Hello! This is Tanya from Teaching Music: Tanya's Kodály Aspiring Blog talking today. Several grades in my school are currently focused on standardized testing this week and, honestly, there is a feeling of stress radiating off the classroom teachers and many students. This has caused me to refocus on a few basic ideas that are important in my music classroom. What do I do with my students that will contribute to their growth as people? There is a well known quote from Maya Angelou that I think rings true: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." My goal is to make them feel joyful, empowered, and confident through music. I have a faded purple notecard pinned above my desk that has lived there since I saw Julie Swank present a ROCKE workshop in 2006. Julie Swank spoke of how she aimed to include these 3 activities in every class every day. This really resonated with me and right after her workshop I wrote out this purple card and tacked it up on my wall. Here are a few reasons and examples: 1. Sing (Of course!) If you are reading this blog, I'm assuming you already understand the value and importance of singing. In tune, artistic, musical singing is a skill that can be taught and learned. Our communities should be reminded frequently that singing is a skill and not a magical talent that some have and others do not. If our society valued singing as much as we value reading and writing, and our schools and families were focused on strengthening singing, wouldn't everyone be able to sing? (I realize I am preaching to the choir!) In my music class, we will sing in every class. When we are playing recorders in 3rd and 4th grade we sing our recorder pieces on solfa and letter names first. There are many strategies to get students singing and keep them singing. (Aileen gave some excellent examples of how to incorporate more singing throughout the class period.) Fun, non-sensical, quality songs can be included to turn kids on to the joy of singing. As Ella Fitzgerald said: "The only thing better than singing is more singing." Here's a 4th grade favorite song, The Hippopotamus. It's a good song for anacrusis and tim ka (dotted eighth sixteenth), and students love singing it in canon. It can be found in Katinka Daniel's Kodály Approach Book 4: 2. Connect Julie Swank mentioned that she uses the word "connect" rather than "join hands." I like the term "connect" because when we engage in a dance or play party that is what occurs; we are communicating and connecting with others. Sometimes a new student will come to my school and is initially taken aback by all the "connecting" that happens in music. Once he sees that this is the norm and everyone is doing it, he joins in. (We take hands, not sleeves or wrists, please.) Students most likely won't be joining hands during math class or during reading. Even during team sports they will not get to work together in same way a folk dance, a singing game, or a play party, requires. What a great opportunity we have in music to show the social bonding and community building that can happen with music! So yes, we will connect! This week my 3rd graders are letting off steam after their testing with the dance Galopede from the Amidons Chimes of Dunkirk. 1. Solo Why solo? These are my top two reasons: Students improve their skills at a faster rate than if they are only performing within a group Solos build independent, confident singers who begin to feel comfortable taking musical risks There are many songs with solo opportunities. Yo Ho, I Pull the Anchor is a favorite with older students. (The opportunity to pull on a big, heavy rope with classmates sure is enticing!) This is another great tim-ka song. I have a collection of finger puppets that I pull out for short solo singing activities. My collection is a bit out of control, I have more than one for each student in my largest class, but hey, if they continue to increase my class size at least I'll be prepared with finger puppets. Once upon a time Starbucks sold seasonal finger puppets, (they came atop sticks of candy,), and I just could not stop buying them! You can play Who Has The _______? with anything, when I was student teaching, my cooperating teaching used every opportunity to connect with classroom themes and students sang. "Who has the igneous rock?" "Who has the sedimentary rock?" "Who has the metamorphic rock?" I'd rather use my Beatles's edition finger puppets: In the younger grades many solos are not sung, but very short spoken solos within chants. A good example is Rooms to Rent. Rooms to Rent Rooms to rent, apply within. When I move out let _________ move in! Solo work is not regulated to singing; there are many opportunities for students to solo as the drummer who chooses our tempo, the xylophone player who plays the ostinato, or the hand chime player who accompanies with a simple harmony. I want my students to build their musical independence and feel good about making music. Have a great week!

Hello, this is Lindsay Jervis, from Pursuit of Joyfulness and Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom (on facebook). “The most important thing is to actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of music.” (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p. 2) But HOW do we keep them singing as they get older? I really do believe that the love of music and singing must be something that is instilled from a very young age (most likely before they even enter our classrooms) because of the exposure to music and their musical experience in the home, but that being said, I do believe what we do once them come to elementary school can have a profound impact on what they think of music and music class and whether they WANT to continue in music as they go on through schooling and life. With the little ones, I have always felt this comes easy. Song, stories, and play are so much a part of what they love to do. With the old grades (I'm thinking 3rd-5th), you have to carefully select music, games, and activities that have just the right amount of challenge to peak their interest, keep them engaged, and meet their skill level without becoming too difficult that they give up and become frustrated. In my psychology of Music Ed class last semester we talked about the inverted U - as the challenge goes up, the performance and enjoyment of the students goes up until they reach their skill peak. After that peak, students feel stress, anxiety and give up on the task or "think it's stupid". This is where it is really important to know where your kids are at and select appropriate songs for them. The songs cannot be too babyish (even if the students really are beginners and need to practice things like steady beat and basic rhythm or tonal patterns). I still really consider my older students to be older beginners. I started at my school three years ago and my kids had NO method of reading rhythms or pitches when I got there, so that coupled with my maternity leave my 2nd year there, and they are still not quite up to speed, but that is ok. It is better to go at the pace of the students and do developmentally appropriate literature than push ahead for the sake of staying "on grade level". Here are some songs and games that I have done with my students. In some of these cases, we have used them to isolate rhythm or melodic concepts, but some we have used purely for the joy they bring students while participating. If you find a song that students can't wait to sing/play again- it's a GEM! Hang onto it! You know this one is a gem when I have 5th graders still request it every time they earn a free day. The game is very simple. Students are seated in a circle with their hands behind their back. One student is "it". I call it the "detective" with the older kids and for some reason that is cooler than "it". The first time we play I go around the outside of the circle with a key hidden in my hand. I hide the key in someone's hands. Once I have made it around the circle once, I stop and the detective gets three guesses to try to figure out where the key is. This song is great for older beginners because of the easy rhythms, it is also great for teaching re. With my older beginners I started melody with mi re do instead of sol-mi. Pre-made visuals for this song available here. This song is great for teaching sixteenth notes and the game is a lot of fun. Set up students in a double circle. Inside circle will move clockwise, outside circle will move counterclockwise during the song. Select two chicken farmers. They stand facing away from the circle on opposite sides of the circle. All students in the circles join hands and teacher selects one "window" in each circle. On the last word of the song (I only use verse 1 when playing the game), the selected partners hold their arms up to create a window. The two farmers must race, only going through the "open windows" to get to the middle. I usually borrow a rubber chicken from my PE teacher to throw in the middle. The kids think it is hilarious. This play party is played in longways sets with two lines facing each other (typically one line of boys and one line of girls). Verse 1, the first girl skips around both lines and back to her place. Verse 2, "pretty little Susie skips around set and boys line follows until all are back in their places. Verse 3, cast off, or "peel the banana", head couple forms an arch at the bottom of the set and everyone goes under the arch and the song starts over with a new head couple. Use when preparing and practicing tiri-tiri. If you would like visuals and assessment tools like the one below for this song, you can find some here. I use this song when preparing and practicing tiri-ti. I have one person travel around the circle with two envelopes. Ones says "Ida Red" the other says "Ida Blue". Inside each envelope is an action like crawl, skip, gallop, twirl, crabwalk, hop on one foot, etc. On the last word of the song, the person with the envelopes stops between the two closest people and hands an envelope to each. They take out one card then when I say go, they race around the circle performing that action. If I feel one has an unfair advantage (like crab walk vs. run), I can make one go around twice. The winner gets to be "it" and the game resumes. This one is great for low la! The following two songs were a lot of fun for my fifth grades to create an arrangement of for our Fall Program last year. We used these plus "Who Has Seen the Wind" and added ostinato patterns and added Orff instruments. Each class was responsible for arranging how they wanted to perform the song. They might have chosen to singing sing just the ostinato, then add the melody, then sing and play on barred instruments, and then sing a capella as they traded spots with the next class who was moving onto the barred instruments. It was different for each class and it allowed for them to take something that we were working on in class, take ownership and polish it so that it was something we could present to parents. I used Mamalama strictly for the joy of it last year. It was a great "ice breaker" game for back to school time. My kids loved the challenge of learning the words. I had one girl nail it the first week, which was really cool. You could use this in prepping for fa but it is probably not one that I would use to present fa. This is another one that was played for the joy of it. My kids aren't to low ti yet and the syncopated rhythms are a bit above my kids, but they still need to sing and play this hand clapping game because it is fun. Here's a video of the hand clapping game:

Hello, this is Lindsay Jervis, from Pursuit of Joyfulness and Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom (on facebook). “The most important thing is to actualize the instinctive love of the child for singing and playing, to realize the changing of his moods through the songs, his feelings, his experiences. . . in other words, to bring about the miracle of music.” (Adám, in The Kodály Concept, 1966, p. 2) But HOW do we keep them singing as they get older? I really do believe that the love of music and singing must be something that is instilled from a very young age (most likely before they even enter our classrooms) because of the exposure to music and their musical experience in the home, but that being said, I do believe what we do once them come to elementary school can have a profound impact on what they think of music and music class and whether they WANT to continue in music as they go on through schooling and life. With the little ones, I have always felt this comes easy. Song, stories, and play are so much a part of what they love to do. With the old grades (I'm thinking 3rd-5th), you have to carefully select music, games, and activities that have just the right amount of challenge to peak their interest, keep them engaged, and meet their skill level without becoming too difficult that they give up and become frustrated. In my psychology of Music Ed class last semester we talked about the inverted U - as the challenge goes up, the performance and enjoyment of the students goes up until they reach their skill peak. After that peak, students feel stress, anxiety and give up on the task or "think it's stupid". This is where it is really important to know where your kids are at and select appropriate songs for them. The songs cannot be too babyish (even if the students really are beginners and need to practice things like steady beat and basic rhythm or tonal patterns). I still really consider my older students to be older beginners. I started at my school three years ago and my kids had NO method of reading rhythms or pitches when I got there, so that coupled with my maternity leave my 2nd year there, and they are still not quite up to speed, but that is ok. It is better to go at the pace of the students and do developmentally appropriate literature than push ahead for the sake of staying "on grade level". Here are some songs and games that I have done with my students. In some of these cases, we have used them to isolate rhythm or melodic concepts, but some we have used purely for the joy they bring students while participating. If you find a song that students can't wait to sing/play again- it's a GEM! Hang onto it! You know this one is a gem when I have 5th graders still request it every time they earn a free day. The game is very simple. Students are seated in a circle with their hands behind their back. One student is "it". I call it the "detective" with the older kids and for some reason that is cooler than "it". The first time we play I go around the outside of the circle with a key hidden in my hand. I hide the key in someone's hands. Once I have made it around the circle once, I stop and the detective gets three guesses to try to figure out where the key is. This song is great for older beginners because of the easy rhythms, it is also great for teaching re. With my older beginners I started melody with mi re do instead of sol-mi. Pre-made visuals for this song available here. This song is great for teaching sixteenth notes and the game is a lot of fun. Set up students in a double circle. Inside circle will move clockwise, outside circle will move counterclockwise during the song. Select two chicken farmers. They stand facing away from the circle on opposite sides of the circle. All students in the circles join hands and teacher selects one "window" in each circle. On the last word of the song (I only use verse 1 when playing the game), the selected partners hold their arms up to create a window. The two farmers must race, only going through the "open windows" to get to the middle. I usually borrow a rubber chicken from my PE teacher to throw in the middle. The kids think it is hilarious. This play party is played in longways sets with two lines facing each other (typically one line of boys and one line of girls). Verse 1, the first girl skips around both lines and back to her place. Verse 2, "pretty little Susie skips around set and boys line follows until all are back in their places. Verse 3, cast off, or "peel the banana", head couple forms an arch at the bottom of the set and everyone goes under the arch and the song starts over with a new head couple. Use when preparing and practicing tiri-tiri. If you would like visuals and assessment tools like the one below for this song, you can find some here. I use this song when preparing and practicing tiri-ti. I have one person travel around the circle with two envelopes. Ones says "Ida Red" the other says "Ida Blue". Inside each envelope is an action like crawl, skip, gallop, twirl, crabwalk, hop on one foot, etc. On the last word of the song, the person with the envelopes stops between the two closest people and hands an envelope to each. They take out one card then when I say go, they race around the circle performing that action. If I feel one has an unfair advantage (like crab walk vs. run), I can make one go around twice. The winner gets to be "it" and the game resumes. This one is great for low la! The following two songs were a lot of fun for my fifth grades to create an arrangement of for our Fall Program last year. We used these plus "Who Has Seen the Wind" and added ostinato patterns and added Orff instruments. Each class was responsible for arranging how they wanted to perform the song. They might have chosen to singing sing just the ostinato, then add the melody, then sing and play on barred instruments, and then sing a capella as they traded spots with the next class who was moving onto the barred instruments. It was different for each class and it allowed for them to take something that we were working on in class, take ownership and polish it so that it was something we could present to parents. I used Mamalama strictly for the joy of it last year. It was a great "ice breaker" game for back to school time. My kids loved the challenge of learning the words. I had one girl nail it the first week, which was really cool. You could use this in prepping for fa but it is probably not one that I would use to present fa. This is another one that was played for the joy of it. My kids aren't to low ti yet and the syncopated rhythms are a bit above my kids, but they still need to sing and play this hand clapping game because it is fun. Here's a video of the hand clapping game:

So, I've created my first concept specific packet for Teachers Pay Teachers. This is something that I have been debating to do. I want to make products that are accessible and usable for teachers, regardless of their training, experience or background. But I'll be honest that my products are created with the Kodály metholodogy and sequence in mind. That being said, I also don't want to undermine or sell products that you really need to create on your own when taking a Kodály level. I know, sounds kind of mean and selfish. Let me explain. I did my levels at Portland State (four years worth) and then two more (level II & III) at Colorado State University and I'm going to be teaching level II this summer at CSU. At Portland State I learned pedagogy from the brilliant, amazing Susan Brumfield. Then at CSU I had Sue Liethold-Bowcock and Ann Eisen, who, too were amazing and wonderful. Each of these teachers presented things in a different way. Some of the things that they taught me are amazing and I use them each and every year. There are other ideas that I pull out from time to time (you know what I mean. You go back to your notes or you go to a workshop and you recall something from levels and you say to yourself "oh yeah! I forgot about that activity or song!!") And other ideas flopped because either I was so overwhelmed with everything going in my brain that I forgot how to do the activity or I wasn't sold on it and in turn my kids didn't "buy it." Each of us are going to develop our own style and ways to prepare, present and practice melodic and rhythmic concepts. You get all these tools and ideas in levels, from your teacher and from your peers. Some are going to work beautifully and some need to be adapted and tweaked to meet the needs of your kids. When I started thinking about creating concept specific files I didn't want to give away my concept plans or some of my specific preparation and practice activities because I know that the plans HAVE to be specific to you and that some of the things I do you have to see in action because they are too complex or complicated to explain. You have to choose your song literature, you have to choose the activities that you like to teach (because face it, you won't sell it to your students if you don't like it). And with the activities, it's back to the old saying that there's more than one way to skin a cat. There are a gazillion ways to prepare and practice each concept. Each are wonderful and amazing and quite frankly creating and selling a file of things that I do that are concept specific overwhelmed me because of how vast of a task that would be!! So, I decided to go to the bare bones of ways that each of us prepare and practice elements and make things that really exam at the critical attributes of that element. So, the meat of this file is 10 PDF files (that you can run like a PowerPoint, the instructions are included or that you can convert into a PDF) that are adaptable so you can use them for either preparing, presenting or practicing Ta & Ti-Ti: There is notation for 15 songs and chants and games, if applicable. And I included my ta & ti-ti flashcards. Here are the songs that are included (I know, three of the songs are in the Bee Bundle, and these are similar but made specific for ta & ti-ti): There are also worksheets (I'll show you a couple more down below): Here's an example of one of the PDFs, they are all set up exactly like this, so you can choose what to use out of the file. There is a lyric slide: Then a beat slide(s): Then a rhythm prep slide with iconic representation: Then the presentation slides. This notation presents ta and ti-ti written both with and without note heads: Then immediately applying this knowledge to the song: Then reading it, this can be for immediate practice (same lesson as presentation) or later practice: And then one more time with note-heads: For every PDF there are two matching worksheets (which are in color and black & white): There is one that is a rhythm chart: To go with this, for practice after ta & ti-ti I created rhythm strips. There are multiple rhythms. I suggest in the file to print each set of rhythms out on different colored papers. Cut along the lines and then I tell you how many of each rhythm pattern to have in each set that you will then put in an envelope. This way, you can use the same set of envelopes with all 10 songs (rather than cutting all these strips and tailoring them for each song) AND the color coded strips make it REALLY easy to assess. As you look around you class to see who has the correct rhythms all you have to do is look at the color: There is a writing worksheet for that goes with each of the 10 songs in PDF form: And then I included rhythm preparation cards. I have to say that these are one of my favorite visual ways to prepare ta & ti-ti. (There are cards that match each of the 10 PDFs and the hearts for the chart). The idea is that the hearts only are in the chart. The class (or you could use this as a station) derive the way the words go. This is an example of "Jean Jean": (this is my big chart, it can actually hold 16 beats:) After your kiddos know ta & ti-ti, we then use this in early practice to go from the iconic to the symbolic representation. As you can see, the first line has been replaced (I usually just stick the cards on top and then sort them later): And here the whole song has been replaced: I also use the hearts on a chart like this. There are paperclips that I inserts into slots that I cut using an exacto knife that hold the cards in place: Same idea, then the rhythms replace the icons: This is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

In addition to my Kodály newbie blog this week, I’m here to talk about children’s literature for music class. What do you use? I love learning about new literature for the classroom!

Hello! This is Tanya LeJeune. I hope everyone is keeping warm. It’s cold here in Colorado! For my first blog post here at Kodály Corner I’m going to focus on what I refer to as opening songs. Before they walk into the music room, most students have been sitting in the classroom at their desk and working independently. In music they have to work musically as a group and independently. Students need to change gears. Opening songs set the stage for music and provide a warm-up for the voice and the brain. Additionally, the structure and predictability that an opening song provides is helpful in keeping students focused for the class time. The song we sing may or may not be connected to the specific concepts that grade level is working on. An opening song is not the focus of the lesson and should not take up more than a few minutes. Most of the opening songs I use are also canons and give us the opportunity to practice part work. I keep my opening songs for 1 – 2 months. As students become more confident singing their opening song we add complexity with canons, ostinati, and instruments. Here are a few opening songs I’m using this month. 4th Grade I Love the Mountains The 4th graders are preparing for their Colorado concert and this familiar song will be included. For concerts and performances I like to have an audience participation piece to end the performance. Sometimes the audience participation piece is a simple line dance audience members can do from their seats, (last year the students taught their families the South African dance Pata Pata,) and sometimes I choose a well known song. This might be the audience participation song for the Colorado concert. (or I may use This Land is Your Land, I’m still deciding.) I Love the Mountains is a good song to inspire the students to create accompanying movements. We'll sing and move in canon for the concert, possibly adding the audience as a 4th part. 3rd Grade To Stop the Train Here’s a fun and melodically challenging song to sing. I'm preparing low sol in 3rd grade and later we'll extract the last two note, "five pounds!" (We won't be decoding the rest of the melody!) The movements are as follows: To stop: hands out in “stop” position The train: slide hands together in a circular motion In cases of emergency: hands up “flashing lights”moving fingers out and in on the beat Pull on the chain: both hands up and pull down Penalty for improper use: waggfinger Five pounds: show 5 fingers on “five” and then flatten hand down as if to receive payment This song also provides great audition (inner hearing) practice. I'll have students audiate and perform the motions of sections until they are inner-hearing the entire song. 2nd Grade Are You Sleeping? The 2nd graders are practicing half note. Are You Sleeping is a perfect opening song for them. They sing the lyrics and then sing the rhythm syllables. I hand out hand chimes to four students to add the “ding, ding, dongs,” at the end of the song, (we sing it in F major with the hand chimes playing F C, F F C, F.) During the next class period we’ll turn the “ding, ding, dongs” into an ostinato with half of the class singing with the hand chimes. I have a ostinato song that is sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping that I’ll use as well. (It’s one of those songs I’ve known forever and I have no idea where I first heard it, definitely BK!) Soon they'll learn the Are You Sleeping? lyrics in french and we'll create a class arrangement using ABA form. 1st Grade The 1st graders love moving and grooving to That's a Mighty Pretty Motion! Due to the cold and snow, it's looking like we'll have an "inside recess" day everyday this week. You can bet we'll be very active in the music room! Stay warm and continue singing, playing, and learning!

A Different Approach to A School Program Happy Easter and Happy Spring everyone! This is Karla from CMajorLearning. I hope that everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year - flowers are blooming, grass needs mowing, allergies are back and kids are full of all kinds of wonderful energy! Ok - so maybe somethings about spring are not that great but it is a time of change, especially here in Ohio where everything is coming back to life after a long winters nap. And as spring comes around, the music teacher in me is drawn towards thoughts music performances, end of year assemblies and graduation celebrations of all sorts. I work at Indian Trail Elementary in Canal Winchester, OH, a K-2nd grade building of around 800 students. In years past, before state funding reductions and levy failures, there were 2 music teachers in the building (and both of us Kodaly trained). We worked together on everything from lesson planning to cross curricular work to music programs - boy do I miss those days and my fellow music teacher Liz Young. When the reductions hit, it mean that Indian Trail went from having 2 art, music and PE teachers to 1 in each department. Some significant changes had to be made in order for us to take on the large student/class load now placed upon us. While it was not an easy time by any means, the related arts program has settled into something that I can live with where I teach what I love to the age of students I love - really I can't ask for much more. One of the major shifts in thought and practice has been how we approach our music programs. It was nearly impossible for me to put together a successful performance for each grade level of 12 homeroom classes by myself - even the administration got that! So, when presented with this new challenge, the related arts department put our thinking caps on and came up with something new for our school with the focus on families and community building. We put together the Indian Trail Arts Festival - Super Hero's at Work! During this event, we invite families to come to the school for 1 hour on a Saturday morning where they can go around to different stations and do an activity that represents our related arts classes: art, music, PE and social skills. Each of us has taken a slightly different approach to this hour community building - and that is partly what I think makes it so much fun for students, families and teachers! For the music portion of the arts fest, students learn a game or dance during music class in the lessons leading up to the event and then we teach our families the 'moves' during one of three appointed 10 minute sessions during their hour at school. This year, my 1st grade students will be teaching their families "Sasha". I learned this from the New England Dancing Masters and you can get everything you need for FREE at their website. Click on the picture below to be taken directly to their website and download. If you are not familiar with this dance or even if you are, check out this youtube video. It is of adults (lets call them mature adults) - what I love is that they enjoy this just as much as my kids do!!! I love this game for so many reasons, it is a great mixer, can be done by anyone from age 5-95 and is a real crowd pleaser! It also allows me to teach my students about music from other parts of the world. My 2nd graders will be taking their families to Australia to play "Highway Number 1" by the Shenanigans. Click the image below to find the recording at amazon.com. In my classroom, the students act out the words of the song by driving on Highway #1 (it is a real highway in Australia - goes around the entire continent and is approximately 15000 miles long). When the music says "I stopped to meet someone", the students stop, listen to the action that is said and then do it. The music picks up again and we begin our driving. Along with learning the song, the students have been learning all about Australia. We have read a book on BookFlix titled Australia. (Does your school have this wonderful resource published by Scholastic? It is a service that provides books to be read on the computer - I just put it on the smartboard and off we go!). We learned about animals native to Australia, read the book "Do You Do a Didgeridoo" by Nick Page. Click the picture below to be taken to amazon.com for info on purchasing the book. We also listened to Didgeridoo music and we are going to learn the dance to "Sesere Eeye", a new song/dance in my teaching repertoire - can't wait to try it out!. "Sesere Eeye" and many other Australian repertoire can be found in Aileen Miracles "Australia ABC's: Musical Program" from TeachersPayTeachers, click the picture below to be taken to TpT. The students have enjoyed our preparation activities so far and are really excited to be the experts when we teach everything to our families at the arts fest. I have found that preparing for this event is fun for me and the students, a great out reach to our community and a wonderful learning opportunity relating music to other parts of the world. Last years event was a huge success and we are hoping for another great turn out - I'll have to let you all know how it goes in my next Kodály Corner post. What types of performances are you expected to do from your district, anything happening that is outside the normal performance format? If you are affected by reductions and cuts in funding, can you take a difficult situation and turn it into a positive event for your school? I would love to hear what others are doing to support their school and community in regards to student performances, especially with the younger students. Have a great week everyone - remember that no matter what type of performances you are doing with your students, you are making a difference in their lives each and every day!

The week before last, I finished up teaching Level I for the Kodaly program at DePaul University in Chicago. My class had 18 music teachers, and they were a GREAT class...so cohesive and supportive of

Kodaly teachers all know the importance of the Kodaly method for helping children to learn how to sing and get the full experience of music education. It’s an amazing philosophy that embraces the whole child. I’m inspired by Zoltan Kodály and his revolution in the teaching of music that began in Hungary. Some of the key […]

Winter greetings to everyone! My post today is inspired by the very cold weather we have been having in Ohio and how that has impacted my teaching this week! I know some may say that the weather in Ohio is not really that cold but this week we have had temperatures in the single digits with wind chills below zero everyday! A friend posted on facebook the temperature in Anchorage, Alaska - 36 degrees, the temperature in Canal Winchester, Ohio - 3 degrees! Crazy!! So with the very cold temperatures that means 2 hour delays for school, inside recess and no playing outside! I find the students to be very antsy and needing to get their bodies moving! I’m sharing 3 activities that I have used with my students this week for the sole purpose of getting them up and moving. One the students favorites is to do Jim Along Josie. I actually started using this in kindergarten with them because I needed a very short movement activity and they LOVED it! I play Jill Trinka’s recording off her cd titled ‘My Little Rooster’, Jim Along Josie is track 1. The first time I play it, the students must listen and tell me all the different motions are that she sings about (walking, skipping, flying like an eagle, jumping like a kangaroo and spinning). After listing them all, we get up and move the way she says. This recording is less than a minute long so it is short and sweet but serves the purpose very well! The first motion is to ‘jim along’, I tell the kids that I don’t know what it means to ‘jim along’ and that we have to come up with our own motion during that time of the song. Inspired by Sue and her video’s, I’m posting a short clip of my first graders doing ‘Jim Along Josie’! Another activity my students really enjoy and gets them up and moving is called ‘The Freeze’. I must admit that I have had this recording for a very long time and I think it was originally on a cassette tape that I transferred to a cd. I honestly don’t remember when I got it AND who it is!!! If someone knows, please please please tell me!!! The way I do the games is the music is playing and the students can move freely around the room. When the music stops, everyone must freeze in the position that is held up by a student. Since my students know this very well, I choose a student to hold up the cards. I have used many different ‘picture cards’ over the years but my favorite are ones I found on line! Get the movement cards FREE at Artie Almeida's Website http://www.artiealmeida.com/resources/Statues.pdf Shout out to Katie Wynkoop for spending a good chunk of time on a Saturday afternoon locating the download on the web for me - thanks friend! Here are my first graders playing 'The Freeze' Finally, I'm sharing one of the students favorite games of all time - I call it ‘Statues’. Very simple - when the music is playing the students can move freely about the room, when the music stops they must freeze like a statue. Now, statues don’t talk or giggle but they can blink and breathe. If you move when you are to be frozen you are called out. This is their favorite part, I give 2 students ‘jobs’ to do; one to start and stop the music (using the pause button on the remote controll for the cd player) and another to call people out (sitting at the front of the class watching - I can also call folks out too). These are the most sought after jobs of all! They are much harder than I am when calling each other out! The music used in this video is from Les Gustafson-Zook’s Skip to My Lou Songs of the Pioneers. Les has been to my school several times as an artist in residence and he is GREAT with the kids! He is an award winning autoharp player but plays all kinds of folk instruments. He does a great job teaching the kids song and how music was used in the past and sings all folks songs performed on traditional instruments in his sessions. I use his cd for many different things in class. You can find it at http://gustafsonzook.com Lastly - check out my own blog at CMajorLearning.com. It is brand new and I would love to hear from all of you! Have a great week everyone - get up and get moving and - STAY WARM!!!!

Happy Autumn everyone! Isn't this season great?! We are finally getting some colder weather where I live...so, feeling inspired, I wrote ...

Song Index

Develop music literacy skills with engaging spring elementary music activities for all learners. Update your lesson plans with creative ideas!

Song Index

We are in the final stretch!! I hope that you have had a moment to soak up some of the joy this season brings a midst all the insanity and chaos! Today, I am going to follow up my last post, "Ways to Practice and Prepare Rhythms" with the Melody Edition! Just like last time, this is not a comprehensive list. However, I keep this up as a reminder of the many, many ways I can help my students master melodic concepts! A quick FYI... These ideas are more related to helping your students learn to sing pitches and pitch relationships correctly, and not to staff work. Maybe that will be my next post. :) 1. Texting Sticks I first saw these used at the Colorado Music Educator's Conference. At first, I was skeptical. However, I find that my 2nd and 3rd graders really enjoy using them, and they are a great reinforcement of note relationships. The only draw back is that they have the whole scale on them... I simply sing a melody on solfege or a neutral syllable and then the students sing and "text" it back to me by playing the notes on their stick with their thumb. 2. Solfa Buttons/Melody Dots You can use these a lot of ways- echo singing, decoding, point to a pattern and then have your students sing it back. I especially like using this visual because you can remove/add notes as you introduce them. I find that it is a really great way to reinforce steps/skips and how notes relate to each other. Sometimes, I even have my students come up and put the buttons in the right order, leaving spaces where there should be spaces. If you don't have a set of Solfege Buttons, you can find my set on TpT by clicking here 3. Hand Staff I will often have students use a hand staff to "write" melodies. This is especially effective with limited pitch sets (so-mi-la), and it is a great visual and physical way to practice staff notation! 4. Hand Signs Using the Curwin Hand Signs is a great way to practice and prepare melodies. Some of the many ways I use them are: Sing my Sign- I will sign a pattern, but only sing the first note. Then they sing it back to me. Echo singing with hand signs Sign my Song- I will play a short melodic pattern on the xylophone or piano and they sign it back to me 4. Echo Sing This one is pretty obvious, but a very important part of developing correct intonation and pitch relationships for your singers! 5. Fill in the Missing Solfege I will notate a song in stick or staff notation and then have my students come up and write the solfege below the notes. You can have them fill in all the solfege or leave just a few blank. 6. Melodic Ostinato I love adding melodic ostinatos to reinforce the concept we are working on. For example, when my 3rd graders learned low sol, we used the song "Morning Has Come" and added an ostinato of "s, s, s, d" (three quarter notes followed by a dotted half). This is great practice of singing low sol and part work, plus it excites the kids to add complexity to the music! 7. Aural Decoding I sing a pattern on a neutral syllable and they sing it back in solfege. 8. Composition This could be a whole post, so I am not going to dive into it too much. However, composing is one of the best ways for kids to practice melodies (in my opinion). You can compose with manipulatives, using stick notation, on the staff... You can compose as small groups, a whole class, individual composers... The options are endless! 9. Orff Instruments Using Orff to reinforce melodic concepts is a great way to add variety to the singing-focused Kodaly lesson. When I teach ostinati or patterns on xylophones and other Orff instruments, I teach them completely through solfege. I have a big xylophone that I laminated so we can write the solfege on the bars along with the absolute pitch name, and that allows me to have a moveable do. It's also great, because you can take the bars off to represent the pitch relationships! Here are just a few ways you can use Orff to reinforce melodic concepts... Echo playing- you sing a pattern on solfege and they play it back on Orff Ostinati- add an ostinato to a folksong you are using to reinforce the note you are working on. Song Extraction- my kids love to extract "l s m s" and "m m r d" from 'Liza Jane and play it on the Orff instruments. Composition- Kids love to create melodies on the Orff instruments! 10. Question and Answer Phrases I sing a "question" in solfege and my student/students respond with an "answer." You can have a set answer that is a four beat melody everyone knows, have students come up with their own answers, or ask students to include some of your question in their answer. This is definitely challenging, but it can also be a lot of fun! 11. Don't Sing/Only Sing My kids love this one. When we are practicing a note, I will tell them "don't sing" or "only sing" the note we are practicing. For example, if we are are working on "la" I would have my students only sing the "las" in Bounce High, Bounce Low and I would sing everything else. You can also do the reverse and have them sing everything else while you sing the new pitch to help them hear the correct intonation. A final step is to split the class into two groups and have the groups sing each part. This works really well with older students, too! 12. Games that highlight the melodic concept The first example of this that comes to mind is "The Farmer's Dairy Key." The way I play this game, the gates lift up their arms at the high do (which is the concept I teach with this song). So, that is a great physical and visual reinforcement of that pitch. 13. Listening Examples I sometimes forget that listening is a great way to practice melody. Having students listen for melodic patterns, ostinati, etc. are GREAT reinforcements of new melodic concepts. I've mentioned it before, but if you haven't checked out "From Folksongs to Masterworks," I highly recommend it! 14. Dictation Dictation having students simply writing down what they hear, and it can be used at any phase of a melodic concept. If you are preparing, you can have the students write the solfege underneath the stick notation. If you are practicing, you can have them notate the melody on the staff. I like to mix-up my dictation by having them dictate from my singing, the piano, a xylophone, my recorder, etc. As your students get older, you can make the melodies longer and more challenging to keep them engaged! 15. Eraser Game. Write a melody (in either stick or staff notation) on the board. Have the students sing it and then "accidentally" erase it piece by piece until they have memorized the whole song. You can also have them rewrite the melody when you are done for extra practice! 16. Poison Pattern This is the same as the rhythm version, except with sung melodies. There are TONS of poison games on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can check out if you are looking for a specific concept to play with! 17. Mystery Songs Write a song in either stick or staff notation and have students sing it on solfege. Then have them try to identify the folk song. I often will give 3 or 4 choices to help students narrow it down! 18. Phrase Sort/Song Matching Cut up a song into phrases or short chunks and have your students put it back together. You can also show several short phrases and ask students to identify which song they came from (I provide a song bank for my students to use). It's also fun to include an extra or a mis-fit phrase to trick your students! 19. Flashcards Flashcards are pretty obvious, but there are SO many things you can do with flashcards. One game my students love is "Flashcard Elimination." I put 5 or 6 one measure melodies on the floor and then play a song for them to walk around to. When the music stops they stop at a flashcard. I then sing or play a melody from one of the flashcards. If they are at that card, they are eliminated and have to sit down. The game continues until their is one child remaining. It usually goes pretty quick (because you have a lot of control over which card you sing) and the kids are always asking to play again! This is a great way to reinforce reading and connecting sight and sound. 20. Resonator Bells/Boomwhackers While I don't love the sound of Boomwhackers, I really love that they allow you to practice how pitches are related to each other. Sometimes we will set up "Solfa Street" in my class with live people and instruments (like resonator bells or boomwhackers). Kids go for a walk down the street and "ring the doorbell" at each house. When they do, the child at that pitch plays their instrument. It's a fun way to get kids moving, listening and learning! I feel like I have only scratched the surface, but hopefully you have a new idea or two to take with you! Please comment with any brilliant ideas you have used in your classroom! Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season!!

It inevitably happens to every music teacher at some point in their teaching career: you have to call out absent. Whether it’s to attend a conference,

I love how many SO many ideas can be shared and gained via other people blogs and blog posts. It truly is amazing, I wish blogs were around when I first started teaching, the ideas really are endless! In fact, on my last post about Beat Strips Alisha (check out her fabulous blog by clicking here) replied about using beat charts for songs in kindergarten and first grade. This got me thinking, I've not shared these before, so here goes! I have to admit, I can't take credit for the charts posted below. In my district there's a growing number of music teachers that have Kodály training (when I first started I was the only one, it's so nice to have colleagues with similar goals and training now!!!). A few years ago we started compiling a collaborative song collection. Jenna Olschlager, one of my amazing colleagues and FRIENDS made a bunch of these that we all now use in our teaching. Basically, there are charts that track beat and then there are similar charts that track rhythm. They are great for assessing students' abilities to differentiate between beat and rhythm and for their reading/tracking skills. Below is one example: Beat Chart for Bee Bee Bumble Bee Rhythm Chart for Bee Bee Bumble Bee

I have gotten a lot of questions on my Facebook page about lesson plans, from templates to actually planning, so this blog post will hopefully help you with just that! Once I finish my long range (yearly or monthly) plans, I start to break it down, looking at what concepts I am preparing, practicing, and presenting in each month and begin to find the songs that will fit those concepts. For each lesson I make a column for rhythm and pitch so that I make sure that I am addressing both (no matter where I am in the Prepare/Present/Practice) in each lesson. It looks something like this. I start off just listing things and then I put them in order once I figure out how I want to weave the songs together (that's what the numbers are for): My first two years teaching I know there would be lessons where I would focus too much on rhythm and barely get to pitch, so making sure that I get a good helping of both kinds of activities has been a big focus in my planning since completing level 3 Kodaly training. I have also paid more thought to my transitions and how I will move from one activity or song to the next. In kindergarten, especially at the beginning, I tend to weave things together with stories, but as my kids get older I find more musical transitions. You can read more about those here. Last year, when I added kindergarten and pre-k once a month I knew I wasn't going to have them enough to have a seating chart, so I thought a lot about where they would be in my room, how they would enter my room etc. I decided I would have them start each class entering to music so that from the moment they walk into the door they are totally immersed in music. That wasn't something I had done with my 1st-5th, but it worked wonderfully. This year as I move to full day kindergarten and getting to see them three times a week, I am going to have to come up with a much longer playlist, but I love having something different every day (or every few days) to keep them on their toes. So basically once I have the rhythm and pitch concepts covered for my lesson, I figure out how I want them to be sequenced in my lesson. Which activities would be better at the beginning, the middle the end? I try to mix high and low areas of concentration. I always try to start and end with something that doesn't require a lot of brainpower, and put the "meat" or higher level thinking things in the middle of my lesson. So the pages of my lesson plan might look like this: Standards addressed... still getting used to the new ones, objectives, Prepare/Present/Practice, materials, song list Again a more detailed breakdown of which songs I am using for beat/rhythm concept, and which I am using for pitch/melodic concepts: And then procedures.... this is the HOW. How am I going to use this song? What am I doing with it? How am I going to get from this song to the next? How are my STUDENTS going to get from this song to the next? I usually don't script them out this detailed for just myself. In a perfect world where my fairy godmother comes and grants me a million extra hours in my day, maybe! BUT... I have just uploaded a sample lesson plan for Day 1 of Kindergarten. I do a lot more with procedures and music room rules than I do later in the year, but I still try to immediately immerse them in music, singing, moving, listening, etc. You can find this first day lesson for free here: This lesson plan includes copies of all of the songs I use, unless they are copyrighted in which case I provide a link to where you can find it, as well as links to book, recordings and other resources that I am using in that lesson. It is not intended to be a "print and teach", but a model to guide your own planning, show you what a lesson in my room at the beginning of the year might look like, and give you ideas for things to incorporate into your lessons or additional resources that you might want to have in your classroom. This first lesson is free sample of a semester long set of lessons that I am working on. Each will be in the same kind of format, opening with some kind of movement/listening for the kids to enter, and scripted throughout the entire lesson so that you know HOW I am using the songs and WHY. Again, these are not print and go, but they may contain a lot of new ideas that you can pull from. Find out more about the full semester set of 36 Kindergarten lessons here: Once I have my lessons planned for all of the grades for that week, I put them into a typed planner that looks like this: An editable version of this is included in the free Kindergarten Lesson #1 download. It takes a lot of courage and vulnerability to put your own lesson plans "out there". I have had many requests, and I am a bit nervous to do this because I know there is not a one size fits all when it comes to kids, music teachers, classrooms, resources available, scheduling, etc. I sincerely would welcome and appreciate your feedback on these lessons and hope that you find bits or pieces that you can use in your classroom!

There is a Level 1 which is MUCH easier- students write in ONE letter to play for each beat of rhythmic values. Level 2 students have to write (and practice) playing different notes for EACH rhythmic value- much harder. It's a great way to differentiate for your "superstars".

Music activity using LEGO DUPLO to build chords. Includes a free printable.

Have you ever had to teach with no voice? You know, that situation where you don't feel sick enough to call off and write sub-plans but can'...

Hello! This is Tanya LeJeune. I hope everyone is keeping warm. It’s cold here in Colorado! For my first blog post here at Kodály Corner I’m going to focus on what I refer to as opening songs. Before they walk into the music room, most students have been sitting in the classroom at their desk and working independently. In music they have to work musically as a group and independently. Students need to change gears. Opening songs set the stage for music and provide a warm-up for the voice and the brain. Additionally, the structure and predictability that an opening song provides is helpful in keeping students focused for the class time. The song we sing may or may not be connected to the specific concepts that grade level is working on. An opening song is not the focus of the lesson and should not take up more than a few minutes. Most of the opening songs I use are also canons and give us the opportunity to practice part work. I keep my opening songs for 1 – 2 months. As students become more confident singing their opening song we add complexity with canons, ostinati, and instruments. Here are a few opening songs I’m using this month. 4th Grade I Love the Mountains The 4th graders are preparing for their Colorado concert and this familiar song will be included. For concerts and performances I like to have an audience participation piece to end the performance. Sometimes the audience participation piece is a simple line dance audience members can do from their seats, (last year the students taught their families the South African dance Pata Pata,) and sometimes I choose a well known song. This might be the audience participation song for the Colorado concert. (or I may use This Land is Your Land, I’m still deciding.) I Love the Mountains is a good song to inspire the students to create accompanying movements. We'll sing and move in canon for the concert, possibly adding the audience as a 4th part. 3rd Grade To Stop the Train Here’s a fun and melodically challenging song to sing. I'm preparing low sol in 3rd grade and later we'll extract the last two note, "five pounds!" (We won't be decoding the rest of the melody!) The movements are as follows: To stop: hands out in “stop” position The train: slide hands together in a circular motion In cases of emergency: hands up “flashing lights”moving fingers out and in on the beat Pull on the chain: both hands up and pull down Penalty for improper use: waggfinger Five pounds: show 5 fingers on “five” and then flatten hand down as if to receive payment This song also provides great audition (inner hearing) practice. I'll have students audiate and perform the motions of sections until they are inner-hearing the entire song. 2nd Grade Are You Sleeping? The 2nd graders are practicing half note. Are You Sleeping is a perfect opening song for them. They sing the lyrics and then sing the rhythm syllables. I hand out hand chimes to four students to add the “ding, ding, dongs,” at the end of the song, (we sing it in F major with the hand chimes playing F C, F F C, F.) During the next class period we’ll turn the “ding, ding, dongs” into an ostinato with half of the class singing with the hand chimes. I have a ostinato song that is sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping that I’ll use as well. (It’s one of those songs I’ve known forever and I have no idea where I first heard it, definitely BK!) Soon they'll learn the Are You Sleeping? lyrics in french and we'll create a class arrangement using ABA form. 1st Grade The 1st graders love moving and grooving to That's a Mighty Pretty Motion! Due to the cold and snow, it's looking like we'll have an "inside recess" day everyday this week. You can bet we'll be very active in the music room! Stay warm and continue singing, playing, and learning!

Hi everyone! This is Kate from Kate's Kodaly Classroom. This past weekend was the Colorado Music Educator's Association Conference in Colorado Springs, CO. It was great to see so many wonderful presenters (like our very own, Amy Abbott!) and spend time with colleagues making music and sharing ideas. It is so easy to feel isolated as a music teacher, which is why I am so grateful for opportunities to collaborate and for all the online communities that have popped up to keep us connected and supporting each other! I am going to piggy-back on Karla's movement post, and add a few more ideas for you to try! I am a HUGE fan of movement activities. The more I learn and research, the more I am convinced that giving our kids chances to move leads to higher engagement, increased learning and many more smiles in your classroom. One resource I have been using recently and loving is Lynn Kleiner's "Kids Can Listen, Kids Can Move." I have put my "Kodály Twist" on a few of her activities and my kids love them! Here is a highlight... Hungarian Dance No. 6 with Queen Caroline Queen Caroline is one of my absolute favorites! Like many of you, I use this chant to teach beat, rhythm, high/low, inner hearing, quarter and paired eighth...it's a gold mine! Given my love for Queen Caroline, I was so excited to find a listening and movement lesson to connect to it in my classroom. I have adapted the story from the book, to go something like this... "Queen Caroline was throwing a birthday party at her castle for all the most important people in the land. She told her servants that they needed to be very proper and always bow or curtsy when they met a guest at the party. To prepare for her party she had the servants practice walking around the ballroom with their heads held high, bowing and curtsying to each other. What Queen Caroline didn't know is that when she would look away, her servants would dance and make silly faces to one another." I then play the recording of Brahm's Hungarian Dance, No. 6 (click here to hear the piece on YouTube) and let them listen for when they think the servants are serious or silly. There is a clear contrast between the a and b motives in timbre and tempo. They then get to act out the story walking around. You can also add another level, saying that if the queen (you) catches them being silly when she turns back around, they have to sit in "the dungeon" or sit out. It is fun, fast, and a good listening example for same/different and fast/slow for your Kindergartners or 1st graders. Plus, my kids BEG to play it, so it is a nice carrot to have on a wild or crazy day! There are many other great ideas for your younger students in this resource that you can tie into your folksongs, so I encourage you to check it out if you are looking for ways to meld listening and movement! It is always fun when you can make a connection to your classroom literature in a movement or listening activity, but I also try to find ways to include opportunities for movement in day-to-day activities. Here are a few more ideas of ways to get your kids up and moving... Movement with Flashcards Flashcards are such a quick way to practice concepts, but let's be honest- they can get boring. I am always trying to keep my kids engaged and IMPROVING when we use flashcards, so one activity I came up with was "Music Walk." For this activity, I give every kid a flashcard with the concept that we are practicing (rhythm works best in this activity). Then I play something fun for them to walk and dance around to (ABC by Jackson Five is always a hit) and let them move throughout the classroom. When you pause the music, they have to partner with the person closest to them and read the rhythm on their card. Their partner reads their card, and then they switch cards giving each kid a new flashcard. The music starts again and they repeat the activity. It gets a little noisy, but I have found that my kids get more practice this way than when we read as a whole class. I also will often participate with them and strategically partner myself with kids I know need a little extra help. Body Scales and other Simple Games I sometimes find that as teachers, our tool box gets so full that some of our simplest (but still effective) treasures get buried at the bottom. I keep a list by my desk reminding of all the basic ways to prepare and practice to draw from when I am lesson planning, and I find it really helpful! Things like body scales (having your kids move to show the contour of the pitch), walking the rhythm, chair dictation, etc. are great ways to give your kids a chance to wiggle and move while getting in some extra practice or preparation for what you are working on. Using Movement Canons to help with Part Work I am new to my school this year, and one thing my students need a lot of help with is part work. So, for my last tidbit, I thought I would tie into some of Sue's post and share some strategies for improving part singing through the use of movement. When teaching rounds, partner songs, ostinati, and harmony, I have found that movement is an awesome way to help your kids improve their part singing. Here's an example... My 2nd graders are pretty strong singers, but were struggling with rounds. In particular, I found that the 2nd group would often come in on the wrong pitch, matching the group that had already started. For example, in "Are You Sleeping," my students would start the round on mi instead of do. There are many strategies you can use to address this (maybe I'll get to that in a later post...), but one strategy I've found very effective is including movement. Movement helps kids visualize how the pieces fit together so well! You can break it down like this... Step 1: Divide your class into two circles. Have both circles sing at the same time, walking around the circle and stopping at the end of the song. Step 2: Repeat, but this time in a round. Being in the circle formation will help them hear their part, and the movement cues them to start from the beginning. I would recommend you join the 2nd group to start. Step 3: As a challenge, you can repeat the round in concentric circles. I have used movement like this for programs before... it looks and sounds beautiful! Adding movement like this, or even simple layered actions, gives your singers a visual representation of the harmony and keeps the active and engaged. I hope you are having a great week and that you will find some of these ideas helpful! Happy moving and grooving!

In recent years, this singing game has become an all-time favorite of my students. They ask to sing and play it ALL the time. The game comes from this book: It's published by the National Youth Choir of Scotland. There's also a version of the book for younger students and a version with singing games for older students. I am the proud owner of all three books. They are GEMS! While they contain a lot of the singing material I already own, they have different activities for them and the kids eat them up. They are WELL worth you money! Here's the song: And here's the game from the Singing Games book: Game 1: In a standing circle, the class sings the song while passing a playground ball to the beat. The student that gets the ball on the word “you” is out and sits down where they are. Play continues until on student is left. ** Note, students sit down in their spot which means as students are eliminated they must toss the ball over the seated students heads. In order for this to be successful you must carefully and proactively prepare your students for this activity. It’s tricky, but they LOVE it!!! And here's another way to play it: Game 2:: In a seated circle, class sings song while teacher walks around inside of circle pointing to one student per beat. The student pointed to on the word “you” moves to an instrument to play the chord bordon. Game repeats, and next student chosen moves to the first instrument as the first student rotates to a new instrument. Here's a PowerPoint that I created to prepare and practice the rhythmic and melodic concepts of the song. If you haven't noticed (and I think I've said this before) I structure my PowerPoints the same each time. Generally, rhythm is first (not always the case, my sequence dictates this, but generally the rhythm is accessible) then melody. But before these are the title, lyric and beat slides. Title slide: Lyric slide: Beat slide: Rhythmic preparation slide: Ta & ti-ti practice slide, rest preparation slide: Full rhythm practice slide (stick only, this is also written out in stick notation with note heads): Then, there are the melodic slides. These samples of the preparation slides for do: Visual representation of iconic notation with text: Iconic notation with solfa: Iconic notation on the staff with text: Iconic notation on the staff with solfa: These next two slides highlight the critical attribute of do: it's lower than la, so & mi and it's a skip below mi. Then, all of the preparation slides are gone through AGAIN but this time do is labeled: And then we move from iconic to symbolic representation (or as the students call it, the "real" notes): And then onto absolute pitch names (I generally start teaching these in third grade and I start with mi-re-do on B-A-G): This PowerPoint can be found in PDF form on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I hope you all have a GREAT week!

I have been struggling with 2nd grade recently. I have two 2nd grade classes who are just perfect little angels and I have two other 2nd grade classes who are little demons. It is really hard to plan for them because I can never anticipate what the evil classes are going to do! I was searching through the Music K-8 CD's and I found Pizza Love. I remember singing this song in elementary music and when I listened to it, I remembered all the words. So I decided to create a pizza lesson for 2nd grade. Of course we will sing the song, which I'm sure they will love. Then I am planning a rhythm pattern composition activity that I have adapted from the Music K-8 idea bank. Using pieces of pizza with note values attached, the students will make a pizza. This will be a good way to start teaching the number of beats in a measure, without them knowing it. I've been seeing a lot of activities relating rhythms and syllables of words on Pinterest and I think those are fabulous. I made one specifically for the pizza lesson using pizza toppings. I am pretty confident that 2nd grade will be able to do this because when I talked about syllables and creating lyrics in 1st grade, the students knew exactly what to do.

Today I'm giving a glance into my first day of school lesson plans, from TK - 5th grade. In the first day of music class, students are arguably the most attentive they will be all year. This puts a unique pressure on the first day's lesson plan to set the tone for the rest of our time together.

Song Index

This article explores the most common rhythm syllable systems used in elementary music classrooms today and works through pros and cons for each method.

Our students are ready to learn about half notes after they have a solid understanding of the difference between rhythm and beat, and lots of practice with quarter notes and eighth notes. The Significance of Half Notes Half notes represent a huge accomplishment in the lives of young musicians, bec

This awesome folk song has multiple uses. Its pentatonic range of low la up to la (la, do re mi so la) allows teachers to use it with multiple grade levels. The syncopated rhythms and dotted quarter note and eighth note rhythms make it engaging for upper elementary as well. The call and response format