The Concert Countdown Begins...

For today's post I'm going to link it up with Amy Martin's...

I'm going to share my Holiday traditions for all of you. Unfortunately, they are probably not quite as exciting at Amy's tradition. My Holiday tradition is to have LOTS of concerts. This year I have a total of 4 concerts (and only one is a repeat.) How does this happen? Well, that is the joy of working at two different districts and the holiday concerts being a must have at both.

Wednesay, was concert 1 of 4, so after that I count down for Christmas break with concerts. I know that sounds silly, but it is a chaotic time of year. I love concerts, but having so many close together sometimes makes my head spin. In the end, though, I always look back on it with good memories. :)

Wednesday's concert was A Holiday Moosical performed by my K-3 students at Fairview Elementary. It is always so much fun putting together costumes and seeing what the students look like. The dress-rehearsal in the morning is interesting, but nothing compares to seeing it all in its glory! The costumes just really add another element. This is only my second year adding costumes, but I don't think I'll ever go back to not having them. They are just so cute and fun.

The challenge of coming up with these costumes is finding people to help and coming up with ideas on how to create these costumes without sewing abilities. I got a helpful tip from Emily Quezda last year by reading this POST. She talked about using hooded sweatshirts for creating no sew costumes and this really inspired many of my costumes this year.

Here are a few of the costumes I came up with for this performance:
Christmas Trees:


This picture was taken the day before the performance, since I can never find time to take pictures the day of. So, that is why he is wearing jeans. The day of my trees wore brown pants and brown shoes to make it look like the roots and bark of the tree.

Snowmen:



Candy Canes:

This is just colored duck tape covering cardboard. Very simple, but really nice effect.

Marta the Moose:
The moose costume took me quite a while, but it is my favorite costume I've made so far. I took a big foam piece and cut it to look like an antler, then I cut the piece into half so the antlers were symmetrical.

I used hot glue to cover the foam with white felt and then hot glued the antlers to the sweatshirt. Of course they were too heavy so they started drooping, so my solution was to hot glue a wire clothes hanger to the back. This helped stabilize the antlers and make them stay up. I finished by adding some fun garland around the antlers to dress her up for the holidays. This costume really stole the show! :)


Hope you enjoyed the pictures. How do you create costumes for your concerts? Do you have any creative ways of working around your budget? Do you have parents help make costumes for your productions or do you do it all yourself?

Thankful Thursday Linky Party!

So I know it is Saturday and I am just finally joining the Thankful Thursday Linky Party, hosted by Aileen Miracle. I have been looking forward to this linky party, but it has been such a crazy week I just had the hardest time finding time to write my blog post.

On a personal level, I'm thankful for my family and my 'families.'


This is my immediate family - me, my sister, brother, sister-in-law, mom, dad, niece, and nephew. My brother and sister-in-law recently had a third child that was just born about two weeks ago. I am so glad to have a family that is so supportive and loving. My dad was diagnosed with stage four Kidney cancer in July of 2012. When my family found out it was devastating. I have always been daddy's girl and the last year and a half has been a roller coaster of emotions. However, I do believe it has brought us all closer together.

I have been blessed to not only have a wonderful family, but many people in my life that I consider my family. One of the schools I teach at only has one of each grade level. I have taught at this school for three years now, so the staff feels like a second family to me. They have been there for me through hard times and great times.

My third family is my church family. When I moved 30 minutes away from Green Bay (my hometown), it was kind of scary. I didn't know if I would find new friends or have people near me that would help me through the hard times. However after only a few weeks I started to get to know the wonderful ladies at my church. They are so supportive and I'm forever grateful for making me feel at home in the little town of Pulaski.

I'm thankful for my students and job!


I have the kind of job that I can do silly things like the picture above without being criticized for acting like a child. My students love that I am over dramatic. They love that I tell detailed stories and run around like a chicken with my head cut off. They are so much fun to be with and I can't believe that I have such a fun job. I actually decided I wanted to be a music teacher when I was 7 years old! This is just a dream come true for me. :)

I'm thankful for my new music teacher friends

Thanks to the Facebook Frenzy going on right now, I have met a lot of great music teachers who I can bounce ideas off of. These ladies are all so passionate about what they do it is hard not to be inspired by all of them. I'm so honored to be a part of there group even as a rather new teacher.


And just as a reminder, the Facebook Frenzy is going on until 8:00 pm EST - December 9th. You can find great freebies like the one above. Just click on the picture above to go to my facebook page. Then click the penguin tab and collect the freebie. Don't forget to follow the snowman all around to get 17 FREEBIES!

Quick Giveaway!

Just a quick blog post before I head to bed! Making Music Memories on Facebook has finally reached 50 likes! In honor of this I'm doing a very quick giveaway. I'm giving away the Christmas/Winter Ta & Ti-ti Rhythm Activities Set from my TpT store:



The giveaway is open until Thursday, December 5 at midnight Pacific Time. To enter just like the facebook page about the giveway (posted below):

Post by Making Music Memories.

If you enter and win, but you already have this item, I will allow you to choose another item from my store that is of equal value.

TPT Cyber Sale & Facebook Frenzy

I have been really productive this break! I have created several files that I have added to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, plus I have gotten a lot of school work done for this week. With that being said, the next three weeks are super hectic with 4 School Christmas Concerts, plus 2 performances of my own! So, if you don't see many posts that is why.

Anyways, just a few reminders about some exciting things happening this month...

First, Monday and Tuesday TPT is having a HUGE cyber sale. Everything in my store and many other teachers stores will be 28% off! This is a great time to get all those items on your wishlist. I have updated my store with several Winter/Christmas themed items that I think you should check out:
Christmas/Winter Ta & Ti-ti Rhythm Activies - this kit helps young students practice their basic rhythms by categorizing words into one sound and two sound groups. It also comes with a simple composition for students to continue practicing these rhythms.

Christmas/Winter Ti-ri-ti-ri, Ti-ti-ri, & Ti-ri-ti - same as the above kit, but geared towards more advanced students. This kit is not labeled with ti-ri-ti-ri, but just uses generic symbols so anyone can use it whether they say ti-ka-ti-ka or something else.

You can also save by buying both as a bundle!

I'm also working on some cute Color by Solfege Packs for each solfege syllable. So far I have So-Mi and La done. My students really enjoy these for practicing solfege.
Winter Color by Solfege Packs:

If you are interested in these color by solfege pages you should make sure to check out this weekend's Facebook Frenzy!


If you are unfamiliar with a Facebook Frenzy, here is how it works:

1) Start on a participating Teachers Pay Teachers Facebook Page and look for the tab that has this picture:

2) Click on the picture and if you don't already like the Facebook Page click like.
3) Click the freebie to download and then click the Snowman to continue on to the next Facebook Page. Make sure you keep continuing or you won't be able to get all the freebies.

I checked out the clip art Facebook Frenzy last month and it was a lot of fun. I'm really excited to be a part of this month's facebook frenzy and I will be offering an EXCLUSIVE pack of Winter Color by Solfege pages. This pack will NOT be offered in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, so make sure you don't miss out! I know for a fact that the music teachers have some great things to offer. If you want to be ahead of the game, make sure to like my facebook page HERE! It will save you a step later.