Singing Games for Children

Quick post here:

I just wanted to share an awesome resource that a friend from Hungary shared on facebook. (Thanks Sophie!) It is an awesome website of singing games for children! It has a large collection of songs in English, French, Catalan, Spanish and Polish (all songs not in English have English translations). Along with the song, there is a full description of how to play the game and many songs are accompanied by a link to a youtube video or to a score of the music.

Within the categories of languages and collections by the site author, the songs are sorted by MANY themes (Holidays, Seasons, Animals, Day and Night, Farm etc.) There is also a grid that shows what type of game each song has so you can vary your teaching by type of game.  It does not sort by melodic elements or rhythmic elements, but I can tell it will be awesome when looking for a certain theme for a program, etc.

Note: You do have to scroll down a bit to get to where you can actually click on the song titles- but there is lots of great information before that that would be great to share with parents, administrators, etc.  (Why singing games, how to teach them, etc.)

Be sure to check it out- Love it already!

Singinggamesforchildren.com

REMIND 101- Free Text Service



So I was in potential AP interviews today and one of the candidates mentioned REMIND 101- a free text service for teachers to send quick reminders out.  I immediately wrote down the website because I have been looking for just this.   Last year, I had a lot of problems with my email list-serv and people being accidentally kicked off lists and therefore not getting needed information.  I also have parents who rarely touch a computer because they think it is not needed.  I think a text service will definitely help my communication with parents in the coming school year.   

I know I just got out for the summer, but didn't want to forget about this great service.When I got home from the interviews I went to the website and found it super easy to sign up.  I made a "class" for General Music reminders (potentially ALL Chorus members next year), 5th grade chorus, and 6th grade chorus.   Parents join by going to the website and typing in the code and their number.  It makes it really easy to email the information to parents, print out handouts or even project instructions on your white board.  I plan on using this next year for quick concert reminders, breakfast reminders, audition reminders, or even just a quick note saying I sent out an email with more info-  this way, parents can email me if they didn't get the information and will also have all important info in multiple places.  This helps me cover all my bases- paper, email and text!

One great thing about the service is that parents and students CANNOT reply to it.  It uses a secured number rather than my own personal number so I will not be inundated with texts back from parents with questions, etc.   It is just an easy reminder service . 

Check it out!


*note- they did not ask me to write this blogpost nor am I being compensated in any way for this post.  I just thought it was a super cool service. 

FORTE Music Notation Software Review

One reason I love blogging about Music Education Ideas, (aside from sharing those ideas with people all over and getting good feedback and ideas from other amazing teachers) is every once in a while a company contacts me to review their product.  Sometimes I accept, and sometimes I don't- but I was really excited when I was contacted by FORTE premium music notation software to review the newest version of their product.  



I use music notation software ALL THE TIME!  I do not have an accompanist to work with at my school every day for 5th and 6th grade chorus so I always put their accompaniments into the computer for rehearsals (don't worry- I hire an accompanist for the concerts!).  I am not the greatest at piano, so I can either play- or listen to the kids (not both at once), so being able to put the piano part into the computer helps out tremendously.  I also made my Retrieval (Master Copy) pictures using notation software as well as little melodies for my students to read or to put into a SMARTboard file.  I got pretty fast with Sibelius, and still use it sometimes, but that computer is on it's way out so I figured why not try out FORTE on my work computer!

I have to admit- it has taken me a while to have a chance to review it, but now that school is out and I have had the time, I am really liking what I see.  I put in a song and a half of accompaniments using both input options (click and fast input). 

The set up was super easy- less fancy choices than Sibelius which I like.  You enter the title, composer, copyright, etc. on the first screen, go to another screen to pick your instruments and then choose the Time Signature, Key Signature, Tempo, if there is a pick-up etc. all on the next screen and you are all set. 

Automatically when you start a song there are two boxes that pop up- an input palate with every type of musical symbol you might need to input sorted into taps like: Notes, Accents, Dynamics, Tempo, Text, etc. and the Document Properties which gives you all the info you may need on your composition- as well as cool tools to play around with.  Some of my favorites for my Kodaly Classroom are Retrograde (just highlight the notes you want reversed and click!), Add Note Names (highlight the notes you want named, click apply, and they appear- Great for worksheets!) and Copy Staff.  They also make it easy to compress or split staves, add chord symbols, text, etc.  and I know there are probably many features that I haven't even found yet!  You can also export as an MP3 or Wave File, Import songs (scan a score, import a midi file, etc.)

I first put in We Gather Here Together (just the piano reduction) using the standard click input.  It went fairly quickly, even with figuring things out as I went.  One little feature I LOVE that became immediately apparent was the little tick marks that appear at the top of each measure as you are entering notes so you can see exactly what part of the beat you are placing the note on.  This means that you do not have to first make rests to input an eighth note on the 2nd half of a beat as you do in Sibelius. You just line your note up with the tick marks and click!  Just like a normal ruler, the beats are the longest ticks, and they get shorter as the beat is divided further.  Another great overall thing is you do not have to worry about different parts or notes of different values being placed on the same beat- FORTE gets it. No need to click on a second voice if the Sopranos have a dotted quarter-eighth pattern, while altos are singing two quarter notes in the same measure.  

I also discovered if you input a note wrong, you can either delete it and try again OR select it using the SELECT tool at the top, and move it using the CTRL key and the arrows.  This is the ONE THING I wish was a little quicker or took less clicks to fix. 

The 2nd song I entered into the program, I used the quick input feature.  This took a while to get used to, but I can tell once I use it a lot it will definitely make the whole processes MUCH quicker.  Your right hand changes the note value, adds sharps or flats, etc. while the left hand takes care of the absolute note names. To input the pitches, you do NOT use the actual letter of the note, but rather they made a section of the keys so that your hand doesn't have to search the keyboard for each pitch (W-R and A-F).  X is the rests, Z is triplets.   If you want a chord you can hold down the C key and it will tell the computer you want a chord and not move onto the next beat until you have let go. 

Quick Entry Guide

Neither of the songs I have entered so far had Key changes or Time Signature changes but the menu at the top makes it super easy to do so. 

Overall I really love this product.  Everything was pretty straight forward and easy to figure out and I know as I use it more this summer I will keep finding new ways to make putting accompaniments in my computer, or making worksheets much faster and easier.  If I had any questions the people at FORTE were quick to answer and they also have a lot of videos and tutorials on their website.  Thank you FORTE for allowing me to try out your product!

Summer Professional Goals - workshops at CCM, TPT, and More!

My last post was about how I am helping my students to practice over the summer, but this one is my professional goals for the summer.  This will be the first summer where I don't have anything official planned yet for Professional Development.  For the past 4 summers I have been completing my Masters and then studying in Hungary to become a better teacher, but this year will be focused more on using the knowledge of Elementary Teaching that I already have to create new and better year plans, daily plans, and Teachers Pay Teachers resources (which of course are things I would and will use in my classroom next year!) Comment below with your professional goals- or tips to help me reach mine!

1.  Attend at least one Kodaly Class.  While I will not be doing an Elementary class this summer, as I have the past 4 years, I am planning on attending a two week intensive workshop at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in July called "Kodaly in the Choral Classroom"  After having completed my Elementary Levels AND taken elementary courses in Hungary last year, I decided this year would be a good time to get more info on how to implement the Kodaly method into my Chorus Classes for 5th and 6th grade.  This course is taught by Eva Floyd and I am super excited for it. We got to hang out a little in Hungary last summer and I attended one of her workshops so this I know that this class will be amazing.  You can get more info on the class here.  I will be sure to post frequently during those two weeks with all the great ideas I get!  CCM is also offering Intro to Kodaly courses, as well as 2 weeks of Solfege bootcamp!

2.  Retrieve (or make master copies of) songs that I used this year or have learned in workshops recently but have not gotten into my index system yet.  I use i Retreival and I love it! 

3.  Year plan for all grades next year.  I have a basic year plan with rhythmic and melodic elements, but I want to get more specific with other music terms and when to teach them (ex. 1st and 2nd ending, fermata, repeat sign, articulations like staccato and legato and accent, etc.).  Once the sequence is planned down, I want to move down to month by month teaching and maybe even start planning lessons.  I tend to get caught up during the year on rhythmic and melodic elements and sometimes forgot about other important things like other musical symbols that are key when reading music!

4.  Make MANY more TPT files.  I have a few up but have been pretty busy lately (you may have noticed the lack of posts since spring break).  I want to do basic solfa and rhythm files like: I Have Who Has, Bingo, and bundles for rhythmic and melodic elements with song slides, mystery chant slides, etc.  Once I have those established I hope to get more creative.  I also hope to update those files I have up there by scanning in my Retrievals for the songs used in each file so that buyers are sure of the versions I am using for each song. 

5.  Read and review many of the Kodaly and Orff resources I have acquired this year. I need to read Kodaly Today, and just got a bunch of Jill Trinka books that I have used a bit but want to go through with a fine -tooth comb.  I also just got a new music notation software called FORTE that I have been playing around with and I plan to review that soon too!  Lots of great features I have seen so far. 

Finally- aside from all this professional stuff I need to find time to plan and prepare for my December Wedding, I will have rehearsals for a community theater production AND a 10hr a week summer job! Yay!   I will be busy this summer, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I was worried before I found out about the Kodaly class in July that I would be bored at home- but the class is right in the middle of my break- the perfect time to re-energize my summer work! Don't forget to comment with your professional goals or tips!

In SUMMER- summer practice packets

This year I decided that for each grade I would make a summer fun packet for them to use to practice all things music in the coming months.  I have a few weeks left of school (our last day is June 2) and have 1st grade finished, with 2 and 4 close behind.  Hopefully 3, 5 and 6 will be done by the end of the week!  Each packet is scanned and sent to parents via a dropbox link where there is not only the packet, but also music activities we have done on the SMARTboard this year.  I have also included a list of favorite apps, websites and more.

For each grades packet, I have copied my Retrievals (master copies) of all songs learned, worksheet students have done, rhythm practice sheets, solfa practice sheets, as well as vocab sheets.  These may be "color by note", flashcards, fill in the blank worksheets, vocab word searches, etc.  Many of my worksheets I got from Teachers Pay Teachers.  Love that site!

I made a fun bulletin board (again loosely related to FROZEN, as my last one was) titled "IN SUMMER" where this information is posted along side pictures of OLAF. There are pockets at the bottom for 1 copy of each packet so kids can look through before they print at home. Along with the pockets to preview the take-home packets,  the board gives many ideas on how to practice songs and music vocab over the summer, including: 

~Teach friends and family music songs and games
~Write a song or musical
~Go to a music camp (I also give info on music camps on the Board)
~Sing music songs from the packet on Rhythm, Solfa, and Words
~Test your brain by isolating a word or rhythm and either sing ONLY that element oreverything BUT that element
~Complete some of the music worksheets in the packet
~Play music games online or on your IPAD (favorite websites and APPS are listed)
            Rhythm Cats
            Therhythmtrainer.com
            do-re-mi 1-2-3
            NYphilkids.org


My students are actually really excited about these and I have gotten great response from 1st grade parents so far.  I plan to make them this year, and then just adjust next year if we move at a different pace. 
 

What Does the Fox Say?? Ideas for a FOX themed lesson!

My students have been super into What Does the Fox Say? this year so I decided that the week before spring break would be "What Does the Fox Say? Day!" It is such a silly, but catchy song.  

Pinterest has been great for many "What Does the Fox Say?" ideas and I plan on using some of those (vocal exploration, orffestrations, etc.) and making an entire FOX lesson for all grades 1-6.  We are singing fox songs, composing or improvising fox sounds, as well as practicing all elements we would be anyways! 

Check out my lesson plans for 1st grade and 4th grade-  Grades 2,3,5,6 are similar to 4th with song lit that they are currently working on.  Both Lessons are 50 minutes.  

1st Grade: We are still prepping ta and ti-ti and s-m since I don't see my kiddos in Kdg.  We are super close to presenting both!

Video of What Does the Fox Say as students are entering the room.  Students sit in front of SB where movie is playing and can sing along until I stop it after the 1st verse.  

Greeting- Hello 1st Grade, Hello Miss Jencson (on s-m).  To individuals I sing Hello, How Are You and "What does the fox say?"  Each student gets to do the greeting today and make up their own silly sound that the fox says for the class to repeat. I have gotten many fun sounds from phrases like "I love you" to just silly noises similar to the video.  

Vocal Exploration on the SmartBoard-  I got this great vocal exploration file on Teachers Pay Teachers for free!  You follow the line with your voice from the tree picture to the fox picture. 

Goin' On a Fox Hunt- Exactly the same as bear hunt, or lion hunt, just using a fox instead.  We go up a tree, through a lake, through tall grass, through sticky mud, then into the cave where the fox is hiding.  On the way back instead of running all the way home, we stay up high in the tree where the fox can't get us, as it is very rare for red foxes to be able to climb.    The tree we are in happens to be an Apple Tree! 

Apple Tree-  We say the chant (I Climbed Up the Apple Tree...)and then play with the word rhythm- saying long and short-short, clapping the word rhythm, doing motions to the word-rhythm, etc.  Check out my TPT store for some beat/ wr charts including one for Apple Tree.  

Poison Pattern- The students just learned the poison pattern game recently and LOVE it.  This time, I made the poison pattern long, short-short, short-short, long and I have them repeat after me unless it is the poison pattern.  For the 1st two points (we play til 3) I say the patterns using long and short-short words but for their last point I play the patterns on the drum and they have to decipher.  

Starlight-Starbright-  The poison pattern is the 2nd line in Starlight-Starbright when PP is over, I have the students help me "put my flashcards that I dropped back in order".  At this level, there are only the 4 that are in the song in the wrong order on the board.  The students help me put the patterns in the correct order, realizing the PP was the 2nd line.  We then switch to High Low practice and show the High and Low notes of SL-SB in various ways.  I got a workout today because the boys always like to do push-ups.  

Do You Hear What I Hear?- This is a Smartboard game in which 1 student presses a picture of  music notes and a pattern is played on the piano.  The students have to match the recorded pattern with 3 choices shown on the board.  If they are correct, they move on to the next question with a GOOD JOB! slide, if they are wrong, a slide pops up that asks them to TRY AGAIN.  

The last pattern always matches a favorite s-m song they sing to Story Position.  I then sing and show them Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night.

If there is time at the end we play Musical Bumps to a recording of Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night.  Students dance to the music and when it stops, they sit.  The last person to sit is out. 

4th Grade: These students have just learned tika-ti and low la.   

Video of What Does the Fox Say as students are entering the room.  Students sit in front of SB where movie is playing and can sing along until I stop it after the 1st verse.  

Worksheet- Students have the chance to make up their own "What does the Fox say?" verse by composing an 8 beat rhythm, showing it to me, then adding silly words like "ring-a-ding-ding" or "wow-pow-pow".  After they have composed their rhythm they are asked to get out a xylophone or metallophone and practice the melody on the board (m-r-d-m-l, in F on staff, which is "What Does the Fox Say?" from the song) quietly.  When all are done, we work together to figure out the melody if they haven't already (I always give the 1st absolute pitch note, and many can read it anyways) we perform our new verses in rondo form with the melody from the board as the A section and the worksheet as the B, C, D, etc.  Get the worksheet from my wix site- just by clicking on the tab above and then clicking on "Blog Files."  

ORFF Aural Practice (2nd and 3rd skip this step and just perform in rondo singing the phrase the upper grades play) - I sing a m-r-d-l, pattern (same notes as used previous) and students echo back using the orff instruments.  Even though the students know high do, la and so I keep the aural practice with a small tone-set when they first learn a new note so they can feel and be more successful.  We will expand our tone-set with this activity as they get more comfortable with low la.  I do many random patterns of 4 beats each and end on m-m m-r m d which is the start of our next song. 

See The Rabbit Running (this is the song that changes- 2nd does We are Dancing, 3rd does Chicken on a Fence Post, 5th does Our Old Sow, and 6th Who Stole My Chickens and My Hens)- This one we get to from the instruments and sing as we put our instruments away.  We then play the Remote game with it where students switch from Words to Solfa (or rhythm depending on the grade) to Inner Hearing using my SB remote (which you can also get in Blog Files or For Colleagues on my WIX Site).  4th grade also conducts this song and then partner it with Old Mister Rabbit (another song with the same tone-set.) 

Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night- I read/ sing them the story, and then we listen to a folk version that has the fiddle that I found on Spotify.  We are just now diving deeper into the String Section so I use this as listening example for Violin/ Fiddle.   (For 2nd and 3rd this actually comes after the worksheet and then after we discuss other things the fox might eat which leads us to our next song.  Both sight-read the songs from the board- 2nd reads We are Dancing from staff notation, and 3rd reads chicken on a fence post in rhythm stick notation).  

Musical Bumps- Same as described for 1st grade lesson.  


Note: 2nd Also does "Goin on a Fox Hunt" and then sings "Apple Tree" (Apple tree, apple tree, will your apples fall on me) at the beginning of class before the story and worksheet.   3rd improvises using ta, ti-ti, and tika-tika on the drum as described in my previous post from the Amy Beegle Workshop.  

Workshop Fun- AOSA Cincinnati Amy Beegle Workshop

Reminder: Don't forgot to comment on my  Kindie Reggae post to win a free CD!!!! Giveaway is closed on March 21 (this Friday!)

2 weekends ago, I  attended a workshop with Amy Beegle from Cincinnati Consevatory of Music.  It was a great!  I got a lot of new ideas and was re-introduced to the Afro-Peruvian Music I posted about last year! 

We started with some simple warm-ups to warm-up our hearts, voices, bodies and minds.  We stretched, breathed, counted. Etc. 

We also did a new greeting chant that I loved that can alternate with the Hello song that I currently use to introduce many ways to say Hello in my class.  

The chant goes: Sorida, Que Pasa? Aloha. Guten Tag! Shalom, Good Day, Konichiwa, Paka! 

Students learn the chant and identify the languages and then put the beat in their feet and walk around the room while speaking.  The 2nd time through, students find a partner and tap hands, elbows, or other body parts (whatever teacher calls out) to the beat with a partner.  Then repeat! Very fun game.  

We then had story time where we read a great book called: The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor. 

The book talks about how different cultures start the day using music.

After we read it once we were taught a mixed meter song by Amy and used it in a performance of the story.  To help with the mixed meter we used partners and said the word "beautiful" for the 3 meter and "sunrise" for the two meter.  She then led us to the ABAC pattern of the song she wrote.  (3 2 3 2, 3 3 2 2, 3 2 3 2, 3 3 3 3).   Many other songs could be used that are about a sunrise, greeting each other how music is important in our lives, etc. After we learned the song and read the story, Amy had various phrases of the book that we were to act out in groups using voices, sounds, and movement and the song was sung twice through-out.  I cannot wait to use this in 4th grade for our multi-cultural show this spring!  

After this we moved onto the Afro-Peruvian Music.  See HERE for more info, as this section was very similar to her workshop at OMEA last year. 

After our second break, read another story, Smokey Night by Eve Bunting ,

which was about the LA Riots.  To go along with the story we sung another song.  For this one, Amy wrote the text (A- Jasmine, Jasmine, you are my only cat. Jasmine, Jasmine, where can you be? Jasmine, Jasmine, you are my only cat.  Jasmine, Jasmine, come back to me   B-Where did you find her, under the stairway, How can I thank you, Just let it be! [in high and low voices to represent the boy and the fire-fighter]) to an example from Music For Children (Book 1, page... #2)  Orff instruments got the chance to accompany the A section of the song, and then for the B we did some instrumental improve in family groups (glockenspiels, metals, woods, small percussion, recorders, etc.)  The B Section was a question/ answer so the improve happened in pairs where one did the question (any thing they wanted in pentatonic) and the answer did anything as well with only one rule: that they had to end on our home tone do (in this case we were in the key of C). 

Next we did a little of Chicken on a Fence Post and had some fun improvising in Rondo form.  Some students played a bordun while singing, then other people made a line behind a conga to improvise for the B section, (and C, and D, and E, etc).  This was prepared by giving each type of rhythm in the song a new word (Crow, Chicken, Cock-a-doo-dle for ta, ti-ti, and tika-tika) and figuring out the rhythm of the song, then improvising on those words using body percussion.  Only when most students are successful with the length of phrases, number of beats, etc did she bring people to the instruments.  I am most excited about bringing this one back to my 3rd grade class because I just presented Tika-tika last week and it is a great way to extend practice! I have also used this same format in other classes since the workshop- fourth grade is doing the same type of activity with tika-ti.

Finally we had a goodbye song which Amy learned from one of her 5th graders.