Off to a Great Start

It’s the middle of the summer, but the first day of school will be here soon and it’s never too early to plan. What should my students do in music on the first day? It’s important to consider objectives prior to formulating a plan. My first day objectives are for the students to get excited about music and learn basic procedures that will make the class run smoothly for the rest of the year.

A typical first day in my K-3 classroom has the following activities: (I swap out a few activities in my 4-6 classes, but still incorporate some name games.)

1. Welcome students

I greet classes at the door and instruct students where they need to be seated. I generally have them enter single-file and make a semi-circle on the edge of the carpet. This is not the time to discuss discipline, unless there are issues that need to be addressed.

2. Get moving

After a brief welcome and introduction, perform a simple song that incorporates some type of movement. A call and response song with motions is a good idea, so students can participate immediately.

3. Assign Seats

Assigned seating makes it easier to learn/remember names and it reduces behavior issues. I alphabetize students by first name, because it helps me remember their names better. I always reserve the right to reassign seats, if discipline issues arise.

4. Play a Name Game

Incorporate instruments when appropriate. You may view my previous post, “Getting to Know You”, for some of my favorite name games.

5. Know Your Place!

Play a memory game for younger grades to help them remember where they sit. Discuss quick guidelines for moving (Demonstrate how to move – show good and bad choices and discuss boundaries, safety, space-bubble, etc.) 

• Move around carpet to steady beat while music plays
• Freeze when keyboard stops (at this point, continue movement activity or end by playing "tip-toe" music)
• Tiptoe back to seat at special melody (I play a certain melody in a high range - always the same song)

6. Be a Star Student

Discuss positive behavior expectations for the classroom. If discipline problems arise, this may need to happen earlier. If the class runs smoothly, go over the first few rules and complete the list in the following class for younger grades. In older grades that have been in my classroom, I typically go over the expectations quicker. Each expectation has a gesture, and we do the movement and say them all in order together. For a list of my expectations, free visuals, and a video of the movements, see my previous post, “Star Students”.

7. Sound Cues

Introduce the cues to K, and review for older students Specific pitch intervals are sung or played and students respond with the appropriate movement. When introducing each cue, words are sung that instruct the students what to do. Later, they will be able to following cues without the words.  

• Stand up (sol- high do) (g1-c2)
• Turn around (all high do-re-do) (c2-d2-c2)
• Jump up (high do- high so) (c2-g2) 
• Lie down (do- low sol) (c1-g) 
• Later, add Sit up (low sol-do) (g-c1), but it can be easily confused with “stand up”, since they are the same interval in different octaves. 

8. Line Up

Discuss proper way to line up, exit, etc.

If time allows, another song or activity can be added to the lesson plan.

Next week

The following week, I take pictures of each student with my iPad to enter into the app, TeacherKit. It is a great tool that allows you to put photos of students and place them in a seating chart to assist with names. It can also be used for tracking progress on objectives. You can learn more about it in my previous post, “4 Apps 4 Teachers”.

I hope this helps get your creative juices flowing with ideas for getting music off to a great start. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Is Your Open House a Mad House?

I recently read Mrs. Q's post about her school's "Meet Your Teacher" night. She has some great ideas that she implemented for her evening and even provides a template for an informative Keynote presentation that you can customize to meet your needs. Her opening description of how this type of event goes in a music room made me laugh, because it sounded so familiar. If you are a music teacher, you understand how loud and chaotic these nights are when you mix crowds of people with drums, xylophones, and other exciting instruments.

My school's Open House is near the end of the year, and I have to admit that our classroom teachers are brilliant! Some of them have their students create a list of places to visit, such as the gym, art room, music room, and media center. After a brief time in the classroom, students are encouraged to take their parents and siblings on a tour of the building. While the classroom teachers prepare to leave on time, it seems the entire student body & family are in the music room playing drums, xylophones, and anything else I was unable to hide. Okay, I exaggerate a little, but it really does get crowded, loud, and chaotic.

I love getting to know parents, but it's impossible to have a conversation with the noise and the stress of watching 2-year-old children bang on $1300 instruments. I've watched mallet heads fly across the room while parents are oblivious, and students who would never run around banging drums or digging through instrument bins during class seem to believe everything in the room is free game during Open House. I used to attempt to put as many instruments out of harm's way as possible, but there are only so many places to hide numerous large instruments.

I needed a solution to the madness, so Open House would be a pleasant experience. In addition to running a slideshow, I've tried one other activity that went fairly well. It was actually just a way to organize the chaos, but it also served to educate the parents about what we do in music class.

I set up stations in the music room, and created a handout to serve as an educational guide. I gave specific directions about what to do at each station and gave brief background information about some of the instruments. The goal was for students to complete each station while educating parents about what they are learning in music. Meanwhile, the plan was for me to be able speak to parents at the door as they entered or exited the room. I can't say that it worked perfectly, but I feel that the handout and stations gave parents an idea of some of the things their children do in music class, and the stations kept people moving around the room with purpose.

If you want to further reduce the chaos, you could select stations that do not require playing instruments. Students could demonstrate music software, games, manipulatives, flashcards, whiteboards, smartboards, among other activities.

Do you have strategies for a successful Open House? I'm always looking for new ideas, so please share!

Dress it Up

As teachers, we all like to motivate, inspire, and even entertain our students. Our classrooms can help us do all three. Creating an inviting environment that children want to enter is an easy way to get them excited about coming to class. Below are some ideas for dressing up a music room.

Hallway Inspiration

Our classrooms are in a wing of the building that was constructed a few years ago. The hallway was sparkling clean, but very bland. I found several adorable printables of inspiring quotes from Shannon at Technology Rocks Seriously. The link to the printables is below.

Our art teachers had a quote they wanted to use, so I created one to blend with the others. I was able to do this because Shannon provided great info on fonts that she likes to use in her prints. I picked up a few mats and black frames from Hobby Lobby, and now we have a wall of inspiration over the water fountains in the hallway. They are the first thing the students see when they enter the hall from the stairwell. The framed prints really brighten the space and give students something to read and think about while they stand in line for water after physical education class.

If you like these printables, you can find these and many more at:

Technology Rocks Seriously School Signs

If you would like to create custom printables like these, read Shannon's post:

Technology Rocks Seriously Font Post

Make an Entrance

Our rooms are side by side, and we like to create unity by decorating our entrances the same. This year, I wanted to try out an idea I saw on Pinterest. These window treatments were a breeze to make and required no sewing.

Mounted between the doors is our school mission statement. I used the same fonts that are in our Star Student posters, plus a couple more that you will find in Shannon's favorite font list in the post linked above. I think the fonts fit the personality of the mission statement. I printed it on cardstock and taped it to a canvas that I had previously painted for my daughter. Fortunately, she no longer wanted it, and it matched perfectly! Your mission statement or quote could also be printed with a border, such as black with white polka dots, so there would be no need for a painted canvas.

If you are interested in making streamer curtains like these, visit Maggie at Black and White {Side by Side} for directions. For reference, I purchased 1 yard each of 4 lightweight cotton prints, and 1 yard each of 2 colors of tulle. That was enough fabric to create the treatments for 2 doorways. I ripped the cotton fabrics into strips, but had to cut the tulle with scissors. I put the fabric strips on tension rods with the idea of mounting them inside the door frame. However, our door frames are metal, and two heavy duty clip magnets from Office Depot allowed us to mount them a little higher. These could be used for window treatments, as well.

Frame It

These hanging frames were created from a 4x8 sheet of foam insulation (the pinkish purple kind found at home improvement stores). I cut the frames with a jigsaw, but you could use a sharp knife. Next, I painted them with craft paint. Spray paint eats the foam (I learned the hard way), so stick with craft paint. It's cheap and available in a plethora of colors.

These frames were originally made to use as decorations for a tool shower. There were saws, pliers, and such hanging inside. I brought them to school, found instruments to fit in each frame, and put 3 on each side of the screen at the front of the room. A tiny hook in each of the top corners allows them to be hung with picture frame wire that is attached to the frame of the dropped ceiling.

Cute & Functional

Sometimes, Janet and I take our classes out of our rooms. Whether it is next door to meet together, outside to practice recorders, or down to the auditorium for a rehearsal, it is important to let students and teachers know where we are. We used to jot out notes on index cards or Post-it notes before rushing off with our class. Finally, we realized that we could just print and laminate signs for places we consistently go. We picked up some cute cards from an invitation shop and printed the signs and laminated them. Now we keep them on our whiteboards in a clip magnet, ready to pop on the door as we leave. 

Bright & Cheery

A well-placed pop of color or humor can draw a child's attention. My students sit on the floor, so this flower friend is right at their level, smiling at them every day. In addition, I painted this bright flower and added a quote about excellence to inspire students to work hard every day.

Keeping it bright...

I wrote about this table in Make Your Furniture Rock. It provides a fun sitting area that serves as a reward for hardworking students. The cabinet was also a makeover several years ago. It began as an old, battered, army green metal cabinet. I covered it with white contact paper and added vinyl decals. It's still not my favorite, but it will suffice. It provides great storage, and at least it is bright now!

Speaking of bright...my room has 9 windows! The back wall is completely filled with windows. Adding these valances really made the space much cozier. I used bulletin board paper to make a pattern with waves that would be opposite when the fabric folded over a tension rod, so the contrasting fabric would peek through. Each window is about 42" wide. 1 yard of fabric and 1 yard of contrasting fabric was used for each window.

These are just a few things that I hope brighten the day for my students, since their smiles brighten mine. :)

Have fun dressing up your space!

Winter Concert Reflection

It's only September, but Janet had a 1st grade student ask when we could start learning our Winter Concert music. It is probably because our students enjoy working hard to accomplish a beautiful choral sound and performing for an audience. We begin working in kindergarten to achieve a nice singing voice, without yelling. As our young students try what we ask them to do in order to sing correctly, they hear what a difference it makes. The result is that they are more than willing to go the extra mile to sound like a million bucks on stage.

All of our K-3 students perform in the winter program. Each grade has approximately 125 students, so each grade level sings separately. Every group sings 3 selections, which include a Hanukkah piece, religious Christmas, and one secular holiday or winter song. We try to pick as much traditional music as possible, so children will be learning songs we feel are important to know. They get so excited when they hear their songs on the radio.

Following the concert, we have all the students think about the performance and complete a Winter Concert reflection sheet. We enjoy learning how they felt while performing, what made them feel successful, what they found difficult, what they thought the audience liked, and something funny that happened. After they complete the sheets, we put them under the document camera to display on the screen for the class to see. Each student shares what they wrote, but they can choose whether to display their picture, or not.

Here is an example of a completed form. One of my favorite parts is that she thinks she is good at dropping her jaw. Even her picture shows her doing that!

If you would like to use this activity with your students, you can download a free PDF of the reflection sheet through the link below. PDF includes a simplied version for K students.

Winter Concert Reflection Sheet

Speaking of concert reflection, I am posting an audio clip of a performance by our 3rd graders from 2009. It is still one of my favorite songs we have included in the winter program. These little guys are now our big 6th graders, so forgive me if I get a bit sentimental!

Are you ready for the holidays? I'm getting closer, thanks to one eager first grader.

Let's get busy!