Oct. 31-Nov. 4

Happy Halloween! Do you know what All Saint's Day usually marks in any music classroom in any American classroom? Introduction to Christmas music! We'll be taking a one-day break by learning some music for Veterans' Day.

MON - Halloween Music-a-Thon
TUES - Veterans' Day music
WED - Christmas music listening
THURS - Christmas music choice
FRI - Christmas music choice

Oct. 24-28

K, 1
MON - add rhythm to animal names
TUES - Name Song
WED - Voices go up & down
THURS - Halloween songs

2
MON - instruments listening
TUES - rhythm vs. beat
WED - Review of rhythm & beat
THURS - Halloween songs

3
Halloween songs

5
MON - Review of beat & rhythm
TUES - Latin percussion listening
WED - Reading Rhythms
THURS - Halloween songs

6
MON - add instruments to Oh La Le
TUES - Codas, DS, steel drums
WED - pentatonic scale
THURS - halloween songs

Oct. 17-21

It's hard to believe how quickly this 9 weeks has flown by!

K, 1, 2

MON - My Thumbs Are Wiggling, instruments and shapes
TUES - Draw your own instruments, play with xylophones
WED - Skipping & galloping
THURS - Acting out The Old Gray Cat
FRI - Difference between beat & rhythm

3

Halloween songs all week for performance

5, 6

MON - Piano review
TUES - Beach ball treble clef note review
WED - Start on bass clef
THURS - Come up with their own acronym for lines & spaces
FRI - Grand staff review w/ BW's

Oct. 10-14

With this being a short week for me (I was gone Monday), it totally messed up my normal Monday schedule! Last week, we had SO much fun learning the piano in 3rd, 5th & 6th grades, we're working on them again this week. Nothing makes a piano player happier!

K, 1, 2
Tues - Review dynamics
Wed - Add dynamics to a poem or phrase
Thurs - Solfege tic-tac-toe
Fri - Poem & rhythm

3, 5, 6
All week - Piano playing

Oct. 3-7

Good morning! Although it's going to be hot outside this week (with very little rain forecasted again), we're going to be doing some COOL stuff in music! In fact, Students in 3rd, 5th & 6th grades will be learning how to play the piano! Through my cleaning this summer, I found about 80 cardboard pianos. Although they won't be able to hear the fruits of their labor until the end of the week, I think they'll enjoy being able to go home and say they know a few songs on the piano!

K, 1, 2

MON - Solfege reviews
TUES - Learning note names in correlation with the treble clef, quarter notes
WED - Beginning of dynamics - Forte
THURS - Piano
FRI - Combine 2 and add mf and mp

3, 5, 6

MON - Drawing treble clefs, review of treble clef notes, solfege review
TUES - Beginning to piano - white keys, black keys
WED - Doggie with the Big Black Ears
THURS - Asian Descent, Keyboard scavenger hunt
FRI - Keyboard scavenger hunt, add pitches to compositions

Animal Songs

This is a project we did with Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd graders. By the end of the week, you will be able to click the links below the pictures to hear sound clips from each group's project. In the featured pictures are 2nd graders' animals they colored and made a song about. This was such a fun project!

Who's This Dude? for Sept. 23

This last week's Who's This Dude is a very tragic character. The prolific composer's name is Robert Schumann. His life very much coincides with Mr. Brahms. The commonthread? The love of Mr. Schumann's life as well as Mr. Brahm's love - Clara Wieck Schumann! Scandal, I say!

To view the presentation as well as the videos we watched together, you can click the link below:

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AaXaHXYlP7MuZGNtZHh4YmNfMTU3Z2g0bXF3Z2M&hl=en_US


This week's Who's This Dude is American! Aufedersein, German composers for this week!

Sept. 26-30

Another full week of classes! This week is going to be focused on the notes of the treble clef for grades 2-6 and solfege will be the big thing for K & 1st grades. I will not be posting specific lesson plans this week because our pacing has been thrown off by last week's picture day, Oh Say Can You Hear Presentations, etc. We will get a lot covered this week and be back on track by Monday! Happy Fall Ya'll!

Oh Say Can You Hear? The Presentations!

Well, we finally finished this awesome project! Below is a link to all the hard work our students did. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

6th
Kyleana, Mason, Kel -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfMjM3Y2NzeDVxZzU&hl=en_US


Sonya, Celianna, AJ -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfMTI0Yzk0Mm1uZ2M&hl=en_US

Steven, Hannah, Donielle, Ravyn -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfMTQ3aG1rcXgyY3M&hl=en_US

Kelli, Megan, Lily -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfMTc0ZzJwdHBjZjY&hl=en_US

Emily, Zeke, Kole -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfMjA5Z3p3ZGdnZ3E&hl=en_US

Trevor, Aspen, Haylee -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfNDZjOWg5ZGJkOQ&hl=en_US

Britney, Bailey, Genna -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfODFmcGJqc2twbg&hl=en_US

Jacob, Gavin, Cassidy -
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWlKhqwiy_X2ZGNtOXpyamRfMTAwaGJuYm1mZjg&hl=en_US

Sept. 19-23

Another exciting week!

We will continue to work on solfege in all grades this week. We're all learning, including myself!

K
TUES - Giant's Shoes
WED - Giant's Shoes
THURS - All Work Together
FRI - Time to Sing

1
TUES - Scarves activity
WED - Willum
THURS - Sleep Bonnie Bairnie
FRI - La ranita cri

2
TUES - Do Re Mi
WED - This Little Light of Mine
THURS - add instruments to previous songs
FRI - learn quarter notes

3
TUES - Happy Wanderer add boomwhackers
WED - solfege simple songs
THURS - write in solfege wksht
FRI - student generated songs

5
TUES - finish projects
WED - present projects
THURS - present projects
FRI - present projects

6
TUES - present projects
WED - present projects
THURS - solfege simple songs
FRI - solfege wksht

Oh Say Can You Hear?

In 5th & 6th grades, we have gone into great detail about national anthems, not just our own but other country's. We studied India's, Canada's, China's and the US's thoroughly. They now are creating PowerPoint presentations for this project. They were assigned into groups and each group has a different country. Here is the list of their responsibilities for the project:

1. at least 6 slides with a title slide

2. Video on PowerPoint

3. Song learned & ready to sing

4. Lyrics in original language and English translation

5. A picture of their flag

6. History or story behind the national anthem & its themes

7. Location of the country in your Slideshow

8. Location on your grade’s big map photo

9. RESOURCES!!!


We will be posting the link to all these presentations when they are finished. I will take video of all of them doing their presentations for us so all you parents can see the hard work they've done!

Sept. 12-16

Yay for full weeks! This week, we're working on using our voices much more efficiently and beginning to use the most important tool to being good singers I believe - solfege.

K, 1
MON - The Ants Go Marching - drumming
TUES - Scarves activity for high & low sounds 
WED - Singing high & low sounds on piano
THURS - Create their own sounds - groups of 2
FRI - Finish sharing songs created

2
MON - The Ants Go Marching - Drumming
TUES - Scarves activity for high & low sounds
WED - Singing high & low sounds on piano
THURS - Solfege hand signals
FRI - Pitch memorization of solfege beginning with middle C

3
MON - Matching pitch sliding around up & down until it's found, pitch memorization of middle C
TUES - Learn solfege hand signs
WED - Add rhythm to stepwise motion
THURS - Add rhythm to short skips
FRI - Something fun out of book

5, 6
MON - Work on project
TUES - Work on project
WED - Work on project
THURS - Presentations (?)
FRI - Presentations     

Who's This Dude for Sept. 9!

 

Our Who's This Dude? for the week is Mr. Johannes Brahms! Quite possibly the most handsome of the composers of his day, he hung with unsavory characters, playing in bars for immigrants. As a result, his music is colorful, vibrant and very unique. He mixed the Hungarian styles with the more traditional European music of the day. He was one cool dude. I really wish this cereal was real!

Sept. 6 - Sept. 9, 2011

This week, we'll be spotlighting other country's patriotic songs as well as moving and grooving in the younger grades!


Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd Grades
TUES. - You're a Grand Ol' Flag, book, What's a patriot?
WED. - Review You're a Grand Ol' Flag, My Country 'Tis of Thee, Star-Spangled Banner, different versions, instrumentations
THURS - Marching games - Jump Jim Joe & finding the beat
FRI - Finding the beat with drums, difference between beat & rhythm

3rd Grade
TUES - Review legato & staccato
WED - Star-Spangled Banner
THURS - other national anthems
FRI - Go over project & start work 

5th Grade
TUES - Finish compositions
WED - Star-spangled Banner
THURS - Other nat'l anthems
FRI - Go over project & start work
 
6th Grade 
TUES - Star-Spangled Banner
WED - other nat'l anthems
THURS - Go over project
FRI - Work day on project


Have a great week!

Who's This Dude?

Just thought I'd share with you what Who's This Dude? is since it will be in my lesson plans every week...

I have a bulletin board outside my room and every week, there is a new picture of a famous composer. Every student in the school has the opportunity to participate in the guessing of who it is. I put up a new clue every day of the week until Friday. They're coded or as if the composer himself were saying them in little speech bubbles (I'll post a picture later). In order to win, a student must find me and whisper it in my ear. They don't want to share with their friends because only one person gets a small prize for getting the Dude right AND their name on the announcements the next day! Last week's winner was a 5th grader on Monday - it was Beethoven. I found out later he did a project on Beethoven at the end of last year. He better know who it was! :)

At the end of the week, we will talk about the composer's life, some of their accomplishments, but most importantly, listen to their attributions to our society through music! I hope this will be one more enriching musical experience for each and every student in the school! See if you parents and teachers can guess who my Dude is for this week! But SHHHHH, don't tell your kiddos!! That's cheating!!

Aug. 29-Sept. 2, 2011

Hello! This week we're going to be focusing on making some sounds and making sure our voices are making the right sound in K, 1 & 2 and a little bit in the other grades. I can feel the 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders wanting to sing so badly! We need to make sure we can handle instruments in class first before we can handle pieces of music and textbooks carefully.

K, 1st & 2nd Grades
MON. - Review all Hello & Goodbye songs, do solos if they want them
TUES. - Telephone Game, High & Low sounds using cards for high & low sounds (bear, pony, drum, chicken, etc.)
WED. - Work on more high & low sounds, move to the beat, slow or fast, walk in a circle, move arms, etc.
THURS. - Review beat songs, work on matching pitch (with piano, with my voice, with neighbors) 
FRI. - High & low sounds w/ rhythm scarf - Dark Eyes, The Bear, Saint-Saens' Aquarium)
 
3rd
MON. - Review rhythm, time signatures, measures, practices of finding wrong measures
TUES. - Compositions
               -2 measures in partners, 4/4 time, play for class
WED. - Finish compositions
THURS. - Beginning to articulations - legato & staccato
FRI. - Drawing pictures of articulations, Hall of the Mountain King, Holst's The Planets

 
5th & 6th
 MON. - Finish sharing compositions
TUES. - Articulation to Rhythm (legato, staccato with examples)
WED. - Articulations cont.'d (accents, slurs) play on drums, add to other rhythms & articulations
THURS. - Composing Tests
                        Groups of 3, 4 measures using all tools learned ->Worksheet
FRI. - Playing Tests

Aug. 22-26, 2011

This week is the start of a new week and new teaching units for each class. The younger grades will be learning new songs all week so we can start and end the class the same way for the rest of the year. We will learn 3 hello songs to greet one another and 2 goodbye songs to say “Adios, Amigos!”

We’ll start the 3rd, 5th & 6th grade units off with a short pre-test at the beginning of class which is described in the lessons. We’ll be building from learning the concepts, practice, activities, reviews, then finally application and creation of their own examples to test their classmates by the end of the week.

Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd Grades
MON. - Review class procedure, seating charts
             Learn the Hello Song found in textbooks

TUES. - Review Hello Song
                Learn “Bien Venidos” - welcome song in Spanish

WED. - Review Hello Song, Bien Venidos
             Learn “Adios, Amigos” - goodbye song in Spanish

THURS. - Review all songs learned so far
                Learn Bonjour, Mes amis - hello song in French
               
FRI. - Review all songs learned so far
            Learn Happy Trails - final goodbye song

3rd, 5th & 6th Grades
MON. - Pre-test - heads-up 7Up game - note values
               Quarter notes
                Half notes
                Whole notes
-labeling parts of the notes, values, clapping different combinations of rhythms, familiar songs consisting of these note values, playing rhythms on different instruments such as drums or boomwhackers

TUES. - Quarter, half, whole notes continued practice
              5th & 6th start work on 8th notes

WED. - 3rd - 8ths review and practice on Boomwhackers
           - 5th & 6th - Combination of rhythms, working on syncopation with drums and Boomwhackers

THURS. - 3rd - Combo like 5th & 6th from Wed., tap or play rhythms for everyone
               - 5th & 6th - Review of time signatures, measures, meanings of measures, what the                 numbers mean, problem measure examples (worksheet)

FRI. - 3rd - Review all, time signature, measures, Textbook Scavenger Hunt
        - 5th & 6th - Compose with all tools with a partner
                                       -Choose a time signature for all
                                       -Use designated note values
                                       -4 measures
                                       -play with a friend, 2 compositions together
         
ALL GRADES - Who's This Dude? of the week Spotlight - Beethoven!

The First Day!

I’m so excited for the first day! I hope all the kids are, too. I’m looking forward to getting to know each one of my students, their likes, dislikes, gifts, but more importantly, their love of music! We’ll have TONS of different musical activities going on through the year and this will be a way to keep everyone informed of the awesome things going on. Here’s the schedule for the day:


Kindergarten, 1st,  2nd and 3rd Grades
Overview of class routine
Overview of rules
The Name Game - each student gets to choose an adjective to help me remember their name, then they have to remember the last person’s adjective and name

5th & 6th Grades
Overview of class routine
Overview of rules
“Music Is...” - One student will read the quote on the wall. Each student will  then write down what music means them. We’ll put these up in the classroom, then at the end of the year, we’ll revisit this and rewrite another one. My goal for this year in all the classes is gained music appreciation. What better a way to illustrate music appreciation than through the student’s words themselves!
Fun Things - Student gets their number called and tells their name & one fun thing you did for summer or an interesting fact about themselves.