Fermata Friday: July 8, 2016

Welcome to this week's installment of my weekly linky party, Fermata Fridays! This is a chance for music education bloggers to share blog posts with readers and bloggers alike, so we can all mingle and learn from each other. Readers, you are going to love all of the awesome blog posts that are out there- I hope you discover some new blogs to follow and get some new inspiration for your teaching! Bloggers, make sure you read the directions carefully before linking up to make sure we keep the party fun for everyone. Thanks! :)

Here are the rules for the linky party:

1. Add the linky image to your blog post, blog sidebar, linky party roundup, or other similar location on your blog and link it back to the party. Copy and paste the code for this button, or use the image above and link to the label "Fermata Fridays".

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://caldwellorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/search/label/Fermata%20Fridays"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5AShYQiAk-NC2PM5EMpGrK31c3bfaUO7qbi6cCVXVIW-ySfO3xfYbJOj0WAbRcl11hVrCCWLIiqFjqs2cV8Yu8Zw-HEdtId-jZRpwv-W6p9VwBWQZvreaxjOfVBwlw-YdvMr_BbR3M0/s1600/fermata+friday+button.jpg" /></a></div><br />

2. Add up to two blog post links to the linky. The posts can be old or new (but no posts that have already been linked up to Fermata Fridays in the past), on any topic related to music teaching, but must not be primarily featuring a product. It's fine to have a link to a relevant product within a post, but that should not be the primary focus of the post. I reserve the right to delete a link that is too product-focused. If you're not sure, just ask! :)

3. Leave a thoughtful comment on at least two other links, including the one right before yours. Add #fermatafridays to your comment so bloggers know where you found them!

4. Pin at least one post to one of your Pinterest boards.

5. Make sure you are following me on Pinterest. I will be pinning every link to the Fermata Fridays board each week.

6. Make sure you are following me on Facebook and check back next Friday- I will be featuring one of the links from the previous week's linky on my Facebook page each Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Small Goals: July 2016

I can't believe it's already July- seriously! I'm linking up with Jennifer at The Yellow Brick Road again this month to share my small goals for the month. Make sure you head on over to her post to see all of the others who are sharing their goals for the month- it is always motivating to see what others are planning, and I often learn something new about my favorite bloggers in the process! ;)

1. Start posting on Instagram

So last month my goal was to create my Instagram account. I managed to check that off my list but have posted.... zero pictures. Haha! Oh well, baby steps, folks! This month I'm hoping to start actually posting pictures, now that I've got everything set up (and found some awesome people to follow too!). If you want to see my newbie posts, here's my account. Just go easy on me, OK? I'm just figuring this stuff out! :)

2. Put up some decorations on the girls' bedroom walls

I have been hemming and hawing for months trying to figure out how to make my vision for the girls' bedroom come to life without spending an arm and a leg. I think I've finally figured it out... now I just have to make it (because you know, obviously this is going to be a DIY project... if you didn't see that coming then you haven't been reading my blog enough LOL)! I really hope it works, because if it does it's going to be awesome!!!

3. Finish my long range plans for next school year

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am- after plugging away at my long-range plans each summer for almost a decade, I have not one but TWO colleagues who have agreed to work on the plans with me this summer!!! Life goal achieved. I already met with one music teacher from another elementary school in my district a few weeks ago and we made it through kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade.... in 5 hours. I could go on for days with this stuff though! I'm meeting with another elementary music colleague later this month and we're hoping to finish grades 3-6. We'll see. Either way I would like to get all of them done by the end of this month so that I have time to get everything ready that I need to actually, you know, implement those plans before school starts!

I have a few other goals in mind but I'm gonna go easy on myself and only publicly commit to these three. It is summer, after all! I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, and if you want more inspiration (or just some fun reading), go check out the small goals link-up here. Happy July!

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new ideas for upper elementary lessons

It has been really fun to look back on all of the new ideas I tried this past school year and loved- what a great way to celebrate success and get motivated to try more new ideas next year! I hope you all are reflecting on what worked for you this year as well. Today I'm sharing my favorite new ideas for upper elementary lessons, which for my purposes is talking about grades 4-6. I tried several new things that I loved this year, so I'm excited to share some of these with you!

Keyboard instrument unit

I spent a lot of time last summer re-writing our district's curriculum to align with the new national core arts standards. Most of the curriculum fit well with what I was already doing, but one gaping hole that I needed to fill this year was a requirement for 5th graders to be able to identify some of the basic keyboard instruments (piano, organ, accordion etc). While I have always taught the orchestral instruments and also spend quite a bit of time on instruments from non-Western cultures, I had never actually taught keyboard instruments (other than to mention that a piano could be a string instrument or a percussion instrument, but let's not get into that debate here, shall we?). I also had one of the toughest group of kids I have ever had in 5th grade this past year, so I knew I couldn't just show them some pictures, lecture them for a bit, and expect them to learn anything.

What I ended up with was actually the single most successful unit I taught in 5th grade this year (go figure)! I started by showing them several YouTube videos of different keyboard instruments. I knew they had to be interesting enough to keep this group engaged (and hopefully get them to remember the instruments), so I searched high and low for the most varied examples I could find while still showing what the instruments sound like and how they are played. These are the ones I chose:

Piano:

Electric keyboard:

Pipe organ:


Accordion:

Melodica:

After each one we discussed how each produced sound, and what (if anything) they already knew about each instrument. 

But the real fun began when we pulled out the keyboards to *actually* play them! I've had some pretty old keyboards in my room since I started at the school, and I hadn't pulled them out for anything other than the occasional student that would use one for a talent show or a composition activity, mostly because I only have 4 and on 2 of them half of the keys were stuck and didn't work. These kids did not care one iota about any of that- there is something so LEGIT about playing a keyboard, and they loved it! The first day (after spending most of the time discussing the various instruments) I just let them take turns playing around on the instruments. The second day (after reviewing the instrument names etc) I challenged them to all play C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C in "home position" (right hand thumb on C, pinky on G). It was harder than I thought but they LOVED it! Finally I gave them a simple 2-measure phrase using only those 5 notes and challenged them to read it from notation. They all performed in a "piano recital" in front of the class. And you know what? They remembered the names of all those instruments, and they can all tell you how they work, the basic setup of a keyboard, and more! 

Next level clapping games

This was something I stumbled onto at the end of the school year this year. I happened to read Jennifer's awesome post on the singing / clapping game "Four White Horses" (bless her) and remembered how much I love that game, so one day when I had some extra time at the end of class with my 6th graders, I pulled it out. We started first with pairs, then I put them together in groups of 4, then 8, and so on until the whole class was in one big group! They loved it. Then when I was doing a simple clapping game with "Long-Legged Sailor" with 1st grade, I realized that I could do the same sort of process that I used with "Four White Horses" with almost any clapping game to make it more challenging for older students. The next day I tried it- I had my 4th graders do the same clapping game as the 1st graders did, but quickly put them into larger and larger groups until the whole class was clapping together. It was awesome! Besides being fun and engaging, it was a great way to end the school year because the students had to cooperate in order to get it right. 

With a few of my classes I had some extra lessons at the end of the year, so I showed them a few videos like this one:

Then I let them get into small groups and come up with their own "epic patty cake" routines to whatever song they chose. It was a great way to get them creating, working together, and singing!

5/4 meter (Take Five bean bag routine)

I saw this video on Pinterest several years ago and fell in love:

Then I forgot about it and never did it. Do you ever do that with awesome Pinterest finds? Well I finally went back and found it and decided it would be the perfect addition to our focus in 4th grade on time signatures. It went really well- I first had them listen to the music and try to figure out "how many beats are in a group", then we learned just the opening "A section" bean bag pattern together. It really got them to feel and experience 5/4 meter, and the students were fascinated by it!

Composition unit updates

This last one may not qualify is a "new idea" per se, but for me it was a pretty big change and required quite a bit of planning and thinking and preparing on my part. When I started in this school 3 years ago, I learned quickly that my students were under the impression that they loved music, but not "school music". It quickly became my mission to change that mindset, especially for my older students who were obviously the most difficult to convert. I came up with a unit on video game music for my 5th graders, and another unit on movie music for my 6th graders my first year at this school, and both units have been a work in progress ever since.

This year I finally spent some time reflecting on what skills and concepts I really wanted to focus on with the units, and which logistical aspects of the units had gone well / not gone well in the past, and put together a more formalized structure for each one. The results were fabulous- in the past my students would be engaged at the beginning but quickly lose interest when we got to the actual composition part of the unit, but this year the units held their attention all the way through because the end goal was clear from the beginning and the lessons were more streamlined.

For the video game unit, I have students create their own video game concept, create music for it, and then "act it out". This year I created a worksheet to help them organize their thoughts for each section and gave them more guidelines for what their game should look like, and the unit was very successful. Some of the games they came up with were amazing! By the end they were all begging for me to give them websites where they could try to actually "code" some of their games so they could play them!

For the movie music unit, I had students listen to a lot more examples of different sound tracks that create different moods and selecting the best ones for different movie scenes before having them create their own music. Having those clear examples in their heads made it a lot easier for them to envision what they wanted their own music to sound like.

I've been asked by quite a few people to share these two units- they are great for incorporating several of the national standards for these grades in creating, analyzing, and selecting. If you're interested, I've finally added them to my store:

You'll also find most of my online resources, including the videos for all of these and other upper elementary lessons, on my upper elementary Pinterest board.

What are your favorite lesson ideas for upper elementary? I'd love to get some new inspiration for next year!! Leave your ideas in the comments.

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closet organization updates

I'm back with another recent update to my bedroom: my closet! I'm so happy with how much better my closet looks and functions with the simple updates I've made. Today I want to share my updated, streamlined closet with you, along with some tips for organizing your own space!

OK, so let's start with a "before" picture:

(Notice I made sure to plaster the word "before" all over this picture.... The haphazard mountains of clothes and exploding bins strewn on the floor still make my eye twitch....)

This may be hard to believe but I actually lost closet space when we moved from my apartment to the condo. I gave the girls the master bedroom when we moved into the condo, since they outnumber me (and also there's a lot more sunlight that comes in the smaller bedroom- great for morning person me but not for preschool children who fight naps). I tried for a while to keep some of my clothes in the giant armoire I have on the other side of the room and in bins under my bed, but I hated walking around the room just to assemble one outfit, and I really wanted to use the armoire to hold other things. So I started playing with different solutions. 

After I updated the girls' closet (that was another awesome transformation- read this post and this post to see that one), I had extra bins leftover from their old closet. I also re-organized the girls' toys in the basement playroom and was able to bring the IKEA Expedit shelf that used to hold toys up to my closet. Although it wasn't pretty, I was able to use those "leftovers" to play around with where I could keep different clothes and figure out what I wanted. 

I initially thought I would like the idea of bins turned sideways, like the red and green ones you can see on the floor in the "before" picture, because then there are no drawers to open and I could easily find what I need. I quickly discovered that, if I maximized the space in each bin (which I need to do with the smaller closet space), it was too hard to keep everything organized and contained. That's when I switched to thinking about drawers, but I wanted to have all the different types of clothes separated like I did in the smaller bins, and most sets of shallow drawers I found were too expensive (at least in the quantity I would need) or too bulky.

Then I took a trip to IKEA and all of my problems were solved (how many times have I said this? A LOT, people, a LOT):

I picked up two things at IKEA that completely transformed my closet: these ALGOT metal mesh basket systems, and these blue SKUBB fabric bins. 

I seriously lucked out with the metal baskets: they fit perfectly inside my closet, just barely allowing the doors to close in front of them, they are the perfect height so they stay under my hanging clothes, and they were just recently released and on sale when I went to the store. They had a few different combinations, including taller frames and deeper bins, but these were perfect for that space.

TIP 1: SHALLOW DRAWERS ALLOW FOR BETTER SORTING

I was able to fit all of my non-hanging tops and bottoms into these drawers! For leggings and shirts that don't wrinkle, I rolled each one up and put them side by side so I could see each one without having to sort through a big stack. That freed up enough drawer space so that the rest are stacked just 2-4 items high, so I still don't have much to sort through to find what I need. Each drawer is sorted by type (long sleeve/ short sleeves/ etc).

TIP 2: ROLL UP CLOTHES THAT DON'T WRINKLE SO YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING

I was pretty excited about the particular fabric bins- probably more excited than one should be about such things- for 3 reasons: they fit perfectly in the Expedit shelves to maximize the space, they have a vertical handle on the front which makes them easier (in my mind) to pull in and out, and the color matched my other room decor. 

TIP 3: USE BINS THAT MAXIMIZE CUBE STORAGE SPACE

Inside the bins I actually re-used some of those old bins again:

They are perfect for dividing up the large bins into smaller ones so I can keep two different types of items in the same bin without them getting mixed up! I may eventually find something that fits the boxes a little more completely so I can use the full depth of the bins, but for now this works perfectly and everything fits!

TIP 4: USE SMALLER BINS TO DIVIDE LARGER ONES

The final touch actually came from another store I love: Michael's. I found the small chalkboard hanging signs on clearance and I knew I couldn't beat that price (or those colors, which again fit in so nicely with the rest of my room!) so I went ahead and got them, even though they are a little bigger than I initially was thinking of getting.

TIP 5: USE LABELS TO KEEP TRACK OF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR BINS/DRAWERS

I did have to do a little surgery on these little guys to make them work. First I cut the twine on one end, threaded the twine through the handle on the bin and back through the hole on the label, then tied a knot to keep it attached to the bin. To keep them attached at the top of the bin (instead of hanging down at the bottom, where they get in the way when you pull the bin in and out), I stapled the twine to the handle. So far it had held up perfectly! I used my trusty chalk marker to label each bin. I love this because if I ever change my mind and move clothes around, I can easily re-label the bins without removing the label itself.

I hope you found some helpful tips to help you get your closet more organized! What are your favorite tips for organizing your closet? Leave a comment! :)

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