Throwback Thursday - Mrs. Miracle's Linky Party

I'm joining Mrs. Miracle's Throwback Thursday Link Party. It you are interested in joining, click the picture below for more information:

All you had to do for this Linky Party was re-post an old blog post. Here is one I wrote October 2012, about exploring music in the outdoors. I performed this lesson in the fall, but as it is starting to warm up it may be a great idea to take your kids outside for music class! Hope you enjoy! :)

Last week I decided to take all of my Fairview students outside for music classes. I decided to do this after having a short chat with a 2nd grader who often acts up in my class. He had kind of a rough day about two weeks ago and broke down in tears after music class. I asked him if he was crying because he got in trouble, to which he replied "No! I just really miss my mom!"

Fairview has an outdoor classroom that they refer to as The School Forest. At first, I wasn't sure what we should do outside. It would be easy to just go out there and sing different songs we sing in music class. However, I feel that when you are going to a new environment you should take advantage of it to the best of your abilities.

After much thought I came up with lesson plans for each class. I will introduce the ideas here with a brief description, but I'll also post more details on each project in later blog posts. This way you can get the materials I used for the lessons, as well as, see some pictures. (I don't want to bombard you with a whole week of lessons in one post!)

All my classes had to walk on the forest path in silence. While they did this they were to listen to the sounds of fall. When we reached the outdoor classroom, I then had students share what they heard. We talked about what music was and how the music of fall would be different than the music of winter. They imagined some of the sounds they may hear in the winter rather than the fall. I especially found this activity cute when one of my kindergarteners on the second day of going to the forest told the class that he heard some beautiful music on his walk to the school forest. This was without even being told to listen for music! :)

In Kindergarten and 1st grade students had to find an item in nature that could be used to create music. They then shared these instruments with the class and showed them how to play their instrument. (Read more about outdoor instruments...)

2nd grade was working on a sound effects project out in the school forest. (Read more about sound effect project...)

3rd grade was finishing up their ostinato patterns, so the first day they shared their patterns with the class. The second day they did something similar to what the 4th and 5th graders did. (Read More about the Ostinato Pattern Project...)

4th and 5th graders went out the school forest and sang I Love the Mountains. Afterwards they were asked to write a short reflection on this experience. They were to describe the difference in singing outside versus inside. We then talked about what makes a good reflection and ways to describe the sound of our own singing or of instruments playing, etc. 4th and 5th graders then created their own 2 beat ostinatos with a partner, as well as, a 3 beat ostinato with their partner. Students created and practiced them the first day and then shared them the second day. (Read More about reflections...)

Overall, I really enjoyed taking the kids out for music class. I was surprised by how many of my students, that don't always care for music, were really excited about music since we were going outside. I also noticed that some of my overly rambunctious students were actually really well behaved outside.

Describing Music using Music Terminology

One of the things I'm really working on with my older students (3-5 grade) is describing music using musical terms. I explained to one of my principals that I feel this is an important skill that can really help students appreciate music in a whole new way. How cool is it when a student can pick out instruments in a pop song or describe differences in tempo. This is a skill that all kids can learn and use even if they never continue on in music.

I first emphasized this skill during our outdoor music classes (read more...).

When we went outside I had my students sing I Love the Mountains. Later, I had my students write a short reflection on the difference of sound singing outside verses inside. They were encouraged to use music words from the word wall.

Most of the reflections said things like:

• The sound echos more inside than outside
• We sang quieter outside rather than inside
• There were other noises outside like leaves rustling and birds chirping
• Our sound was much more blurred together outside

After this reflection I realized I really needed to show students HOW to use music terminology in their reflections without having to change what they are saying. In order to do this I came up with a reflection assignment students had to do for homework. (I rarely give homework, but this was a simple assignment and they were given 2 weeks to complete it)

First, I showed students some examples of reflections they wrote:

I Love the Mountains sounded different outside because it echoed less outside than inside. I also thought we sang a lot quieter outside. I also noticed that outside the music was much more blurred together where as inside it was much more disconnected.

Then, I showed them how they could just substitute a few words for music words and it still was saying the same thing.

I Love the Mountains sounded different outside because it echoed less outside than inside. I also thought we sang at a piano dynamic outside. I also noticed that outside the music was more slurred or legato rather than inside where it was much more staccato.

Finally, I gave them the assignment (this was partially an idea I was given by my school principal to also include some technology):
Students should write a short music reflection about a song that they have listened to during the month. This allows students the opportunity to listen to any song they enjoy and still be practicing writing and using music terminology. *NOTE:I even allowed non-school appropriate songs as long as they had permission from their parents. That way they could truly listen to whatever kind of music they like*

All responses were emailed to me unless they could not because of not having internet or computer access at home. I also printed out a few paper copies for these students, but they were responsible for picking them up from me.

I posted all information on my school website so students could access it at anytime. Along with this I posted: the questions they were to answer, links to music videos they may like to watch for the assignment, a word bank of musical terms to use in their reflection.

This assignment was due by Halloween and I do have to say it was such a fun experiment. I did have quite a few students that I was constantly hounding to turn in their assignment (what is new), but the responses were great! I also had quite a few students that were really excited about the assignment and enjoyed the videos I posted. It was also a great way to include technology and writing into my curriculum. (Two school goals for Fairview Elementary.)

You can see all the directions for the assignment, video links, and word bank all on my school website -->here<--. Feel free to steal the idea and even the word bank, just let me know how it works for you. :)

Happy Halloween! BOO!

Get Ready to ROMP!

Shake, Shake Shudder
near the sludgy old swamp.
The dinosaurs are coming.
Get ready to romp!

The outdoor lesson for 2nd grade was using the story Dinosaurumpus!


As I have mentioned before, I like to use literature in my music classes. It reminds students of the connection between music and literature, but also there are so many great music stories I want to share with my students!

What I noticed about Dinosaurumpus! was that it had a lot of rhyming, but also had a nice steady beat. Along with this, it has tons of onomatopoeia words. This allowed for some fun sound effects. I broke the story into 6 parts and then gave each group of 3 students a part. They had to create sound effects for all the words I underlined. I told them that since Dinosaurs would roam around outside they had to create all their sound effects using their mouths, bodies, or items found in nature.



After a day of work they preformed their parts for the class.



Some groups were really creative with how they came up with sound effects :). Other groups, sounded as though they did the same sound effect for everything :/.



To stretch students creativity, in the future, I would change some of the directions for the project. First, I would make sure to state that they should use at least two sound effects with their voice, two sound effects with their body, and two sound effects using nature. I would also stress that the sound effects have to be different. Not just hit the stick on the ground, then hit it on a tree, then hit it on something else. Instead scraping the stick, breaking the stick, hitting the stick, etc.

Overall, I was very happy with this project, though. I love watching my students be creative and get the opportunity to explore music outside of the music classroom.

Outdoor Music Class!

Last week I decided to take all of my Fairview students outside for music classes. I decided to do this after having a short chat with a 2nd grader who often acts up in my class. He had kind of a rough day about two weeks ago and broke down in tears after music class. I asked him if he was crying because he got in trouble, to which he replied "No! I just really miss my mom!"

Fairview has an outdoor classroom that they refer to as The School Forest. At first, I wasn't sure what we should do outside. It would be easy to just go out there and sing different songs we sing in music class. However, I feel that when you are going to a new environment you should take advantage of it to the best of your abilities.

After much thought I came up with lesson plans for each class. I will introduce the ideas here with a brief description, but I'll also post more details on each project in later blog posts. This way you can get the materials I used for the lessons, as well as, see some pictures. (I don't want to bombard you with a whole week of lessons in one post!)

All my classes had to walk on the forest path in silence. While they did this they were to listen to the sounds of fall. When we reached the outdoor classroom, I then had students share what they heard. We talked about what music was and how the music of fall would be different than the music of winter. They imagined some of the sounds they may hear in the winter rather than the fall. I especially found this activity cute when one of my kindergarteners on the second day of going to the forest told the class that he heard some beautiful music on his walk to the school forest. This was without even being told to listen for music! :)



In Kindergarten and 1st grade students had to find an item in nature that could be used to create music. They then shared these instruments with the class and showed them how to play their instrument. (Read more about outdoor instruments...)

2nd grade was working on a sound effects project out in the school forest. (Read more about sound effect project...)

3rd grade was finishing up their ostinato patterns, so the first day they shared their patterns with the class. The second day they did something similar to what the 4th and 5th graders did. (Read More about the Ostinato Pattern Project...)

4th and 5th graders went out the school forest and sang I Love the Mountains. Afterwards they were asked to write a short reflection on this experience. They were to describe the difference in singing outside versus inside. We then talked about what makes a good reflection and ways to describe the sound of our own singing or of instruments playing, etc. 4th and 5th graders then created their own 2 beat ostinatos with a partner, as well as, a 3 beat ostinato with their partner. Students created and practiced them the first day and then shared them the second day. (Read More about reflections...)

Overall, I really enjoyed taking the kids out for music class. I was surprised by how many of my students, that don't always care for music, were really excited about music since we were going outside. I also noticed that some of my overly rambunctious students were actually really well behaved outside.

Have a musical day!

Decorating Fairview

After decorating Bonduel for two days, I spent FOUR days decorating Fairview. That is the most time I have ever spent decorating my room, but it was definitely worth it!

The first things I worked on was my word wall on the south wall. This wall has a whole bunch of music words organized in categories. I know a lot of word walls are alphabetical, but I like having words in categories to make it easier for students to find the word they are looking for. I posted both posters that I bought, as well as, posters that I created this summer:

BEFORE


FINISHED PRODUCT


I also added an awesome bulletin board next to the word wall. This bulletin board was actually quite simple to make and I used black 'painters tape' to create the keys. It looks so great now that it is finished and it really adds something to my 'music story corner.'



The next thing I worked on was creating a small story corner. This is the corner I use when I sing a story to my little ones. That is one of my favorite things to do when teaching the little ones. I have all sorts of song storybooks and they love listening to the stories and singing along to their favorites like Puff the Magic Dragon and Over the Rainbow.

BEFORE


AFTER

This is not a particularly good picture... but you get the idea.

The next step was adding the learning target dry erase boards and the music alphabet like I had in Bonduel:


The final step, creating a Student of the Month bulletin board to show the great achievements my students:


For more pictures check out my album on my Flickr Account.
Thanks for Reading!!!

Challenge #5 - Collage Technique

Guidelines:

• You need to create ONE scrapbook page for this challenge (Remember: one page is the two pages side by side)
• Create a collage of photos on either side of your scrapbook page. This collage needs to contain AT LEAST 5 pictures.
• You may only use 5 stickers, stamps, punches, etc. for this challenge. (Remember the focus is to use a lot of pictures, not a lot of ‘stuff’)
• A journal is allowed, but not a requirement.
• Use at least 8 pictures for this page. If you do not have enough pictures make sure to get some for this page!
• Remember to make your page neat and clean!

Tips & Tricks:

• Measure, measure, measure! The pieces of paper most of you are working with are 8 ½”x11”. Measure your pictures to fit into that.
• Use a ruler and be careful NOT to cut your pictures until you are completely certain you are right. You can always cut more off later, but you can NOT put it back on once it is off.
• Do not worry about titles, stickers, etc. until the VERY end. You may not even have a title. That is alright! The focus this week is the pictures!
• Be creative in how you put the pictures together. Use the templates provided on your table for ideas and inspiration.

For this challenge I gave my students a set of templates which I took from this website-->Scrapbook, Etc.<--
This helped students create their own layouts or cut pictures to fit the given layout.

Challenge Points:

• Creativity
• Follow Directions
• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Neatness

My Example:


Winner of Challenge #5:


Thanks for Reading!

Challenge #4 - 'Themespiration'

Guidelines:

• Create ONE scrapbook page for this challenge (Remember: one scrapbook page is actually two single pages side by side)
• Decide on a theme for your page and have at least 3 things on your page that help represent this theme (this does not include pictures!). At least one of these things should be made by you! More will result in more points! This is your chance to be artistic!
• There is no limit on the amount of stickers, punches, or stamps you can use for this challenge, but keep in mind you do NOT want your page to look cluttered. Make your hard work stick out!
• A journal is welcome, but not a requirement for this challenge.
• Remember, that, if you choose to title your page it should be neat and clean.

Tips & Tricks:

• Choose a theme first! Remember you do not need a lot of pictures for this theme (2-4 will be plenty). However, you want to decide what you are going to create to make this theme come alive. Take a look at the examples in my binder to help you get started!
• Spend the majority of the time, the first day (and maybe even second day), creating your theme items. These should be neat, clean, and be using your best artistic skills (some have more skills than others, that is okay! Just do YOUR best!)
• Find a way to have your theme items really stand out and do not add a lot of clutter that takes away from the items you created for you theme.

Challenge Points:

• Creativity
• Follow Directions
• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Neatness
• Items for Theme

My Example:

Notice the Christmas Presents creating the words Merry Christmas. This is one of the items I created to represent the theme.

Winner of Challenge #4:


Thanks for Reading!

Challenge #3 - Ripping Technique

Guidelines:

• You need to create TWO scrapbook pages for this challenge (Remember: one page is the two pages side by side, so you are really creating four single pages)
• Must using the ripping technique at least twice on each page. Using it more is recommended. Keep in mind that you want to rip towards yourself to make the effect obvious!
• Can only use a combination of 15 stickers and pictures.
• A journal is suggested, but not an expectation. You can decide whether you want to include one or not. However, keep in mind that you will probably get additional points for adding a journal to your page.
• If you choose to title your page remember to make it look neat and clean!

Tips & Tricks:

• When ripping you should rip towards yourself. If you forget, just turn the piece around.
• LAYER: sometimes rips in front of pictures sometimes pictures in front of rips.
• Cardstock (heavy paper) works best for ripping. Lighter paper may not show the nice rips. Because of this it may be smart to use the lighter paper as a background and the solid cardstock as your ripping paper.

Challenge Points:

• Creativity
• Follow Directions
• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Neatness

My Example:


Winner of Challenge #3:


Thanks for Reading!

Challenge #2 - Geometric Shapes

Guidelines:

• Pick a geometric shape as inspiration for your design. Some examples of geometric shapes include circles, parallelograms, squares, rectangles, triangles, trapezoids, octagons, hexagons, pentagons, stars, hearts
• Title your page using stencils, nice printing, or stickers
• Must use at least 10 of the shape of choice (Keep in mind, this does not mean one star, one heart, one circle, 3 squares, etc. Instead it means if you choose a triangle you use 10 of them in your scrapbook page)
• Can only use a combination of 10 stickers and pictures
• Must include a journal. This journal should have something to do with the page, but is NOT the description of pictures. Instead, it is a reflection on something. For example: if you have pictures of a vacation you could journal about what you did that specific day.

Tips & Tricks:

• Before you do anything you should choose the shape you are going to use.
• Cut out several shapes of various sizes and start to arrange them on your page. DO NOT glue them down right away.
• Arrange pictures and a short journal around the shapes. Layering some shapes over pictures and some under will give it a more exciting look.
• Make sure your shapes fit with the color scheme of paper. For example: if you pick a patterned paper that has a lot of orange, yellow, and red you should probably cut out shapes that are similar to this color.

Challenge Points:

• Creativity
• Follow Directions
• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Neatness

My Example:


Winner of Challenge #2:


Thanks for Reading!

Challenge #1 - Creating a Pattern

The third class that I taught during the summer was a Scrapbooking class. This class was by far my favorite to teach. I was a little worried going into it that students would not actually practice the techniques that I taught them. This was something I was warned about by the current art teacher. To solve this dilemma, my friend E came up with a brilliant solution: Scrapbooking challenges! I created five different challenges to go with the five different techniques we worked on throughout the summer. Students then worked on these challenge pieces and turned them in after a certain amount of time.

For each challenge I created PowerPoints with guidelines, tips & tricks, and challenge points (what they are 'graded' on).

The first challenge was creating a pattern that somehow represents yourself. The guidelines for the first challenge were as follows:

• Create a pattern using stamps, markers, pens, etc. that somehow represents you
• Must use AT LEAST ONE stamp
• Use at least one picture of yourself
• Include at least 4 interesting facts about yourself on the page
• Can only use a combination of 10 stickers and pictures

Tips & Tricks to help students with the challenge:

• Only have two to three focal points (things that REALLY catch your eye)
• PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!
• Focus on the pattern FIRST!
• Pick colors that allow the pattern to stick out

Students were 'graded' on the following Challenge Points:

• Creativity
• Follow Directions
• Teamwork (Working with those around you and helping them)
• Time Management (Working hard and using the time given to make a great product!)
• Neatness

My example:


At the end of 3 work days (50 minute classes), students turned in their work. I looked through all the work and added the points up. I then chose one winner to receive a bookmark and have their picture taken with their work. I also chose a team winner. The team was based on an average of points based on the number of teammates. It was amazing how excited students got about this after the first challenge.

To see what great work my students came up with, I will post the winning pages of each challenge. Keep in mind these pages were created by 8-11 year olds. I also have put images in front of pictures to keep my students identities a mystery.

Here is Challenge #1 Winner:

Thanks for reading!

Fun in the Sun - Week 4 & 5

Week 4 Events:

• Bochee Ball
• Lightning (Basketball)
• Relay Race
• Scoops in the Hoop

Week 4 Teams:

• Chad
• Chile
• El Salvador
• Italy

Week 4 we played a mix of games. First, I had two teams play Bochee Ball while the other two teams played a game of Lightning, and then they switched.

I also had them run a relay race with batons and then finally played a game that I just called Scoops in the Hoop. This is a really fun, but challenging game that students really enjoyed. Each student has a scooter they must stay on the entire game. Each team gets a laundry basket as their goal. Many waffle balls are put in the center of the court and each student has a scoop. As soon as the game starts all the students roll to the center and try to get as many balls into their laundry basket as they can. No stealing balls out of the other teams basket and no puppy guarding. Whichever team gets the most balls in their basket, when all the balls are gone, wins the game.

As a fun way to end Summer School, we had water fights 3 of the 4 last days of summer school. The last day it was a little rainy, so we ended up watching a movie instead.

Fun in the Sun - Week 3

The third week of summer school was the week of July 4th. Since July 4th was on a Wednesday this year we had school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. This meant relatively low attendance for the entire week. Plus, having July 4th in the middle of the week meant some took Monday-Wednesday for vacation and some took Wednesday-Friday off.

Due to low numbers I only created two teams this week:

• Peru
• Russia

We started off the week with a game of soccer. I was surprised how many of the kids didn't know how to play soccer. Apparently it is one of the few sports they don't have leagues for here. However, I myself grew up around soccer so I am convinced that it is a great sport! I explained the rules and students played a game of soccer.

To go with the soccer game, they played the second day, they had a relay race where students had to dribble the ball between the cones. Many didn't actually dribble it, but I ended up counting it since none of them seemed to know how.

To add to the low attendance, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were EXTREMELY hot! This meant some students didn't come to school because they did so much outside in the heat they were exhausted and stayed home on Thursday and Friday.

To deal with the heat I decided to come up with some fun water games to play. I ran to the Family Dollar on Wednesday and bought some supplies. I bought some spray bottles, five gallon buckets, sponges, and plastic cups.

July 5th, I only had 3 students show up for class. I had one of my students fill up both of the 5 gallon buckets of water. We brought them outside and played a water relay game. Since there was only 3 students (2 boys and one girl), we decided to have a relay of boys verses girls. We set up the two 5 gallon buckets next to each other and put two other 3.5 gallon buckets about 5 meters away. Each team got a sponge and the first person ran from the 3.5 gallon bucket to the 5 gallon bucket. Once at the 5 gallon bucket, the person dunk the sponge in the bucket full of water and ran back to the 3.5 gallon bucket. Then the team member squeezed the water into the empty bucket and handed the sponge to the next person on the team. Continuing this process for either a certain amount of time or until one team gets to a certain measurement on the bucket.

After the water relay we had a massive water fight where I, of course, got drenched.

The last day of the week we finished off with some 'target' practice of sorts. One of the teachers made a target station using pool noodles. You can learn how to make this game here. My students really loved this and we ended up playing it again the next week.

Thanks for reading!

Fun in the Sun - Week 2

Week 3 Featured Countries

• Brazil
• Egypt
• New Zealand
• Norway

I learned from the first week that I needed to be the one putting together teams. This way I could make sure that teams were even and fair. Each week this proved to be rather difficult. I did not want the same students together over and over again and I wanted students to feel successful. Unfortunately, when a team was losing often everyone on that team gave up! :( This was extremely frustrating to me as a teacher and I did not know how to deal with it. I just kept trying to remind students that you can't give up all the time.

This weeks events were the following:

• Ultimate Frisbee
• Obstacle Course
• Buddy Walkers

I was really excited about Ultimate Frisbee. The first day we were missing lots of students so I ended up playing Ultimate with the kids. I didn't do terribly, but I kind of warned them ahead of time that having me on their team did not mean they were going to win. However, I was proud of the fact that I caught 3 of 4 passes thrown my way. Not too bad for a music teacher with little athletic ability!

Overall, students did rather well with Ultimate Frisbee. In fact the gym teacher told me she was really impressed to see how well all the kids were doing with it. She said she will have to try playing it with some of the older kids next school year.

The obstacle course was also rather interesting. I set up 2 matching courses. It started with 6 hula hoops right next to each other, followed by a scooter, and about 10 meters away I added a cone with a bean bag placed by it. 5 cones were set up about 2 meters apart and then two cones symbolizing the finish line were set-up 10 meters from that.

Instead of forming a long line it was set up in a square, one obstacle on each side of the square. The fun thing about obstacle courses is there are LOTS of different obstacles you can create and many different set-ups, as well. I set it up so each member of the team had to go through the obstacle course as fast as they could. The team with the quickest time won. (I timed them using my i-Pod.) However, I added 2 seconds for every penalty they got (for not following the rules). Since there were four teams and only two obstacle courses the teams not playing at the time would work to re-set the course as people went through. For example, one person would bring the bean bag back to its start point, one person would direct the next member to go when their teammate reached the finish line, etc.

As, I stated earlier you can have fun creating your own course, but if you are wondering how to do my course here is what the obstacles were:

1. Students stepped into the hula hoops bringing them over their head and then placing them on the ground. Then they step into the next hula hoop and continue through all of them.
2. Students must SIT on the scooter and push it to the cone without getting off the scooter. If they fall off they must get back on before continuing to the cone.
3. Students put the bean bag on top of their head and balance it while going AROUND the cones. If the bean bag falls off they must pick it up before proceeding on.
4. Dash to the finish line!

Students complained when first told what the obstacles were, but it was apparent once they got started that they had a lot of fun!

The Buddy Walkers are two pieces of wood with strings attached. Students stay on the wood planks and hold the strings while walking together. They are quite a challenge and some did amazingly well together, while others did not.

Thanks for reading!

Goldilocks Final Project Pictures

Summer school ended last week Friday. I still have a lot I would love to share with all of you, and I promise I will. However, I decided it would make the most sense to finish talking about Fun with Technology before moving on to the next summer school class I taught (Fun in the Sun).

Last week, students finally finished their Goldilocks project I told you about earlier. They then were allowed to share them with their classmates. I was happy to see that everyone that came to school last week DID share their projects with the class. This was very important to me as they did spend four weeks working on them. However, I have learned from experience that sometimes it is better to not FORCE students to share, but instead encourage everyone to share. This normally makes kids feel like they have a choice, but they normally get so excited after watching everyone else share, that they want to share their work, too.

(Note: There are times I EXPECT everyone to share. However for something like this it is not necessary and the kids are willing to share on their own.)

Just to give you an idea of the great work my students did, here are some examples of pictures the students created for the story:


-Goldilocks Final Project Pictures-
There once lived a little girl who was called Goldilocks because her hair shone like gold. She was very fond of wild flowers and often went into the woods to pick them.

One day she walked and walked, and was soon a longer way from home than she had ever been before. In fact, she was lost. But she hurried on, hoping to meet someone who might be able to tell her how she could get home.

On and on she wandered and finally in a particularly lonely spot she happened onto a neat little house. It was really the house in which lived the three bears -- the Papa Bear, the Mama Bear, and the little Baby Bear -- but of course Goldilocks didn't know that.

The little girl went up to the door and knocked. There was no answer. She knocked again. Still no answer. And so she opened the door and went in. She was very tired and hungry.


Goldilocks looked around, and saw a little table set with a nice white cloth, and on the table were three bowls -- a big blue bowl, a middle-sized bowl, and a little yellow bowl. These three bowls belonged to the Papa Bear, the Mama Bear, and the Baby Bear.

Goldilocks lifted up the covers to look into the bowls. Each was full of delicious-smelling porridge which the three bears had left there to cool while they went for their early morning walk in the woods. Later they would return for a hearty breakfast.

Goldilocks picked up the spoon which was in the big blue bowl and tasted the porridge belonging to the Papa Bear. It was very hot, much too hot for the little girl to eat.

The little girl then turned to the red bowl and tasted the porridge that belonged to the Mama Bear. It was much too cold.

But there was still another bowl, and Goldilocks dipped her spoon into the porridge in the little yellow bowl, the one that belonged to the Baby Bear. How good that porridge smelled!

Goldilocks tasted it. Um-m-m-m! It was just right, and so she ate and ate and ate until there was not a bit of porridge left in the Baby Bear's little bowl.


After having eaten, Goldilocks wandered into the living room to sit down. There along the wall stood three chairs -- a big chair, a middle-sized chair, and a little chair.

She tried the big chair, which belonged to the Papa Bear, but it was too high, much too high for such a little girl.

Then she tried the middle-sized chair, which belonged to the Mama Bear, but it was too wide, much too wide for Goldilocks.

There was still a third chair, the one that belonged to Baby Bear. It was a cozy little chair with a green leather seat, and it looked like a very good chair for a tired little girl to rest in.

And so Goldilocks sat down in the Baby Bear's chair. It was just right, and she sat so hard that she broke it. The little girl got quite a surprise when she tumbled to the floor, but she immediately picked herself up and decided she would go upstairs and look around. She was quite sleepy by now, and maybe she could find a nice bed upon which to lie down.


Then Goldilocks climbed the stairs to the bedroom, and there found three beds -- one for the Papa Bear, one for the Mama Bear, and one for the Baby Bear. They were all fresh and clean.

Goldilocks lay down on Papa Bear's great big bed, but it was too hard.

Then she tried Mama Bear's middle-sized bed, but it was much too soft.

There was still a third bed -- Baby Bear's bed -- with a pink and white spread on it. Goldilocks tried the littlest bed, and it was just right, and so she curled up and was soon fast asleep.


Now while Goldilocks was sleeping, the bears came home from their walk.

They were very hungry and went at once to the kitchen to eat their porridge.

The Papa Bear had picked up his spoon and was about to begin eating when he suddenly growled in his big-bear voice, "Somebody has been eating my porridge!"

When the Mama Bear saw her bowl, she said in her middle-sized bear voice, "And somebody has been eating my porridge, too!"

Baby Bear saw his empty bowl, and began to cry. "Somebody has been eating my porridge, and has eaten it every bit!" he wailed.


Then the three bears went into the living room to sit down and rest.

Papa Bear noticed that his chair had been pulled out of its usual position.

"Somebody has been sitting in my chair!" he grumbled in his gruff voice.

"And somebody has been sitting in my chair!" said Mama Bear.

Baby Bear began crying harder than before. "Somebody has been sitting in my chair and has broken it all to pieces!" he sobbed.

Baby Bear had no chair to sit on, and so the three bears decided they would go upstairs to rest. They would take a short nap.


As they entered the bedroom Papa Bear glanced at the big bed. "Somebody has been tumbling in my bed!" he growled.

"And somebody has been tumbling in my bed!" said Mama Bear in her turn, walking over to the middle-sized bed and carefully smoothing the spread, which was quite rumpled.

All this time Baby Bear had been staring hard at his own little bed. Finally he found his voice and piped up, "Somebody has been tumbling in my bed, and here she is!"

At the sound of the Baby Bear's voice the little girl awoke with a start. She sat up and glanced about her. Then she sprang out of bed, and dashed down the stairs and out of the house as fast as her legs would carry her.

And Goldilocks never, never went near the house of the three bears again.


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Each of the pictures above is from different students, so they do not all necessarily go together. However, you can get an idea of what students did to represent this story.

I hope you enjoy the creativity and expression of my students' work.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The second half of my Fun with Technology consists of a project they started the first day and are just finally finishing this week. This project is based on the popular story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I am assuming most of you are familiar with it, but for those that aren't here is just an overview of the story.

Goldilocks is a little girl who loves to walk in the woods and pick wild flowers. One day she wanders too far and gets lost. She happens upon a cottage that belongs to the three bears, however she does not know that. She knocks on the door and when she finds the door open she wanders inside. Once inside she eats porridge from three bowls. The first is too hot, the second is too cold, and the third belonging to the baby bear is just right so she eats all of it. Next she goes into the living room and finds three chairs. One is too big, one is too wide, and one is just right but breaks. Finally, she wanders into the bedroom. She lays in each bed, but only the third is just right and she falls asleep. While sleeping the bears come home and find their porridge eaten, chairs sat in, and find Goldilocks in baby bear's bed. At this point Goldilocks awakes screams and runs out of the cottage never to return.

The first step of this project was for students to illustrate the story. Students used Pixie which is a fun illustration program much like paint, but a lot fancier. I taught students how to add stamps and use some of the different tools. Each day they had another part of the story to illustrate. This part of the project took much longer than I expected. This is partially due to the fact that many students do not come to school every day. So, they get behind and need a day or two to catch up. The illustrations were finally done by Wednesday last week and we started on the PowerPoint presentation on Thursday and Friday.

In order to put the images onto PowerPoint I learned that you must export the images. In most image editors you can just save the image as a JPEG or PNG so that is can be uploaded on PowerPoint. However, in Pixie it automatically saves the image as a Pixie image. There are no other options. However, if you are looking to save something as a JPEG in Pixie, here is how!

1) Open the image you want to save in Pixie

2) Click option that says EXPORT:


3) Choose the type of file you want to save the picture as and then click export:


4) Save your file: (I had my students save it as the exact same thing they saved their other image as. It will not save over your original since it is a new format)


Once it is saved as a JPEG you will be able to upload it into PowerPoint and here is how:
1) Open a new PowerPoint presentation:


2) Click the insert tab (this may not be an actual tab if you are using an older version of PowerPoint this image is from PowerPoint 2010)
Click the picture icon:


3) Browse for the image you want:


4) Click insert and it is now in your powerpoint:


5) You can use the small squares to make the image bigger or smaller:


My students inserted all 8 pictures of the story into their powerpoint before beginning the editing process.

The 8 pictures for this project were:
Title Page
Goldilocks gets lost and finds a cottage in the woods
Goldilocks tries the porridge
Goldilocks sits in the bears chairs
Goldilocks tries the bears beds and falls asleep
The bears come home and find their porridge eaten
The bears find their chairs sat in
The bears find Goldilocks taking a nap in baby bear's bed

Remember, it is great to get students to really think about the environment of the story. When they are illustrating don't just let them illustrate the objects like all the bowls. Have them really imagine what the kitchen of a bear's cottage would look like. Does it have wood floors? Linoleum floors? What color is the walls? Do they have wallpaper or paint? Maybe they are also wood... Really let them use their imagination and put details into their story.

Miss De Laruelle

Summer School 2012

There are a lot of perks to being a music teacher. One of them is that you get to know almost EVERY student in the elementary school. The only ones I do not know are the 4K students, since they do not have music class. Though it can be difficult learning all those names, I find it very important to get to know as much as possible about my students. It may seem tedious, but kids are extremely happy to know you care about them and want to know about them.

In order to get to know my students more I try to pay close attention to them even outside of class. I pay attention to what they play on the playground. I pay attention to who they play with. I try to have conversations with them about things they are interested in and try to relate to them as much as I can.

This summer, I have taken a break from teaching music and instead am teaching Fun with Technology (going into 1-3 grade), Fun in the Sun (going into 4-6), and Scrapbooking (going into 3-6). This has given me the advantage of learning even more about my students. It is amazing how I suddenly see different sides of students I worked with the whole last year.

Summer school will be over this week, but I have learned a LOT of cool stuff that I want to share with you. I have found interesting sites that you may be interested in checking out, I have learned new scrapbooking techniques and much more. This blog for the next couple months will highlight some of the things we have done in summer school that I think may be helpful for all of you.

Thanks for Reading!

My Dream Come True

As you can see from my about me information, I have had the dream to become a music teacher since I was only 8 years old. I made this decision back in 2nd grade when we were asked to write a short paragraph about what we want to be when we grow up. I still have this paper and other journal entries like it. They all stated close to the same thing.

"I want to be a music teacher just like Mrs. Schmidt! I want to be a music teacher because I love to sing and I love music!"

It is funny how the innocent dream of a young child can come true about 14 years later. Now, here I am out of college and going into my 3rd year of teaching music.

Since becoming a music teacher I have often been asked what I actually do. I often find this question disconcerting and kind of strange. Didn't other people have music teachers as elementary students? Do they not remember the wonderful experiences of singing, playing instruments, listening to music, etc? Why do they understand what a middle school choir teacher does, but not what a general elementary music teacher does?

The answer I often give is "I teach all the basics of music to get students ready for band and choir at the middle and high school level." People still look at me with confusion. So then I continue... I teach students the difference between singing, whispering, humming, shouting, etc. I teach students how to read music, count rhythms, and play instruments. I teach students how to act in a concert setting. I help students prepare for at least one concert each year to get their first experiences on stage. I introduce students to classical music and teach them the lives of various composers. I introduce students to the wonderful world of music! I open the door to all of their later music experiences!

There is so much to a music teachers job that I cannot explain in just one post. So instead, I have decided to start writing this blog to share some of the experiences I share with my students. Look forward to bulletin boards, lesson plans, and much more!

Thanks for reading!