Fun Activities for December in the Music Room

I'm having a hard time believing that it's December!!!  First, we went to Disneyworld for Thanksgiving so it doesn't feel to me like we've had that holiday yet.  Second, it's SO WARM here in Colorado. In fact, many of the days that we were in Florida it was hotter here at home! 

But, the show must go on and I must accept this is actually December, right?!!    So, I'm teaming up with my friend Aileen Miracle of Mrs. Miracle's Music room to share some things we're doing in our classroom this month.  I do have some traditions that I do in my class every year that I love to keep from year to year and I thought I would share some of them with you, as well as some of the new things we're doing this year.

Tried and True: Thanksgiving Activities

Hi there everyone!  I hope that your November is going well! I know my family and I are getting SO EXCITED as we're going to Disney World in three days!!!  But I thought I'd share with you some of the activities we're doing this week in music.

Grinding Corn:  I LOVE this song. I learned it from my cooperating teacher, Cindy McCaskill and use it every year.

Comanche Hand Game

Hi everyone!!!  Happy November!  It's hard to believe that we're already this far into the school year!

I LOVE the songs and games that November brings and they fit so well into my curriculum!  My third graders are prepping low la so I thought I'd blog about a song that I love to use to teach low la:  The Comanche Hand Game!

Chumbara

Hi there everyone!!! I hope you're having a GREAT September! It's been busy here for sure! I've had the honor of meeting new music teachers in Bakersfield and Oklahoma City with my recent presentations. This weekend I'm headed to Atlanta to sing and play with the teachers of KEGA, the Kodály Educators of Georgia!!!

All the while I'm working on my 4th grade bundle.  When I made my song list for the set I asked my good friend, Karla Cherwinski, for her favorite tam-ti songs and she introduced me to Chumbara.

It's a French Canadian folk song.  We used it in 5th grade today and they ATE IT UP!!!

Here's the song notation:

Specdrums!!

Hi there! I'm just A LITTLE excited to be blogging today about Specdrums!!!  I first saw Specdrums on Katie Wonderly's Facebook page. I asked her about them and discovered that the inventor, Steven Dourmashkin, is a Phd. student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, a 20 minute drive from my home!!!

I quickly reached out to him and told him I'd LOVE to be a lab school and he responded, giving me two Specdrum rings to use in my classroom.    Right now we've just started using them as Specdrum is finishing up their Kickstarter. We're really hoping that Steven and his crew make it out to see us sometime!

I told my dear friend, Aileen Miracle about them, and she also reached out to Steven. So it is with GREAT EXCITEMENT that we're blogging about this new, cool piece of technology that you can get for your classrooms.

Back to School!!

Hi there and LONG TIME NO BLOG!!!

We've been back to school for a while so I feel like I'm a little late to the party showing you my classroom for the new year, but I do know a lot of you actually start back on Tuesday!

My classroom theme for the years is "A Cave of Musical Wonders":

 I decided to tie my classroom theme into the spring musical and all I can say is the kids are SO excited, they've been talking about it since they saw the decor in my room.  The picture above is the "bulletin" board outside my classroom.  I use bulletin board lightly as we don't really have boards in my school but the "tack friendly" walls....  The Iago and Genie pictures are taken from images that I downloaded and then put into Block Poster, which is a really cool website that you can enlarge images into poster size. Choir will be starting back up and I'll be making some huge posters to promote choir with the site.

New Years Resolutions for the Music Room

Happy (almost) New Year everyone!! Today I'm teaming up again with Aileen Miracle to present you with blog posts about New Years Resolutions for the Music Room.

1.  Classroom Management Systems
With most of us getting about two weeks off for winter vacation, it's a good time to make any big changes in any systems that you have in your classroom. Inevitably we all know that systems and habits in your classroom are pretty much established from day one. From the way you answer questions to allowing students to use the restroom during class (this one is requires training your teachers too, I don't allow it so they know they go before they come in the room).  But with about two weeks off you can have a little bit of a reset or redo with somethings that you'd like to change. For me this, this year in our building, has been incredible challenging with classroom behaviors. We have about 800 kids in our school. That's 5 rounds of classes in a building that was designed for 4 rounds of each grade level tops.  My team (pe, computer and art) have all been trying to implement "Magic 1, 2, 3" by Thomas Phelan. Here's the gist of how it works: when a student doesn't follow a rule you say their name and "1". This serves as their warning. You don't say anything else as this put the accountability for their behavior back on them.  (and you don't explain or let them argue. I will often do this by going over by them and telling them they're on "1" by whispering in their ear.) If the behavior continues you say their name and "2" and then they go to an assigned timeout spot.  Usually students don't get here... but this year, like I said has been challenging. I usually invite them back when we move from a game to a curricular/instructional area of the lesson.  If the behavior continues a third time they're sent to the office. Our dean is really supporting our team, as she knows that it's hard having the students in class once a week and that teaching 800 kids is a lot. So, with the three when they go to the office she conferences with them and then she calls home.  My problem this year is I had a student teaching from October-December. Don't get me wrong, she was wonderful and a joy to work with but with me being back in my classroom it's definitely a reset.  This will require reviewing expectations. Will I have to spend as long as I do at the beginning of the year, but I will have to take time setting these expectations and then reinforcing them like crazy. 
** All this said, I will tell you that if you're really struggling with classroom management, as a music teacher, look at the following first: