5th Grade Rockstars

One of my awesome 5th grade classes made this "craftivity" before our Open House.  Their teacher was nice enough to loan them to me for an extra 10 minutes so we could do our lesson and create this.

Before we began, we brainstormed a list of musical talents which I wrote on the board.  Students also discussed their talents with partners next to them.  Then we created the guitars.

The picture is blurry, so here are a few things the students came up with:
I am a rock star because...
"I always use my best singing voice"
"I can always find the beat"
"I love listening to music"
"I'm good at the recorder"

The cutest thing was that, after we finished, the students "rocked out" while singing a guitar rift and "I'm a rockstar".  After each little rift, a student shared what they had written.

You can find this craftivity at Amanda's blog, Let's Get Fancy in First.

Let Us Chase the Squirrel

I love using this song for the Fall season.  The melodic content is a great review for my 3rd graders at the beginning of the year (before we add "La" back in and then move on to the extended Do pentatonic scale).  You can download it here for free: Let Us Chase the Squirrel.

The students can use the title slide as a pitch ladder and create patterns for their friends to sing by pointing to the pictures.

Here are the lyrics of the song.  Try having students create their own motions for the lyrics - they love this!








 Have the students keep the beat by tapping their fists lightly on their open palms.  Transfer this to a woodblock.  Talk about why a "wood block" might be a good instrument to use with this particular song.

My kiddos love to "predict" which rhythm will appear based on the iconic representation.  Have students track the pictures while they say the words.

Have the students clap the rhythm while chanting the words.  Then, have them clap the rhythm while saying rhythm syllables of your choice.  Last, have them clap the rhythm while saying the words "in their head" (audiate)

Since my student have already used all these pitches and we are simply reviewing, I don't include any iconic representation of the pitches in this lesson.  The students simply sign the pitches while tracking the song as I play it on the piano.  Then, the students sing on solfa and sign while I play the melody.  Third, the students sing and sign without me playing the melody.  Then, they sing on the correct lyrics (they continue to sign).


On this slide, I have students come up and identify: all the do's, all the re's, all the mi's, and all the so's.  We also identify where repeats, steps, skips, and leaps occur.  We also add in the 2nd verse.

Here's the orffestration of the song.  The woodblock is easy enough to add (have students clap the rhythm then transfer), as is the SG part (have students snap on the "rel" or highest pitch then transfer).  For the BX/BM part, have the students pat it on their legs, keeping their right hand in the same place but moving their left hand in and out to mirror the movement they'll use on the instrument.  Transfer.

Students love this game.  Those that aren't playing the orffestration will enjoy singing and playing this.







This year, I've added another activity to this song that I think hits so many topics in one - I know I need it!  The printable cards below can be used by students in a variety of ways:

labeled

unlabeled

Singing Practice: The students can practice singing the patterns on the cards. They could evaluate the singing of others.
Listening Activity: The teacher sings (on neutral syllable if using the cards with solfa on them, on a neutral syllable or using the solfa if using the cards without solfa) or plays a pattern and the students locate it.  The teacher can play more than one pattern to make the listening activity more difficult.  Students could also sing or play patterns for their peers to find.
Composition Activity: The students can compose their own melodies, using one squirrel card first (the squirrels have melodies that don't end on "do") and ending with one hickory card (melodies that end on "do").  You can label the squirrel cards as "question" phrases and the hickory cards as "answer" phrases.  Students can add lyrics and instrumentation to their composition.  Print the cards on regular paper and then have the students glue their own two-card creations to brown construction paper to create a bulletin board display. 

The Icecream Sandwich

We all know that the more listening activities, or the more opportunities that we give our students to be more "aurally aware", the more successful they will be at singing on pitch.  They'll also be more critical listeners, not only with their own singing, but with the singing of those around them.

For example, my 5th graders, as they work on the National Anthem (oh isn't it just LOVELY for younger voices - sarcasm) for a September 11th-related activity, I've encouraged them to use the "ice-cream" sandwich as they listen and evaluate their own singing and the singing of others in their class.  We used a similar structure in voice class during college.  I've demonstrated how to use this and the students have used it on me.  They've also used it on partners in their immediate vicinity.  This week, they'll use it with volunteers or small groups who sing alone for the class.  This really seems to make sense to them, and they like the balance of complimenting their friends but also giving their friends something to work on.

For the top "cookie" the student who is giving the sandwich gives the student receiving the sandwich a "compliment" - for example, "I could really understand your diction on the song."
For the ice-cream, the student who is giving the sandwich is a little "cold"; they must give the student receiving the sandwich a "critique" - something they need to work on - for example, "Your pitch was a little under at "and the rocket's red glare."
For the bottom "cookie", the student gives their friend another compliment.

I'm looking forward to having the students use this tool all year, especially during recorder playing when I'm constantly asking them to evaluate others.

Back to School

In our district, the students started back last Wednesday, so I've already had three days with my little musicians.  I am definitely struggling with getting back to my 5:00AM wake-up routine, but I'm excited to be making music with my students again.

This year, I'm participating in Teachers Pay Teacher's "Back to School" sale.  I'll be offering 28% off my entire store from August 18-19.  Enjoy and have a great year!

Check out my handy bundles to get you started this Fall:



 Elementary Music Bundle 1 (Grades K-2)

Elementary Music Bundle 2 (Grades 2-3 - also could use with early 4/5)

Recorder Mega Set

Owl-Land Returns

Oh my goodness!  How busy are we this time of year?  It is a little intense - but exciting!

So, our school had a huge mold problem this year and many classrooms had a wall that was replaced (including mine).  We weren't able to set up our rooms until last weekend and school starts tomorrow!  Crunch time!

One positive thing (beside being mold-free) occurred - one of my walls received a new paint color!  I'm loving the brightness (and the fact that I didn't have to use so much butcher paper to cover the walls).

Here are a few pictures from Owl Land (I know, there is not a 12 step process for an owl addiction):

Entrance to Room

Desk Corner

Fat Little Owls ;)

Front of Room

One handy idea I grabbed from somewhere (I forget!) was including clipboards (below objectives) with vocabulary cards for each grade-level - easy to grab or switch out words when I need to.

Word Wall (BLUE WALL) and Large Magnetic Staff Board (I love it)

Music/Melody Street (with vocab for high, low, pitch, melody, phrase, step, skip, and leap)

Close-Up of Music Street - (Fa and Ti will come soon for older students)

Music Tech Center

Composer Corner

Add caption

Sign-Out Spot (2-5 only)

7 Habits Posters (clip on "Habit of the Day/Week")

Data Tracking Wall (more about that soon)

7 Habits-based mission statement

7-Habits Themed Bulletin Board (each quarter note has a habit with language about how it looks in the music room)

The kids always ask, "Why are those owls so angry?"

New Leadership Recognition board - one leader per grade per week chosen by me (they get their picture out here, name on the announcements, and a special "owl" seat during class)

I can't wait to see your gorgeous rooms as you get back into your rooms this month!  Wishing you all a successful year and another year of sharing and learning between us!

7 Habits Resource Packet

UPDATE: I am unable to share any of my 7 Habits resources.  I have left this page up for inspirational purposes (hehe) only.  Best of luck to all of you on the Leader in Me Journey!

Myself, along with other members of the wonderful staff at my school, were charged by our principals to lead our school in adopting The Leader in Me program.

Funding, as I'm sure it is everywhere, is limited.  At The Leader in Me website, you'll find lots of information about adopting the program and, more importantly, scheduling training and consultants.  If you can, I'd suggest utilizing that.

We, however, were faced with the task of implementing this program without the training/consultations that The Leader in Me can provide.  I'd like to share some tips and materials we used/are using as we go about this process.

To start, our principal purchased a set of three books for each teacher: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, and The Leader in Me.  These were purchased last summer and were to be read by this August by all the staff.  Our counselor took the lead with the students, using The 7 Habits in her lessons with them, so that, but now, all students were relatively familiar with the language.  Throughout last year, our "light-house" team met to read and discuss (using The Leader in Me Study Guide) The Leader in Me and develop ways to use it at our school.  Many teachers attended a "Leadership Day" hosted at another elementary school in our district that already uses The 7 Habits.

Last May, our team met to create a 3-year "roll out plan".  This year, we wanted to focus on training, educating, and supporting the staff.  We also wanted to continue use of the Habits with the students by rewarding them when they used the Habits, creating more leadership roles and using our Student Council in a greater capacity, and empowering our students to take ownership of their learning with data-notebooks.  We are also planning trainings and creating resources for our parents to use.

To train the staff, I created several materials for them to use.  We've all been in that training where we get the "use this now" message but with out the "here's why to use it, here's how to use, let me offer support as you use it" that we need.  I didn't want our staff to feel that way as we began our journey with The 7 Habits. (Our training is on Wednesday, so I'll post a follow-up about how it went).

Each staff member will be given a folder.  Inside the folder, they'll find:

Table of Contents

The "7 Habits Resource Page" is a list of resources, websites, blogs, and downloads I've compiled while searching for 7 Habits tools.  The resource list includes materials for data notebooks, classroom decor, and parent resources.

The poster set is "Leaders are out of this World" themed.  We have many ELLs at our school, so both an English and Spanish version is included. 

The 7 Habits slips are what I'm most excited to use this year.  Students can be given a slip by any teacher (the teacher fills the slip out).  The student places the slip in a grade-specific bin in the front of the school.  At the end of the month, names are drawn from these slips and those students are invited to attend a "leadership lunch".  This lunch will take place during their regular lunchtime, on the stage, with special plates and utensils and special guests (like the principal). 

7 Habits bookmarks will be passed out to each student (we're printing them on card stock and laminating them).  The bookmarks are available in English and Spanish.

The "First Things First" is an "editable" document that you can use to schedule 7 Habits learning during the first week of school.  At our school, we have a slightly different schedule and are calling it the "Lay the Foundation" week.  The teacher tips include further instructions for teachers (how to use the posters as a clip chart, etc).

The "first week workbooks" are designed to help the students reflect upon their learning after reading and discussing the chapters as a class.  Teachers have the choice to send the packet home with the student, keep the packet in the students' data notebooks, or use the worksheets in bulletin board and student work displays.

Four workbooks are included, a K-2 friendly version in English and Spanish and a 3-5 friendly version in English and Spanish.  The 3-5 version has a "taking the habits home" page to facilitate family involvement.

Sample page from K-2 Workbook

Sample page from 3-5 Workbook

We also included a sample parent letter that our principal will discuss (and send home) during our school's equivalent of "open house".  She decided to send this home then so she can thoroughly discuss it.  I agree with the idea because the first time the parents will hear/see about the 7 Habits will come from their own children's discussions and workbooks - not from an administrator at the school.  The letter introduces the Leader in Me and 7 Habits and also includes a page with of the 7 Habits posters (so parents see what their students see at school).

We are also including a survey (three questions only) so that our group can learn more about what teachers want to know, what they have questions about, and when and how they'd like trainings.

In this download, I've also included an "introductory" PowerPoint for use at a staff meeting.  Here's a sample slide:

Look for more updates as we continue on this journey!  If you're using The Leader in Me, I'd love to hear how your school is doing things!