Well its here! The craziest time of the year…until the spring concert hits! All of my classes are continuously practicing their songs and compositions for our holiday concert next week, so that is taking up a majority of our 30 minute class time; however, I still need to fill the few minutes here and there that come up in between. What’s a music teacher to do? Here are 4 simple lessons that you can stretch out or shrink to fit depending on how much time you have!    

1. What instrument is in the mystery bag?

Today I put various shakers and bells in extra Note Knacks bags. I had their counterparts on the rug so that the kids could match them. They had fun listening and trying to figure out what bag went with what instrument!

2. What does snow falling sound like?

Have kids think about what snow would sound like when it falls and when it hits the ground. Look at all of the instruments you have in your room and let them choose. You can even extend it with questions like: would there be several short sounds or a few long sounds? …or would they switch from short to long while falling? …or when they hit the ground?
Other sounds to be created ~ Reindeer? Santa? Elves? Skiing and other winter sports? Etc.….

3. 3D compositions

I know I have mentioned these before, but I love them!! I love it when kids create a sculpture with Note Knacks and then sing what they have created!!

4. Choose a favorite book for kids to add sound

You can choose any story, really, but here are a couple of suggestions ~ “The First Music” by Dylan Pritchett and “The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf!

Please let us know your “go to” lessons for this time of year! We are all in this together!!

So what is a dot and why is it next to a note that we know? This is the question that inevitably comes up in one way or another when you are using sheet music. So here is a quick fun way to have your kids construct their knowledge and figure out just what that dot means!

I set up the dotted Note Knacks like you see below with the dotted eighth at the top and the dotted whole at the bottom ~ with the dotted quarter and dotted half note in between. I then ask a series of questions:

~  Does anyone recognize these notes?

~ What is different about them? (they have a dot next to them)

 

I then put their counterpart notes on top of each like you see below and ask:

~ Which set of notes are longer?

~ How much longer? (Some classes will know right away and others will need to try out a note or 2 to figure out what fits.)

 

Finally we discover what notes fit and create the rule together. We end up with what you see below. Sometimes I will take the regular sixteenth and place it on top of the regular eighth (and do it for All of the regular notes) to help the kids see the rule ~ they all add half of the note value.

Now armed with this new knowledge, kids will start speculating how far they can take it! I had a group ask:

~ Can there be dotted sixteenths? What is half of a sixteenth?

~ Can a note have 2 dots??? What happens then???

When we allow our students to construct their knowledge, they feel a part of the learning process and this encourages them to get involved and ask questions ~ to push their thinking. It is this kind of enthusiasm that reminds us why we do what we do!

It feels like it should be so far in the future, but December and our winter concerts are right around the corner!! This year will be my first with this school, so I am super excited and wanted to do something special. I also wanted to make sure that my kids had a hand in choosing what they would perform, so I asked them what came to mind when they thought about the holidays. They mentioned family gatherings, presents (of course!!!), great food, songs they liked to sing and Christmas movies. They lit up while they were talking about it!!

We then spoke about what could we use from our list to create a performance. They came up with a lot of great ideas, but my favorites were from 1st, 3rd and 4th!

• The first graders spoke about their love of the book/ movie The Polar Express.
  • We read it and they brainstormed ideas about what to sing/ perform. The most popular idea was for us to choose a page and make it into a song.
  • I looked online for songs used in the movie and really liked the song “Hot Chocolate”. It refers to the page where the kids are all in the train and eager to get their candies and hot chocolate! It is rhythmic and very cool!
  • In total Note Knacks fashion, I came up with the idea of the class creating a rhythmic piece involving a “hot chocolate’ ostinato OR an A section. I haven’t decided yet, as I haven’t had a chance to discuss it with the kids. Stay tuned!!
• The third graders were interested in playing the hand chimes and the fourth graders were interested in singing “Carol of the Bells”. Since “Carol of the Bells” has a hand chime part, it occurred to me to have 4th sing, while 3rd plays.
  • The only “problem” was that the third would have to put off playing recorders until January, as there isn’t enough time to do both. They were more than fine with this!!!

We here at Note Knacks, of course, will be a continuing resource for you as you plan your concerts with composition and accompaniment ideas, but without a textbook series to help, I have to say that both J.W. Pepper and K-8 Music were a huge help!! I found an excellent  unison arrangement of Carol of the Bells and I love their Away in A Manger/ Star Light, Star Bright partner song arrangement (if you can do it in your school)!!
A subscription to K-8 Music is expensive, but they do provide free resources!! (Thank goodness!!) A couple of my younger classes are singing “A Million Little Snowflakes” and “Peaceful”. They are great songs that are simple enough for the little ones, but still beautiful! They provide the music, words AND an MP3!! Love them!!

If there are any resources that you have used in the past, PLEASE share below!!

I was looking through my Discovering Orff Book by Jane Frazee with Kent Kreuter and stumbled upon a sol mi version of One, Two, Tie My Shoe. I was quite excited, as I had just picked up a copy of the book from the library! I love it when it all comes together….with little effort!! My first graders have just finished voice exploration with Queen Caroline, so this is the perfect next step!! Let’s take a rhyme that I have been doing with them since last year and apply what we have learned thus far! Woohoo!

Glitch: I taught them “one, two, buckle my shoe”. What to do? Ahhhh ~ there are always variations to songs that have been handed down from generation to generation. This is a perfect example!!!

So here are 8 ways to get as much mileage out of this rhyme as possible!! If you think of any more, please let us know in the comments below!!

1. Say the rhyme as you normally would:
   1, 2 buckle my shoe. 3, 4, shut the door. 5, 6 pick up sticks. 7, 8 lay (stretch it out) them straight. 9, 10 a big fat hen. Sounds pretty good let’s do it again.
2. Read the book ~ talk about similarities and differences between the 2 versions
3. Sing it:
   
4. Again, talk about similarities and differences between the 3 versions ~ highlighting the voices used
5. Choose a version that the kids like the best and use the 4 voices used in Queen Caroline
6. Take is a step farther …. can you say it in your head? Let’s all start at the same time and only say “9, 10 big fat hen” out loud, using our talking voice. (I have had mixed success with this, but it gets them thinking!! …and they get a big laugh out of it!!)
7. Can we clap the rhythm?
8. What does this look like in Note Knacks? Do you see a pattern??? (your welcome, classroom teachers!!)

Have a great time with this lesson and let me know how it goes!!

An important skill to learn in music is to start, sing or play, and stop TOGETHER as a group. This isn’t
always easy, as there is always those one or two singers/ players who aren’t watching us and come in late or keep playing when we have ended the piece! My hope is to conquer this right off the bat in Kindergarten. They are young! They are eager! We can capitalize on this!! So, I adapted a fabulous lesson from Mary Knysh’s Book Innovative Drum Circles (pg. 10) and put a Note Knacks twist on it! Read below and let the fun begin!
To summarize Mary’s lesson, she has the students move their hands and make a silly sound. When she calls out the word “stop”, the kids stop moving their hands and making their sounds. (She also adds some great extensions!)

Enter Note Knacks:

• For the first lesson, I did the lesson as Mary wrote it.
• For today, I first dove into lesson 3 of the Note Knacks lesson plans
  * Overview ~ show kids 1 gray, 1 blue, 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 terra cotta.
  * Have kids put them in order from longest to shortest.
  * “If each block had sound, which one would have the longest sound?” Drag finger across block and make a sound while moving finger. Stop when your finger reaches the end. (For a set of the Note Knacks lesson plans and 1 student set click HERE!)
• After we practiced for a bit, we reviewed Mary’s lesson from last week.
• THEN I put these lessons together!
  * Choose a Note Knack and have kids move their hands and say their silly sound while you drag your finger across the chosen Note Knack. The goal is for them to start together, sustain together and end together. They think this is hilarious and really pay attention to stop at the same time ~ especially when you choose the eighth note and sixteenth note blocks!!
  * Have them do this with every block.

This is where we ended today. Next week, I am excited to have the kids choose the blocks and for them to lead the group. I love doing this with kids, as it gives them a chance to build their leadership skills and encourages a sense of community.

Let us know in the comments below what leadership roles you give your students!