It's Beginning To Sound Alot Like Christmas!

Here is a preview of our Winter Holiday Concert.  The concert is on December 14 at {gasp} the Middle School on the BIG STAGE!!!  ACK!!  We're moving up in the world.  I think... no... I KNOW we will be ready in time!  Sit, back, relax and enjoy our hard work!
Sometime after December 14, we'll let you know how everything turned out!
Videos are compliments of my students.

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I Like Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving my kindergarten students learned the song I Like Thanksgiving from Music K-8.  It's hard to video them and sing with them...but here ya go!  The girls in the back row are adorable.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

**Sorry it's sideways... not sure how to rotate it!  It played right before I put it in the blog.  Suggestions??**

Technology Can Be Fun

Get a Voki now!


I am just trying out this Voki.  I am thinking about doing a short research project with my fifth grade classes after the Christmas concert.  They will each get a composer to research and questions to answer.  They will then be able to create a Voki and type the answers to their questions.  Just a different way of doing a report... thought it was interesting. :)

Yahoo! Homepages for Homerooms

Yahoo! Homepages for Homerooms

Can you help out my classroom? DonorsChoose is an AMAZING way for teachers to get items they need for their classroom. I have been very fortunate to have several projects funded by DonorsChoose. Right now, they are partnering with Yahoo!

Click on the link above to help support my classroom. My project ID is 463735. The name of the project is Get with the Gameplan!

Thanks for your support! :)

Recorder Club!

Although Halloween has passed, the Recoder Club (we're still looking for a cool snazzy name) has been hard at work learning to play Hall of the Mountain King.  Enjoy!

The Recorder Club was started this year thanks to donors choose and Recorder Karate.  Through donorschoose all of the fourth graders were given a recorder and were able to participate in Recorder Karate. The response was so amazing that some of the students wanted to continue playing in 5th graders.  A great group of 14 fifth graders signed up to stay afterschool for an hour on Tuesdays to continue their recorder studies and make music with their friends.

Students earn belts for passing each level. 
Usually the belts are on the bottom of
the recoder.  This student is showing
hers off... as well as her lucky charm.



Funny faces!  Ready, set, go!



most of the 5th grade recorder club

Looking good!

Practicing with our friends!

working together

hard at work on Hall of the Mountian King

Hungarian Dance No. 3

Although we still need a little more work, we had a TON of fun learning about the form of Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 3.  The very first time my students were introduced to the song, they simply listened to it.  We discussed what we heard.  We answered questions like "What instruments did you hear?"  "How did the music make you feel?"  "Did the composer repeat anything?"  "Did you hear any parts that were the same?" 
I then presented them with a listening map that showed them that the song had a form, or a map, that could be followed...
Intro A B A B C B A
As we listened again, we followed the map and chose a feeling for each section.
nothing happy sad/scared/angry happy sad/scared/angry very happy sad/scared/angry happy
There was a LOT of listening today!  We listened, yet again, and made the corresponding faces

or

Finally we added scarves and moved to the music.  Blue and purple scarves could move or dance on the A section.   Red and yellow could dance on the B section and everyone could move or dance on the C section.  This is what happened with our first go 'round.

Thanks to Donors Choose we received the scarves from the last video as well as a class supply of flashlight and D batteries to get us started.  I took a sharpie marker (love 'em!) and colored over the lense of the flashlight in either blue, purple, red or light green (which looks yellow on the ceiling).  The students were then given the opportunity to "paint" on the ceiling.  The same rules for painting applied to dancing.  Purple/Blue = A section, red/yellow = B section, everyone on the C section.  I attempted this activity with K-2 (and the 5th grade because there were VERY jealous that they didn't get to do this when they were younger).  The kindergarteners were not 100% successful, but for the first time it wasn't bad.  Plus, it was all they talked about for DAYS!  They needed a little more guidance.  I plan on trying to find one song a month to do this activity with the students.  It's my new favorite active listening activity. 





Batteries for our flashlights!



Flashlights!