Jingle Bells Dance

Confession time: I'm sometimes a Sunday night planner.  Okay, a lot of times I end up planning on a Sunday night.  Now, I have my year, trimester and month plans scoped out of what I want to teach.  What I find myself on Friday nights doing is putting down how I'm going to teach it and the song literature and activities that go with that.

My first are practicing ta & ti-ti and of course "Jingle Bells" a good song for isolating ti-ti ta ti-ti ta on the "jingle bells, jingle bells" part.  Now, pardon my rush but the only version of Jingle Bells on my computer is in augmentation of how I sing it and have my kids read it:

We're going to be doing some reading work of ta ti-ti in the high concentration portion of the lesson and deriving the ti-ti ta ti-ti ta on "jingle bells, jingle bells" is going to be my transition into the "change of pace" portion of the lesson, which will be a dance that goes to Jingle Bells.  

There are two ways that I do this dance.  The easier version uses a parachute and the more advanced version has concentric circles with partners.

Here's the parachute dance directions:

Formation: circle, everyone holding on to the parachute.

Action:

Verse (32 beats total)

Beats 1-4: heel-toe-heel-toe with the right foot (dashing through the snow)

Beats 5-8: four slide steps to the right- like a side-ways gallop (in a one horse open sleigh)

Beats 9-12: heel-toe-heel-toe with the left foot (o'er the fields we go)

Beats 13-16: four slide steps to the left. (laughing all the way)

Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats

Chorus (32 beats total)

Beats 1-2: with parachute in hands, three pats on feet to the rhythm (jin-gle bells)

Beats 3-4: three pats on knees, to the rhythm (jin-gle bells)

Beats 5-8: four pats at waist, to the beat

Beats 9-16: lift the parachute over the head.  I call a color and those students with that color let go of the parachute, turn around in place and re-grab parachute.  Now, if your students are really careful those students on the colors called can run under the parachute to another spot of that same color.  This is the FUN way to play! ;)

Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats.

When I do this with older kiddos we do it in a concentric circles.  

Formation: concentric circles, facing partners (one in the outside circle, one in the inside circle)

Action:

Verse (32 beats total)

Beats 1-4: heel-toe-heel-toe with the foot that leads in the counter-clockwise direction.  This is the right foot for the outside circle and the left foot for the inside circle (dashing through the snow)

Beats 5-8: four slide steps counterclockwise- like a side-ways gallop (in a one horse open sleigh)

Beats 9-12: heel-toe-heel-toe with foot that leads in the clockwise direction (o'er the fields we go)

Beats 13-16: four slide steps clockwise. (laughing all the way)

Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats

Chorus (32 beats total)

Beats 1-2: with right hands, partners pat each other's hands three times to the rhythm (jin-gle bells)

Beats 3-4: with left hands, partners pat each other's hands three times, to the rhythm (jin-gle bells)

Beats 5-6: with both hands, pat three times as in the first two steps.  **This will NOT match the rhythm

Beats 7-8: clap own hands three times.  **Again, this will NOT match the rhythm

Beats 9-16: join hands with partner and do a full circle turn

Beats 17-32: repeat the first 16 beats, with the exception that in the last step, after the full circle turn everyone takes an extra step to the left and then has a new partner.  This has a really nice flow and even the older kids enjoy it!

I want to thank everyone that took advantage of the Facebook Frenzy and is now following me on Facebook!!!  There's still time to grab some of those amazing freebies!!!  IF you would like to read some more specific on the files and how to use them, head on over to Aileen Miracle's blog. She did an AMAZING job of highlighting how she's going to use the Freebies!!!

I'm going to be having another freebie give away this week.  Make sure you follow my Facebook page and blog for directions on how to get that freebie!

Also, through Tuesday, everything in my Teachers Pay Teachers store is 15% off.  If you're a late planner like me, check out some of my Christmas games.  They're a fun way to practice musical reading all the while keeping all the holiday energy engaged in musical learning! :)

Santa's Lost His Jingle Bell Stick-to-Staff Activity

I recently posted some Polar Express melody files and in those I included a sets of flashcards that have jingle bells and a set that Santas on them.  My second graders are preparing do but we're also still practicing and reinforcing re, especially in the s-l-m turns and m-l intervals.  When I was creating the file it dawned on me that it would be fun to do a stick to staff matching game.  This week we used them during whole group instruction with the goal of doing it again in small groups.  

Now, I know that reading stick notation is easier than staff notation but since we're in late practice of la, I wanted to drill some staff reading.  So, first the classes sang through the flashcards written on the staff.

Next, I showed them a stick notation flashcard.  Now, at our staff meeting this week we talked about wait time. I'm HORRIBLE at wait time.  With such a limited time of seeing the kids I feel a constant pressure to squeeze as much as I can into each and every second of a lesson.  But when I do this I rob my students of processing time.  So, this is what I tried with this activity: instead of raising their hands when they saw the matching staff card, I had them point to the card on the floor.  I was able to get a rough idea of which card they were pointing and it gave them ALL time to think, process and check their work.  And really, it didn't take all that much longer!

Here's a sample of what it looks like to match the stick to staff cards:

Here's one of my 2nd grade friends matching the card.  After each match we did a "thumbs up/thumbs down" signal to check our work.

I love how my buddy in the blue is helping his friend:

The whole matching activity, from start to finish of reading the flashcards and matching the card to each other took about 5 minutes, perfect for a 2nd grader's attention span and they felt so accomplished.

Just a friendly reminder that the Facebook Frenzy is going on now through Sunday.  Head on over to my Facebook page (you'll have to "like" it) to download your freebie, my Winter Beat Strips File.  This will be priced at $5 in my TpT store starting Monday but you can get it now for free!!

Make sure you go all the way through the Frenzy, for you'll end at the FABULOUS Aileen Miracle's Facebook page and you'll want to grab her fun Build a Snowman Activity!

(Oh, and the cute Christmas Lights border in the image above was downloaded from the Clipart Frenzy!  Thank you to "A Sketchy Guy" for this file!!  You can visit his TpT store by clicking here)

Have a GREAT Weekend everyone!

Thankful Thursday Link Up and a FACEBOOK FRENZY!!!!

I'm so glad that December is here!!!  It's one of my favorite months and I think that the main reason is I get a nice break to spend time with my own two kids and I love the festive feel: the music, the lights, the family and friends.  I know November is the time to be "Thankful" but I've always felt that, personally, I've always been more thankful in December.  I am incredibly blessed with amazing family and friends and I get to spend more time with them.

So, it's coincidental that Aileen Miracle start this Thankful Thursday Link-Up:

Here are a few things that I am thankful for:

1.  These three:

I adore these three people and am so incredibly blessed that they are the first three people I see in the morning and the last three I see every night.  They are incredibly understanding of how crazy the life of a music teacher can be!  I'm also incredibly thankful that Noah and Hannah go to my school.  I am thankful that I am able to have time to volunteer to teach music to preschool to Hannah's class in the morning and that my planning time coincides with Noah's lunch time.  I love seeing them throughout times of the day that, with any other school or job, wouldn't be possible.  And my husband, he's my best friend and everyday inspires me to be a better person.

2.  I'm thankful for my AMAZING students, families, staff and school.  The families I work with are so supportive. My colleagues are the BEST teachers and I'm so honored to work with them and to have them teach my own children.  Here's a little example: because of the amazing support of our families we had a very successful holiday wreath fundraiser (we raised just shy of $3,000) and I was able to take the top sellers out to limo lunch yesterday:

It was so much fun spending time with the students, not in the music room or at school but just celebrating and riding in high style!

3.  I'm thankful for the amazing networking that we all have access to.  Because of  blogs, Facebook and Twitter we are all more connected and it makes it so easy to share ideas on how to better our pedagogy, learn new ways to do things and get more ideas for our classrooms.  I have been blessed this last 1.5 years with this blog.  I love the comments that are left on posts, I love the collaboration with other bloggers and the way my teaching has improved because of other amazing teachers sharing their ideas.

Speaking of technology, I have recently collaborated with a group of teachers on Facebook for a Music Teacher Facebook Frenzy.  You won't want to miss this great opportunity to get some free files (about 16) to use for your classroom!

Here's a preview of my Freebie, it's a Winter Themed Beat Strip Collection (similar to my best selling Regular & Thanksgiving Beat Strip Sets).  

Here are couple examples of the beat strip cards:

And here are couple of the composition & diction mini-cards:

There's also the full size composition cards.  This product will be available for FREE during the Facebook Frenzy tomorrow through Sunday and then will be available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store for $5.00 after the Frenzy, so grab it now for free!  All you have to do is "like" my Facebook page, if you dont' already.

Simply click on the blue penguin picture:

Then, make sure to follow the frenzy all the way through for more freebies!  Aileen Miracle and Lindsay Jervis are also participating in addition to many other talented and creative music teachers!

So, there you have three of the things that I am thankful for today.  I am also incredibly thankful for all of my readers and TpT customers/followers.  This has been a very fun year, starting my teachers pay teachers store and receiving all your amazing and valuable feedback.  It's always so much fun to hear how my products are being used in your classrooms!  Thank YOU so much for all your support and postive feedback!  Thank you for connecting with me! :)


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Music-A-La-Abbott/140312909479829?ref=hl

Yankee Doodle and a HUGH TpT Sale!!!

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a GREAT Thanksgiving!  I'm going to be breaking out the seasonal songs and games with my kids this week.  We have a little less then 3 weeks until Winter Break with one of those days being a late start.  So, I will see my Kinder-3rd graders 3 times and my 4th & 5th graders 4 times.  There's not really any time to start any new conceptual learning so this time will be spent with a lot of reinforcement of known concepts and a lot of prepping and repertoire building for when we get back.

My 5th graders are currently prepping ti.  This is the EARLIEST I've ever been able to do ti and I'm quite giddy.  They will also get to at least tim-ka (dotted eighth-sixteenth) before May and that too makes me giddy.  I have NEVER taught tim-ka!!  This is in part to it being my 3rd year with the majority of the kiddos and the other I really believe is that I'm teaching children who speak my same "native tongue."  You see, I worked in a "bilingual" school for 10 years prior to being at Red Hawk.  Bilingual is in quotes because it really was an English-language acquisition school.  90-94% of the students' first language was Spanish which means, with me being an English speaking teacher, they were learning in their second language or in a language which was new to them.  As much as I tried to learn repertoire that I could use in my teaching that was from their culture it couldn't replace the fact that I did not grow up with that musical language.

Wow, that was a tangent!

At any rate, back to ti.  My fifth graders are preparing ti, which means we're singing and playing and moving and creating with a lot of repertoire that includes ti.  This brings me to Yankee Doodle.

Mallory Harrison, our past ROCKE president, learned a hand clapping pattern at the OAKE National Conference last year at one of the sessions that she attended.  At Susan Brumfield's ROCKE workshop last year she briefly showed it to me.  I'm not sure if I remembered it correctly but here's the gist:  she learned it to Yankee Doodle (which, there is a fun play party for this song in "The Handy Play Party Book".  If you don't have this book, buy it for yourself as Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa present, you deserve it!).

Here's the "A" section, I'm sure you all know the song:

The hand clapping pattern, facing a partner, goes:
right hand (of partner)
clap (own hand)
left hand (of partner)
clap (own hands)
both (hands of partner)
clap (own hands)
both hands with partner, with inter-linking fingers.  (weave fingers like you are "folding" your hands, then twist your fingers so that they are towards you and your palms go to your partner).
back (against own hands)

Then the pattern repeats.  The 7th step is the hardest (and the hardest to explain)

This was a lot of fun, but we like to kick things up in the music room, so after the finger-weaving pat they changed partners (we were in concentric circles).

Here's a little video of one of my 5th grader classes so you can better see it:

Just a reminder that there's a HUGE Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale going on at Teachers Pay Teachers tomorrow and Tuesday!

Everything in my store, and many others, will be 28% off!  I was hoping to have my Polar Express files included by tomorrow but I'm not sure they will be.  So, once I do get them posted I will sell them at 20% for the first two days that they are available.

I hope you all have a GREAT week!

Wishlist Wednesday

Hi everyone!  First of all, Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!! 

In case you didn't hear, Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale!  I will be taking 20% off everything in my store, as will MANY other sellers.  Then, if you enter "CYBER" as a promo code, TpT will take 10% more off (the 20% off price) for a total discount of 28% off!!!

This means next week will be a great time to stock up on teaching materials for December and beyond (sounds kind of like Buzzlightyear, huh?!)

In honor of this sale, a couple blogs are hosting a linky party:

RebeccaReid Homeschooling blog:

And Lindsay at the Pursuit of Joyfulness:

 I know there are many things I'd like to stock up on!  Some of it includes clipart from TpT's amazing artists.  I absolutely LOVE this set by MyClipArtStore:

If you follow me on TpT you know that I also posted a bunch of "Santa's Rhythm Racer" files.  These include fun games, activities and PowerPoints to practice various rhythmic concepts.  Here's a couple sample slides:

This is from Santa's Rhythm Relay Race:

And here are some sample flashcards:

There's also two PPT's with each set.

Right now I'm working on Polar Express Melody sets that will have a melodic relay race (my kids are really into these right now), flashcards that can be used for many different games and Golden Ticket PowerPoint games.  Here's a couple teasers (I hope these are done by Monday!!):

Have a restful, relaxing and wonderful day with your family, friends or whoever and however you spend the day tomorrow!

Turkey Thanksgiving Pie Activity

Happy last week of November everyone!!!  I hate to tell some of you this but we're already on break- both my husband's and my district have the entire week of Thanksgiving off.  It's kind of nice to get our heads above water (or almost to the surface) before diving down for the final bit of school before Winter Break.  He goes back to two weeks of teaching then finals week (he teaches high school social studies) and I have three different performances within 8 days plus a fundraiser field trip.

Here's a little activity that we did last week that the kids had a great time with and they were composing.  I was able to use this as an assessment. . . an assessment in the final days before vacation.  Crazy.  I know!

I made the Turkey Fraction Files (you can find them on my TpT store).  The students were divided into 5 groups- each group had 6 people and each group had one complete pie of ta, ti-ti, rest, tika-tika, ti-tika, tika-ti.  My 4th graders also had two pies with syncopa and my 5th graders had 2 pies of each tom-ti and ti-tom.

Their task was this: individually compose/create one pie (and be able to read it to me).  Here's an example of a complete pie:

Then, with their group, combine their four beats with at least two other members of their group (AND be able to read it to me).  Here's an example of that:

Then, within their group combine more than two patterns (AND be able to read it).  Here's an example of four pies:

From there, the possibilities for how they did this were endless and it was fun to see how creative some of them got.  Some groups made chains of pies:

This group chose to wind their pies in a square pattern:

This group made their pies into a circle and then read it in a round with each other (clever, huh?!):

This group was into making letters, here's their "Z":

And here's their "F":

I love what this group did: they left spaces between the four beats to represent bar lines (by the way, see the bag in the middle?  Target find, I bought 5 of them, stuck the cards into them and that's the way I distributed the cards.  The kiddos when they picked them up returned them to their bag and that was that!):

This is one of my favorites, "Angry Pie Rhythm Face".  The eye brows make four beats, each of the eyes is four beats and the smile is composed of 16 beats.

In case I don't post before Thanksgiving day, I hope you all have a happy, healthy and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Manipulative Monday. . .on a Tuesday

I'm a day late the party- that's the story of my fall, lol!!  I can't get ahead and am looking forward to having all of next week to get some rest, put up the Christmas tree (yes, I'm one of "those" people- but let's face it, December is a busy month for music teachers and I wouldn't have time otherwise) and get some school work done.  I'm working on some new Christmas files and I can't wait to get those ideas down! 

Thanks to Lindsay for hosting this party yesterday and thanks for letting me join in late!

I've been meaning to blog about this find for a while.  I love using poly dots in the music room -there's a million different ways to use them from "poison" rhythms to floor mate note heads to grouping students- the list is really endless.  So when I saw these new poly dots in S&S's catalog I had to get some:

  They are dots that you can write on and erase off.  Now, let me tell you know, DO NOT use dry erase markers.  They work but you have to use EXPO remover to get the ink off and at it's best it still leaves a smudge.  If you use these, Vis a Vis markers are the way to go.

Here's a couple of many ways to use them.
1.  Tone ladders.  Here's an example of a pentatonic tone ladder

From here there are a lot of activities that students can do.  

1.  Remember Simon?  If not, it was one of my all time favorite toys growing up. Simon would play a pattern and you would have to remember the pattern and play it back.  The cumulative pattern was my favorite.  In this game, the teacher would sing a note and the student would sing it back, jumping on the corresponding poly dot.  The teacher would sing two notes, the students would sing it back and jump on the two corresponding notes, etc.  I can fit quite a few of these in my room so I have the students work in groups of 2-3.  

2.  Sing and jump a written pattern.  I used this with some of my melodic turkey files this week.  Instead of just singing the solfege back, the students also had to perform the melody by jumping on the tone ladder (talk about getting those pre-vacation wiggles out!).  I have also used this for those hesitant singers as a way to get them engaged

3.  Perform Q & A patterns- the teacher sings a question pattern and the student sings and jump backs an answer pattern (ie. question: d-d-m-m-d-d-m; answer; d-d-m-m-r-d).  This is a higher level thinking skill!

4.  The possibilities are endless!

Here's another idea that pertains to rhythm and Kelly Foster Griffin shared this idea.  I don't remember the piece of music that Kelly used but you can use it with any piece of music that has a tempo that matches your students' music reading ability level.  There is a circle of rhythm patterns.  As the music plays they perform the rhythm at the poly dot in front of them then during the next 4 or 8 beats they advance to the next poly dot, have a second to look it over, read it and then the pattern repeats (4 or 8 beats to walk forward and look at the rhythm the 4-8 to read the rhythm (longer rhythms with older students to challenge them))

Here's one of the simple rhythms. Notice the blue smudge- don't use dry erase!! :)

Happy Tuesday everyone!