Once There was a Snowman

I'm so excited: CMEA (Colorado Music Educators Association)'s conference is this week.  I haven't been since I was pregnant with my daughter AND I'm presenting two sessions this year (nervous and excited about that.)  But, also, I'm really excited because Mary Alice Amidon it will be presenting this year too!  I LOVE the resources that the Amidon's have produced.  They are high quality and a must for every music teacher's library:

This year they came out with a new resource and one of Mary Amidon's sessions will be on this book:

There are a lot of high quality songs for your little ones in this book, including this gem:

My kinders sang this song this week, it's totally cute!  For the first half (Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman. Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.) they start in a curled up position on the floor and SLOWLY rise so they are standing tall at the end of that phrase.  Then for the second half of the song they SLOWLY descend, back into the curled up position.

In the book, they state that you can have your students make up new versions:  ie. "once there was a snow fort," "once there was a snow girl," etc.

I will be using this song in my Manipulative Mania session on Friday, sponsored by ROCKE (The Regional Organization of Colorado Kodály Educators).  Here's a little preview at what we'll be doing with it AND will be available for purchase at ROCKE's Make-n-Take session on Saturday.  (There will be a couple other ideas presented on how to use the snowmen die cuts, as well).

With snowmen die-cuts, I made beat charts for my kinders.  Essentially, with a beat chart, they keep a steady beat while tracking the beat.  This reinforces the literacy fluency skills that they are working on in their classrooms (your kinder teachers will love that!) and is a pre-music reading activity.

Here's the beat chart (notice I gave the snowman on the left a black hat.  This helps these little ones know where to start. .. some of them still struggle with right and left. .. ):

And here are some of my kinders singing the song while tracking the beat (I made enough for all of them to have a chart to use.  You can also do this with half a classroom set and them sharing with a partner):

See that little kinder in the white shirt in the picture below?  That's my all time favorite kindergartner (I can say that, I'm his mom!!!):

If you're going to CMEA, I'm presenting two sessions: one on Thursday, January 24 at 10:20 called "Upping the Ante" and the "Manipulative Mania" session on Friday, January 25 at 1:50.

Don't forget to attend Tanya LeJeune's sessions:

Thursday, January 24, SMART board assessments at 3:00

Friday, January 25, Electronic Engagement at 8:00 with a repeat session at 11:30

The ROCKE Make-n-Take is on Saturday, January 26 from 10:30-12:30

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Beat and Rhythm Charts

I love how many SO many ideas can be shared and gained via other people blogs and blog posts.  It truly is amazing, I wish blogs were around when I first started teaching, the ideas really are endless!  In fact, on my last post about Beat Strips Alisha (check out her fabulous blog by clicking here) replied about using beat charts for songs in kindergarten and first grade.  This got me thinking, I've not shared these before, so here goes!

I have to admit, I can't take credit for the charts posted below.  In my district there's a growing number of music teachers that have Kodály training (when I first started I was the only one, it's so nice to have colleagues with similar goals and training now!!!).  A few years ago we started compiling a collaborative song collection.  Jenna Olschlager, one of my amazing colleagues and FRIENDS made a bunch of these that we all now use in our teaching.  Basically, there are charts that track beat and then there are similar charts that track rhythm.  They are great for assessing students' abilities to differentiate between beat and rhythm and for their reading/tracking skills.  Below is one example:

Beat Chart for Bee Bee Bumble Bee

Rhythm Chart for Bee Bee Bumble Bee

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Beat Tracking

I don't know about you, but we started school this week.  This means I'm in "review" mode.  In mid-to the end of kindergarten I start working with my kiddos on beat tracking and beat vs. "the way the words go" (a.k.a. rhythm).

One of the activities that I do in mid to late kindergarten and review in first grade is beat tracking.  This is an important preparatory activity for music literacy (and is a great reading reinforcement for tracking left to right).  Essentially, I have cards that have four icons.  The students track the beats on the cards, from left to right and start back at the beginning of the card once they reach the last beat of the card.  I have several cards that have hearts that represent the beat, but I also have song-specific cards.  This varies the activity just enough so you can get "more bang for your buck" out of the same activity (that is, they practice and do the same activity with the only thing changing being the card.)

Below are some of my iconic beat strips.  I DO NOT use all of these every year.  I admit, I get bored using the same repertoire every year so I vary my song choice.  And I do have more cards than just these; these cards just happened to be on the top of the pile.

I also use: "Pitter Patter" (in John Feierabend's early music program), "It's Raining, It's Pouring"

Can also be used with "Cobble Cobbler"

Can also be used with "I Have Lost My Jingle Bell" In Liz GilPatrick's Round the Seasons Book.

And here is an example of a non-specific song beat chart.  I leave room at the top so these can also be used for writing and dictation, as seen below:

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