Exploration!

EXPLORE!!!!!

Vocal Exploration. I'm sure many of you are doing this frequently.  It is so good for young voices! I use exploration with my younger students to discover high vs. low, smooth vs. choppy, long vs. short, and so much more.  I have some pre-made sets that I show on my white board, or have the students draw on the board with a marker.  They've even followed a leader as they wave a scarf or some object, and students will follow that with their voices.  We pick a neutral syllable, and off we go!  As simple as it sounds, the kids really do enjoy it.

Movement Exploration.  I'm Kodaly trained and have been doing vocal explorations forever.  But, I recently have been working on my Orff certification, and have been using lots and lots more movement activities in my classroom.  To clarify - I've always been moving in class, but it used to be really structured all of the time - folk dances, specific actions, etc. I still do all of that, but in Orff, a huge push is for improvisation and exploration.  This past summer, we really worked on exploring different pathways through movement - zigzag, spiral, straight, etc.  And then it dawned on me - why can't I use the same exploration activities through movement that I'm already using with voice?

So easy, and maybe I'm the only one that hadn't thought of this - but it's so much fun!  The kids love finding pathways through the music room.  Fun really happens when they use their voices and movements at the same time.

So, I uploaded this little file to Teachers Pay Teachers - free from now until Thanksgiving 2015.  You can click here to get it.

Included are some basic exploration slides, like this:

 Also, a couple of slides where the kids can create their own pathways, like this:

And, a couple of printable worksheets for your kids to draw/color, like this:

Simple and effective - just the best!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Little Sally Water - add shapes!

Many of you know the folk song "Little Sally Water."  It's in the good old 150 American Folk Songs (orange book), and I've used it for years.

It's wonderful for teaching so-mi-la - and especially for isolating so-mi on the "turn to the east" part.  I've used this with my kinders for high/low and then labeled the solfa in 1st grade.  Great, great song.  The original game is also fun for my kids:

The children stand in a circle, joining hands.  One child stands in the middle as "Sally," covering his or her eyes as the rest sing the song.  "Sally" imitates the song throughout, pointing at another player at the end of the song, still covering their eyes so the choice is accidental.  The chosen player becomes "Sally," goes to the center, and the game starts again.

Fine.  Simple game, and the kids do enjoy it, but do get bored easily.  So, I've been trying to think of different ways to do this, as I do love the song and it is great for teaching so many things.  And then it came to me - movement!

As I've been going through my Orff levels (I completed Level 2 this past summer) I've really been trying to incorporate a lot more movement in my classroom.  I love using Kodaly approaches to music literacy and beautiful singing, but the Orff improvisation and movement really speak to me as well.  I feel that really, you can tie both approaches together, and your students end up better musicians.  Anyway, one thing we worked on a lot in my Orff classes was creative movement, and creating different kinds of shapes with our bodies.  The Laban Movement Analyses words for the 4 basic kinds of shapes are ball, pin, screw, and wall.  Here are some pictures of my adorable daughter demonstrating these types of shapes:

Ball shapes are rounded shapes.  

Pin shapes have sharp angles.

  

Screw shapes are twisted. 

Wall shapes are large and flat.

So, as a class, we decided that "Sally" was going to find a shape he/she liked.  Students sang the song and walked around "Sally," as regular, but on the words "east," "west," and "best/next," they created different statues.  "Sally" would then walk around, find a statue he/she liked, and copy that shape.  The student whose shape was copied would then become the next "Sally."

I loved this, because the kids were improvising/arranging what they already knew.  They were practicing making different types of shapes, and we were labeling them with new vocabulary!  I also loved that it really eliminated any kind of talking we had going on before - because their statues had to stay still (including no talking!)

How else would you improvise on this?

I've also created an analysis file you can use to present ta/ti-ti or so mi la to your kids on Teachers Pay Teachers here.

Happy Easter, 100 followers and a forever freebie!

Last Friday (March 27) I reached 75 followers on Teachers Pay Teachers, so I posted a little freebie I developed to the "Bunny Hop!"  You can find it here.  It's been pretty popular, and now I'm over 100 followers, so I'm throwing a sale today!  Everything in my store is 20% off!

Here's a preview of the freebie:

I developed a little rhythm stick play-along for my 1st graders, as they are practicing ta and rest right now.  The form of this song is so repetitious, it is so easy for my 1st graders to follow along:

Then, I thought it would be fun to extend this into a stick-passing game.  Now, I don't know if you have ever tried stick passing games with your young ones before, but it is basically impossible to ask 1st graders and Kindergartners to pass sticks to the beat.  They just haven't developed enough yet.  But, I am preparing them for the future.  So, when you first start a passing game, just work on passing the correct direction.  Also, start with only one object.

Once they are doing well with the right direction, you can start encouraging them to pass only on the downbeat.  This reinforces the downbeat, as well as slows it down enough so that your kids can be successful.  Add more objects as your kids feel more successful.

Older grade levels could have fun with this as well.  Have them pass to the rhythm of the rhythm stick play-along.  On the fourth measure every time, though, have them hold on to the stick instead of passing it right away.  They tap to their right (in front of neighbor), then in front of themselves, then to their right again, where they finally pass it.  It's kind of like the end of "Pass this Shoe," if you've ever played that one before.  If not, check out Amy Abbott's blog here.  She has a fantabulous post about shoe passing games.

Of course, the Bunny Hop would not be complete without actually doing the dance.  Here are the steps, if you are not familiar:

You can also see people doing it on the Lawrence Welk show here:

My kids are really enjoying this!  Hope you have fun with it as well!

Oh, the Wind Blew East

One of the things I actually really enjoy doing is going to music workshops on Saturdays.  Call me crazy - it's really my only day off with work from Monday-Friday and church responsibilities on Sundays - but these workshops get me so energized that I go back to work so excited and I truly believe that they make me a better teacher.  Naturally, I don't go every Saturday - it ends up being maybe once every couple of months or so. :)

Anyway, I went to an Orff workshop last year.  Julie Scott was the presenter, and she was absolutely amazing!  She shared this wonderful song with us:

There are actually several different versions of this song out there.  It originated, as far as I can tell, in the Bahamas, where the lyrics were a little different:

1

Oh, the wind blow east,

The wind blow west,

The wind blow the Sunshine

Right down in town.

2

Oh, the wind blow the China

Right down in town.

Oh, the wind blow the China

Right down in town.

3

Oh, the wind blow east,

The wind blow west,

The wind blow the Settin' Star

Right down in town.

Apparently, the "Sunshine," "China," and "Settin' Star" are sloops that had been blown ashore by hurricane-force winds.  But then, as many folk songs do, it kept getting changed and adapted as time went on.  I also found this version in my research:

And this one:

What a great song to use in October!  I know that many music teachers teach in a Halloween-sensitive environment, where more and more we are asked to not teach songs about witches or ghosts, or things like that, but this one is great for talking about fall leaves blowing into town!

So many great things about it - I've used it with my little ones for talking about high and low voices (the first version, on the Whoo-oos!).  I've used it for talking about fast and slow, since there are two tempos for this song.  And best of all is when you dramatize this song!  At the workshop, I learned it this way:  you can have half of your kids act as leaves, and half act as the wind.  The leaves lay on the ground, but as the wind blows them, they roll into town.  Then, you can have the kids switch.  So much fun!

I've also adapted it to where I got little fabric leaves at the dollar store, and the kids try to blow them "into town," or a designated area.  I've split them up into teams to see who could blow their leaves the quickest - rule is that they cannot touch the leaves, only blow.  They absolutely love it!

You could also adapt this song so many different ways:  in winter, you could have the wind blow the snowflakes, in the spring it could blow the raindrops, in summer, it could blow dandelions....you get the picture :)  You could also have your kids improvise whatever the wind is blowing.

Here are a couple of videos with different versions of this song:

Stirring My Brew

My youngest sister is almost 18 years younger than I am.  Crazy!  Anyway, she is amazingly talented and has always loved music (she was recently cast as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" at her school - so proud of her!)  I remember coming home from college during breaks, and she would sing me her latest favorite song.  Around Halloween one year, she sang this song to me over and over (she had learned it at preschool or something):

She sang it so much that it is still stuck in my head around Halloween every year (over a decade later).  This is a great song to use with your younger kids, though.  Perfect for a finger play in preschool, great to use for loud/soft in Kindergarten, and it sounds "spooky."  Kids love it!

There is a great finger play that goes with this:

On the lyrics "stirring..." make stirring motions as if you are stirring a pot of brew.

On the lyrics "oo-oo," sweep hands out forward in a wave-like motion, like a spooky gust of wind.

On "tiptoe," use 2 fingers on one hand, pantomiming a person tip-toeing.

On "BOO!" open hands suddenly as if to startle.

For added fun, whisper on "tip-toe" and say BOO with a very loud voice.

But, you don't have to do this as a finger play.  I found this fun video on YouTube, and I seem to remember my sister doing something similar:

For some reason, I just LOVE Halloween songs.  And, I love that this one doesn't specifically mention witches or anything.  You could change the word to "stew" instead of "brew" if you're worried about that.  Hope you can use it!

Engine Train game

I blogged a few days ago about "Engine Engine Number Nine."  Last year, I found this great resource for FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers:

Find it here:  Engine Engine Number Nine

Lindsay Jervis, a fellow Kodaly teacher here in Kansas (but 3 hours away in Wichita - I'm near Kansas City) has mapped this out perfectly for the Kodaly classroom.  Even if you're not Kodaly trained, you can totally benefit from this.  It has beat charts, iconic rhythmic notation, and is just very, very cute.

Anyway, I'm working with my 1st graders on ta and ti-ti, and getting them to clap them correctly.  So I decided to take a different direction with this.  I made 2 versions of this game - one to play with the whole group, and the other to play at centers or with smaller groups.

The large group game starts with this menu screen:

I've uploaded this to Teachers Pay Teachers as a PowerPoint, so you just click on one of the numbers, and it takes you to a rhythmic slide, like this one:

After they have tried, click on the train in the lower right-hand corner to bring you back to the menu screen.

Each slide is worth 1 or 2 points, so you just split the class in half, keep track of points, and the winner is the one with the most points at the end, or the first team to 10 points, depending on what you want.  I like to use this version first, before I split into smaller groups/centers, to give the kids a chance to learn how to play.

Now, for the small-group version, I actually made it a board game.  It's kind of on the same level as Candyland, so I practiced playing with my 4-year-old daughter.  Granted, she knew what ta and ti-ti were when she was 2, but still......

Here's the game board:

You can print out these differently-colored trains and laminate them to use as tokens:

Or, you can do what I did and use those cute little train whistles from Oriental Trading as game tokens:

 Choose a player to go first (I usually settle arguments with rock, paper, scissors), and they draw a card.  The cards have the same rhythms as the group game, but are smaller.  You can print this part out for the back if you'd like.  I actually just glued all the smaller cards on red construction paper, then laminated them:

And here's a view of the fronts:

The first player draws a card and claps it.  If they clap it correctly, they can move forward 1 space for 1 point, and 2 spaces for 2 points.  Here's a picture of my daughter clapping the rhythm:

And here she is moving her train:

Simple, but effective!  My favorite kinds of things!

You can get the whole train game here:  Engine Engine Number 9 Train Game.  It's not free, but hey, I'm trying to save up for adopting another child and adoption is expensive :)

Engine Engine Number Nine

Engine, engine number nine

Going down Chicago Line.

If the train falls off the track,

Will I get my money back?

 

That's the way I learned it - there are so many versions, all of them good but a little different.

 

Such a great chant for teaching ta, ti-ti, steady beat, and so much more!  I also like using it to get the students to improvise a so-mi melody.  So many uses!

 



A couple of years ago, I found these really cute mini train whistles on Oriental Trading. 

 

I just checked, and they don't carry these exact ones anymore, but they have other cute train stuff, including some cute wind-up trains I'm really tempted to buy.

 

Like many of you, I love using this chant to prepare/present/practice steady beat, quarter notes and eighth notes.  My kids really like it too, because I always have them form little trains and walk around the room to either the beat or the rhythm, depending on what we are working on.

 

Then, I came across these adorable train track beat charts on bethsmusicnotes.blogspot.com.  (I just adore her blog - she's got so many great songs and resources)

 

I thought it would be great to actually give each student a train whistle so they could visually move it across the chart as the song progresses, like this: 

Instant success!  Some of my (1st grade) kiddos were having a hard time pointing at regular beat from left to right, but the little manipulative really helped them.  Love it so much!



Doggie, Doggie

I am actively practicing notating sol, la, and mi on a 3-line staff with my 1st graders right now.  We have recently used the song "Doggie, Doggie," which I'm sure most of you are familiar with.  If not, here it is:

  I recently made a PowerPoint presentation of this song, which teaches rhythm and solfa, which you can find here:  Doggie Doggie presentation

This song is great to review staff notation. I usually use a 3-line staff with my 1st graders, and get to a 5-line staff in 2nd grade when I introduce "do."  We do a lot of activities where the students read staff notation, write staff notation, and improvise staff notation.  With this song, I created a simple game where I made 4 different cards with the staff notation.  The students received these cards and had to sort them in the right order:

Afterwards, we practiced singing them in a different order.  The kids got a kick out of this - they thought it sounded so funny!

This song has a very simple guessing game that goes with it that helps the students practice "solo" singing:  

It is a great, non-scary way to get your kids to sing by themselves.  It helps me assess whether or not they can match pitch.  However, sometimes my kids get restless and I added a part to this game that keeps them playing it longer, so I can assess more kids :)  If the "doggie" guesses the "thief" correctly, they get to chase them around the circle to try to get the bone back!  Just that one little addition that gets the students moving a little bit makes the game so much more fun, and my kids just beg and beg to play it.

Happy playing!

Bluebird

My first paid product is up on Teachers Pay Teachers!

This product is to teach the song "Bluebird Through My Window," a song I use to present half note in second grade.  I call half notes "two" because it reminds kids of how many beats it gets, and in my classroom, my kids have gotten confused with "ta" and "ta-a."

The steps to my presenting something are pretty basic - first, after they have sung many, many songs with half notes (just not having specifically identified them yet), I teach this new song, by rote.  We first find the steady beat, then the rhythm.  They are able to clap the rhythm before we identify it.  Finally, when they have identified that there is a place where we are holding the note out for two counts, we define it as the half note.

I generally don't use this song for melodic practice, because it has both "fa" and high "do," both which I don't get to in grades K-2 - BUT, I've included slides for them in case you can find something useful :)

You can find it here:  Bluebird Through My Window

The game with this song is pretty fun for K-2.

Game #1:  All students are in a standing circle with arms raised, with palms of hands pressing on their neighbors’ hands to form “windows.”  One person who is “it,” or the “bluebird,” flies in and out of the windows as the song is sung, and taps boys or girls on the shoulder.  These boys or girls hold hands with the leader, forming a line, as the line grows longer and longer, flying in and out of the windows.  When the last two children remain in the circle, they become the bridge, as in “London Bridge” or “Apple Tree” and the bluebird leads the line through the bridge.  Whoever gets caught in the bridge on “tired” will be the bluebird the NEXT time we play the game.

I found this adorable video of kids playing the game:  Bluebird game