"La Raspa" is a traditional dance from Mexico, often taught to school children. (It is sometimes referred to as the Mexican Hat Dance, but this is incorrect. The Mexican Hat Dance is a more complicated, flirtatious dance performed by adult dancers.) I like to show the students a video of children dancing, to give them an idea of the final product we are aiming towards. They really enjoyed this one:
This is just a home video of someone's school program, but it shows the steps well, along with the traditional costumes and some pretty good little dancers.
We discuss the form of the piece (rondo), then learn the steps for each section. I list ABACA on the board, with steps for each, to help them remember. We partner up, and dance! Sometimes I have kinder and first dance in a circle instead of with partners - it depends on the class. :)
La Raspa is great exercise! Get extra PE minutes, learn Rondo form, and learn multicultural music all in one fun activity. It's a great way to start class for a few weeks. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
It's Hispanic Heritage Month!
National Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 - October 15. (I find it odd that it is not an actual calendar month, but whatever.) I love HHM--we have so much fun in music! Over the next three weeks I will be posting some of my favorite lessons and activities for this month. The first is a book that I read in Kinder and First Grade classes: The Best Mariachi in the World by J.D. Smith.
It's about a little boy who wants to be a mariachi, but he's too little. Until one morning when the village hears him singing. Awwwww! Happy endings, spanish words, and mariachi music. :)
In Kinder, we learn the names of the instruments in the mariachi band and color a picture while listening to mariachi music (click here for coloring page). In first grade, we study the differences between the instruments (guitarron vs. guitar, vihuela vs. violin) and enjoy the same music. The kids love it!
Friday, September 16, 2011
The Timer is My Friend
Okay, so this is more of a mom post than a teacher post, but it made my morning so much better I had to share!
My 10yo son is a dawdler. Big time. He can cram a 2 minute task into 15, easy peasy. This makes mornings at our house a bit frustrating. Since I drop him off at school on my way to work, he has to be ready to go on time, or mom will be late. Lately I have found myself stressing out every morning, hurrying him out the door, and still getting to his school just in time to get stuck in drop-off traffic. Not cool. So this morning, I had a brainstorm. The online stopwatch timer.
I used the Wii in our living room to go online and show the timer--full screen--as it counted down the seconds until time to go. I didn't even say anything to him, just let it run. Guess what? He was ready 5 minutes early! AWESOME! I'm thinking Mr. Timer will be our new morning helper.
BTW, this is also a great tool to use in the classroom. Give students a set amount of time for a task (centers, putting things away, share time, etc.) and let the timer be the bad guy. There's also a Bomb Countdown that blows up when it gets to zero!
My 10yo son is a dawdler. Big time. He can cram a 2 minute task into 15, easy peasy. This makes mornings at our house a bit frustrating. Since I drop him off at school on my way to work, he has to be ready to go on time, or mom will be late. Lately I have found myself stressing out every morning, hurrying him out the door, and still getting to his school just in time to get stuck in drop-off traffic. Not cool. So this morning, I had a brainstorm. The online stopwatch timer.
I used the Wii in our living room to go online and show the timer--full screen--as it counted down the seconds until time to go. I didn't even say anything to him, just let it run. Guess what? He was ready 5 minutes early! AWESOME! I'm thinking Mr. Timer will be our new morning helper.
BTW, this is also a great tool to use in the classroom. Give students a set amount of time for a task (centers, putting things away, share time, etc.) and let the timer be the bad guy. There's also a Bomb Countdown that blows up when it gets to zero!
Friday, September 9, 2011
A Beary Special Friend
I have a special friend who visits my kinder classes each year. His name is Mr. Bear (creative, I know). He loves to hear children sing, especially his favorite song......."Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" of course! He even directs the song, showing the kids the tempo he wants to use before we start. Sometimes he gets mischevious and gives us really FAST tempos, or really S-L-O-W tempos. You never know what he'll do next! When we finish his favorite song, he likes to watch the class from the sidelines. If he's really impressed with their work, he will give everyone a hug or handshake when they line up. But noisy, rowdy classes make him nervous. We have to be careful not to scare him!
I had one class this week who could not get enough of Mr. Bear. They thought he was so funny! His arms/paws move, and every time he started to conduct the music, they would bust out laughing! They nearly died when he touched his toes! LOL! Gotta love kinder babies.
The Good, the Bad, and the Average
This week has been all about choir auditions. I have a 3rd and 4th grade choir that meets after school on Tuesdays all year long. Last year, I had 55 kids in the choir, and it was really too big. At least for my school, with just me, it was too many kiddos. So this year I vowed to stick as close to 40 as I could....<sigh>. It's so hard to tell a 9-year-old that you didn't choose them. I'm always worried that they will be scarred for life--but then, it's a life lesson that we don't always get everything we want, right? Right. Okay. They get their results in a sealed envelope, right before they leave school on Friday. By Monday, most of them will have gotten over not making it, and the ones who did make it will be so excited to "tell" me about it, I'm sure it will be a good day. (But I'll still worry about it until then. I can't help it.)
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Orff-Schulwerk Awesomeness
Eric Young, at The Orff-Schulwerk Classroom, is a teacher and presenter. He shared this video on his blog about building marimbas at your school. I can't even wrap my brain around all of the logistics of making this happen yet, but I know it's awesome! I especially love the teaching tips after the photo section of the presentation. For those of us who are Orff-challenged (okay, just less experienced), it helps to see it broken down into baby steps. I see myself using this soon...I hope you enjoy it, too!
Monday, August 29, 2011
♩♩♫♩ Every Good Boy Does Fine - Mnemonics!
I was visiting Krisin Lukow's awesome blog, and found LOTS of great ideas, videos, links, and more. She is obviously very tech-savvy, and is using it in her classroom. Check out this awesome video to review/teach the names of the lines of the treble clef!
♩♩♫♩Musical Musings with Mrs. Lukow ♫♩♫♩: Every Good Boy Does Fine - Mnemonics!
♩♩♫♩Musical Musings with Mrs. Lukow ♫♩♫♩: Every Good Boy Does Fine - Mnemonics!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Pick Me! Pick Me!
Don't you just hate it when you have to choose a child to do something, and they're ALL sitting quietly, doing exactly what you asked? (Don't laugh...it happens!) It's SO hard to choose, and I for one do not have the memory capacity to know who got to have a turn last week, or even last hour! When I first started teaching elementary music, a veteran teacher told me how she does it, and I have been making her system mine for 15 years now. It totally works!
I call it the "Who's Next?" board. I have an envelope for every class that comes to music each week. This year, I labeled them with grade/day of the week, hoping it will be helpful for subs and reusable next year. I have also put teacher's names on the envelopes in the past.
The first or second week of school, I have each class make their cards. I give them an index card and ask them to write their name VERY neatly, and their class code (helps in case a card gets separated from the stack). The older kids also have to write a sentence. This year I used, "I am good at..." It's a great way for them to tell me what they love and are good at, plus forces them to focus on a positive trait. AND, we are putting a huge emphasis on writing on our campus, so this is a way I can help toward that goal.
The cards go in the class envelope. When I need to choose a child to do something, I always take the front card, then put it in the back. The kids know that their card will not be chosen again until ALL of the other cards have been pulled. Sometimes I will go through the whole stack in one class, other times I only need one or two. Either way, we all know no one will be forgotten. It is awesome! They don't beg or argue, and when someone starts to, the other kids will say, "she's going to pick a card!" and everyone is cool.
The next obstacle was to remember to put cards in for new students that move in throughout the year. Ahem, yeah, I'm not exactly known for my excellent memory....in my defense, I've had two babies and I'm over 40, so brain cells are leaking out everywhere. Anyway, I think I've found a solution:
I mounted a box to hold extra cards and a couple of pencils on the board. Next to it are directions for making your card. I told my kids that they can help new students when they come to music for the first time. There are always little helpers that will remember that way better than I will!
I love that all my students know that everyone is important, and I am doing my best to make sure no one is left out in music class. After all, everyone is expected to participate!
I call it the "Who's Next?" board. I have an envelope for every class that comes to music each week. This year, I labeled them with grade/day of the week, hoping it will be helpful for subs and reusable next year. I have also put teacher's names on the envelopes in the past.
The first or second week of school, I have each class make their cards. I give them an index card and ask them to write their name VERY neatly, and their class code (helps in case a card gets separated from the stack). The older kids also have to write a sentence. This year I used, "I am good at..." It's a great way for them to tell me what they love and are good at, plus forces them to focus on a positive trait. AND, we are putting a huge emphasis on writing on our campus, so this is a way I can help toward that goal.
The cards go in the class envelope. When I need to choose a child to do something, I always take the front card, then put it in the back. The kids know that their card will not be chosen again until ALL of the other cards have been pulled. Sometimes I will go through the whole stack in one class, other times I only need one or two. Either way, we all know no one will be forgotten. It is awesome! They don't beg or argue, and when someone starts to, the other kids will say, "she's going to pick a card!" and everyone is cool.
The next obstacle was to remember to put cards in for new students that move in throughout the year. Ahem, yeah, I'm not exactly known for my excellent memory....in my defense, I've had two babies and I'm over 40, so brain cells are leaking out everywhere. Anyway, I think I've found a solution:
I mounted a box to hold extra cards and a couple of pencils on the board. Next to it are directions for making your card. I told my kids that they can help new students when they come to music for the first time. There are always little helpers that will remember that way better than I will!
I love that all my students know that everyone is important, and I am doing my best to make sure no one is left out in music class. After all, everyone is expected to participate!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
About Mrs. H
Today was the third day of the new school year. So far, I've done my "Welcome to Music" lesson 15 times...ten more to go! Our schools have "common planning time" for all grade levels, so that means I have one section of each grade level each day. The up side: only 5 classes a day! The down side: the entire grade level has to be in co-curricular classes at the same time, so there are more kids in each section. So far, my biggest group is 29, which is not too bad. Here's hoping they stay under 30!
One of the things I added this year is an "About Mrs. H" slide show. I thought it might be fun to share other things about my life besides music, especially for those kids who aren't as "into" music as other things. I showed pictures of my family, the kids, the dog (a big hit!), and the show my boys were in this summer. But the best part of all was the "Things I Like" page. I found clip art for stuff I like to do, eat, make, or watch. The kids got so excited! They all wanted to share the "likes" I had in common with them or their parents. It was so sweet!
The best moment of the day was when my 3rd graders were lining up to leave. One little boy told me that he really likes making things out of paper too (I told them about my paper crafts obsession), and he asked if he could bring one of his projects to show me next time. :) Of course I said yes!
These little connections mean so much to kids. It's hard to build relationships with 625 kids in one hour a week, so anything that can strengthen that bond is worth the time and effort. Maybe you already do something like this in your room. If not, then I highly recommend it. It's easy, and takes only a few minutes of class time. I know this will be a part of my first week from now on!
Have a great day!
~Andrea
One of the things I added this year is an "About Mrs. H" slide show. I thought it might be fun to share other things about my life besides music, especially for those kids who aren't as "into" music as other things. I showed pictures of my family, the kids, the dog (a big hit!), and the show my boys were in this summer. But the best part of all was the "Things I Like" page. I found clip art for stuff I like to do, eat, make, or watch. The kids got so excited! They all wanted to share the "likes" I had in common with them or their parents. It was so sweet!
The best moment of the day was when my 3rd graders were lining up to leave. One little boy told me that he really likes making things out of paper too (I told them about my paper crafts obsession), and he asked if he could bring one of his projects to show me next time. :) Of course I said yes!
These little connections mean so much to kids. It's hard to build relationships with 625 kids in one hour a week, so anything that can strengthen that bond is worth the time and effort. Maybe you already do something like this in your room. If not, then I highly recommend it. It's easy, and takes only a few minutes of class time. I know this will be a part of my first week from now on!
Have a great day!
~Andrea
Monday, August 22, 2011
FREE Marimba Music!
This summer I taught a one-week music camp for elementary kiddos. I wanted some music we could play on Orff instruments with younger kids, with minimal practice time. As I was searching, I found this FREE piece on marimbamusic.com. It was really easy to teach, and the kids loved it! It was great for familiarizing the kids with the instruments, teaching how to play a tremolo, and building confidence. And did I mention that it's FUN?
You can see and print the whole song here.
First, I taught the kids to sing the song, with me singing first and the kids clapping the instrument part. We quickly moved to the instruments to play. They were able to perform the piece (with me singing) almost immediately. The next rehearsals we polished singing and playing at the same time, and traded instruments for variety. The kids performed for their parents at the end of the week, and they all wanted to play this song. Love it!
You can see and print the whole song here.
First, I taught the kids to sing the song, with me singing first and the kids clapping the instrument part. We quickly moved to the instruments to play. They were able to perform the piece (with me singing) almost immediately. The next rehearsals we polished singing and playing at the same time, and traded instruments for variety. The kids performed for their parents at the end of the week, and they all wanted to play this song. Love it!
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