World Music Resources for free and on sale today!

I'm so excited! 29 different music sellers on TeachersPayTeachers have been giving away free and half-off files each day in October, and today it's my turn to share with you! Have you been downloading all the files this month? I have gotten some awesome new resources for my own classroom. If you haven't, don't worry- you still have a few more days. There will be new free and half-off resources for music teachers every day until October 13th. Just search for "13nights" on TeachersPayTeachers to see the files available that day. Along with mine, there are some great files from Music Teacher Resources available today too!

My free file today is a collection of resources for teaching the Japanese folk song, "Donguri Korokoro". This song is a really fun one because of the song of the words (just try saying "korokoro" over and over again). I learned it in early elementary school, along with every other child in Japan, and still love it! The song has the "syncopa" pattern in it, which makes it a great way to practice syncopation, or subtly introduce it in the younger grades without overtly presenting it.

My other new file is 50% off and it is another Japanese folk song called, "Akatonbo (or alternatively phonetically spelled Akatombo...)". This song is near and dear to my heart, as I know it is for many other people in Japan. I learned this one in elementary school as well and it is a beautiful, peaceful song about a dragonfly at sunset, and fond memories of childhood. We used to sing it in a round around the campfire at dusk- just hearing it now makes me feel cozy. This song lends itself nicely to several teaching concepts, for which I have included teaching resources: the song is pentatonic, in triple meter, and can be sung in a round. I've also included some percussion accompaniment parts to create an ensemble performance in your classroom.

Both of these resource sets include recordings of a native speaker speaking the words from the text for you and your students to practice and singing the song with the original text, slides to use as powerpoints or interactive whiteboard files to teach the song and a variety of concepts, and fully editable worksheets to accompany the song. I hope you find these to be a helpful addition to your classroom library and that your students enjoy them as much as mine do!

Did you ever get a chance to go see my guest post over on The Yellow Brick Road? My post was all about my thoughts on teaching world music. Go check it out here and share your thoughts!

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Teacher Tuesday: notes from subs

It's Teacher Tuesday! Yesterday I told you about my daughter who was sick last week. Naturally, I had a substitute in for me for 2 days. Whenever I write sub plans, I always leave a section for the teacher to leave specific feedback about each class: how many letters did the class earn (see my post on my letter system for behavior management), any particularly difficult students, and additional notes. When I see the class next, I discuss their behavior with them to reinforce the expectations I have for any time I am out.

I used to just keep the page with all the notes on my music stand next to my clip board and check them off as I talked to each of the classes. The problem was I would inevitably forget to talk to one or two, and by the following class the discussion was pretty much useless because too much time had gone by. Enter washi tape!

I cut out the notes for each class and stuck them straight onto the seating chart for that class with a piece of washi tape. When that class came in, the notes were right there on the seating chart to remind me to talk to them. After I talked to them, I took it off and tossed it.

In case you don't know about washi tape, the beauty of the stuff is that it leaves no residue, is repositionable, and still sticks like regular tape. So I can stick things onto paper and know that I can take it off again without ripping the paper. I use it for so many things, but this is another great way to use it in a practical way! The system worked perfectly. I remembered to talk to every class, and I never had to worry that I had forgotten which classes I missed.

Do you go over notes from subs with your classes? How do you keep track of them all? Are you as addicted to washi tape as I am?!? Leave a comment :)

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Mommy Monday: organizing medicine for multiple children

So last week one of my girls was sick. It's been a while since either of them was really sick (thank goodness)- I was reminded again of how sad it is to have a child who is sick! Watching them in any discomfort is no fun, and my daughter had 2 nights in a row with a fever of over 103. Thank goodness she is fine now, and I was reminded of a few organizational things I have done that help a lot when I am taking care of a sick child (or two!).

One of the problems with having multiples is the high likelihood that any disease will automatically be shared between the two. Yes, it's true, they really do share everything. And when they are young enough to still be putting things in their mouths and fingers in their noses, the germs spread that much faster. I learned quickly as a new mom that I needed to be prepared to take care of two sick children, not just one.

One of the things I have done that has made taking care of two sickies a lot easier is to keep their medicine droppers organized.

For infants and young children, medicine usually comes in liquid form with a syringe. And each type of medicine comes with its own syringe with measurements markings specifically for the dosing of that medicine. At first, when they were both taking medicine at the same time, I would wash the syringe between each child. But that takes precious time away from screaming children. When I ran out of the first bottle of Tylenol and quickly opened the second back-up, I realized I was now the proud owner of TWO syringes. Score! I quickly opened all of my back-up packages of medicine so I would have two of each syringe.

I had already gotten some little stickers with each child's name on it to use as labels for daycare, so I stuck them on each of the syringes to keep them sorted. You could easily use plain stickers in two different colors, or write on them with a sharpie. and get the same effect. But being able to quickly grab a syringe and know that it hasn't just been used by another sick child is a huge relief!

The next thing I realized was that I now had lots of syringes and bottles to keep track of, and in the middle of the night I do NOT enjoy sorting through the syringes to see which one says "ibuprofen" in tiny little letters. So my next solution: keep each bottle, with its respective syringes, in a small ziploc bag.

I even got some bags in different colors! The infant medicine bottles will fit in the snack size bags, but I have found that the children's medicines will only fit with the syringes in the sandwich size bags. No more hunting through the cabinet in the middle of the night! I keep all of the bags in a larger bag with the thermometer and first aid kit so I know exactly where to find what I need quickly, and the whole thing is in the top drawer inside the cabinet doors of my tall armoire in my bedroom where my children have the least likelihood of reaching it.

Maybe this is something everyone else is already doing and you're all sitting there going, "duh, when are you going to get to the idea?!?", but this system has really made my life easier so I figured it was worth sharing either way! So tell me: do you use this system? Or do you have another system to keep track of your medicine for multiple children? I would love to hear your ideas! Leave me a comment.

Happy Monday!

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TpT Giveaway and Sale: 13 Nights of Treats and Frights!

I have exciting news! Starting today and running through the 13th, 29 music teachers on TeachersPayTeachers are going to be giving away free files AND offering another file for a whopping 50% off!

Click on the image above to go directly to the free and sale files of the day, or search for "13nights" on TeachersPayTeachers. Don't forget to check back every day- there are going to be so many wonderful resources available for your classroom. All of them are fall or Halloween themed, so you will be able to turn around and use them in your classes right away! I am excited to get downloading myself!

Here is the schedule of which stores will be offering their files each day to help you keep track:

You will note the very awesome store that is participating on October 10th (wink wink cough cough).

Happy shopping!

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