click  HERE  and  HERE , including a super awesome hockey themed centre for reinforcing ...

I did a super simple partner composition activity with my grade 2 and 3 students and by just spontaneously calling it a "secret handshake" rather than a body percussion composition, the kids were sooooooooo excited! It also led to some very interesting and creative compositions. Step 1: In pairs, students write an 8 beat rhythm pattern (two measures) using ta, ta-a, ti-ti, rest, and/or ti-ka-ti-ka. Step 2: Students decide on body percussion together that matches the rhythm pattern that they wrote. When demonstrating this, show different ways partners can connect. When students are composing their body percussion, watch for a group that clearly shows their rhythm and have them demonstrate for the class. Step 3: Have pairs perform their compositions for the class, having the rest of the students demonstrate their audience behaviour skills! Possible Extensions: Have students write out their compositions with graphic notation. Have pairs teach another group their handshake. It so...

I had a blast presenting at the Canadian Music Educators' Conference! My friend Sean and I presented two sessions: Bring on the Bugs! and another session where we presented our original composition "Phrygian Galaxy" . Thank you to everyone who attended our sessions and who supported us through the whole process! Click below for a video of the galactic dance used in the A section of "Phrygian Galaxy". GALACTIC DANCE   Enjoy and thank you for your support!

I am so excited to be presenting at the Canadian Music Educators' Association conference this coming weekend! I am also very thrilled to be presenting two sessions together with my very good friend and colleague, Sean! Bring on the Bugs is an energetic session full of music games and activities for the early years music classroom as we explore the theme of bugs. The ideas focus on literacy, singing, speech ostinati, soundscapes, composition, and improvisation... and they are all buzzing with fun! A quick activity from Bring on the Bugs is Ladybug Vocal Slides! Vocal slide warm-ups can be a fun, energetic way to get students engaged immediately! Using their finger, have students draw their sound in the air as they "read" each vocal slide card, vocalizing each one. Click on the link below for a FREE pdf of of the vocal slide cards. LADYBUG VOCAL SLIDE CARDS For those of you who attended our session, click on the link below to find the manipulatives for our fun Caterpillar C...

Two more days left. Yes that's right my American friends. We STILL have two days left of school until summer break. I love being outside with the kids as much as I can at this time of year, so I made up a game to get us out there on the sunny days! RHYTHM SQUARES Using a four square grid in the playground, I drew different 4-beat rhythm in each square. The class was split into two teams and made two lines, lining up one behind the other about ten feet away from the rhythm squares. Once we started, I clapped one of the four rhythms. The first person from each team had to find the rhythm and step on that rhythm square first in order to get a point. Both players went to the back of their respective lines and the next two people faced off. After each student had a turn, the game was finished and the team with the most points won! It was so fun and the kids LOVED it! Thanks to my student O*** for coming up with the name of the game!

Who doesn't love games?! These are two super fun and simple games that I like playing at the end of a class or during a music games class.   FREEZE DANCE!   This is super simple and I am sure most of you have your own rendition of this. All you need is a piece of music that the kids can dance to! I like using Kidz Bop versions of songs that students listen to on the radio for this game.   How to Play: 1. Review Game Rules   In my classroom those are: hands to yourself (no partner dancing) no break dance moves (feet stay on floor) people who are out must sit on the steps and can only dance with the top of their body choose one spot and stay there once you are out I am the judge and if someone else tries to "judge" then they are out! 2. Have students spread out and start dancing once the music begins.   3. When you pause the music, students must freeze. If a student moves when the music has stopped, they are out!   DRUM TALK!  My kids...

I had an amazing time presenting the the Manitoba Orff Chapter's Children's Day this past May. It is a day of making music with children from all over Manitoba. Students are seperated into groups and rotate through five one-hour sessions throughout the day. These include Basic Orff, Recorder, Choral, Movement, and sometimes Drumming and/or Boomwhacker sessions. The theme this year was music and art and I presented the movement session. It was such a great day working with the children! I would love to share my lesson with y'all! It was a blast. KANDINSKY CIRCLE DANCE Inspired by  Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles , c.1913, by Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky spoke of his experience attending Wagner's opera Lohengrin: "I saw all my colours in spirit, before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me.” Materials •    emotion word cards  •    painted cards symbolizing emotions  •   posters of movement words (light, fas...

Hello, hello! I am dedicating this blog post to my friend Lori who has been bugging me for a while to keep my blog going and to post! Last weekend our Manitoba Orff Chapter brought the AMAZING Tim Wiegand to Winnipeg from Las Vegas! Tim's enthusiastic energy is so contagious! You could really tell how much he loves children and loves teaching music.  Not only is Tim hilarious and full of positivity, he is extremely creative. Tim presented so many cool ideas for keeping students engaged and energized in their learning.  My new favourite resource is Tim Wiegand's "Recorder Revolutions". It is such a great recorder resource and is keeping my students exciting and engaged about playing the recorder! This method book contains pieces that are new and innovative and his approach is clear and fresh. It also comes with a CD that includes modern and professional tracks. You can also purchase the interactive whiteboard disc to further engage your students. Check out the teaser v...