School's out! School's out!

Yep.  It's been a great year and now summer break!  I hope all of my students have a great summer!!!

For my teacher friends and follower I'll still blog this summer, but it won't be so much about what's going on in my classroom.  Instead I think I'll post about some projects I'm working on, some products I think you might like and my plans for next year.

Soundtrack of My Life

My 6th graders are preparing to move to JH. They have just a few days of 6th grade left.  This week we reflected on life events and how music has played a role in them.  We discussed the purpose of music in commercials, movies, ceremonies and ballgames.  Then I asked students to write about music in their lives by creating a playlist of life events and songs that go with them.  I LOVE how thoughtful and funny they were.  Here are a few samples:

The time my dog died: “My Heart Will Go On”

My 1^st Cardinal’s Game: “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”

My Birthday: “Born to Be Wild”

My First Bath:  “Splish Splash”

My 1^st Sleepover: “Party in the U.S.A.”

The 3^rd Time I Moved: “Life is a Highway”

I Was Born: “Celebrate!”

My 1^st Birthday: “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive”

3^rd Grade Sleepover: “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”

My 1^st Bike Wreck: “Another One Bites the Dust”

My 1^st Cell Phone: “Call Me Maybe”

Mom and Dad’s Divorce: “Mockingbird”

First Day of School: “I’m Sexy and I Know It”

 

Teachers: Get the worksheet here.

 

Saddle Up for Success

Our theme for testing week is "Saddle Up for Success".  We did western type dress up days and planned a fun pep assembly with noodle pony races, a lasso contest and "Stick 'em Up".  Stick 'em Up was a reward for students that scored advanced or proficient on the MAP last year.  They got to duck tape up the counselor and principal.

Learn to make the noodle ponies HERE.

Get a Saddle Up for Success Bulletin Board HERE.

Learn about the MAP HERE.

Visit our school website HERE.

Kindergarteners prepare for Graduation

Noodle Notes

Introducing  *drum roll please* NOODLE NOTES!  You may remember that I purchased a bunch of pool noodles at the beginning of the school year to make noodle ponies.  Well, the noodles are out again!  This time I created a way for students to compose with rhythms.

In the activity below, first graders were asked to group notes in sets of 4 beats.  We introduce the term "bar lines" and used the small yellow noodles to represent them.  Today we used only notes that fit in one beat like a quarter note (ta), barred eighth notes (titi) and a quarter rest (sh).  Each noodle note has a note on one side and the corresponding rest on the other side.

In future lessons we'll use half notes and whole notes.  The half notes are twice as long as the blue note pieces because they get two counts instead of one.  The whole notes are four times longer than the blue note pieces because they get four counts.

Noodle Notes are GREAT for rhythmic dictation.  I'm storing mine in a file box, but there are many options for storage that will work depending on how you plan to use them in your classroom.

I must confess that I didn't really measure my noodle notes.  I just eyeballed them.  So I'll give you some guesstimates: 

whole notes=about 12 inches

dotted half notes=about 9 inches

half notes=about 6 inches

quarter notes, barred eighths=about 3 inches

the "bar lines" are about an inch (maybe less)

How many noodles should you buy?  Well...that depends.  Do you want a class set?  4-8 sets for workstations?  Will you use the same dimensions that I did?

OH!  And all noodles are NOT created equal!  Some are about six inches longer than others.  Some noodles are very thick.  When creating your set, be sure to measure.  Well...if that kind of thing matters to you. :-)

If you can't tell, I've kind of got a thing for pool noodles.  You can check out my Pool Noodle Awesomeness Pinterest board HERE.

Don't Blow it This Summer!

The people I work with are so fun!  I needed a few models for my end of the year bulletin board.  It reads "Don't Blow it This Summer! Keep Making Music!"  I took pictures of them pretending to blow up a balloon and then added REAL balloons to their picture.

Some places to check out for summer music awesomeness:

The Muny-St. Louis  Be sure to see Mary Poppins!

The Fox Theater

Black River Coliseum

Opera Theater of St. Louis

Recorder Karate

This year students in 4th Grade at GES and at 5th-6th at WES are learning to play recorders.  We do a program called Recorder Karate where students earn "belts" for each new song they learn.  As we learn about proper playing technique and reading music we work as a large group, in small groups, in tutoring pairs and individually.  Students are doing a FABULOUS job!  

Occasionally Recorder Karate calls some inventiveness.  Below you'll see my quick and easy storage for recorders without cases.  These recorders are stored in a copy paper box.  I punched holes in the top and labelled each spot with a piece of tap.  Red and blue tape distinguishes the classes.  Around the top of the record, but below the mouthpiece is another piece of matching tape. 

 As we spread out to work in small groups we need actual SPACE between groups to help keep the sound level to a tolerable level. At my small school this calls for some creativity as our space is pretty small.

So, we use the chalkboard,

a shelf,

thumbtacks and a bulletin board,

and tables to hold our music and work together.

Teachers: You can learn more about Recorder Karate HERE.

Students: Want to practice at home?  You can use these tracks online.  Email me for your user name and password to access the Recorder Karate Dojo.

GES Kinders Sing "Good Morning!"