Lesson Plan Template Tutorial - Lesson 2

Last week I posted how I use Powerpoint to display my lesson plans each day along with directions on how to do it yourself. Today, I'll share how to follow this same process on Google Slides. I personally prefer Powerpoint when teaching in person, but when we transitioned to virtual learning in March I switched over to Google, since that is what all my students had access to. Having these lessons made it easy for students to follow their normal music routine, while also allowing me to include recordings, videos, and more.

If you did not see the tutorial for Powerpoint and would prefer that method you can find that blog post by clicking HERE

1. Start with an empty slide. You'll see below that I made mine decorative and inviting, but this is definitely NOT a necessity. I started with plain backgrounds about 8 years ago.
   
2. Click insert and add a text box in the blank area of your lesson plan template. You can add your lesson plan information in that area.
   
3. When you are done entering your lesson plan information it may look something like this (minus the bitmoji and shape in the corner):
   
4. Once you have your lesson plan typed up you can hyperlink text to a different file or video. In order to do this you want to highlight the text
   
5. Click "insert" then "hyperlink"
   
6. You'll receive a pop-up that allows you to enter the link to another website or click "slide in this presentation" to select a slide in your current Google Slide project.
   
7. To add an audio file select "insert" and then "audio". Make sure the audio file you want to use is already saved in your Google Account otherwise you won't be able to add it. You'll also want to make sure the audio file is shared to everyone with the link. Otherwise, you'll have issues with students not being able to play the song. (If you need a tutorial on this I'd be happy to do one in the future.)
   
   
8. When you are finished you will see a speaker appear like you see below:
   

Hopefully this tutorial helps you get started.

Below is a link to my Lesson Plan Templates that I created if you are interested in using them instead of creating your own. My full version will be on SALE for the next few days. ENJOY!
Lesson Plan Templates - Full Version Lesson Plan Templates - Freebie

Lesson Plan Template Tutorial - Lesson 1

Years ago I wrote a blog post about how I create a tech lesson plan to project on my SMARTboard. You can read that original post HERE. Since then I have continued to do this to save time and energy and make use of every second of class time. Some ways this helps in my classroom:

1. It provides a visual schedule for students to keep track of what needs to get done and I avoid the "What are we going to do today?" questions
2. I can link video clips, audio clips, and even attach extra projected files with hyperlinks
3. It is something pretty for me and my students to look at

If you do not want to start from scratch and would like some cute backgrounds to start with you can download my pre-made Lesson Plan Templates. I have a free version that provides one background for Kindergarten-5th Grade, as well as a version with multiple different backgrounds for purchase. Please note that this is NOT necessary. I personally choose to have a different background each month to keep things fresh, but you could definitely keep the same background for the whole year or even just have a blank slide. That is how I started. Links for my backgrounds are at the end of this blog post. (See below to see a picture of my title page for an April slide):


Today, I will start with some of the first steps you should follow on PowerPoint or Keynote to get started. You also can do this in Google Slides and I'll put up a second tutorial with how to do this in Google Slides. I found this strategy helpful when teaching online this spring. I could send them the Google Slide lesson plan with linked videos, games, activities, audio files, etc.

1. Begin with your blank slide that you want to list your lesson plans on. Here is an example of what mine looks like:
   
2. Click insert and add a text box in the blank area of your lesson plan template. You can add your lesson plan information in that area.
   
3. When you are done entering your lesson plan information it may look something like this:
   
4. Once you have your lesson plan typed up you can hyperlink text to a different file or video. In order to do this you want to highlight the text and click insert hyperlink.
   
5. You'll get a prompt like you see below and you can click the file you see or browse for another file. When you have selected the file you want then click "ok".
   
6. You could also hyperlink the file to a different slide in your lesson plan presentation. To do this click "insert", then "hyperlink", then click "place in this document", select the slide you want it to go to, then click "ok".
   
7. Another great use of this is to add an audio file to your presentation. I like to do this for adding folk dance music, beat motion songs, or a piece of Classical music we will be listening to. Not matter what you want it is simple to add. Click "insert", "audio", select whether you want something from your computer or you are recording it yourself, then click "ok".
   
8. When you are finished you will see a speaker appear like you see below:
   

Hopefully this tutorial helps you get started. I will create another blog post soon to give directions on how to do all of this on Google Slides for those interested in using Google Slides instead.

Below is a link to my Lesson Plan Templates for download on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. My full version will be on SALE for the next few days. ENJOY!
Lesson Plan Templates - Full Version Lesson Plan Templates - Freebie

Rockin' Resources Linky Party

I have been wanting to blog for quite a while. I actually was nominated for a blogging award that I'm still trying to get around to blogging about. This time of year is just crazy. I spent the last five days off traveling around and visiting family, family, and more family. I promise that once my life settles down I will get back to blogging more often.

Anyways, by now you know all about the Teachers Pay Teachers big Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale. This is my favorite day of the year! This was the first sale I was a part of last year and it is so exciting to be around again this year. My wishlist is already chalk full of fun stuff! I'm going to share three products with you that I think you should add to your wishlist: one is from my store, one is from a fellow music teachers store, and one is from an awesome clip artists store. I'm doing this as part of Music a la Abbott's Linky Part


First, from my store I would suggest adding my MEGA-Bundle Half Notes/Rests and Whole Notes/Rests Songs and Activities:


This bundle is full of all sorts of fun resources for preparing, presenting, and practicing half notes, half rests, whole notes, and whole rests. There are 10 song files with games and activities:

There are interactive and printed games:

And soon there will be worksheets!

You can get all of this for an amazing price during the big site wide sale!

Second, I'm really excited to buy this product from Jena Hudson's shop:

I loved all her other glyphs and since Carnival of the Animals is a set of songs I have to teach I thought this would be a great piece to add. If you haven't used any of Jena's Listening glyphs in the past make sure you check them out.

Finally, I'm always excited to grab some fun clip art during a sale. I'm planning on buying this clip art from Whimsy Clips:

That's all for now! Have fun shopping!

What's Happening Wednesday - Week 3

Here is a glimpse into my third week of school:
Kindergarten
Students are continuing to sing through the rules songs that I talked about in my post last week. We are also continuing to have experiences keeping the beat. This week I start allowing students to choose different beat motions. I always crack up at some of the choices students make for keeping the beat. We have the typical ones like clapping our hands, walking to the beat, or patting our head. But we also have some not so typical ones: shrugging our shoulders, blinking our eyes, or (a new favorite) swaying our hips back and forth.

Students this week will also continue to work on echoing short phrases. I use a lot of echo songs in the first couple months so that I can assess students ability to match pitch and echo short phrases. (One of our Kindergarten learning targets)

Songs we are singing in Kindergarten this week:

• No More Pie
• Chop, Chop, Chippity Chop
• She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
• My Aunt Came Back
• Engine, Engine Number Nine
• William He Had Seven Sons
• Frog in the Meadow

1st Grade
The goals for 1st grade are being able to keep the beat to various different songs. Thsi will prepare them for recognizing notes that are longer and shorter, which then leads into ta and ti-ti. Normally by Halloween time students are able to recognize the difference between two sound and one sound words and clap rhythm patterns for ta and ti-ti.

Songs we are singing in 1st Grade this week:

• Engine, Engine Number Nine
• Cobbler, Cobbler
• Lucy Locket
• William He Had Seven Sons
• Apple Tree

2nd Grade
2nd graders are singing many songs with half notes and whole notes in them. In a few weeks we will learn about the half note and start working on creating patterns using quarter, eighth, and half notes. However, I'm introducing a lot of these whole note songs because we do learn about whole notes in 2nd grade, as well, and all of them use half notes, so we'll be able to practice our half notes even without learning about the whole note.

Songs we are singing in 2nd Grade this week:

• Au Claire de la Lune
• Frere Jacques
• Here Comes a Bluebird
• My Father's House
• Who's That Tapping at my Window

3rd Grade
In 3rd grade we are reviewing all the notes we already know. We are singing various songs that use half notes and whole notes since we just learned about these at the end of the year. I also love that some of these songs the 3rd graders already knew because they sing them so beautifully!

Songs we are singing in 3rd Grade this week:

• Au Claire de la Lune
• All Through the Night
• Frere Jacques
• Here Comes a Bluebird
• The Water is Wide
• My Father's House
• Who's that Tapping at my Window

4th Grade & 5th Grade
4th & 5th graders just learned the Alabama Gal dance last week. It was a LOT of fun and students are hoping to be able to get to it this week, too. Because of that this will be the reward students earn if they are following directions and working hard in music class.

My 4th and 5th graders are at two different places. I have some classes that have already learned all about ti ta ti and other classes that have not. This is definitely a challenge, so the goal is to get all the classes on the same page and really understanding how to clap rhythms using ti ta ti.

To work on practicing ti ta ti rhythms I have been working on using the rhythm games provided at the end of my Alabama Gal and Shake the Papaya Down rhythm files:


Yesterday, I picked one student to come up and play the rhythm on rhythm sticks. The goal for all the other students was to decide if they did it correctly or incorrectly. Students did a pretty good job of this and even picked up on minor incorrect patterns. (For example: adding a slight rest in between patterns, giving one note not enough time or too much time) I was really proud of how respectful they all were and how no one had to feel bad if they clapped a rhythm incorrectly.

Once all my classes are ready to move on from working on ti ta ti we will begin to take a look at low so and low la patterns. (We started to work on this last year)

Songs we are singing in 4th Grade & 5th Grade this week:

• Shake the Papaya Down
• Alabama Gal
• Scotland's Burning
• Canoe Song
• Chicken on the Fencepost
• Lil' Liza Jane
• John Kanakanaka

2/4 Tuesday - Worksheets, Activities, and Freebies

Time for another 2/4 Tuesday post. A linky party with Steph's Stay Tuned blog. Check it out by clicking the 2/4 Tuesday picture below.


I know it is actually Wednesday, but it has been a LONG week already. I've been home sick for the past two days. I can't complain, since the last time I was sick was almost 10 months ago, but I've never had to call in sick two days in a row. Here's to hoping I feel well enough tomorrow to go back to school.

I have two different things to share with you today:

1) Instruments of the Orchestra Worksheets
I created three crossword puzzles for teaching about the brass, strings, and woodwind families. I like to have fun when teaching about the instruments. These puzzles make taking notes more interesting for my 3rd graders and for me. Each one has different questions about the instruments in the family.

My percussion worksheet is a little bit different, as there is not as much I want students to really know about percussion instruments. What I really want students to understand about percussion instruments is the fact that they can be pitched and non-pitched. So, the worksheet I created for the percussion family is for students to play different percussion instruments and decide which ones are pitched and which ones are non-pitched. You can learn more about my percussion activity in a blog post from last year HERE.

I have used these worksheets for four years now and have continued tweaking them each year. As a special thanks for all of my readers and followers, I have added these worksheets and a SMARTboard review file to my Teachers Pay Teachers store for FREE! Just click the picture below to grab it. Please leave me feedback and if you aren't already following me, feel free to. I'm only 25 followers away from having another HUGE celebration.


2) Textbook Scavenger Hunt
One of my goals for this year is to help my students learn the music vocabulary. I've tried many different activities, but vocabulary is just a hard thing to teach. Last week, I found an activity that reinforced some of the vocabulary my 2nd graders have learned this year.

Here is how the activity works:

1. I started by writing a vocabulary word on the board (example: bar line).
2. Students searched for that symbol in their book as quickly as they could.
3. When students find it they keep their hand in the book with the book closed. I walk around and check the students that found it.
4. After I check everyone (they only get one try), I put the symbol up on the board for everyone to see.
5. Each word is worth a different amount of points based on its difficulty. (I just asked the students to keep track of their points, but you could also keep track if you wanted.)
6. I kept going with different words and at the end of the game gave stickers to kids that got a certain amount of points.

I was surprised to see how excited my students got about this game and was glad I could help them practice their vocabulary.

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.