Favorite Lesson for Teaching Dotted Half Notes

In honor of Music In Our Schools Month, I'm going to be sharing my favorite lessons for teaching various rhythmic elements. I'm sharing these ideas in conjunction with a month-long collaboration I'm doing with a group of amazing music education bloggers over on the Music Ed Blogs Facebook page, where we are sharing a new rhythm-related teaching tip each day. You'll get tons of great ideas just by following along, so be sure to go follow the page to catch all of the tips from other bloggers (and get the scoop on a special gift coming at the end of the month)! If you're reading this after the fact, do not fear- you can search for #31daysofrhythm any time to find all of the ideas that we've shared!

Today I'm kicking off my series here on the blog with my favorite lesson for teaching dotted half notes!

I like teaching dotted half notes in conjunction with triple meter. Of course I later have students identify and perform dotted half notes within 4/4 time examples, but I think starting off with triple meter allows students to really feel the groups of three. If you're introducing triple meter for the first time, you can use the first part of this lesson on its own without getting into dotted half notes as well!

My favorite song to use to introduce dotted half notes is "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". It's a great way to get the more "sporty" kids engaged, and many are familiar with the tune.

Any time I want students to be conscious of beat/meter in a song I start with movement. I introduce the song by having the students mirror me as a sway back and forth every 3 beats as I sing. Once they get the hang of that, I have students learn the song, echoing after me one line at a time, while we continue to sway the whole time. Then we stand and sing the song together (yes, still swaying!). My next question is to ask them how many beats are in each sway. I have them continue swaying with me but instead of singing, I have them tap one finger on their hand with the beat while I sing and count how many times they tap with each sway. 

Once we've established the groups of three, I teach students a basic clapping pattern by having them mirror me while we sing: pat their legs on beat 1, clap their own hands on beat 2, and turn both hands forward (clapping an invisible partner's hands) on beat 3. Then, of course, we split up into partners facing each other and clap with a partner while singing.

The key to all of this is to make sure that students are really experiencing a full 3-beat note and differentiating that from a 2-beat half note. When we're going through the steps of swaying, tapping, and clapping, I will often pulse my voice on the long notes to emphasize the 3 beats and make sure students are singing the dotted half notes for the full measure. I've found that students do this more naturally with a song in triple meter than they do with dotted half notes in the context of 4/4 patterns.

Now that students are fully immersed in the groups of 3, we go back to swaying and tapping and I ask students to identify all of the notes that are 3 beats long. I put a copy of the lyrics on the board, and we go through and circle or underline each of the words/syllables that have dotted half notes. Usually I have a few students who will point out the half notes, and when that happens we all practice swaying/tapping while singing the word to find out if the note lasts for the "whole sway" or "part of the sway", which usually helps any students who are still confused to really identify the difference between the two.

What are your favorite lessons for introducing dotted half notes? I'd love to hear them (and I'm sure other readers would as well!) in the comments below! And don't forget to go follow the Music Ed Blogs Facebook page for more great ideas all month long! Happy Music In Our Schools Month!

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The Best Gift a Child Can Give

When my 5-year-old girls are celebrating a birthday or special holiday that involves everyone giving gifts, they usually make a card or picture to give. It's simple and quick, it's 100% from them, and the receiver genuinely enjoys the gift. But sometimes the girls want to give something more, and that gets tricky when they don't have any of their own money to spend and they don't have a whole bunch of time to work on a more complex handmade gift. A few months ago I came up with a new idea for what they could give for those occasions that I wish I had thought of ages ago (and will be requesting for my birthday this year myself!) and I wanted to share with you all because it has been such a hit.

So I've written a few times about my daughters' gift giving over the years. You can read about why I think it's important to encourage young children to give their own gifts in this post, where I also talk about another gift-giving idea I still use that involves the more traditional buying-of-a-thing-at-a-store. But my one hang-up with that idea was that inevitably you end up purchasing a certain amount of (sorry kids) junk. I think the idea is still valuable for what it is, and will probably continue to use it at Christmas time when they are getting gifts for lots of people at once, but I want to limit how much we inevitably end up contributing to the circulation of stuff that ends up eventually in a landfill. 

What do kids have to give when they don't have money? Themselves. Their time and their company. For my dad's birthday a few months ago, I had the girls give him a "coupon" for a date by writing on a piece of paper, "I want to take you to ______" and having them choose where they wanted to go (one chose the library, and the other chose the ice cream store). It was still simple to make, and pretty cheap too, and still gave the girls the opportunity to think about what the recipient would enjoy. 

Let me tell you, it was the best thing ever. My dad, of course, was thrilled, and the girls could see that clearly when he opened and read his gifts. And having that one-on-one time with a loved one that they normally don't spend time with alone was so exciting for both sides. Added bonus for the girls: they loved being the one to take the money/ library card in their own little purse and being in charge of purchasing the ice cream/ checking out the books (and I loved that they were learning how to do those things independently too)!

If you haven't yet, I encourage you to have your children give the gift of quality time the next time the opportunity for gift-giving arises. It's a win-win-win-win-win for everyone involved. And if you know a single/divorced parent, especially one with multiple children, make arrangements to allow their kids to give the gift of quality time by helping the kids make the coupons and throwing in babysitting for the other kids as the gift from you. I really hope this becomes something of a tradition in my house, because I LOVE this idea!

Do you encourage your kids to give gifts for birthday and holidays? What do you have your young children do when they don't have the money to actually buy their own gifts? Have you ever had young children give the gift of one-on-one time? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments!

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Small Goals: March 2017

I love the fresh opportunities for reflection that each new month brings! I'm sharing my "small goals" again this month along with Jennifer from The Yellow Brick Road. If you're looking for more inspiration (or just want to get to know another really cool music education blogger!), head on over to see her post as well :)

Last month's goals

My "small goals" last month were to get ready for Music In Our Schools Month, start my tax filing, and practice more grace and more peace in my classroom. I managed to get all of my MIOSM prep done (and things are going very well so far), and I think I did pretty well with the grace and peace (more on that later), but I definitely did not start my taxes. Boo. So that's going to be one of my goals again this month (since it pretty much has to happen at this point).

Goal 1: file my taxes

Welp, I guess getting it done early isn't going to really happen. Hopefully it won't be too painful of a process, but I need to set aside a chunk of time to get my taxes done this month so I'm not rushing right before the deadline!

Goals 2: even more grace and peace

The last few weeks have been really tough for some of my students, especially the older ones. I teach in a K-6 building so the 6th graders always end up dealing with changing hormones and looking at transitioning to middle school around this time each year, which can make for some pretty serious craziness. But this year I've had some students confide in me recently about some pretty heavy stuff going on in their lives, and it has been a difficult but important reminder of just how much stuff my students deal with on a regular basis outside of school. My goal is to continue to support those kids with whom I've developed a closer personal connection as best as I can and to continue to offer grace and peace as much as I can to all of my students.

Goal 3: arrange at least one play date

One of my daughters told me recently that she has been sad at school because her "best friends" have been playing with other kids and she has had trouble finding someone to play with. We talked about it, and she has found some people to play with at school, but I also promised to try to invite some friends over for a play date sometime so she could further foster those friendships. I want to make sure I don't forget to do that! Several of them will be going to the same kindergarten with them, so it will be great for them to get to play together outside of school!

What are your goals for this month? March is always a busy time of year, but a lot of great things happen too! I hope you all have a wonderful month ahead, and be sure to head on over to Jennifer's post to see what she's up to as well :)

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February Favorites 2017

It always amazes me how quickly Feburary flies by! I thought I'd do things a little differently this month and share my "favorites" from the past month using some of the pictures I shared on Instagram! What have you been enjoying lately? I'd love to hear about your latest favorites in the comments :)

1. My loving friends and family

I got so much love from my friends and family this Valentine's Day! My mom got me those beautiful tulips, my friend from college sent me that sweet card, and my daughters made me the most adorable cards ever! I felt so loved.

2. New breakfast obsession

Thin sweet potato slices cooked in coconut oil, fried egg, avocado, and cilantro. Oh my goodness you guys.

3. New planner supplies

Michael's is killing me lately with their new planner supplies! I caved and bought some stickers, new washi and paper pad, and those gorgeous sticky notes and I LOVE them all! Aren't they just so pretty??

4. New blog post finds

Of course no "favorites" post would be complete without sharing my latest blog post finds from this past month! Click on each picture to read the posts- they are well worth your time!

That's it for me this month! What were your favorite things from February? I hope you found some new ideas here on my list- share yours in the comments below!

Want more? Come join the family! Sign up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter and get ideas and resources for school and home sent straight to your inbox. It's the best way to stay in touch and in the know :)

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