Manipulative Monday - Music Time Signature Pies

Yay! Not only two blog posts in a row, but I'm also joining my first Link Party! Music teachers are so cool! :)

Honestly, I wish I used more manipulatives in my classroom. I'm hoping reading all these posts will inspire me to actually go for it and do it. I also have to do a better job of looking out for some of those cool finds like the erasers I saw in Lindsay's blog.

Instead, one manipulative I have used for time signatures are these music pies I created. Each pie represents a measure in 4/4 time. The black one is the filler for students to create their own measures:


Then, I have several colored pies for the different notes my students know. I cut each one along the dotted lines so that the pieces only fill up the amount of the measure they take up. Here are a few examples of my music note/rest pies:






This allows my students to create their own measures and see how they fit into the measure. This is great for kids that really need a visual or are more kinesthetic in nature. When working on a short composition students can check their work by putting the pieces together. If there are too many beats they know they have to fix something. If they have extra space in their measure they know they need to add another note.

For those that are interested they were added to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and are completely FREE! Just print them, cut them, laminate them and you are ready to go! Please let me know if you use them and how they worked for you.

Being SMART with a SMARTboard

I am glad to say that I'm back to blogging. I really wish I was better at staying on top of my blog and being really consistent about blogging. I know it is frustrating to follow a blog that is inactive for several months and then suddenly posts again. I'm really trying to work on that. If any of you strong bloggers have any suggestions about being consistent I would love to hear them!

I was going to post beautiful pictures of my current classroom arrangements, but unfortunately my laptop has died. I do not currently have the funds to get a new one, so until then, you will only be seeing pictures from my phone, ipad, and computer screenshots. (Sorry!)

Instead, I wanted to talk about my current goal as an educator this year. I am lucky enough to have a SMARTboard at both schools I teach at. I use my SMARTboard EVERY day in my classroom, but my goal for this year is to really use my SMARTboard in the most interactive way. Instead of just projecting lyrics, videos, etc. I want to make interactive lessons using my SMARTboard that tie into our district standards and benchmarks. So, the last couple weeks I have spent HOURS working on SMARTboard files to share with my students. They aren't all finished. (I'm kind of adding to them as I teach.) However, I do have one that I finished this summer for Bee, Bee Bumblebee. Check out some of the highlights of this file below:









The goal for each is to teach the standard or benchmark by getting students up to the board. For pages with beat or rhythm, I call students up to actually point to each bee. It is great to see the kids reaction to these cute files and to know that my time was well spent. I'm hoping these files will really help reinforce concepts, as well as, get kids excited about the songs we are learning.

And the even more exciting news! I finally opened a Teachers Pay Teachers Store and you can get this file there! I'm currently working on a bunch of other files, but am not finished and ready to upload them. Here are some to look forward to seeing:











Hope you enjoy the sneak peak and if you like what you see, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Hope you are all as excited for the new school year as I am! :)

P.S. All Graphics used are from My Cute Graphics. Her graphics are amazing and free!

The Continental Drift

So, if the weather in your neck of the woods is anything like the weather here in Wisconsin you have had some really rambunctious little ones! It has been raining, sleeting, or snowing pretty much ALL week here. That means indoor recess for the last 4 days. Plus... we only had Good Friday and Easter Monday off. (My school district doesn't believe in spring break... or at least that is my joke.) So, my crazy Kindergarten - 5th grade students have seriously been off the walls. Especially the classes that I have at the end of the day.

I decided it would probably be a good idea to find a way to get some of the pent up energy out before trying to teach some important musical concepts. So, I give you The Continental Drift video from Ice Age 4:


I used this with all my classes from 1st - 3rd grade, but I'm sure you could use it for some of your other kiddos. The kids loved it and it really did help them get back on focus!

Let me know if you use it or if you have any other great dancing videos for elementary school students!

Music Jeopardy

My students LOVE music Jeopardy games. All my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes ask for it and I make sure they get to play it at least once each year. It is a great way to either review information or assess students knowledge of the material. The great thing is if you create your Jeopardy game using smart notebook you can even add in short listening clips to assess students ability to hear different instruments, genres of music, etc. I created my first Jeopardy game on the smart board last year and then adapted it a bit this year. I have a Jeopardy game for Instrument Families (3rd grade), Instrument Families and their TIMBRE (4th grade), and Ensembles (5th grade).

These are the rules (I have them typed up on the smartboard file):

1. Students will be chosen by random drawing of popsicle sticks. When your number is called you will get a choice between the categories and numbers left on the board. Once your number is drawn it will not be picked again until all other numbers on your team are drawn.


2. Once a category and question is selected student will be given 1 minute and 30 seconds to answer. If no answer is given question is turned over to other team. (Some questions have a multiple choice option. Depicted by the multiple choice icon.)
   If a student has difficulty they can click the multiple choice option ONLY IF BEFORE time is up. – Once multiple choice options are given student only gets 45 seconds to choose an option regardless of how much time was left on the clock before and they receive half the points. (If question gets overturned the opposite team also only gets half the points as they already saw the choices.)
   
   ---I also say that if the multiple choice option was not selected by the original team and it goes to the opposing team for a steal the opposing team can NOT choose the multiple choice. They must answer the question without the choices.---


3. If question is overturned due to wrong answer or running out of time a number from the opposite team will be drawn at random to steal the question.


4. After each question regardless of right or wrong answer the opposite team will get a turn. Going back and forth ALL through the game. (The only time the same team gets 'two turns in a row' is if they steal and then it is their turn or if they get a Daily Double)


5. Two DAILY DOUBLES are hidden in the game. If you pick one of these your entire team will get to decide how many points you are betting. There will be no multiple choice given, but the whole team will get 2 minutes to come up with an answer. If the answer is incorrect or no answer is given after 2 minutes betted points will be deducted and game will go back to regular play. Student who picked DAILY DOUBLE will get a turn to pick next category to answer on their own.


6. Students must be quiet during the game to allow students answer questions to think. If talking name will be put on the board and if they receive one check they will have to take test version of the game, as well as, get a popsicle stick (this is part of my own behavioral system).


7. All teammates should be positive and show good sportsmanship. If there is name calling, bragging, etc. points will be deducted from that teams total.

If you are using this to assess students knowledge or even as a review, I normally keep track of students points and what questions they pick. That way I am able to go back and see if a certain category gave students problems, if a student only picked 'easy' questions, etc.

The best part about Jeopardy is that even if a team is down by a lot of points they may still win in the end with a Final Jeopardy question.

Now I know there are many different Jeopardy games templates already out there, but if you want to see the Jeopardy games I created to get an idea of how they work or you can adapt if for you classroom, feel free to leave a comment with your contact information and I can send you the file you are interested in seeing.