Costume Wall Display: an invitation to play

Over the last few months I've shared bits and pieces of some updates I've recently made to what is now the play room down in our finished basement. Today I wanted to show you a quick update that I did to store and organize all of the dress up costumes that the girls have. I love how playful it looks, but I love how accessible it is for the girls, and how much the system itself encourages to use the clothes, even more!

The girls' dress up clothes have had various homes over the years. My goal has always to make sure the girls can reach them by themselves, but they haven't always been out in the most prominent places where they can inspire a new spark of imagination- mostly they've been hanging in a corner of their closet. Now that the girls are 4 (almost 5), they are pretending in their play ALL THE TIME! It is one of the best things about having two 4-year-olds around. I knew I needed to find a way to make the costumes more visible somewhere in the playroom so that they would get more use.

Enter some simple wall hooks from Home Depot! If I were fancy, I would have screwed the hooks into a piece of wood and then attached the wood to the wall. Unfortunately I am not that fancy and couldn't be bothered with the extra step. So instead I just screwed the hooks right into the wall! 

Now instead of hanging sideways, where you can barely tell what is there because each costume is sandwiched between the others, they hang longways, so you can see each costume separately. PLUS it adds some great color and fun to the wall- no need for artwork when you've got a Wall of Costumes! :) The girls have definitely been using them more now that they are right there with their other toys and prominently displayed. Hopefully organizing them this way will encourage more imaginative play for years to come!

If you're interested in seeing what else I've been putting together in the playroom, you can check out these blog posts:

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October Favorites 2016

Can you believe October is coming to an end? I'm here to chat with you about some things I loved this past month- I'd love to hear what you've been up to in the comments! Pour yourself a nice cup of tea, take a deep breath, and let's take a minute to reflect on the wonderful things we enjoyed in October :)

October seems to be a popular month to get sick in my house, and this year was no exception. I was sick (and still am) all month with varying degrees of bronchitis/ chest congestion, and one of my daughters has been keeping pace with me most of the month as well. Being congested for weeks on end definitely made my already-loved homemade chai tea an even bigger hit this month! Not only is it soothing for my throat (and spirit) to drink, but when it's simmering on the stove it makes a perfect vaporizer and scent dispenser all in one! My daughter and I stood over that pot many a time and I LOVED it. Chai tea is not as hard to make at home as you might think- I shared my recipe recently so go check it out and try it for yourself if you're interested:

I found these fun, glittery fall leaves at the Dollar Tree recently and, as suspected, my students loved them! I used them to show melodic contour with a song about fall leaves and it was a hit! Those little things that add a little sparkle to the lesson can make all the difference in attention and retention, especially at this time of year (find the songs I used and other lesson ideas in these curriculum sets). The Dollar Tree seems to be really stepping up its game- at least the one near me- and I've been having pretty good luck with little seasonal finds like these. Definitely a keeper!

I finally started teaching ukuleles for the first time EVER this month and it was so exciting! I got ukuleles through a donorschoose project funded this past summer, and I'm using them with my 6th graders as part of the chord progression composition project I have been doing with them each year. So far we are all loving it! 

I found some wonderful music education blog posts this month! Take a few minutes to read through them- you'll find some great ideas you'll want to save, I guarantee :)

I hope you've all had a wonderful month! What were your favorite things this October? Let's here them in the comments! Want more? Subscribe right here to the Organized Chaos newsletter for more ideas and resources for home and school.

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Music Note Races: the fun way to practice dictation

I've recently become slightly obsessed with a game I'm calling Music Note Races (and my students love it just as much as I do). There's nothing revolutionary about the concept but it has been so successful with all of my students from 1st grade through 6th grade that I had to share! If you're looking for a new way to practice music dictation, whether you're focusing on rhythms, letter names, solfege, or any other concept, this may be just what you're looking for!

Practicing dictation is an important part of my music curriculum. In the youngest grades I am especially focused on getting them to notate the solfege notes sol and mi on a 3- or 5-line staff and rhythms with quarter notes and rests and barred eighth notes. By the time they are in 6th grade, we are practicing notating in bass clef. The problem is that all of these skills require repetition to develop fluency, but traditional drilling is just too monotonous for all of us!

The basic idea of the Music Note Race is to split the class up into small teams (3-4 students in a group seems to work best) and have teams race to correctly dictate the notes that you give them. I have been using dry erase boards that already have the 5-line staff on them- if you don't have those, you can print out (or even handwrite) a large 5-line staff on a piece of paper and laminate it to make your own dry erase music staff.

The rules: I have the students on each team either sit next to each other in rows of chairs or line up behind each other sitting on the floor, with the person at the front or far end of each team holding the board, marker, and eraser. I say the pattern they need to write, and the student at the board writes it down and holds up their answer. If it is correct I grab their board to show the class. If it is wrong (and nobody else has gotten the correct answer yet) I tell them to try again. The teammates are allowed to help verbally but they cannot touch the board, marker, or eraser. This keeps everyone engaged and practicing while giving everyone the opportunity to practice writing. After each round I give the winning team a point and they pass the board/marker/eraser to the next person on their team. I will usually try to wait until most teams have made their best attempt at finishing before announcing the winner- usually they are so engrossed in trying to write it down that they don't see that I'm holding the winning board until they look up after finishing their own answer. This way they don't give up as soon as someone else gets the correct answer before them!

Some examples: I use this activity for a variety of musical concepts. For treble and bass clef letter names, I call out a word that can be spelled with the music note letters and have them "spell" the word with whole notes (pictured above). For solfege, I sing (and sign) a 2-4 note pattern and have them wrote it down (we establish where the notes will be on the staff beforehand). For rhythms, I clap and/or speak a 4-beat rhythm pattern and have them write it (in the blank space at the bottom of the board, or I also have mini chalkboards that I pull out for when I don't need a 5-line staff).

Change it up: Even with the game aspect of this activity, it will still get old if you keep repeating it the same way every class. For those classes that have needed some additional practice (which for me has been 1st grade, learning to write solfege patterns for the first time, 3rd grade, learning treble clef letter names, and 5th grade, learning bass clef for the first time), I've found that changing it up a little each time keeps it fresh. Instead of dry erase boards, I've also used small chalk boards with chalk. I've also had each team race up to the large whiteboard with a marker to write it on the big board instead of each having their own. With the younger students, I've also had them dictate using manipulatives (read more about what I use for this and where I get them here). Mixing up the teams, adding another beat to each example, or changing how I present the examples (playing a rhythm on an instrument instead of clapping, etc) are all other easy ways to keep things interesting.

The students love this game. It is just enough competition to get everyone excited and motivated but not too much pressure for the kids who get stressed by the feeling of losing. It's also an easy way to help students understand how to help each other without taking over- they have to help their teammates know what to write without actually writing it for them. What are your favorite ways to make music dictation more exciting for students? Share your ideas in the comments below!

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Chai Tea Recipe

Fall has started to settle in around here- the leaves are gorgeous! One of my favorite things to do in the fall is make chai tea. Not only is it delicious to drink when it's cold outside, but it soothes the inevitable sore throat I get AND makes the entire house smell like heaven! The great thing about making your own chai at home is that you can make it exactly the way you want it. You can take my recipe and, using the same method, tweak the ingredients to your taste.

The first thing to note is that chai tea is kindof like chili in the States- everyone has their own recipe that they love, and there are a million different ways to make it. So please don't take the ingredients in my recipe as a hard-and-fast rule- mix and match the flavors you love and experiment until you find the blend you love!

The ingredients I use in my chai are: cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and black tea (I add sugar and milk later too). Other ingredients commonly included in chai are star anise, cloves, and black pepper. I like to use decaf black tea so that I can drink it any time of day (I always make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for later)- I just get basic tea at the grocery store.

I've found that the key to making chai is using whole spices. I used to use powdered versions of all of these spices and it just wasn't the same. I've found whole cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks are cheapest at my local Indian food market, but most health food stores (Whole Foods etc) have them as well. The nice thing is a little goes a long way, so one bag will last you a long while. And I guarantee whole cardamom anywhere is cheaper than ground- have you seen how expensive a bottle of ground cardamom is?!? It boggles my mind.... Fresh ginger is easy to find at almost any grocery store, and I keep what I don't use in the freezer.

To get a nice, spicy, full-flavored chai, the spices need time to simmer, I start off by cracking open the cardamom pods (you don't have to but you'll get a lot more flavor this way) and shaving off some pieces of ginger with a knife, and putting all 3 spices into a pot full of water, then I bring it to a boil over high heat (for a medium-sized pot, I tend to use 3-4 cinnamon sticks, a handful of cardamom, and 4-5 pieces of ginger). 

Once the water is boiling, add the tea bags. I usually use around 6 tea bags, since I'm making a huge batch. If you want a stronger tea flavor, boiling longer is NOT the answer- you want to add more tea bags. Reduce to medium heat to keep it at a slow boil, and steep the tea bags with the spices for the number of minutes it says on the tea bags- usually somewhere around 5 minutes (if you leave the tea bags in too long it will turn bitter, so set a timer for this part!). If your tea bags have strings with little paper tags on them, cut off the tags before putting them in the pot. That way you don't have to worry about them bubbling around the pot and getting paper in your chai.

Remove the tea bags from the pot and reduce to low heat while the spices continue to simmer. If you want to prevent the tea from reducing too much, cover the pot. If you, like me, want your house to smell like heaven, leave it uncovered (trust me, it's worth it). At this point, the longer you simmer, the stronger the spices will be. Taste it every so often until it has the spiciness level you're looking for (and keep in mind that the flavor will get a little bit stronger if you keep it for later in the fridge, and the flavor will obviously get weaker if you add sweetener or milk later). 

Once your spice blend is to your liking, turn off the heat. Pour out the tea over a strainer into a bowl (or sealed container if you're keeping extra in the fridge). Don't throw away the spices! I leave them in the strainer for a while to let most of the water drip off, then put it all in a small dish in my living room for some amazing potpourri! I also reuse the cinnamon sticks in my next batch. They'll last through many rounds of boiling.

I like to add my sweetener to each cup so that if guests want some they can adjust it to their taste, but if you want to add sweetener to the whole batch now is the time: I use sugar (brown or white), but honey or other sweeteners will work too. I'll warn you- if you're used to American coffeeshop chai, you're probably going to need a LOT of sweetener to get the same sweetness.You can also counteract a batch that got too spicy with some extra sweetener. 

If you're saving some for later, definitely leave the milk out until you're ready to drink. I use whole milk and use a frother to make it more of a "latte" but that is really not necessary for a good chai- just get it heated through in a kettle or microwave. Sit down with your steaming cup of chai and breath in the best of fall! 

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