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".
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 other link 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!
The linky will be open every Friday starting at 4:00am EST and will be open for links all day.
I have been sharing a lot of my favorite books to use in the elementary music classroom, particularly with the younger grades recently- you can read this post for ideas for Bear Snores On, and this post for We're Going On a Bear Hunt- but today's book is my all-time favorite lesson using a book in music class, period.
*this post contains affiliate links*
If you don't know this book, run, don't walk, to your nearest library (or buy it here) and get it NOW. It is a hilarious book about a boy who doesn't want to go to sleep. Instead of being quiet and going to sleep (as several people try to tell him to do), he keeps singing quite rambunctiously! Here is a read aloud if you're not familiar with the story:
I actually use a different melody that I picked up from my cooperating teacher during my student teaching for Mortimer's song. Mine is pentatonic so the students can play a bordun in tonic without having to change keys:
You could make up whatever melody you like to reinforce whatever solfege pitches you are practicing. Here is how I use the book in my class (this process is spread out over several lessons):
1. Learn the song and read the story
I actually teach the students the song before reading the story, and as I read, I have the students sing along with the song while keeping a steady beat on their legs. When I read, I intentionally read things a certain way to reinforce high and low later on: 1) every time someone goes up or down the stairs, I make the pitch of my voice go gradually higher or lower (on the words, "thump, thump...") and 2) I vary the pitch of each character's speaking voice (the lowest is the police, dad is next, then mom, and the siblings are the highest).
2. Assign characters and act out the story
Once they have heard the story and know the song, I assign the students to a character. It doesn't matter how many you have of each at this point- I usually split them up equally between police, dad, mom, and siblings. On their character's portion, those students say the "thump, thump" going up and down the stairs, with their voices going higher and lower, and they also say "Mortimer, be quiet!" in their best impression of that character (I don't worry if they are using the same pitches as I do for that). I also still have them all sing the song each time.
3. Transfer to instruments
Once the students are able to perform their character's part, including making their voices go up and down correctly (and I usually have them switch parts a few times), we move to xylophones! The first thing we practice is singing while playing a bordun on the tonic and dominant notes (which they have already been practicing by patting the beat on their legs). Then we all practice going up and down the stairs together- we start at the lowest note and "walk" up by alternating hands and then go back down the other direction. We also practice running up the stairs (which I have the siblings do) by doing a gliss (sliding the mallet across the bars) in each direction. We practice going the correct direction by hearing my call out "up the stairs" or "down the stairs", in random order, and practicing starting on the low or high note.
4. Tell the story with instruments
The final step is to perform the whole story with instruments! There are 2 more things that students need to practice to do the final version: adding a few unpitched percussion parts, and splitting up the characters again. I assign the characters by the barred instrument type (hence the variation in pitch in the initial reading): bass instruments are the police, altos are the dad, sopranos are the mom, and glockenspiels are the siblings. If you don't have all of the different types, you can still assign different parts to different students- it is just an added layer of learning to distinguish between instrument types if you do have them. Keep 3 students aside with no barred instruments (I tend to pick the ones who need the least amount of further practice on high/low on the xylophones) while you make sure each student knows when to play their parts for going up and down the stairs and say their line ("be quiet!").
I use 3 unpitched percussion instruments to add another layer of interest and fun to the story. These are totally not necessary for teaching high/low or xylophone technique, but a) it makes the story more fun, b) it gives a chance to give some students a "special part", and c) I take the opportunity to introduce all of the students to these "color instruments" to get them started on knowing the names and how to play them. I have one student who is the opening door, performed on the ratchet, one student who is the closing door, performed on the slap stick, and another who is Mortimer's nodding head, performed on the vibraslap. Obviously you could use other instruments you have in your classroom as well. At the end of the story, I have all 3 of those students lie down on the floor and pretend to go to sleep (it gives them something to do at the end of the story when their parts stop, and I don't want the students on xylophones falling on the floor and knocking the bars off of their instruments).
My students and I love this lesson! I always videotape their final performance and show it to their homeroom teachers. I've also used it to do an "informance" in class and invite parents, teachers, and staff to come and watch informally in the classroom, and that was a big hit as well. And after doing it one year, I come back to it again and again for the next few years to review high and low on the Orff instruments (they don't mind). What are your favorite books to use in the music classroom? Share your ideas in the comments below- I'd love to hear them!
Well, this is finally it, folks- the day I've been talking about for weeks now- my girls officially start preschool today! Crazy. I've been doing a lot of organizing in preparation- setting up a meal planning system for their lunches, reorganizing their toys, their closets, and their visual calendar and chore chart, setting up school memory binders and more- and today I have one last change to share with you: our newly reorganized entryway. The changes are small but significant enough to make our mornings smoother, and I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be to get these kids to school today!
So, obviously, the first change I made was to add some hooks for the girls' backpacks. I had purposely put the original hooks up high enough so that the girls couldn't reach them when we moved into this apartment 2 years ago, but now I wanted them to have a place to put their backpacks away without my help. Some simple command hooks were all I needed!
The other change I made is something you can't see in these pictures: I finally organized the inside of the bench! Maybe I'm crazy for even showing you this, but let's look at the "before" shot:
Yep. There were literally shoes, blankets, backpacks, and anything else you can think of just thrown in there. This picture is actually better than what is was at one point- the girls' shoes from the previous summer and winter (which, of course, no longer fit them) were still in there until sometime in July when I finally pulled them out. Yeah. So now here's what it looks like after some simple TLC:
Bins. The answer is always bins. Doesn't it look so much better?!? These cute little bins are from Walmart. They were super-cheap and they have a ton of them for back-to-school season. I love that they are so bright and colorful too! There is one bin for each girl's shoes, one for mine, and another for random stuff like sunscreen, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles. Because everyone needs bubbles in their entryway, just in case. Since there wasn't a good way to fit another row of bins or reconfigure them to fit more, I decided to leave the blankets and extra backpacks (and my comparatively-giant sneakers) around the outside of the bins. Since the bins all hook to each other, they don't really slide around, which is awesome.
So, that's it! A couple of command hooks, 4 bins, and a little de-cluttering later, I think our entryway is now school-ready. If you want to see what my entryway was like before the makeover, you can read my original post about my entryway here. And with that, I'm off to the races- wish us luck! :)
Welcome to my first (hopefully monthly) planner share! Now that my planner set up is pretty much a well-oiled machine (which, granted, I do keep tweaking, because I'm obsessed), I'm dipping my toes into the planner decorating world. I certainly do not have plans to start covering my weekly pages in stickers, putting washi tape all over every page, or painting nature scenes with watercolors around the page borders- I honestly don't have the time or the funds to do that, nor is it really my style- but I have always been a bit of an artist at heart and am definitely a lover of color.
My secret love is watching videos on YouTube of people sharing their planners, or doing "plan with me" videos where they decorate their planner pages on camera. Most of the people who do these videos regularly are using their planner as more of a scrapbook (and, as I've come to find out, many of them keep a separate paper or electronic planner that is their actual/practical planner), but it is amazing to see what they come up with- if you're a planner addict like me and you've never seen any of these videos, go search for "plan with me" on YouTube. Just make sure you have a few hours set aside of this purpose (don't say I didn't warn you!).
For now, my idea is to try to add a little color and fun to my monthly calendar pages and share those with you each month. After trying it out for the first time this summer, I've already discovered some things that I thought I would like that are definitely not my thing, but I'm going to share them with you anyway so we can learn together. Alright? OK!
The first month I attempted to decorate was August (I've hidden some of the information but you get the idea):
So yeah, you can see I was going for a summer theme and a back-to-school theme in one... I do kindof like the cute little teacher owl in the corner but I do not love the other flower sticker. I actually had some other ones on the sides too that I didn't like- I managed to get those off without ripping the page but that flower was pretty stuck so it stayed. I'm also not a fan of the fact that you cannot read a darned thing I wrote on the patterned washi tape. I won't be doing that again. What I do love are the little banners/flags, which I made myself from scrapbook paper (here's my tutorial for making your own sticky notes), and the strip of scrapbook paper that I put at the top of the month to write down a "summer bucket list". I also like the little icon stickers I made (here's a tutorial on how I made those), but I'm not completely thrilled with the larger stickers, like the green one you see towards the bottom. I use different colored pens for different categories- one for the girls' schedule, one for social events, another for appointments, etc. In the past, that was pretty much all the color that I had on my monthly pages, but it does help me quickly find the information I need when I am looking for something.
Here's what I have so far for September:
I decided to do the scrapbook paper strip again, and I also stuck a few stickers in, just to give them another chance (by the way, the stickers in both month's layouts are from the $1 sticker books at Michael's). I'm still on the fence- they're definitely cute but it feels too cutesy for me. I might just give the sticker books to my girls- we'll see. I did switch to using only plain colored washi, with a black sharpie pen, for longer events I need to note, and I like that much better. The yellow strips are sticky notes, just because I wanted to try it. I think I like the washi better.
That's it for this month- I'm hoping to share the previous month and the upcoming one at the end of each month. I'm enjoying the creative process of figuring out a way to add some more color and fun to my planner in my own way. Have any of you tried to decorate your planner? What do you use?
I'm linking up with Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris for her Plan With Me Sundays linky! Make sure to click on the picture below to see all the awesome planners :)
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