Happy New Year! Today was our first day back to school in 2013 and I am excited for what the remainder of the school year holds for my students and I in music class!
With the arrival of January, for many of you, is also the arrival of a shipment of new recorders (or breaking out the old ones!) for a recorder unit. This is actually my first year in 7 years to not teach recorders starting the first day back in January. Being at a brand new school and feeling so lost this school year, I did not have my act together as well this year to start in January. But I hope to introduce the recorder to my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in February or March!
For those of you starting recorder now or soon, I would like to remind you of some fantastic resources available to you!
This is my pride and joy – an original beginning recorder method book. The entire book (music notation, images, graphics) were created by yours truly. Click the image to the left or the link above to view my original blog post about the method. I also created PowerPoint and Flipchart files to correlate with the method book to make your teaching even more effective. Below are the links to my TpT store (NOTE: you can now buy multiple licenses of products on TeachersPayTeachers at a reduced rate! So if you have other recorder lovers, buy a copy for them as well! If you purchase you do have the right to photocopy for your students as many times as needed, for educational purposes only!)
Now that I have my class set of iPads up and running, I am going to start sharing some of my favorite apps. Christmas is, by far, my favorite time of year. I love Christmas music and cannot wait for the day after Thanksgiving, when I break out my favorite holiday tunes.
As I searched for apps to use during these crazy December days in music class, I found some really fun ones that are also quite education and musical!
Here are my top 3 FREE holiday music apps, in no particular order:
Music Mixer – Elf on the Shelf – Christmas Game – Good for experiencing mixing music, this app allows students to discover how arranging sounds in different ways can change the feeling or mood of the music. Very fun and all grade levels seem to love it, from my littles (Kindergarten) all the way to the 5th graders.
Sing Along Christmas Carols Free – The free version of this app has three Christmas carols in karaoke style lyrics for you to sing a long. The accompaniment is quality piano and sounds nice. Even good to use with just one iPad and an AV dongle connector to show on a big screen for a school sing along! Also, has the potential to unlock and buy other tunes (for money, of course!)
Christmas Piano With Free Songs – Very similar to the one above, except you can play piano to three holiday tunes. Very customizable, as you can learn to play the left hand or right hand or both. You can choose to have the note labels on the keys, and you can alter them tempo and key at which you play. Lots of fun!
I love Halloween time because its the perfect time of the year for listening to “spooky” music. One of my favorite “spooky” pieces for Halloween is “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from The Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg. Classicsforkids.com has a great resource this month that includes a listening map, biography of Edvard Grieg, and other activities. Click here for a direct link to their PDF you can download.
As I surfing the web and looking for other resources to use while I teach “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” I found two great YouTube videos that you might want to use as well!
Classicsforkids.com has a great resource this month that includes a listening map, biography of Edvard Grieg, and other activities. Click here for a direct link to their PDF you can download.
Also, MakingMusicFun.net has another good listening map that you can print and students can touch and follow as they listen. Click here to see download that FREE listening map.
I also found a great blog post through Pinterest from Beth’s Music Notes on a variety of lessons and activities using “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Her resources appeal to a wide range of ages and learning styles. Great ideas, Beth!
I wanted to share two new Lesson Plans/Units I have on TpT. Yes, these are paid, because it took me many hours to develop, test, and produce them. But I think that you will find them to be fun, educational, and engaging lessons you can implement in your classroom with little to no extra planning or set-up time.
These lessons include image files, PowerPoints, Flipcharts, and detailed lesson plans so the work is already done for you! Plus, they’re FALL themed and who doesn’t love the fall?!? I hope you enjoy them and use them in a fantabulous way in your classroom! (Click on the pictures below to go to my TpT product pages)
In honor of my favorite season, I am throwing a 20% off sale on ALL TpT PRODUCTS IN MY STORE through Monday! I wanted you, my readers, to know about this ASAP to thank you for loyally following and supporting me here!
As a music teacher, I feel a great responsibility and duty to educate our nation’s youth on the history of our country through our music. American music tells the story of our country, from its birth and through the years – our turmoil, grief, victories, and liberties. Each school year I spend a good deal of time talking about, listening to, and singing the National Anthem. I hope to make some kind of impression on my students so as adults, they are the ones in the stadiums with their hats removed, standing respectfully tall, and proudly singing each and every note and word of National Anthem.
I would like to share some videos and activities and other resources that I use to help teach the “Star-Spangled Banner” and to celebrate its birthday every September 14th.
This first video is created by Rev. Dudley Rutherford of California. His site, www.flagrespect.com, plays a 9:11 video on the history of the “Star-Spangled Banner” (do you notice the coincidence of the length of the video and a date that passed earlier this week?) I play this video for my students in the week leading up to September 14 and I think it does an amazing job of giving life to what many feel is a dead song. It restores passion for a country and a song who’s lost its voice.
This second video is one I created for my school to play on its morning news show each year on September 14. Its short, sweet, and to the point. The video also gets kids singing which is a huge deal! They’re never going to learn it if they don’t get to practice it!!!
Also, here is a links to some fantastic National Anthem activities and resources through the National Anthem Project…
How do you celebrate the “Star-Spangled Banner’s” birthday? What do you think of these videos and activities? How will you use these in your classes?
With Patriot Day and Veteran’s Day coming up very soon, I thought I would share with you some patriotic music resources. I hope you are able to use them in your classroom and can share a little patriotism with your students!
Great Video on the History of our National Anthem, the “Star-Spangled Banner”
Jeopardy-like Patriotic Music Game Show
In honor of the August mid-point (we’re halfway through my least favorite month of the year), the marking of 2 full weeks of our school year complete in Cherokee county, GA, and my baby boy’s 1/2 year birthday (he’s 6 months old today…my, how time flies), I am offering the first ever Learn Me Music giveaway!
This giveaway will win you ONE FREE PRODUCT from my TeachersPayTeachers store, of your choice!! There are some new patriotic products but there are tons of “oldies, but goodies” on there too you might be coveting!!
You can enter 3 different ways, which will give you up to 3 chances to win (you can pick to do one, two, or all three options – leave a comment for this post below for each of the 3 ways you entered)
winsomemusic.blog