Solfege Practice Stations

Those of you that follow my Facebook page probably saw a post I made last week to show my students working on some fun stations. I thought I'd take a few minutes to share what these stations were all about.

My 5th graders just finished learning about fa and ti, so they finally have the whole major scale done. They are going to be assessed on these concepts tomorrow, so to prepare we worked on some stations to be an interactive review. Here are the stations I came up with:

Station 1: I-pad or Laptop Station - Pirate Pairrrrs - Ti Game

At one of my schools, I have ten i-pads that I can use in my classroom. I like to utilize them when I can, but because my other school has limited access to i-pads, stations seem to be the easiest time to utilize them. On the i-pads I downloaded my Pirate Pairrrrs file and students opened the file in iBooks. Students were then able to interact with the file just like they would on the SMARTboard, but they didn't have to take turns! My students really enjoyed racing each other or seeing who could get the most correct.

At the other school, the 5th graders have laptops. I had them download the file, as well, and they played it as a normal PDF. Again students each had their own copy, so they didn't have to take turns and could really see how much they knew. I love how this file is already ready for students, so they don't need me to tell them if they are correct or not, the file does the work for them.

You can get the Pirate Pairrrrs games in my store HERE.

Station 2: Writing Station

The writing station was a great opportunity for my students to really practice writing solfege on the staff. Each student got a dry erase staff, a dry erase marker, and a sock (for an eraser). Along with this I created simple cards on paint that I printed out. These cards had one side with a do key and one note written out on the staff. Then the pattern I wanted them to write. Students would draw the do key and note on their staff and then complete the passage by writing the notes correctly on the staff. Then they could flip over their card, where I wrote the answers. Again, a great self-led station because students could be learning from their mistakes and practicing writing notes. No help from the teacher necessary.

Station 3: Solfege! UNO

This game was created by Amy Abbott and you can purchase it HERE. My students really enjoyed this little mind break they got from playing UNO with all solfege hand signs. The students really did not have to apply much knowledge at this station, but I was ok with that because they still were seeing the hand signs.

Station 4: Pumpkins for the Pie

This is one of the sorting stations students went to. On the pumpkins are solfege patterns written on the staff. Students had to match it with the pumpkin pie that had the same pattern written out on it. To make it easy for students to check their answers, and to keep it student led, I wrote the answers on the back of each pumpkin.

Station 5: Solfa Land

From listening to my students afterwards, this was probably the favorite of most. This game is played a lot like Candy Land. After choosing playing pieces the first player picks a card from the top of the deck. They figure out what hand sign or note they have and move to the closest space of that note. Who ever gets to the end first wins. You can purchase this game in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

BONUS: Not only is this game board included, but I also made a game board just for mi, so, la and a game board for do, re, mi, so, la. I figured my littler ones would enjoy playing this game later on this year, too. You get ALL versions in just one download -->HERE.

Station 6: Baskets FULL of Solfa

The final station I call Baskets FULL of Solfa. This sorting game is pretty easy and again could work for many different grade levels. Just print out the apples and baskets that you are most likely to use. Students put all the baskets out in front so they can see them all, then they figure out the note on the apple before placing it by the correct basket. You can buy this game HERE.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post about some fun station ideas. I absolutely love using stations in class. It is great to see my students working all on their own with very little assistance from me. Plus, they love it and have so much fun learning more. What are some of your favorite stations?

More High and Low

Today, I'm going to talk about two high and low activities I have used in my classroom for several years now.

Five Little Monkeys
This is a great song I use for teaching high and low. Many of you probably already teach this song in your classrooms and you may even use it for teaching high and low. If not, here is how I incorporate it into the song.

We all sing "five little monkeys jumping on the bed" in our normal singing voices. When we get to the part where "Mama calls the doctor...", I have students switch into a high squeaky voice, to imitate Mama's high voice. Then on the "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" students use their low voices.

When students get comfortable with the song, I'll start to pick students to be the mom and doctor voices alone. I'll pick one student to be the mom and one student to be the doctor. (After explaining that it doesn't matter if you are a boy or girl for either part.) This is a great chance for me to assess students actually getting into their high or low voices.


I just created a cute and simple file to go along with the song just for an added visual. It is free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! You can download it by clicking on the Five Little Monkeys picture above, or just click HERE.

Monsters vs. Fairies
I also play a game using my piano that I have recently entitled Monsters vs. Fairies. The rules of the game are simple. When I play notes that are high on the piano, students reach up on their tippy toes with arms extended to the ceiling. When I play low notes on the piano, students should duck down toward the floor.


We call this game Monsters vs. Fairies because my students always say that the high notes sound like dancing fairies and the low notes sound like big furry monsters. (Oh the wonderful imagination of Kindergarteners.) This game is simple, but my students love it and will ask to play it. They especially like how I normally end the game by changing from high to low rather quickly. It gets them all giggly and happy before we move on to the next activity.

Looking for even MORE ideas for teaching high and low?
Check out my other blog entries about this topic:

• Preparing High and Low - How to Use Vocal Explorations
• Beginning High and Low - Using Stories and Videos

Clip art credits: Kari Bolt, Educlips, MelonHeadz, Jena Hudson, Lovin' Lit
Font credits: Kimberly Geswein

Week 6 - How I Manage a Hectic Holiday Schedule

As I was sitting in church Sunday morning listening to the Psalm, I took a good look at the date. "October 5? That can't be right!" I thought... but it was and that means I have to introduce the Christmas concert audition process this week to the students at one of my schools. The other school is not having a Christmas concert. Instead they will have a 3-5 Winter Concert in January and a K-2 Spring Concert in April. They will then have a Christmas Sing-a-long towards the end of December, but that does not take NEARLY the amount of prep that a concert does. (As you all know)

Now after reading this you probably are wondering how I can keep everything straight. Sometimes I wonder the same exact thing, but here is kind of a glimpse into 'my world'.

My students at Bonduel Elementary always have two separate Christmas concerts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon each year. This year I decided that I am going to do a multi-cultural themed Christmas concert. I'm teaching some new songs, but also throwing in some common songs like Feliz Navidad and We Three Kings. I'm hoping this will appease my audience while still allowing me the opportunity to explore some newfound treasures. (I can tell you more about the songs we're singing and the programs I created in a couple weeks)

I have a very efficient audition process, which takes place during my music time. It includes instrument, speaking, and singing parts all in one day! I have 45 minute classes so I can fit it all in, but at the school with 30 minutes (more like 25 minutes) it normally takes two class periods. If you want to learn more about my audition process check out these two blog posts from last year:
Preparing Students for the Audition
What I Grade on for Try-outs

My students at Fairview Elementary will be continuing on with their lessons on beat, rhythm, solfege, etc. This can be ultra confusing! However, how I work it out I mostly focus on lesson planning for Fairview. Then everything I do with my students at Fairview during the concert prep months becomes my plans for Bonduel after concert season.

Week 6
Kindergarten
The next few weeks I will be assessing students five voices. I do this with a sort of a game. I take a familiar song we know like Chop, Chop or Frog in the Meadow and I call students up to the front of the room (or the back for those shier students). I whisper in their ear the voice I want them to use for the song and they demonstrate it for the class. This helps me figure out if they understand the correct vocabulary and also that they are able to use the correct voice. It is even better because students have to then determine what voice the student used.

Songs we are singing in Kindergarten this week:

• The More We Get Together
• Chop, Chop Chippity Chop
• Frog in the Meadow
• Purple Light
• Pitter, Patter
• She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
• My Aunt Came Back
• Engine, Engine Number Nine
• William He Had Seven Sons
• Pete the Cat Rockin in my School Shoes

1st Grade
After being introduced to beat and rhythm last week, students are continuing to practice seeing the difference between the two. I show students slides of songs they know with the beat and then show them with the rhythm. Students have to determine, which is which. Students this week are also starting to identify one sound beats and two sound beats (ta & ti-ti). We are focusing on the songs Bobby Shaftoe and Engine, Engine for this analysis.

Songs we are singing in 1st Grade this week:

• Bobby Shaftoe
• Engine, Engine Number Nine
• Beat vs. Rhythm Presentation

2nd Grade
Students are working on composing short patterns using the notes we know: ta, ti-ti, rest, and ta-a. We are practicing how to draw these rhythms with the beat. We practiced yesterday by drawing patterns up on the SMARTboard. I also drew some rhythms incorrectly and students had to find the mistakes in the rhythms. They had a lot of fun with that. Especially because I really ham it up and make it seem like I'm just 'positive' I'm right. This practice will be very handy when it comes time to do their final composition project where they use half notes, half rests, whole notes, and whole rests. From past classes I know this is something I need to take more time on. Students get that certain notes are more than one beat, but they don't always show it the correct way in their compositions.

Songs we are singing in 2nd Grade this week:

• Frere Jacques
• Here Comes a Bluebird
• Who's That Tapping at my Window
• Phoebe in her Petticoat
• Rocky Mountain

3rd Grade
3rd Grade is now reviewing the whole note and will be doing a very similar practice to what the 2nd graders are doing this week. The only difference is we will add in the whole note. When students seem comfortable with composing with these notes I'll throw in the half rest and whole rest. We'll practice changing half notes into half rests and whole notes into whole rests. Then students will be ready to work on the composition they were supposed to complete in 2nd grade. I want to make sure they really understand this concept, since in 3rd grade their composition not only focuses on beats, but also throws in half beats! (Yikes!)

Songs we are singing in 3rd Grade this week:

• Au Claire de la Lune
• My Father's House
• The Water is Wide

4th Grade & 5th Grade
Students in 4th and 5th grade are learning about low so this week. They first learned about it using Scotland's Burning, but now are also practicing throwing it in to some other familiar songs. I'm surprised how much fun they are all having with the Chicken on the Fencepost game and the dance for Tideo. One of my 4th graders told their teacher "I don't know what activity I liked more!" How can that not bring a smile to your face?

Here are the activities for you to try:
Chicken on the Fencepost Game

1. Make two circles - all students should be holding hands in their circles. They may complain about it at first, but when they see how the game works they get over it. (One inside circle and one outer circle)
2. Pick two students to be the racers (They should close their eyes while you choose 'openings')
3. Pick a set of hands on the outside circle and on the inside circle. These students will create an archway when the song ends, so the racers can get through to the middle (creating a kind of maze)
4. Racers can open their eyes as the song starts and both circles walk to the beat of the song. When the song ends the students that are suppose to create arches do and the racers try to get to the middle as fast as possible.
5. Repeat!

*Note: You can make it even harder by choosing some fake entrances. These students lift their arms creating an entry, but when someone gets close they quickly drop so no one can enter. Really fun and the kids think it is hilarious.

Here is a video of what this game looks like:


Tideo Dance

1. Students partner up
2. One partner creates an inside circle with their backs towards the middle of the circle
3. Their partner lines up with them creating an outer circle with their faces towards the middle
4. Pass one window - students on the outside move one person to their right
5. Pass two windows - students on the outside move one person to their right
6. Pass one window - Students on the outside move on person to their right
7. Jingle at the window - All students pat their legs quickly
8. Tideo - All students clap, clap, pat with the partner they are with
9. Tideo, tideo - Students slowly swing their partner
10. Jingle at the window - All students pat their legs quickly
11. Tideo - All students clap, clap, pat with the partner they are with
12. Tideo, tideo - Students slowly swing their partner
13. Jingle at the window - All students pat their legs quickly
14. Tideo - All students clap, clap, pat with the partner they are with
15. Then repeat until you are lined up with the partner you started with (or whenever you want to stop)

*Note: I normally have my students repeat the dance by switching places with their partner. That way everyone gets a chance to try both parts.

Here is a video of this dance:

*Note: The version I learned of this song does the swinging partner two times, but you could do it just once like in the video

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

• Scotland's Burning
• Canoe Song
• Chicken on the Fencepost
• Lil' Liza Jane
• Tideo

Activities Like... Note Reading Stations

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' today for their We're Thankful For Linky Party. Each day they are writing about something they are thankful for as teachers. Wednesday's theme is Activities Like...

If you would like to join the fun click the link below to find their post and/or read other posts written by other teachers. I especially recommend reading Mrs. Miracle's blog posts. She has been linking with them all week!

The last couple weeks I have begun the preparation of my 4th graders for playing recorders. They already had some experience reading notes on the treble clef thanks to Freddie the Frog, Music K-8 Kids Videos, and a basic introduction in 3rd grade. However, I really wanted students to get a lot of experience with note reading before I actually put the recorders in their hands. To aid in this process, I created stations around the room for note reading (and a few for rhythm work, since that is also important for recorders).

Here are the stations with information on where to get these materials online:

1) Apples and Oranges - Word Matching Game


This is a pretty simple matching game that I bought from Teachers Pay Teachers. How it works is a small group of students sort the apples and oranges by trying to match the words on the apples with the words on the oranges. For example the apple will have the word FACE written on it and they have to find the orange card that spells face on the staff.

I have been a little creative with this station and have also come up with some other ways to use these cards. I have the students play a game of memory with them. (This is a bit more challenging, but is great for my high achieving groups.) I also have them race against each other to see who can get the most matches. You can get this original game HERE as part of a bundle. The bundle includes Sandwich Match, which I'm going to talk about next, and it also includes some other activities I use with other concepts.

2) Sandwich Match - Letter Matching Game


This game is just like the Apples and Oranges game, but instead of whole words you just match a letter. This one is a bit easier to play as memory and many of my students prefer to work at this station that way. Again you can get this HERE.

3) Classics for Kids - Treble Clef Note Reading Game


I allow students to play this on my Smartboard by taking turns identifying the note and creating the words. You can find this game HERE.

4) Ladybug Game


You can find this fun game HERE. Susan has a lot of great games and you should check them out while you are there. All you need to do is print out the pdf she created and create playing pieces. For my playing pieces I used big buttons from Walmart with cute bug stickers on them. More specific directions are on the site, but the basic idea is students pick cards from the deck one at a time and move to the closest space of the letter they choose. Whoever makes it to the end first, wins. Students should take turns and if students draw a card that says bee sting or other things like that they should follow the directions on it.

5) Fly Swatter Game


This is another game made by Susan. I have seen games like this, but how this works is you print out the cards onto cardstock. Then, one student holds up a card while the others find the correct note as quickly as possible and swat the correct answer on the poster board. (You could also write your answers on the board.) Whoever gets the note correct first gets to take over the cards and the other two students become swatters. You can find this game HERE.

6) Fall/Thanksgiving Rhythm Composition


For some rhythm work I had students working on a Fall/Thanksgiving Rhythm Composition. The top of the worksheet students figure out which note each word should get based on the amount of syllables each word has. For example they put a quarter note with corn and four sixteenth notes with cranberry sauce. After finishing the top part they can create their own Fall/Thanksgiving Rhythm and create their own rap. They fill in each blank with a word from above and add the corresponding rhythms with it. It is a fun way for students to practice their rhythms and use their own creativity. You can get this activity at my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE.

Freebie Friday - Beat, Rhythm, Ta, & Ti-Ti

Wow! Sorry my Friday post is now being posted very early on a Sunday! It ended up taking me a little bit longer than I thought to organize everything I wanted before posting my blog post. I have been busy working on a BUNCH of files for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. All the files I plan on using with my own 1st Grade students or have already used with my 1st grade students. I'm very excited about them! (To see the actual files click on the center of the pictures provided.)

First, I put together a PowerPoint that introduces the difference between Beat and Rhythm:

Then, to reinforce this concept I made a fun manipulative to use either for full classroom practice or for small group activities:

Now that my students are recognizing the difference between beat and rhythm they get to learn about ta & ti-ti with this powerpoint:

And another fun manipulative to reinforce this concept of matching picture rhythms with music notation:

Finally, I put together a bunch of breakfast foods for students to sort as Ta's or Ti-Ti's. This also comes with a composition worksheet for 1st graders to create their own breakfast food raps:


Now for the FREEBIE for Emily's FREEBIE FRIDAY:

Along with the breakfast food rhythms and compositions, I created a Halloween version of this same file. As a special Freebie Friday I am offering this file completely free on my Teachers Pay Teachers Site. I definitely think this is a great file and has several fun activities you can use with your young students. Find the file by clicking on any of the pictures below and downloading it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Rhythmic Repitition

I decided after our review the first couple weeks that ALL of my classes (mostly 3-5 graders) needed to brush up on their rhythms. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this at first because it really seemed like we needed to go back to basics on this. I noticed the most difficult part for students was remembering, which note is which and how many beats it gets.

Solution? New rhythm game using quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes. Once students get good at the game I'll add in other harder rhythms and hopefully get us back onto track. I call this new rhythm game Rhythmic Concentration. It was based off of a music concentration that many of you probably have heard about.

Here is how it works:


Everyone in the class sits in a circle on the floor.


Each student is given a basic rhythm that was written on an index card. (I used only quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes, however you could add in other rhythms your students know)

I then put a piece of tape or something to mark the 'beginning/end' of the circle. The person on the right of the marker is #1. The goal of the game is to be #1 at the end of the game.

The #1 person claps their rhythm and then #2 claps their rhythm immediately after. This continues all the way around the circle. During the first round, I normally just let them practice their rhythm. However, after that it gets harder.

Students continue clapping their rhythms as they continue around the circle. When someone misses their turn or hesitates that student has to go to the end (to the left of the marker). Their rhythm stays where it is and then students fill in the spaces. For example: if #5 of #10 misses their turn #10 shifts to #9; #9 shifts to #8; #8 shifts to #7; #7 shifts to #6; #6 shifts to #5; and #5 shifts to #10!

For those visual learners like myself, a model of the switch!:


After that it gets even more difficult. I start sending people to the end of the circle for clapping the wrong rhythm, not doing it in beat, and I have even added the metronome for some of my older students and they have to stay in beat.



My students really seem to like it. What I like most about it is it is fast paced, so those that get frustrated with waiting for everyone to get a turn don't feel that way during this game. I also like it because they are practicing their rhythms without feeling like they are practicing rhythms!



If you try this out, please let me know how it goes or any changes you made to make the game run smoother! Also feel free to ask me questions about it, I'll do my best to answer them. Have fun!

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!

Fun with Technology

Summer school at my school is split into three sections. Each section is 55 minutes with a 5 minute passing time. School runs from 8:30 am - 11:30 am. However, students normally arrive at about 8:15 am and start by eating breakfast. At the beginning of summer school they used to have students eating in the room they had their first class in. However, having 15 students from the ages of 6-9 eating in a computer lab is just a recipe for disaster. So, about the second week we switched it to students eating breakfast in the cafeteria. I am a bit anal and will not allow my students to eat in the cafeteria alone. So, I have ALL my students meet in the cafeteria and then walk down to the computer lab at 8:30 am.

Once students are in the computer lab they have specific directions to follow. First they must log into their computers. Then they go to my teaching website and fill out a form for attendance. I linked this to my email so that I can fill out my attendance later. After filling out the form it takes them to a different website. The websites I have used are typing websites so that students are practicing their typing. I have used a wide variety of them, but my own personal favorite is Dancing Mat Typing. This BBC website is very interactive and helps students learn the home row of keys. It is colorful and fun for kids and makes it fun to learn!


When students complete a level they are then allowed to spend 10-15 minutes playing a game of their choice.

Some favorites of my students are the following:
ABC Ya

This site has a WIDE variety of different games. As you can see from the picture it has a tree on the main site that links to games of different age levels. They also have a wide variety of games under each grade level. There are typing games, math games, science games, puzzles, fun games, etc. One game the students really liked was Sugar, Sugar (5th Grade - Just for Fun). I have to admit it was even fun for me to play! :)

Fun Brain

Fun Brain is a site with all sorts of academic games. Students were begging to go on this website to play the games and it is great that this site encourages learning.

Keyboard Climber

This website was one I linked for typing practice one day. However, students play this one even when they get a choice for all the other games. They absolutely love watching the monkey jump from branch to branch as they type the correct letters. However, keep in mind this is better for the kids going into 2nd or 3rd grade as it is a bit difficult for the younger ones.

After the gaming and typing practice they are half done with class. This half normally goes really fast and the kids are sad to have to turn off their games, but the second half normally goes just as fast and it is soon time to go. More about what we do in Fun with Technology coming soon!

Remember every day is a good day to practice typing! :)
Miss De Laruelle