Mommy Monday: muffin tin advent calendar

I'm so excited to share today's Mommy idea with you- an easy DIY advent calendar that is so flexible and cheap! I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I found it on Pinterest. There are lots of people who have done different versions of it but I was first inspired by this picture.

The basic idea is to use a mini-muffin tin (which happens to have 24 cups) as a fillable advent calendar. Just stick something in each cup and cover them up, and it's just like those paper ones that you open up each day to find a little chocolate- EXCEPT IT'S REUSABLE! Genius.

Of course, you know me, I loved the idea but wanted to put my own spin on it. I'm not a huge fan of giving out candy, but I am beyond excited about starting some fun family traditions and really building the excitement this advent season. Last year the girls were approaching 2, so they definitely did understand some of the build-up to Christmas, but they didn't really have the ability to think about something happening the next day, let alone 24 days away, at that age. This year they are about to turn 3 and IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME. I decided I wanted to try to have some kind of little activity related to advent/Christmas to do each day to really help us focus on family and enjoying time together rather than on gifts or Santa.

I made up a list of things that I want us to do together in December- everything from decorating the tree and baking cookies to reading a new Christmas book and making cards for other family members. I included some simple crafts, some outings, and also several really quick activities (like a book, or a phone call to a distant relative) to take into account their sometimes-busy schedule. Then I went through and figured out when we could do each activity based on our schedule, and made some little notes for each activity with a picture (to give the girls a clue). I just used random clipart and made it in Word:

Then I printed it out and cut out each strip, folded them up, and put them in the corresponding cup in my muffin tin.

Next up was the covers for each cup to show the days. I really wanted to do something that had the characters from the nativity story, since I wanted that to be our focus. I looked at a lot of pre-made templates that others had used for their own muffin tin advent calendars, but couldn't find any that I really liked, so I decided to make my own. I found this cute clipart on Etsy from songinmyheart, added the numbers to show each day, and printed those off as well.

From looking at other templates it seemed like most people had done 12 to a letter-size page, so I figured I would just do the same (aka I was too lazy to measure my muffin tin and figure it out). I wish I had made each one a bit smaller but I figure slightly too big is better than slightly too small?!? Oh well.

After printing them off I stuck them on my handy-dandy adhesive magnet sheets that I have been using for everything and LOVE. Cut out the squares and bam!

I love this calendar so much. I love that I made it, I love that I had an excuse to buy a mini muffin tin, and I love that I can use it for years to come and hopefully keep it as a family tradition. I can't wait for the girls to see it this morning! I will update on facebook with their reaction :)

What holiday traditions do you most treasure in your family? Share your thoughts below!

Read more "Mommy Monday: muffin tin advent calendar"

Cyber Monday Sale!

Yippee! It's time for a sale! TeachersPayTeachers is having a site-wide sale on December 1st and 2nd for Cyber Monday, and you can get 28% off every item in my store with the code TPTCYBER. I've got a couple of things I'm super excited about as both a seller and a buyer:

1. My Japanese lesson set bundle

Have you seen the new bundle in my store? These folk song lessons are a labor of love- all of the songs are my favorites from my childhood in Japan, and each one comes with native speaker recordings, sheet music, slides and printables to add instruments or teach musical concepts from the song, and facts about Japan. They have everything you need to incorporate them into your lessons or do a stand-alone unit on songs from Japan. Each of them is available separately as well, but you get all 3 for 20% off with the bundle, and you will get all my future Japanese song sets for free!

And don't forget about my organizing sheets and planner sets. This is a great time to get organized so that you are ready for January! These planning sheets for the new national music standards have been a great way for me to organize my long-range planning around the new standards.

2. Christmas Freeze Dance and Creative Movement from Tracy King

I have these in my cart and ready to go- I need something new and fresh for dance breaks in my classes in the lead-up to winter break! My students have been getting more and more antsy as standardized testing takes over their learning. They come to my room ready to move, so we have been doing a lot of dance breaks :) These sets are a great twist on dancing games and also help them expand their movement repertoire. Love it!

3. Emotions - Posters and Writing Worksheet from ARTrageous Fun

With all of the behavior issues we have had at our school the last couple of years, we have been really pushing emotional literacy. One of the concepts I want to emphasize more this year is performing with expression- I really want to help students experience the ways they can express their feelings through music. These visual aids for feelings will be a great way to talk about a range of emotions and use them in my lessons (I'll have to share more about my ideas for this after I've tried it out in my classes... wink wink!). 

I'm also linking up with Amy Abbott on Music a la Abbott- check out the linky party to see more great resources for music teachers to add to your cart for the sale!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Happy Shopping :)

Read more "Cyber Monday Sale!"

Teacher Tuesday: organized concert prep

Well, it's that time of year again. While others are starting to get that warm fuzzy feeling as they anticipate the holiday season, music teachers around the world are hunkering down, trying to visualize 500 children walking on and off the stage in various configurations while holding props and percussion instruments without dropping anything, making large noises, or falling off the stage. Concert season!

While there's no way around some amount of pandemonium *cough* I mean flurry of activity, thinking through everything in advance and planning out as much as possible has made a huge difference in my concert season stress level.

Here are some of the things I do to stay organized, and a general timeline for when I do them. I have done everything from "informance"-type presentations of class material, to formal ensemble performances, and full-scale musical productions. The basic ideas for how I prepare have been the same.

1. Date, time, venue, and repertoire
I try to have the dates, times, and venues for all of my performances set and on the calendar before the school year begins. I'd much rather have the other events planned around my concert than the other way around, and it makes the rest of my planning much easier when I know what my timeline is.

I also pick out my repertoire/material/script before the school year begins, or at least before the semester when I will be teaching it begins. Again, having the repertoire picked out ahead of time makes all the rest of my planning so much easier. I have often had to make adjustments to my choices after I start teaching (and either realize the material is too easy or too hard), but it is easier to make changes to a plan than to have no plan at all!

2. Long-range teaching plan
Once I know the date of the concert and the material I need the performers to learn, I can plan backwards to see when I need to start focused rehearsals on the material. Going backwards from the performance, I add a dress rehearsal and 2 more "run-through" rehearsals. That gives me a little buffer to work with, but also gives the students time to make sure everything is memorized and work out the logistics of performing (like bowing and transitioning between groups or songs). From there I plan out each rehearsal backwards to get to that end goal to find my starting point.

3. Logistics planning
This is where the planning depends greatly on the type of performance. When I am planning a full-scale musical, there are a lot of logistics that need to be worked out as close to the start of the school year as possible: costumes, acting rehearsals, set and prop pieces, sound and lighting tech, etc. For ensemble or class performances, the logistics tend to be much simpler and I start planning out the logistics a few weeks after I have started teaching the material- usually 2-3 months before the performance.

No matter what I'm planning for, though, I am a big fan of writing everything down. I organize all of my information into categories and keep it in my planner:

(I've put these performance planning sheets in my TpT store if you are interested!)

Some of the things I make sure to plan include sound and lighting needs, the written program (if there is one), costumes or dress code, publicity, stage setup and flow (transitions are key!), and people to contact. Which brings me to my next point...

4. People to contact
One of the most important things I have learned from experience is that if something goes wrong, it is usually because I did not communicate enough with the right people about the right information. With all the coordinating I am doing myself, it's easy to forget that other people don't have instant access to all the information swirling around in my brain, and it's often hard to keep track of whom I have told what. Add in the complexity that comes with the blessing of various helpers- whether from parents, staff members, or the community- and communication becomes an even greater challenge.

I always include two things in my performance planning to help me keep track of communication: a list of contact information for anyone helping with the performance, and what their role is (costume sewing, sound tech, moving risers out of storage etc), and a checklist of who I need to contact and the basic information I need to communicate. As the performance gets closer, I can go through my checklist every now and then to see if there is anyone I need to email or talk to that week. It has really helped cut down on communication gaps and helped me get more people on board with supporting the program because they feel more connected to the process.

I think that's it! Whew! After all that planning, all that's left to do is ride the wave... :D Best of luck to all my colleagues entering the performance season! Share your tips for staying sane in the comments below!

Read more "Teacher Tuesday: organized concert prep"

Mommy Monday: DIY toddler toys- magnet board

With the holidays fast approaching, stores and websites are filled with the best new toys for kids in every age group. Although there are some pretty nifty ones out there, including a few that are on my list to get my girls this Christmas, often the simple things we make end up being the favorites for our children. 

One of those favorites that I made for the girls is a fairly simple one to make: a magnet board.

All you need is some kind of flat piece of metal, adhesive magnet sheets, and a printer. I was planning to use cookie sheets as the boards, but saw these cute ones on clearance at JoAnne's Fabrics and knew they would be perfect! No extra work painting or anything and I have instant cute! :) For the magnets, I tried to think of all the things my girls like the most- favorite animals, food, etc. The result is a pretty random collection of clipart, but they absolutely love having all their favorite things! I also included a picture of each of their faces.

I actually made these to take on a long car ride we had this summer, so I used a couple of my reusable snack bags as pouches to hold each child's magnets. They are the perfect size and it worked well for the car. 

It is such a simple thing but the girls pull their magnet boards out a lot. They love making up silly stories with the different magnets, or even making patterns on the board with the different foods, animals, and other categories. 

The great thing about this toy is that you can add to it over the seasons- I am planning to make magnets of the different characters from the nativity story for them to play with before Christmas. As their interests change, it's easy to add different magnets as well. 

If you missed it, I wrote a post a few weeks ago about another toy I made for my kids- the busy box- which has also been a big hit. Happy playing!

Read more "Mommy Monday: DIY toddler toys- magnet board"