April Showers Bring May Flowers

First of all, to all my colleagues in SVVSD, one more day until spring break- you can do it!!  We have one of the latest spring breaks in CO.  A lot of friends in other districts have had spring break already of are on spring break now (my husband included).  So, I know I just did a sale, but in honor of spring break and Easter, my entire store will be 15% tomorrow and Saturday.

Included in this sale are these new "April Showers Bring May Flowers" PowerPoints for practicing melody and rhythm.  These are similar to my St. Patty's day and Valentine's day games.  They're designed so you can use them in April or May, whenever it works into your curriculum.  I created many versions that are available individually or in bundled form.

Let's walk through the fa and ti-tom file.

Here's the title slide (a little side note: my daughter's birthday is in April.  She LOVES Mickey Mouse and all things Disney.  The font choice is a little shout out to her! :)  ):

And explanation slide.  There are two "weed" slides (not that kind of weed!! I know I live in CO where they just legalized it, but geez!!  Teehee!).  No, there are two dandelions.  Those act as "lose a turn" slides, just to keep them on their toes.

Here's the main menu slide.  The raindrops are linked to rhythm slides and the flowers are linked to melody slides.  (But I won't tell the kids that!):

Here are some sample rhythm slides.  You simply click on the ladybug to return to the main menu slide:

Here the "weed" slide:

And here are some sample melody slides:

  (There are two weeds: one in the melody slides and one in the rhythm slides):

And here are the "Tally" cards.  I print them out and laminate them.  We usually have them scattered on the floor that way the teams can see what is left.  When they correctly perform that slide they get to take that card for their team.

I also included a PDF of the melody and rhythm slides that you can print out or view like a PowerPoint (in full screen mode) to prepare for the game or to play Poison with (directions on how to play with flashcards is included in the file).

The following sets are available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

1. so-mi & ta ti-ti
2. la & ta rest (which contains ta ti-ti and so-mi)
3. do & half-note
4. re & half-note
5. re & tika-tika
6. low la & ti-tika
7. low so & tika-ti
8. high do & syncopa
9. high do & tom-ti
10. fa & ti-tom
11. ti, & tim-ka
12. Bundle

I also FINALLY finished up all my melodic Poison Games!  Yee hee!!  So, the high do and ti files are now finished and since they are finished, I bundled all the melodic games.

If you're on spring break, I hope you're having a wonderful time (and what are you doing reading this blog, go relax!!!  Okay, I'll be the pot and you be the kettle, tee hee!). If you're not on spring break yet, I hope you have a wonderful break when you do!!  Don't forget you'll get 15% off everything in my store tomorrow and Saturday!! :)

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Chicken on a Fencepost

I know I say this about EVERY song I put up here, but this is a favorite.  And a gem, the kids adore it!!

Here's the song, you probably know it:

Here's the game:

2 concentric circles w/ two “foxes” on outside.

Teacher chooses 1 “gate” in each of the circles. Rubber chicken is placed in the inside circle.

Gates are closed. Foxes may watch now. Both circles sing while moving in opposite directions. On the “o” of Brownie-o” the 2 gates open forming a maze in which foxes race to grab the chicken from the middle of the center circle.

Here's the PowerPoint I've made.  Of course, it's in the "usual sequence" (sounds like a movie, maybe it's the Oscar watching that I'm doing, lol!).  I always let the sequence dictate the order of my PowerPoints.  In this case, the rhythm of the song is taught first (with the hardest element being tika-tika) and the melody second (with the hardest melodic element being low so)

Here's the lyric slide:

Beat slides:

And example of the iconic rhythm slide:

tika-tika prep slide, substituting the known rhythms and leaving the four icons representing the unknown rhythm that is four sounds on a beat:

Finally, the full rhythm of the slide (this is the first of 2 slides):

Then on to the melody slides:

Here are the preparation slides for low so:

And low so practice slides:

Absolute pitch practice:

This is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store in PDF form.  **  The slides look a little different than above.  That fun chicken image in the background was HUGE and made the file too big so I had to take it off.  If you're really wanting that version, and purchase it, email me and I'll send you the Google Drive link for the PDF.

Side note: if you ever buy anything and would like the PowerPoint version of it (providing you have MusicEd Font) send me an email and I'll happily send it your way!!

Tomorrow I'll be posting on "Shanghai Chicken."  I've posted about this before but I have a "Scrambled Egg" game that I'll be adding that will be able for use with both "Shanghai Chicken" and "Chicken on a Fencepost" as well as other "Scrambled Egg" ideas.  I can't wait to use this one with my kiddos!!

I hope you all have a GREAT week!!!

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Acka Backa

In recent years, this singing game has become an all-time favorite of my students.  They ask to sing and play it ALL the time.  The game comes from this book:

It's published by the National Youth Choir of Scotland.  There's also a version of the book for younger students and a version with singing games for older students.  I am the proud owner of all three books.  They are GEMS!  While they contain a lot of the singing material I already own, they have different activities for them and the kids eat them up.  They are WELL worth you money!

Here's the song:

And here's the game from the Singing Games book:

Game 1:

In a standing circle, the class sings the song while passing a playground ball to the beat.  The student that gets the ball on the word “you” is out and sits down where they are.  Play continues until on student is left.  ** Note, students sit down in their spot which means as students are eliminated they must toss the ball over the seated students heads.  In order for this to be successful you must carefully and proactively prepare your students for this activity.  It’s tricky, but they LOVE it!!!

And here's another way to play it:

Game 2::

In a seated circle, class sings song while teacher walks around inside of circle pointing to one student per beat.  The student pointed to on the word “you” moves to an instrument to play the chord bordon.  Game repeats, and next student chosen moves to the first instrument as the first student rotates to a new instrument.

Here's a PowerPoint that I created to prepare and practice the rhythmic and melodic concepts of the song.  If you haven't noticed (and I think I've said this before) I structure my PowerPoints the same each time.  Generally, rhythm is first (not always the case, my sequence dictates this, but generally the rhythm is accessible) then melody.  But before these are the title, lyric and beat slides.

Title slide:

 Lyric slide:

 Beat slide:

 Rhythmic preparation slide:

 Ta & ti-ti practice slide, rest preparation slide:

 Full rhythm practice slide (stick only, this is also written out in stick notation with note heads):

Then, there are the melodic slides.  These samples of the preparation slides for do:

 Visual representation of iconic notation with text:

 Iconic notation with solfa:

 Iconic notation on the staff with text:

 Iconic notation on the staff with solfa:

 These next two slides highlight the critical attribute of do: it's lower than la, so & mi and it's a skip below mi.

 Then, all of the preparation slides are gone through AGAIN but this time do is labeled:

 And then we move from iconic to symbolic representation (or as the students call it, the "real" notes):

 And then onto absolute pitch names (I generally start teaching these in third grade and I start with mi-re-do on B-A-G):

This PowerPoint can be found in PDF form on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  

I hope you all have a GREAT week!

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