Review & Revisit List for Music Teachers

Every year, there are concepts and skills that I know students haven't quite grasped before I have to move on. In the past I've always just made a mental note to try to work on it more later, or come back to it again "if I have time". But let's be honest, mental notes are rarely effective, and most of the time the school year comes to a close without me ever revisiting that topic. This year I've started a "review and revisit" list for each grade and it has made it so much easier to make sure I'm being intentional with what skills and concepts each grade needs more practice with as we approach the end of the school year!

I'm always assessing student understanding- most of the time informally- as I teach, and I often move on to a new topic or concept before all of the students have mastered what they're learning. Sometimes it's intentional, because I know I will be coming back to it again later in my curriculum and they just need more time and practice. But sometimes it's because something happens to disrupt the calendar and I need to make sure I get to other things, or I know I'm just beating a dead horse and continuing to try to work on it right then won't help. I found myself dealing with a lot of that this year because we had a lot more snow days than we have had the last several years that really threw off my class schedule and put several classes too far behind the rest of the grade level, or we lost momentum on what we were working on before we got stuck at home. 

I realized I was juggling several topics for different grades in my mind that I wanted to try to find time to come back to at the end of the year. I already have review time built into my curriculum the last month of school anyway, and we obviously have a lot of makeup days added on for the snow days we missed, so I know I have time at the end of the year to revisit things that students didn't quite get yet. But I also know how busy the end of the school year can get, and there is no way I will have the time or mental energy to go back and remember what I wanted to review with each grade!

Enter my list. It's just a simple sheet from a paper pad I picked up years ago that I added to my teacher planner. I keep it in the upcoming week's planner pages so it's handy without being in the way of my day-to-day planning. If things come up again between now and May, I can add it to the list, and when the time comes it's there ready for me! I labeled each section with the grade levels I teach and just started jotting down things as they came up:

It's nothing earth-shattering but it really has helped me feel more confident heading into the last part of the school year, knowing that I have a record of where I need to focus my teaching in the last month of school to best set my students up for success coming into the next grade level, and I don't know why I didn't do this sooner in my teaching career!

Whether you keep a sticky note somewhere or even track the list digitally on your phone or computer somewhere, I highly recommend keeping a review and revisit list somewhere, and leave time in your yearly plans to come back to those at the end of the school year! For me, having everything on paper and all in one place in my planner has been the only way for me to stay on top of everything. You can see the planner printables I use here if you are looking for a paper planner that's tailored to music teachers!

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3 Spring Songs for Self-Contained and Early Childhood Music

Spring is officially upon us and that means flowers, rain showers, and insects coming out to play! I have a few songs I've learned and adapted for my self-contained special education and early childhood students that have been very effective and engaging: here are 3 fantastic songs for spring and the lesson activities I use with them.

1. The Flower Song

I found this song by Nancy Stewart (see notation from original source here) a few years ago via this video by Krista Chencharick when I was looking for something to use in my sub plans to have my 1st graders practice sol mi and quarter and paired eighth note rhythms (which I highly recommend this for too, by the way). For my special education classes, I added my own motions to the song and first taught students to sing the song while doing the hand motions like this:

Once students learned the song, I turned on Krista's video and I had them echo the flower names on so mi and clapping, rather than reading it along with the recording, and it worked perfectly! The students all loved it and I had several nonverbal students verbalizing and even singing on pitch with the flower names, and the ones who didn't verbalize were able to do the entire song with motions and clap the rhythms. The first time we just did 2 of the flowers, and every time since we have added a couple more until they could do them all. 

2. A Little Seed Scarf Song

I've seen this song by Mabel Watts and Mary Lou Siegel shared by so many early childhood music educators, but I first saw the scarf routine I use from this video by Miss Katie. After doing a longer, more active scarf movement activity, this is a great song to slow down the pace and lead into the Flower Song above! I also use it as a way to get some individual time with each student and make it easier for students to put away scarves by going around to each student and singing it with/ for them while they do the motions, and when they open their hand at the end to make the flower I have them put their scarf in the box and go to their seat to get ready for the next activity. 

3. Busy Like a Bee

No early childhood music compilation of mine would be complete without a Stephanie Leavell song! I always thought this song was so cute but this year have not been able to do much gross motor activities, especially where students are moving around the room in scattered formation, because of the groups that I have. For other groups this would be a great song to use to practice moving in different ways and stopping on cue though! I use the recording from this video of Busy Like a Bee by Stephanie Leavell from Music for Kiddos and, instead of having them move around the room, I came up with motions to have them do from their seats, like this: 

Once they learn the moves and can do it with just their finger, I add egg shakers! I have them leave their shakers on the floor in front of them or in their laps for the verses, and then pick it up and fly the shaker around like a bee for the chorus.

These songs have been a huge hit with my classes this year and I hope you enjoy using them with your students as well! For more songs and lesson ideas to use throughout the year with self-contained and early childhood music classes, click here. I'd love to hear your favorite spring songs for early childhood music in the comments as well!

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Handling the Hand-Off

I don't know how we got here but for some reason there is A LOT of tension between the homeroom teacher camp and the subject specialist teacher camp around what is and is not appropriate to say or not say when a class is transitioning from, say, music class back to their homeroom. Managing transitions well can truly make or break your day, especially in elementary school, and we all know that there is a lot of work to be done towards getting different kinds of teachers to work together productively and respectfully. Here are my tips for making that hand-off back to the homeroom teacher go more smoothly, especially when things have gone awry during the lesson.

1. Do NOT ask the homeroom teachers to discipline in your place

I honestly have never met a music, art, PE, library, or any other teacher who thinks that they should not have to address misbehavior that happens in their class themselves, and that the homeroom teacher should be the sole disciplinarian, but there seem to be a lot of homeroom teachers who think that's what their colleagues are saying so, in case any of those people are out there giving us all a bad name, let's start here: if something happens in our class, it's our job to figure out how to handle it. Often we don't have enough time or reach to fully address everything within the constraints of our limited class time, and it may be most appropriate and effective to involve other adults- including, possibly, the homeroom teacher- in whatever the follow up is, but we definitely should not be expecting to tell the homeroom teacher what happened and have them figure out how to handle it. Not only is that unfair to the homeroom teacher but it sends the message to the students that you have no power or authority, and in most cases the consequence will be far less effective because the homeroom teacher wasn't there and won't fully know what happened.

2. DO communicate major issues, along with your plan

If it's just small issues, or issues that are chronic that the homeroom teacher is already aware of, I don't mention them unless there will be some follow up that will be happening later- that's just tattling. But if a student is visibly still upset, whether it's because something just happened or because it was a bigger problem, I let them homeroom teacher know what happened and how I handled/ will be handling it. That way if any students try to tattle on their friends about what happened the homeroom teacher knows they don't have to address it again- they can simply remind them of what is already being done and not have to rehash the whole issue. It also helps homeroom teachers know why a student may still be upset without having to ask them to re-explain the whole thing, and be aware of what's happening if a student gets called to the office later, or a parent asks them at pickup what happened. If I'm reporting on something, it usually sounds something like:

"Student A and B got into an argument in the hallway but we already talked through it, everyone apologized, it has been handled so nobody should need to keep talking about it but they might need some space from each other still."

"Student A was being so disrespectful today. I am going to be messaging their family and come up with a plan before their next music class because we are not doing this again."

3. DO ask for input if you're unsure

Some homeroom teachers, unfortunately, are less receptive to this than others, but if you're not sure how much a student is having the same difficulty in other classes and if so, how it is currently being addressed, or you don't know what type of consequence would be most effective for a particular student, I think you should be able to ask the homeroom teacher in a way that still communicates you are taking responsibility for the situation but just want their advice. Most of the time I will say something like:

"Student A was having a hard time today... I already spoke with them but I wanna talk to you later before I do anything else."

Not only does it communicate to the homeroom teacher that I am addressing the situation while giving them a heads up so when you come to them later to ask what they've been doing in class etc they know why, but it also sends the message to the student that you are working together as a team. The one question I will sometimes just ask right then in the transition instead of following up later is to ask the homeroom teacher how they most often communicate with home if I'm not sure who to contact/ the best way to make sure I get in touch. Everything else I save for a private conversation later.

4. To the homeroom teachers: stop assuming

I doubt any homeroom teachers will be reading this but just in case: please stop assuming we are expecting you to do our work when we talk to you about something that happened in our classes. I am willing to bet most of the time, your colleague is just trying to give you a heads up. Because we see students for such short slivers of time, and because we are so used to being excluded from behavior and academic support plan conversations, we know that having more information about how a student's day is going is helpful for informing how to respond to that student the rest of the day. If it were us, we would want to know. With everything that we are dealing with as teachers, we do not need more division between colleagues. We are all working hard, we all care about our students and what happens in our classroom, and we are on the same team!

Of course a major part of making the transitions go more smoothly is to have solid procedures in place that ensure students are calm and focused before sending them off. Here is my post explaining my routine for the end of class to get them lined up quietly and ready for the next thing, and here is my post on my strategies for the various aspects of management for elementary music.

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Nowruz (Persian New Year) Chaharshanbeh Suri Song

Did you know the Persian New Year, Nowruz, begins on March 21st? The celebrations began last week in Iran, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and many other countries and are continuing this week. I recently learned a song about one of the Nowruz traditions in Iran called Chaharshanbeh Soori, or fire jumping, that has been perfect for exploring and identifying uncommon time signatures with my upper elementary students. I highly recommend this song and the lesson activities I used!

If you are unfamiliar with how Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is celebrated in Iran (many other countries celebrate in similar ways as well), the beginning of this video is an excellent description that you could share with elementary aged students to learn about the holiday:

One of the traditions that's not mentioned in this video, though, is Chaharshanbe Suri, which is the "Red Wednesday" fire festival celebrated the last Tuesday night before the new year. This read-aloud is a great way to introduce the tradition to kids in a relatable way if you have the time, and the video below gives a nice quick explanation of both the fire jumping and the spoon hitting traditions (which is very similar to trick or treating so elementary aged students always enjoy learning about it) of Chaharshanbe Suri: 

The song I want to share today comes from this video, which demonstrates the song and explains a game and music lesson activities to go with it:

I wrote out the notation of the melody with a transliteration (pronunciation) of the lyrics below. As always I recommend listening to the native speaker in the video above to learn the proper pronunciation of the lyrics rather than reading them from the English letters below alone!

The lyrics are:

اسفند دونه دونه،چهارشنبه سوری مونده         

آتش داریمیه خرمن،میپریم روش باهم            

سرخیِ تو از من، زردیِ من از تو.               

Which roughly translates to:

Esfand (the last month of the Persian calendar) is over, it's Chaharshanbeh Soori (Red Wednesday)

Let's jump over the fire together

My yellowness is yours, your redness is mine

The last line, which is sung twice at the end of the song, is the phrase that people say as they jump over the fire, meaning they are giving their pale, yellow, sickly skin of winter to the fire, and taking the red, healthy, rosy skin from the fire as spring begins. 

This song is a perfect addition to my lessons on time signatures with 4th and 5th graders because of the interesting 5/8 time! First I had the students doing the clap/ pat pattern with the recording (I clipped just the part where she sings the song in my slides), then I introduced the holiday and fire jumping tradition and taught them the last repeated line and had them try to sing along while still doing the clap- pat pattern through the whole song. In the video the woman suggests having students play percussion instruments with the song and take turns jumping over a pretend fire, so I did something similar: I had half of the students either play a pattern on the djembe, playing the low bass tone in the center of the drum on the downbeat pat and the higher tone on the edge of the drum on the claps, or play steady eighth notes on a shaker. The other half of the class lined up in front of the plushy campfire I happen to have from doing campfire songs at the end of the school year (really you could use a red scarf, or anything small as the "fire"). While we sang the song, the students in line tried to jump on the claps and land on the pats. First I had them jump together in time with the beat while staying in place, then once they got it I had them take turns actually jumping over the fire plushy one at a time. We had to slow the song down but once they got it, it went really well and they loved trying to keep the jumping going through the whole song! Then I had them trade parts and do it again.

All the clapping, jumping, singing, and instrument playing in 5/8 really helped them internalize the pulse before I asked them to try to identify the time signature. Having the shaker playing eighth notes is definitely important for helping students figure out what the time signature is! It's the perfect way to get them to experience how the 5 eighth notes are often split into groups of 2 and 3.

You could certainly use this song for other concepts like same and different phrases, or do re mi fa solfege notes, and you could definitely add more pitched ostinati to create an ensemble piece with it as well, or even have students play the melody on xylophones or other barred instruments, but I think the clear pulse and simple melody, along with the fun movement game that even upper elementary students can get excited about, make this a perfect song to use to explore time signature/ meter, and it was an easy way to introduce students to a tradition from Iran that most had never heard of!

If you want to incorporate more simple songs from Iran in Farsi / Persian, this rain song is also perfect for spring (or really any time of year) and I used it primarily with my younger students. You can also find more songs from around the world and search by language or country/ region on this page, and see all my other lesson ideas for teaching meter (including tons more lessons to practice 5/4 time) in this post: 

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