Halloween!!!

Ooooh, how I LOVE Halloween!!!  It's been kind of a crazy fall: my student teacher is finishing up next week and we missed a week of school due to the Colorado floods.  I can't WAIT to get back to my kiddos, October is so musically rich with some great rounds (Ghost of Tom, Ah Poor Bird), some great partwork songs (My Good Old Man), instrumental options (anywhere from Orff accompaniments to instrument exploration to dramatize poems and chants.

I will post soon about my Target finds, but I also just posted a bunch of files on my Teachers Pay Teachers store that will be fun to use this month, with a couple files that could be used any time throughout the year!

The first is my collection of Halloween Songs and PDFs:

This contains 18 songs (with either game directions, Orff accompaniment, Partwork ideas or a corresponding PDF) and 8 PDF files.  The PDF files either have a rhythmic, melodic or both focus that prepares and presents applicable concepts.

The next is my Sugar Rush!! files  (pictured below is the bundled version):

This one I developed out of the need to have a collection of activities that would get the kids up and moving yet still practicing rhythmic concepts.  There are many versions of flashcards and games as well as additional activities provided that you can use these cards for, in addition to the title game, which is a Rhythm Relay Race.

1. ta ti-ti
2. rest
3. half note
4. tika-tika
5. ti-tika
6. tika-ti
7. syncopa
8. tom-ti
9. ti-tom
10. bundle

These can be used anytime throughout the year (there's no connection to Halloween.  Some of the graphics are dark but the Sugar Rush Relay Game Cards are pretty non-holiday-specific.

I will soon be coming out with a Monster Melody Madness Game that will have similar ideas to practice melodic element.  These, too, will be non-holiday specific and will have a tie into a fun purchase I made at Back-to-School time! :)

The last file I'm going to blog about tonight is my Candy Corn Notes! Your Cavity Free Guide to the Treble & Bass Clefs.

This was a fun file to make and is PACKED with tools to teach both the treble and bass clefs.  They are set up similarly to my "Be a Staff Detective" and "Spelling Bee" files, in that they have a PowerPoint that teaches the Bass and Treble Clefs.  They also have a Staff to Word PPT game and a Word to Staff PPT game as well as MANY flashcards. They also have a Candy Corn Staff matching game, that has many variations.

With this variation, you print out the Treble Corn Cards, cut them out and then cut between the white and orange part of the Candy Corn.  Students then have to match the letter name to the note on the staff:

This version is the same, but in this case they are working on matching the Bass Clef notes to the letters:

This version combines the clefs.  You'll also cut between the orange and yellow part of the candy corn so they are now matching the letter name, the treble note and the bass note:

And there are also a variety of "make your own" cards.  Here's one example:

I hope you all had a GREAT week!!!

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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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Swat that Fly!

Here's a new Treble-Clef/G-Clef file that I've created.  I plan on using some of this when we get back from spring break. . . which is over a week away. 

There are three PowerPoints.  The first is a "Know the Notes":

We've (my kiddos and I) have gone through this with the Detective set that I made but we'll use this one to review (one week is a long time and this can be easily forgotten!):

 After the basics of the staff, we go over the "G-clef" and the hidden G and how that tells us that every note on the second line is named "G":

 And we give examples:  (I want this to be ingrained so the repetition is good)

Again, we'll review the music alphabet:

And the way the music alphabet relates to the staff:

We'll review step-wise motion (each of these notes clicks on individually):

Again, these notes are added one-by-one to show that step-wise motion:

And then we derive the notes, one by one:

All the way up to "G":

And then we derive it down to "D":

And we talk about ledger lines:

I give a couple of the acronyms, although I really want them to be able to figure out the notes off of the G-line (those acronyms can be easily forgotten):

There are two PowerPoint games, almost identical to the Staff Detective and Spelling Bee games.  But they look different so hopefully I can get a little mileage out of them, if not this year then next year:

 The teams pick a level of difficulty.  The more letters, the harder the task:

 Once they pick a number, they can pick which fly they want.  You can maneuver the PowerPoint by that little fly on the bottom left corner, he takes you back to the main menu.

After picking their fly they'll get a slide like this, from which they need to figure out the word that the flies are spelling:

And then there is the reverse game, this time they go from word to staff:

 You can use big floor staves, small individual staves or dry-erase staves to have them write their answers.  You can play this individually or in small/large groups:

 From there I made a "Swat that Fly" game.  This is a lot like my Slug Bug game.

I made cards of the PowerPoints above with the words written out and the fly staves written out.  Each player or team has a fly swatter.  Working in small groups of 4-5 or in larger groups with solo students coming up to play for their team, the teacher either gives a word or shows a staff card and the correct player to first swat the matching card wins that card for his/her team (or self, if working individually)

Here are some of the small staff cards (I also made larger versions of these that would work better in whole group/larger group play)

And here are some of the word cards.  In this case, the teacher would display the staff card and the students have to decode the notes on the staff and swat the word that matches.

This file is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

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