"Treble Clef is AWESOME!!!"

Happy Friday everyone!!!  So, I guess some of you lucky friends are starting spring break!!  I hope you have fun, I know I have three more weeks until spring break.  AND SO much to do before then!!

My 4th and 5th graders read off the treble clef all year but before I start recorders I do a lot more focus around the treble clef.  Last year I made a few files, including "Be a Staff Detective",  for teaching and reinforcing the treble clef.  It worked really well but I'll be honest, I'm a little MADD (music form of ADD) in that I get bored using the same thing every year and like to have some different ways of teaching concepts throughout the years.

When my son insisted we all go to the Lego movie it sparked some ideas of new ways to teach things and I'm really happy with the first product.  If you read my blog you know that I've blogged about using Legos before in relationship to solfa and half steps.  I've been meaning to blog about how I used them in tim-ka preparation.  So, this is the first of a series of files for "BUILDING" music literacy and it's called: "The Treble Clef is Awesome!"

These past two weeks my students and I reviewed the basics of the treble clef through a PDF in the file called "introduction to the treble clef".  Then, working individually but also with a lot of peer help and teacher input, we practiced writing with Legos on the staff.  Side note: I've noticed since I've used the Lego file this year a lot less students are confused about the numbering of the lines and spaces.  We talked about that, like building legos, you always start at the bottom of the staff and go upwards with numbers and figuring out the names of the lines and spaces.  (I've always had those kiddos that remember "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" but always start from the top line.  This really helped alleviate some of this confusion.)

We started by me showing them a word slide:

Then they wrote it on their own staff.  Their jobs were to also check their work with a neighbor.

And then we checked our work as a class by switching over to the document camera to check our work:

The other thing I really liked about using the Legos for notation is how much it helped the space and line placement.  This is what we'd like it to look like, with the line notes centered on a line and the space notes filling up the space.

With the students I told them to imagine that if their Lego was transparent that, for a line note, the line would go right between the two raised circles on the Lego.  And that if it was a space note, the line would not cross through the Lego.  I made these two slides (the one above and below) to demonstrate and this type of activity will soon be included in my "Lines and Spaces are AWESOME" file:

This week we went on to playing a word to staff game as a class in which they were divided into two teams.  From there, one team would pick the number of letters in the word they would like to try for (and points are equal to the number of letters in the word):

Then they would choose from one of 6 builders:

 And that would pull up a word, such as this:

 Both teams were expected to write the word out on the staff.  The team who's turn it is gets to answer first but if they are wrong, and the other team has correctly spelled the word out on their floor staff then they can steal the points.

Now, for some reason, this year the kids in 5th grade are very competitive so I've added red points.  Red points are added when I hear someone being negative on a team and are deducted at the end of the game.

Additionally, my students are doing time tests each time they come to music.  They all start on a 90 second test.  When they pass they go on to 60 seconds and from there they go on to 30 seconds.

Organizational wise, all the students have a "folder" (it's a 12x18 piece of construction paper that's folded in half and has their name on it).  Each class is a different color and I keep 4th grade in one file box and 5th grade in another box:

Inside of their folder there is a tally sheet on which they write a goal for themselves (this is a goal for the month of March.  Some students want to try to pass the 90 second test where as some want to race me (which is what happens if they pass the 30 second test)).  The tally sheet has four columns: one for the date, one labeled "90", one labeled "60" and one labeled "30".  If they are on the 90 second test then they fill in the date and put their score in the "90" column.  If they are on "60" then they fill in the date and their score on the "60" column:

There are many more treble clef activities that we are going to do and they all can be found in my "Treble Clef is Awesome" file.  Here's a little preview of some of the games, worksheets, assessments, matching games and 8 interactive PowerPoints that are available in the set:

Coming soon is are:

"Bass Clef is Awesome!!"

"Lines and Spaces are Awesome!!"

"Solfége is Awesome!!" (which will be a set of handsign charts, tone ladders, etc.)

"Melody is Awesome!!" files that will have interactive PowerPoints

My goal before the start of the 2014-2015 year is to have a "Music is Awesome" set that can be used as a bulletin board and a school year theme.

And I'll also be working on concept files, similar to my ta ti-ti and so-mi files. Phew, my work is cut out for me! :)

I hope you all have an AMAZING Friday!!!

A Peek At My Week

I saw that Aileen had linked up for a new blog party, and with MY CRAZY week I thought this is was actually a blog that I can do right now.  So, I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffins Laughings for her "Peek at my Week" Party.

 My kindergartners are, like all kinders, working on comparatives. We're getting into short and long sounds.    Last year I found these cute finger puppets at Oriental Trading.  Each child gets one to use during class and they used them almost the entire lesson yesterday.  We started with vocal exploration exercises where their bees followed mine (echoed)

Then we used a bunch of the songs from this collection on my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

With the bees they were "worker bees" and had to listen to the queen bee (me, you know, it's great to bee queen, right?!  And no, I didn't just spell bee wrong, tee hee!!).  With many of the singing games we were either keeping the beat or the rhythm.  We also did the finger play, "Here Is The Bee Hive" and some of them liked to put their bee puppet into their hive.  

In the second lesson this week we'll be reading the lyric slides

And looking at the beat slides

And starting to look at the iconic rhythmic representation for the rhythm:

Now, my 1st and 2nd graders this month are in concert prep mode.  My first graders are performing a concert themed, "Songs America Loves to Sing".  We are a core knowledge school and they're learning American symbols so we have a couple patriotic songs. And then we're also singing a Pete Seeger song, and "On the Good Ship Lollipop" (we have talked a little bit about Shirley Temple) and then some great folk songs.  Second grade's concert is "Singing 'Round the Campfire" so we've got some great call-response songs, cumulative songs and fun camp songs.

My third graders and my choir & hand bells have a concert tonight.  So, after today my third graders will be getting make to a more traditional music lesson.  We'll be using some of the St. Patrick's Day files that I've made.

My 4th and 5th are delving more into the treble clef and working on fluency.  I'm working on a HUGE file that will be in my Teachers Pay Teachers store later this week called "The Treble Clef is AWESOME!".

Last week we reviewed, here are a couple snippets of some slides from "teaching the treble clef" ppt:

Last week they also took a pretest:

And this week they're starting time tests.  Some have passed this so they'll move onto 60 seconds next week:

They've worked with matching cards. These are the harder cards that 5th grade worked with:

And the game that I'm pumped up about this week is the "Where's my pants" game.  If you've seen the Lego movie, or your students have talked about it, this is a little "Game Show" that they have in the movie.  So, this is my "Treble Clef Builder" set version of the game.

The point of the game is to help the builder find his missing pants.  There are 9 builders that need help.  First, teams select a builder:

Then, they must help the builder find his pants by matching the word on his shirt to the correct staff notation:

If they are correct, they see this slide:

If they miss it, they see this slide and have the chance to try again:

So, that's a little bit of my week!  I hope you all are doing amazing!!  Like I mentioned, the "Treble Clef is Awesome" file will be available later this week.  And then I'll be finishing up the "Bass Clef is Awesome".  I'll also be working on a lines and spaces version of the file, as well as a recorder and solfége version of the file.  Phew, I have my work cut out for me, lol!

Wish List Wednesday

In case you haven't heard, Teachers Pay Teachers has reached a major milestone!!  AND because of this many teachers are joining in their HUGE sale this Thursday and Friday, including myself and many of my other music teacher friends and TpT sellers!

And so, because of this, I'm hosting my very first Link Party, called Wish List Wednesday:

If you're a blogger, all you have to do is download the "Wish list Wednesday" image above and then blog about some things on your TpT wish list, or on your classroom wish list.  You might want to include something from your store, something from another music teacher's store and something from some one's store who is non-music.  Then, just link up below! :)

Here are a few things I'd like to highlight.

First: something from my store.
I did do a recent blog on my new St. Patrick's Day files, so I'll just highlight a few of the things that are included in that file in addition to flashcards.

There are two interactive PowerPoint Games.  The melodic files include a stick to staff game, here's an example slide:

And the rhythmic files include some rhythmic practice slides, like this one:

There are some "relay cards" that are used in a variety of games, and all the instructions are included in each file. Here's a couple examples of those:

And then there's also the flashcards.

2.  Something from another music teacher's store.
This is from Jamie Parker's store and it's a file call Rotten Eggs. Here's a description:
Good Egg/Rotten Egg Melody Game: So-Mi

This springtime variation of "Could it be so-mi-so-mi?" will have kids delighted to read from the music staff and allow you an opportunity to assess their ability to correctly identify the skip between so and mi.

In this game, a pattern that shows "so-mi-so-mi" in the music staff is a Good Egg. Any other pattern is a Rotten Egg. Included in the product is an activity for small groups or centers, an interactive PowerPoint, and many printable egg patterns.

Here are a few images from Jamie's file:

3. Something from a non-music teacher's store.

Wow, I have a few!! There's a lot of clip art that I like.

Scrappin' Doodles have TONS on my list, including this cute set:

I also have tons of things on my list from Digiclips' store, including this set:

And of course Edusong, this is a super fun baseball set:

And of course there are things from Ashley Hughes and Lovin' Lit that are on my list as well!!

Now, my mom's a music teacher. She would say she's one of those "old fashion" teachers but she's going to take the plunge and make her FIRST Teachers Pay Teachers purchase this week!!! She's been DYING to get one of these awesome Clip It files. Chrystine at "Tweet Music" has these awesome files and I'm most likely going to get one of these sets myself!

I'd love to hear what's on your wish list! And if you're a blogger, please join the party! All you have to do is blog about your wish list and link up by this Friday. It's that easy!

   

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