Some Fall Target Finds!

This is just a really quick post about some of the fun finds that I found at Target.  

First, I found these fun Frankenstein erasers.  We're using them to write melodic patterns on the staff at various grade levels.  They might not really tie into the song, other than they are Halloween themed.  But I've also used them with my Monster Melody Madness files! :)

There are Candy Corns.  My school is a "no food" school, in that we can't have food in our classrooms, at parties, etc.  It's actually starting to cause a little problems, but that's a WHOLE other story.  I use to love to have the kids write with  real candy corn, but since I can't I was so excited to find these.  These are actually the inspiration for my "Learning the Treble and Bass Clef is Sweet" file.

These I found last year, but they also have some that are similar this year.  We use them for "Pumpkin, Pumpkin" writing:

And also for deriving the number of sounds on a beat:

This is a find from last year, which are fun to use with "Skin and Bones":

These were also a last year find, ghost table scatters.  They're made out of plastic and also can be used for sounds on a beat derivation:

These skeletons I use for "El Reloj de la Calavera", they have them this year too!:

These table scatters you can find this year, although I bought mine last year.  They fit perfectly in the staff.  I use them for "Little Leaves are Falling":

I love how they have red ones too. Tanya LeJeune's the one that gave me the idea for using the red table scatter on the new note, do:

 These are also table scatters that you can find this year: little acorns!  They're great for Hop Old Squirrel or Let Us Chase the Squirrel or for writing new or unknown patterns like below, both on the staff and for sound derivation:

Finally, there are also pumpkin table scatters (they're also a hard plastic).  These are great for melodic and rhythmic writing:

It's been a VERY busy past couple weeks (hence the lack of posts from me).  I hope things calm down soon.  I'm in the works for a "Free the Birds" melodic file of games that will be posted soon and I just posted my Turkey rhythms games on my TpT store in a bundled file.

Have a GREAT Friday everyone!

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Monster Melody Madness

This is a fun file that I've been working on and finally posted.  My Sugar Rush Rhythm files are pretty much the same, but with a candy theme instead.

This is the image for Bundle #1, but they are sold individually or in one of three bundles.  Each concept file contains multiple flashcards that I'll walk you through as well as 10 activities for using them for reading.

First, there are large Flashcards.  You can use this with a multitude of flashcard games: Sing What You Don't See, Poison, etc.  Something fun to do with flashcards, be it rhythm or melodic, is extract the element that you're working on, have one half of the class sing or clap the element and the other class sing or clap the rest.  So, in the card below, if la is the new element, the boys would only sing the la's and the girls would sing "everything else." And then of course switch.  This can also be transferred to rhythm flashcards.  Just another way to use flashcards. 

There are small flashcards, both numbered and un-numbered.  These are great for centers or small group games.  Also included in the file are staves on which students can use manipulatives to transcribe the stick notation onto.  There are a few different games with which you can use these:

There are landscape flashcards that are great for all those flashcard games too!:

 Here's an extension idea.  I found this puppet this year (those of you that read my blog know that I LOVE puppets):

Basically, you can build your own Monster Puppet, as all the parts come off.  I use this as an incentive to performing a flashcard by themselves.  If they do, the can add a part to the puppet.  They EAT it up!

Here are the team cards for the Monster Melody Madness Relay game.  Basically, it's a glorified team game of Post Office.  The students are in 2-6 teams.  The teams are lined up, like a relay team, on one end of the room with the cards spread out on the other side of the room.  The teacher either sings or plays a melody, the first person races to find that card.  To make it more competitive, you can add time limits to find the cards or only the first team to find the card wins that round.  Here are some sample monster cards:

There are also small landscape cards, that can be used like the other small flashcards.  These fit nicely into an envelope to play Post Office:

 They also fit well in these:

I found a bunch of these at Walmart this year before school started but you can also buy them at Zipit.  You can use these with beat passing games: instead of getting "out," a student reads a card instead.  For instance, you can easily turn "Pick-a-Pumpkin" into a hand passing game or a beat passing game, using a small pumpkin.

Here are the links to the files:

1. so-mi
2. la
3. do
4. Bundle #1: so-mi, la, do
5. re
6. low la
7. low so
8. Bundle #2: re, low la, low so
9. high do
10. fa
11.  ti
12. Bundle #3: high do, fa, ti

This I just finished this evening and will be added to my store tomorrow.  I made some disappearing song files and keep meaning to make more.  This one is a Halloween themed one, to use with the song "Pumpkin, Pumpkin."

It practices the song on text:

The rhythm:

The solfége:

Then they read it again, teachers choice.  Since it's a "Monster Stole My Melody" file, I personally would have them read the solfége:

And then the beats are removed, one by one, as an animated monster comes across the screen and "eats the song."  This continues until the entire song is gone and they're reading the song from memory.  I'll upload the link as soon as it's posted on TpT

I hope you saw my post that my email was hacked.  I can access it again and it's up and working.  Remember, now through the 31st for every $25 you spend at my TpT Store I'll email you $5 of product.  PLEASE do NOT put the free product in your cart as you will be charged.  You can email me at my school or home account. . . or for good measure, send it to both, lol!

This was thoroughly a Monday, I'm ready for a new day tomorrow! :)

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Erasers. . . . Repurposed.

If you've been following my blog you know that I keep Target, The Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby in business by finding seasonal things and adapting them for use in the music classroom.  lol!!!  (Although my husband would argue that there IS truth to that.)  I use to blog about more about these finds then I started posting a lot about my TpT products.  I'm hoping this year I can give you more of a balance between the two! :)

Here are some of this year's back to school finds, and YES, they're all erasers!

Here are some telephone that I plan on using to "phone in" a melody/melodic phrase (a.k.a. melodic dictation).  What I think is funny about them is that they are "old school dial" phones.  These will take some explaining, I'm sure!  These I found at BANKS School Supply, here in CO.  I believe they have on-line ordering.  It was 59 cents for a dozen, better than a Dollar Tree find!

The next is a Target Dollar bin find:

I'm using them for mi-re-do.   I LOVE using "Hot Cross Buns" with "Down to the Bakershop", which is a whole other post AND will be a TpT product soon:

And the final one for today is another BANKS find, these umbrellas fit "pretty well" in the staff, except the handles.  I bet you can figure this one out on your own! :)

Tomorrow I will post on another erasers find!!  This time, at Walgreens!

Happy teaching and singing!

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Scrambled Eggs

I've told you before, I'm an Easter Egg Geek.  

I love the darn things and I love that you can find them in a plethora of shapes, sizes and themes.  This year I even found Spongebob ones, but I showed restrain and did NOT buy any of those, lol!!!  What I really need to do is take some pictures of the "egg" containers that I've found over the years: cupcakes, Popsicles, fish, dinosaurs, hearts and I have songs for all of them.  This year I finally made some manipulatives to use with them and here's a preview of the Teacher Pay Teachers version that I also made.

I call it "Scrambled Eggs."  In the file are four main card ideas (although I must admit, the possibilities with this file are endless.)

The first set of cards in the file is geared toward "Chicken on a Fencepost," which I posted on yesterday.

The basic idea is it's a song sorting activity.  Inside each egg is 16 cards:

And the kiddos sort them out to write the song:

Here's more information, which includes specific directions on how to sort the cards and ways to differentiate/scaffold the activity (this slide is included in the file):

 And here's what the card looks like:

The next set of cards focuses on Shanghai Chicken:

Same idea as with "Chicken on a Fencepost," it's a song sort:

Here's more information:

 And here's the slide with the cards:

 The next three sets are open ended and not song specific.  You can tailor them fit songs that you are working on with your kiddos.

 This set works GREAT with simple 1st grade songs and can reinforce:

1.  ta  and ti-ti 
2. so mi and la

 Here are a couple examples of these card pages (there is a ta and ti-ti slide for each of the following: so mi and la):

Here's an open-ended rhythm set:

 Both the stick notation and the note-head versions of these rhythm cards contain the following rhythms:

1. ta
2. ti-ti
3. ta rest
4.  half hote
5. tika-tika
6. ti-tika
7. tika-ti
8. syncopa
9. tom-ti
10. ti-tom
11. tim-ka
12. ti-kam

Here are a couple examples:

 And here's a couple examples of the rhythms with note heads:

 Finally, there are solfa cards:

 My kiddos are REALLY struggling with hand signs, so all of these cards contain the hand signs.

Included are the following solfa cards:

1. so
2. mi
3. la
4. do
5. re
6. low la
7. low so
8. high do
9. fa
10. ti

You can find my Scrambled Eggs file at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Now, here's a couple of this year's Easter Egg finds (I found them at King Soopers, our local Kroger store).

There are bumble bees:

 I'm going to use ta and ti-ti cards with these.

The can practice writing out "Bee Bee Bumblebee" or I could fill them with the solfége cards and we could work on la:

There are frogs!!!

I sing "Frog in the Millpond" with ti-tika, so my third graders will be using these.  (I know some people sing it in augmentation. . . with ta ti-ti and half note):

The also had ladybugs and monkeys, which I am proud to report I DID buy, lol!!

I have a third grade concert this week and a choir concert next week.  If I go incognito, that's why! :)

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