A pandemic is a great time to learn something new. For me, I was inspired by a webinar by Midnight Music Technology. Katie Wardrobe is a music tech specialist from down under. Here is a link to her FaceBook page.
She is engaging and full of amazing information. After watching her tutorial, I set to work to create my own interactive choice board.
TADA!!!!!
I will be honest. It was an INCREDIBLE amount of work. It took approximately 24+ hours to complete.You can click the picture above to access the full product on my TpT store “Just Orffin Around”. I have included the PDF version for you here.
Each category includes a music experience that can be used at home.
Let’s Sing
For my K’s, we would be still working on finding our singing voice. “Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle” is a favorite story that I use at this time of year. The sound effects help students “Break Free” from their talking voice. I created a little Doodly video for the kids and it is linked directly from this page in the full product listing.
Let’s Move
“The Radetzky March” by Johann Strauss Sr, is the perfect tempo for littles. A Public Domain youtube video is linked within the document.
Let’s Play
I continued with the marching theme and guided the students in how to make a drum at home. I included some pre-reading rhythms to play.
Let’s Create
I tried to connect each activity as we would do in an Orff lesson. This time, students create the rhythms and then play them on their found sound.
Let’s Listen
Learning about new composers is always fun. A short Kindergarten version bio on Johann Strauss.
Let’s Draw
The patriotic sounds of the “Radetzky March ” make me see a parade in my imagination. I wrote a little guided drawing activity since patriotic parades are not as popular any more.
Let’s Read
I wrote a little poem called “March”. I wanted my K’s to practice reading the steady beat. They can point to the stars as they say the poem.
Let’s Write
Color the steady beat.
I’m proud of my first attempt at new learning. I hope you liked it too. Here are the links once more. Remember to hit that subscribe button in the bottom right hand corner!!!
What a wild ride!!!! In January, I wrote a post entitled “Come What May”. I certainly didn’t think we would be living through a pandemic. And teaching REMOTELY. WOW!!!!!
In our school district, the role of the specialist during home learning is to promote health and well being. Our Department of Education did not want to overwhelm parents so I am posting choice boards for my K to 3 students. They are still based within our core music curriculum but it offers some choice and wiggle room for the parents. They do what they can.
The concept of a spiral curriculum is really helping me with time management. I use the same ideas, songs, activities and poems with different achievement indicators. I thought I would share my process.
I try to post choice boards on my blog as follow:
Monday – Kindergarten choice board
Tuesday – Grade 1 choice board
Wednesday – Grade 2 Choice Board
Thursday – Grade 3 Choice Board
It is A LOT of work. But very satisfying. I post the board including the mini lessons, and links that are needed for each activity.
My Orff roots led me to add categories.
Let’s Read
Let’s Sing
Let’s Move
Let’s Play
Let’s Create
Let’s Experience
Let’s Listen
Let’s take a look at what I create for this week. All the PDF’s are on the grade level pages at the top of the blog.
I made these little buggy cards for them to use for some rhythm practice. For my K’s, they are at the stage in their development where they can successfully put the words into their hands. It also is really easy for parents to understand when you explain rhythm in this way.
I made a mini lesson using Flipgrid. (Super easy, by the way). I asked the students to pick 2 cards and clap the rhythm. What would happen if you chose 4 cards? Can you create an AABA pattern?
Let’s Sing
I am a little uncomfortable being on camera. Middle age and all!!!! So… I started to explore a new program called Doodly. I created a little doodly video of a story I wrote to go along with the partner songs “One Bottle of Pop” and “Don’t Throw your Junk in my Backyard”. My students can sing along with it at home.
I also included this visual with the numbered bottles. My K students can touch the number of each bottle as they sing.
Let’s Move, Let’s Play, Let’s experience ABA
For this week, I used the poem “Roly Poly”.
Moving is so important. I like this poem because after they perform the poem with their hands, you can ask “How would you do it with your feet?” Can you do it loud, quiet, fast, slow?
I created this little mini lesson to go along with “Roly Poly”.
I am so sad that we won’t get to continue our exploration on the instruments. But … we can find sounds at home!!!! I asked my students to find something they could use as a drum. I chose a book. I directed the kiddos to play on:
Up, Up, Up
Out, Out, Out
Tap, Tap, Tap
Lap
In the visual, I made these words stand out to support playing these rhythms.
Let’s take it one step further. Can you perform an ABA pattern?
A – Say the poem with movement
B – Say the poem and play the drum on those special words
A – Say the poem with movement
Let’s Listen
I love this performance of “Hornpipe” from Handel’s “Water Music”. I asked the students to listen and draw what they see in their imagination.
So… I mentioned spiral curriculum – Same ideas; different achievement indicators.
Let’s Read Rhythm
I used the same “Buggy” theme but created rhythms that were more suited for my grade 1’s and grade 2’s.
Let’s Sing and Let’s Listen
These both stayed the same as the K choice board.
Let’s Move
“Roly Poly” was a little young for the grade 1’s and 2’s for moving. I also want them to be working on doing a cross body hand pattern so they get to work on “Head and Shoulders, Baby”. I LOVE how much creativity comes with the creationg of new verses!!!!. I made another little mini lesson to help my students explore the possibilities.
Let’s Play and Let’s Experience ABA
I used the same idea of finding a drum but developmentally the grade 1’s and 2’s can handle a little more.
This week, it took a lot of time preparing these materials. I didn’t get ot my grade 3’s. Am I beating myself up over it? Yes, a little. But we all run out of time and the scary part of working from home is there is no set end to your work day. Remember to be gentle with yourself. All the PDF’s and links are on the grade level pages at the top of this blog. Feel free to use them. And I will post again soon.
I will be honest with you, I have never been a big fan of “Valentine’s Day” themed music activities. They just never felt authentic to me. However, with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I stumbled on a sweet little melody to the following poem:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Sugar is Sweet
And so are you.
It came from a great resource by James Harding:
I wish I could meet James Harding. His sense of humour shines through every page of his book. If you haven’t purchased it yet, you are really missing out.
Back to the roses…
We are having so much fun with this. Here is the process I followed:
Day 1
Intro the melody by rote.
I use a cone puppet for echoing. When he is in they listen, when he pops out they echo. Level 1- echoing one phrase at a time; Level 2 – echoing 2 phrases; and Level 3 – Sing it together.
Intro the “Staring Game.”
This is a partner game. They skip away from their partner and return by the end of the song for a staring contest. If they blink, move, or look away, they both sit down. We play to see who is the last couple standing. I have 2,3,4,5,6 way ties if it feels like it is going on too long.
Mirror the Bass Xylophone accompaniment. Transfer to pitched percussion.
For the Kindergarten, I don’t teach them the Bass Xylophone Bordun.
For the grade 1’s, I teach them a solid bordun – both hands coming down at the same time on the C and G.
For the grade 2’s, I teach them a broken bordun – they alternate the C and the G.
For the grade 3’s, I add the arpeggiated bordun on the last phrase. (As notated above)
Day 2
Pre-set the instrument circle.
You can use any pitched and non-pitched percussion that you have. My circle usually has approximately 22 to 25 instruments. I alternate pitched and non-pitched percussion so their role changes as they move through the circle. The pitched percussion are set up in C pentatonic.
Intro the color and non-pitched percussion parts through Body Percussion.
I have them pat the glockenspiel part and clap the non-pitched percussion part. It goes without saying that you sing the song as you practice the body percussion and anchor it to to the lyrics – “Pat” after the colors; “Clap” on “So are you.”
Transfer the body percussion to the pitched and non-pitched percussion.
If they are at barred instruments, they play a tone cluster on the pats. If they are at a non-pitched percussion instrument, they play on the claps.
For my kindergarten and grade 1’s, they all play on “So are you”.
Intro the vibraslap.
We add this cool sound effect after the word “you.” So much fun.
It is difficult for the kindergarten and grade 1’s to play the vibraslap independently. I leave it out of the rotation.
Rotate through until everyone has a turn at everything.
A video is worth a thousand words. Here is a little clip of my students playing the game.
Grade 2’s
Day 3
I wanted to focus on some melodic reading so we extended the song into the following two activities.
Kindergarten and Grade 1’s – Read a short melodic pattern using “High” and “Low”
Intro the melodic contour cards.
I created these little visuals to use.
We sat together and read them quickly using “High” and “Low”
Chose students to model play the patterns on the bells.
I color coded them to match our little bells.
Intro the “Roses are Red” circle game.
As you sing the song, pass a ball around the circle. Whoever is holding the ball at the end of the song goes to the middle and plays the melodic pattern on the bells. Continue playing.
Grade 2’s and 3’s – Students will be able to play the melody on the pitched percussion.
This was fun today. We played guess the mystery song and I gave them clues.
Clue 1 – Read the rhythm. I had notated the phrases, rhythm, and double bar line. They read the rhythm and I gave them their first guess.
Clue 2 – Echo sing one phrase at a time using solfege. Guess #2.
Clue 3 – Echo sing two phrases at a time using solfege. Guess #3
Clue 4 – Echo sing the entire song using solfege. Guess #4. Hopefully by now they have it.
Clue 5 – Sing with the words.
Once they have identifies the song we do the following.
If doh is C what is …
We connect the musical alphabet to the pitch syllables.
Sequence the melody.
I have these cards to sequence the song.
Sing the song with note names.
Practice playing the melody with a partner.
I gave them the music and they practiced. By the end of class, they played the melody and I accompanied them on the Bass Xylophone. It was really satisfying for them.
I do color code as a visual support for some of my students who struggle. We have little coloured stickers on our pitched percussion that match the little bells. Is it really music literacy? I think so.
This post has lots of goodies. I hope you try one of them out. They all can stand alone. Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!
We have been having a lot of fun learning this song in music class. This year, I have been spiralling it through my K-2’s. I thought I would share with you my process for introducing tika tika. I introduce this rhythm in grade 2.
Intro the song and the dance.
My students have been loving this. I am taking it as an opportunity to reinforce maintaining a circle. Not easy with K-2’s. There are so many verses for this little tune. My favourites come from my daughter’s kindermusik class.
Circle to the left
Everybody Clap
Circle to the right
Everybody Jump
Everybody Swing
I think their favourite part is Everybody Swing. They shake hands and then they hook those elbows. I ask them to make sure they are looking in different directions.
Draw the phrases in the air. How many are in the song?
For my purposes, our phrases are 4 beats long. We draw rainbows in the air. When we mirror phrases, I make sure I am moving right to left, so they are moving left to right. Love those early literacy skills. Then we draw them on the board.
I define phrases as musical sentences. I tell them the beginning of the phrase is like an upper case letter and the end of the phrase is like a period. All the notes within the phrase were put together to make sense. I think my Reading Recovery roots are showing.
What do we need to put at the end to show the song is over?
Why, a double bar line of course! I follow this same process when we are notating any songs in music class. It has just become second nature for my students.
How many beats are in phrase number 1?
If they say 2, I notate 2. If they say 3, I notate 3. Then we check. If they make a mistake, I give them an opportunity to correct their response. I am hoping it will help them self-monitor their own work.
How many beats do you predict will be in phrases 2,3, and 4? Remember music likes patterns.
Once this is notated, I invite a student to point while we sing to double check that we were correct. It’s a great moment to check steady beat, reading left to right, and remembering the return sweep.
How many sounds do you hear on each beat?
This song is great for tika tika because it is the only new element in the song. When we discover we don’t know a rhythm with 4 sounds on 1 beat, we label the sixteenth notes. Sometimes, a student will know them from other music enrichment opportunities outside of school.
Notate the rhythm and sing the song with the rhythm syllables.
Now some rhythm exploration fun! I work with a super talented music teacher. These next few ideas were inspired by Dorothy. She had introduced me to these cute generalization activities and I created the visuals. I want my students to play and just practice the new rhythm.
Roll a Rhythm
We just ordered these great re-usable dry-erase pockets. They arrived yesterday!!!!!
I am going to slip the Roll a Rhythm sheet in the pocket and they play the game with white board markers.
Write your own copy of Old Brass Wagon.
I love this idea. Thank you Dorothy!!!! They write out their phrases, beats and rhythm. When they fold the sheet it becomes a little book they can take home. So sweet!!!
All of these visuals are on my PDF page. Let me know what you think about my process. Would it work for you?
During the Twelve Days of Orff, I shared a little about this great story by Robert Munsch.
I am using this story with all my grades – K to 3, and they are loving it. I thought I would share my process and you can try it out for yourself.
Read the story inserting the melody.
Robert Munsch’s use of patterns in his writing makes it perfect for the music classroom. I wrote this little melody for Jasmine’s song in the story. The lyrics are repetitive and really easy for the students to learn.
Using the first set of lyrics, echo the melody.
When I am teaching a melody by rote, I use a cone puppet, When the puppet is inside the cone, they listen. When the puppet is out, they echo. Here is my little “Westy”.
Intro the instrument parts using Body Percussion.
Transfer Body Percussion to instruments.
My Orffestration changes for each grade level so it is developmentally appropriate.
For my K’s, my focus is on playing a glissando going up after “Winter time is Fun”. My students face me and they mirror my movement moving from right to left across the front of my body. Of course, this is BACKWARDS for the teacher.
Grade 1’s add the rhythm “Winter time is fun” on the drum. (or the rhythm sticks, tambourine,maracas… whatever you have.) We clap the rhythm and use the body percussion above for the glissando. Transfer to the instruments is easy peasy.
Grade 2’s are more than ready for a broken bordun. Facing the students, alternate pats starting with your right hand first. We sing “D A D A” as we pat and then add the song. Transfer to the Bass Xylophone. Add the drum and glissando.
Grade 3’s move the glockenspiel glissando to the word “beat” to add some colour to the Orffestration. A Vibraslap at the very end adds a bit of fun as well.
I don’t use rhythmic cards to teach the Orffestration but here are some flashcards in case you want them to meet your goals.
Use the Orffestration with each set of lyrics. Insert into the story.
Introduce Jasmine’s Dance.
I teach my kiddos a little “Jasmine Dance.” They perform it with the song
March 4 beats (Neat Neat Snowy Feet)
Tilt head back and forth 4 beats with their hands on their cheeks (Snowy Feet, Can’t be Beat)
March 4 beats (Neat Neat Snowy Feet)
Tilt head 4 beats (Snowy Feet Can’t be Beat)
Circle on the spot 4 beats (Wintertime is Fun)
Arms up and pose.
Assign Roles
Time to put it altogether. Here are the final roles to play and act it out. Jasmine, Mom, Caretaker, Dog, Nurse, Secretary, and the Principal. You can narrate the story and they act it out or they can improvise dialogue. Have students play the instrument parts and you have a little show. One more thing…
Add Snowflake Music.
I like to add some glockenspiel improvisation and scarf movement to simulate the rising snow. The scarf dancers swirl around Jasmine and then pause at the depth of the snow. (Her feet, knees, bum, eyes, and head) The scarves just hang and give the illusion she is being covered. I have the glockenspiels set up in D pentatonic and they improvise while the dancers are swirling.
I hope this gives you some fun over the next couple of weeks. All the visuals are on the PDF page. Please, check it out.
Our littles at Westwood Primary love their Scavenger Hunts!!! This is very similar to acticities also known as write the room. One difference – instead of staying in our classroom, we travel througout the school to find the piano facts. It includes a scavenger hunt, answer sheet, piano worksheets, and visuals for teaching “Chopsticks.” As with all of my products, a clear teaching process is included.
I have been fascinated lately with the idea of a spiral curriculum – same song but building on previous experiences. Using different achievement indicators at each level.
For the K level – Star dancing, melodic contour, and star music improvisation on glockenspiels.
For the grade 1 level – Star dacning, melodic contour, sol and mi on the staff, playing sol and mi plus an Orff arrangement.
For the grade 2 level – Reading sol and mi on the staff and transferring to pitched percussion, more advanced Orff arrangement.
For the grade 3 level – Playing Star Light on the Recorder.
This freebie is a preview of a product yet to come – “All About the Clarinet”
It will include a scavenger hunt – of course -, a cup routine to this beautiful clarinet quartet; and a coloring sheet.
I do like the version of this clarinet quartet performed by The Clarinet Quartet of the National Belgian Orchestra” .Their album “Summertime” can be found on Apple Music but this one will do in a pinch.
Well… that is the end of “Twelve Days of Orff”. I hope you find all these Orff tools, ideas, and lesson plans useful. Please do let me know what you think.
2019 was the worst year of my life. I had chronic insomnia for almost the entire year. No sleep at all!!!! I was off work for the month of January but I went back to work in February with a student teacher. So… I taught 180 kids a day on NO SLEEP. I started to dislike my job. I had a gruelling schedule. I was unmotivated – just getting by. But I made it to the end of June, Still no sleep throughout the summer as I waited to see a specialist.
Then, on August 12, my Mom passed away. She was my rock. For 20 years, I have suffered from severe anxiety. It manifested as a fear of dying. When I would have a panic attack, my Mom was the only one who helped calm me down. The week after her funeral, it was back to school time.
In September, my schedule at school had improved significantly. I finally was able to see a specialist who helped. I was liking being a music teacher again. I had more energy. I started feeling creative. I started blogging and sharing my ideas and put more work into my TeacherspayTeachers store.
So, I say BRING ON 2020.
A couple of things before I move onto my goals for 2020.
Part of my unhappiness with my job was an excruciating schedule. Music teachers live for feeling overburdened. I did. I worked my tail off and filled in any down time with ensemble and music enrichment for my students. The problem is, once you start down this road, without limits, people expect all the extras and load you up with more. I have learned that balance is necessary. It is worth fighting for. A proper, healthy schedule will not just benefit you, it will benefit whoever comes next because, eventually, someone else will have your job.
Music Enrichment Opportunities are a CHOICE. You can fill up every spare moment with ensembles, however, children benefit from the quality of the time spent with you, not necassarily the quantity of time spent with you. Our school runs on a 6 day cycle. We offer our “Music Adventures” program on day 2,4 and 6 for 25 minutes. The phys-ed teachers offer intramusrals om day 1,3, and 5 for 25 minutes. The rest of the time, kids do what kids do – PLAY.
Now on to 2020. What are my goals as the New Year begins?
Rediscover the joy of teaching
Anxiety and depression will be a part of me forever. I need to find ways to get my spark back. At least a little. And it begins with my DAYBOOK. I need color, positive vibes, and variety. Sooo…
It’s a little unconventional but I LOVE it. I bought some planner sstickers that have positive messages and erasable colored pens give it a little color.
Inspiration comes from discovering NEW RESOURCES so I am going to dive into the following…
Inspiration also comes from attending conferences. Here I come Carl Orff Canada National Conference – VISION 2020
I have hope that 2020 will be an amazing year. I will be here, trying my best, Come What May…
I wanted clear, easy to read directions and information. We have french immersion students and late bloomers in our literacy programs so keeping it simple was important.
My students are very capable rhythmic readers but they are still learning how to read staff notation. I wanted a resource that started without staff notation. It is super challenging to learn:
Hand position
Finger Numbers
How to hold the recorder
How to cover the holes
Embouchure
Gentle Air
Tonguing
It’s a lot for an 8 year old. I wanted to keep it simple to secure good playing techniques.
After song #2, I review how to draw notes on the staff.
They do have to learn how to read fluently. I do not believe using “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” or “F A C E “ is promoting music literacy. I am also a literacy specialist, so I understand how children use different meaning, syntax and visual sources of information. It is the same in music. Our brain needs to use startegies like ” What would make sense?” , “What would sound right?”, and “What would look right?”Using the above rhymes mean we are reading note by note when it is so much more efficient to notice melodic contour, steps, skips, repeats, patterns. We start with B, A, and G and we learn what they look like, sound like, and feel like when we are reading and writing on the staff. Instead of passing them sheet music, I have them write their own copy to read.
Are you getting tired of this yet? I hope not. Freebie Number 7 is another Instrument Scavenger. This one is focused on classroom instruments rather than orchestral instruments. It’s all about choice and teaching goals.
We celebrate Music Week at our school usually in May. We have grade level sing alongs, music station time, guest performers, and little games that we put up around the school like this scavenger hunt. The kids go with a friend, or two, and they search out all the instrument pictures we have hidden throughout the school. They mark them off on their score sheet and they get bragging rights if they find them all.
Instrument Cards
Score Sheet
I know in the United States, Music in our Schools Month is coming. Try the scavenger hunt and let me know how it worked for you.
