A Western Holiday

On December 23rd the 3rd graders of Mill Road Elementary led the school in our annual Carol Sing.  This year at Mill Road we have a 'Western' theme, so I wrote an original script for our carol sing called "A Western Holiday."  31 students volunteered their time during several lunch recesses to practice dramatically reading the script. This year we had about 75 parents and community members in attendance.  Each 3rd grade class learned 2 songs, which were sung between the dramatic reading of the story of the Williams children and their unexpected Christmas in Texas.

When Dad has to go away on a business trip just a few days before Christmas, the three Williams children, are disappointed to find out that they will not be celebrating as they traditionally do, in their cozy Pennsylvania home.  Instead, the children stay with Grandma and Grandpa at their Texas ranch.  Before arriving at the ranch the kids try to predict what their Christmas will be like out West.  They envision a boring, desolate ranch with a cactus for a Christmas tree, no snow and Santa in cowboy boots and a ten-gallon hat.  They are soon pleased to find out that Grandma and Grandpa celebrate Christmas much like they do: baking Christmas cookies, decorating the Christmas tree and singing Christmas Carols by the fire.

Mrs. Tuell's Class opened the program with the song "Winter in the Country" by Teresa Jennings.  This song was a bit of challenge for them since it is a partner song (two songs being sung at the same time).  We will do more work on singing and identifying partner songs during the 2nd half of the year in music class.

Mrs. Tuell's Class also performed a song called "Whacky, Whacky West" by Karl Hitzemann.  Several students were selected to play BoomWhackers for the performance.

Next Mrs. Burkett's Class took the stage with a song called "Sitting Around the Campfire" which is another partner song by Teresa Jennings.

After "Sitting Around the Campfire," the whole school took part in our sing-a-long.  Mrs. Brewer also got in the act as "Great-Granny" and read the kids the story "The Night Before Christmas: In Texas That Is!" by Leon A. Harris.  The students loved her comedic rendition!

Mrs. Burkett's Class closed the program with "Christmas in the West" by Teresa Jennings.

A big 'Thank You' goes out to Justin Mader for being our last minute videographer!

OAKE Presentation part 3

In order to prepare for my presentation, I had to pack all of the materials that I needed.  Below is a picture of the wagon that I loaded with all of my materials.  I was able to fit 2 soprano xylos, 2 glockenspiels, 2 stir xylos, 4 guiros, 4 cow bells, 8 boom whackers, 10 hand drums, mallets for each of my percussion instruments and about 20 children's books in this little wagon.  I was pretty impressed with my packing skills and people were pretty intrigued as I pulled my little red wagon down Prince Street in Lancaster!

After my presentation at the OAKE Eastern Division Fall Tune Up, I edited the video of my presentation and was able to post it on YouTube.  Below are the links to the 4 parts of the presentation.

Part 1 (Five Green and Speckled Frogs, and Lecture)

Part 2 (Rap A Tap Tap and Up Up Down)

Part 3 (Mortimer)

Part 4 (One Frog Sang and Conclusion)

Enjoy!

National Blue Ribbon Celebration

It has been an exciting few weeks for Mill Road Elementary School after being named a National Blue Ribbon School.  Teacher and administrative representatives attended an award ceremony in Washington D.C. at the beginning of November and on November 17th we had a celebration at Mill Road including a banner presentation, past and present student speakers and a song with students from every class in the school.

While only a few students were asked to stand on the stage to sing the song, the whole school learned the song over the course of two weeks during music class and our morning "read-in."  Here is a portion of the performance of "Ready To Learn" from the Music K-8 Magazine:

My Other Music Job

Music teachers usually have many music jobs aside from working for a school district or private school.  In my career I've been a bell choir director for my church, the vocal coach for a musical at Penn State's Harrisburg campus, private lesson teacher for both flute and tuba students, and a performer at weddings, among many other things!

Aside from my work with the Elizabethtown Area School District music department, I have also been on staff as the assistant director of Donegal's Marching Band for the past 10 years.  As a Donegal alumnae, I was excited to help this group grow as musicians and performers.  When I was in the marching band at Donegal, I played piccolo for two years and then drum majored and played the tuba for my final two years in the band.  After High School, I was in the marching band at West Chester University where I played the Tuba for 3 years and drum majored my senior year.

The DHS Marching Band is a competitive marching band that currently competes in two circuits:  Tournament of Bands and Cavalcade of Bands.  I have watched this group grow placing about 15th my 1st year on staff to 2nd overall last year and 3rd overall this year.  I am very proud of their work to say the least!

As the Assistant Director, my job mainly focuses around the visual aspect of what the band is performing.  I've integrated many musical movement strategies while we are working on different parts of our show.  In particular, by using Laban movement principles and strategies that are based on Dalcroze movement, I've been able to help the students feel comfortable with expressive movement and moving to odd meters.  Being able to move expressively also makes the marchers more expressive in their playing!  These are ideas that I use in my elementary classes as well.

Here is the 2015 DHS Marching Band Show, Jack and Beanstalk. Music is arranged by John Bugosh and Dale Sellers and based on Everest by Rob Romeyn, Heaven's Light by Steven Reineke and Pursuit, by Matt Conaway.

OAKE Eastern Division Conference Part 2

While at the OAKE Eastern Division Conference, I not only gave an hour long presentation, but also was able to attend several sessions and demonstrations.  In particular, I was excited to attend the session on Music Learning Theory (MLT) that was lead by Berta Hickox from the Halifax School District.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently purchased Edwin Gordan's Music Play book with some budget money, only to find the same book at a book sale for $1.50 a few months later!  I have been interested in incorporating some of Gordon's ideas into my own teaching after getting a taste of MLT at several Saturday workshops that were hosted by Maryland United Specialists In Kodaly at Loyola College, where Andrew Blumhardt did several presentations using MLT.

In short, Edwin Gordon is a researcher, author and teacher, who's primary focus has been examining how children acquire music skills and concepts.  He coined the term "audiation", meaning hearing music that is not actually playing.  In other words, performing music in your head, much like reading to yourself.  He also did extensive work on the creation of several music aptitude tests that are widely used in the music education community.

Music Learning Theory compares the acquisition of musical knowledge and skill very closely to how we acquire language.  First, as infants we were exposed to language by simply listening to people talk around us.  Next, we explored language by babbling and as toddlers we started imitating what was being said.  As still older children, we were able to form our own thoughts and say what we were thinking.  Finally, we learned how to read and then even write our thoughts down so others could read them.

Considering this, most students are coming to me in their "infancy" of musical learning.  Many students have not had any musical exposure except to pop songs on the radio.  I have to expose my students to the musical language before they can learn to sing it, read it and write it.  I have been working on incorporating more listening activities, as well as exposure to various musical modes outside of the standard major and minor tonalities that most familiar music is written in.   Experiences in odd or unusual meters is also important for the students' musical development.

While I'll probably never do a full blown MLT program, for various reasons, there are some aspects of MLT that I have been working on integrating.  In particular, this idea of exposure and acquiring knowledge because it is part of the everyday language of the classroom, is something that I am trying to put at the forefront of my teaching.  

For example, when my students read a song's rhythm on the board, I may leave out things like bar lines, which the class will quickly fill in based on the time signature.  After doing this type of activity enough, my students are now aware that the time signature plays a role in telling how many beats are in a measure.  Even though I don't expect my students to understand the role a time signature plays in music until 3rd grade, the exposure in 1st and 2nd grade will make connecting that concept to the students' experiences very easy when it is formally introduced.  Making sure my lessons are balanced with exposure to rhythmic, melodic, harmonic and form work ensures that the students will have plenty of time to acquire the musical language that they are learning and more easily retain what has already been learned.

If you are interested in learning more about Edwin Gordon and Music Learning Theory, please check out the Gordon Institute for Music Learning website.

OAKE Eastern Division Conference Presentation

After preparing since May, I finally presented at the Organization of American Kodaly Educators Eastern Division Conference.  My topic was "Using Children's Literature to Prepare and Practice Music in the Elementary."  I was able to share 6 book activities with about 50+ veteran teachers and Millersville Students.  I also shared some research on song-based picture books (you can read about it in my previous post), some tips for obtaining books, and quick ways to integrate ELA concepts based on the PA Core Standards in ELA and A Standards Crosswalk Between Common Core and Music which was developed by the New York State School Music Association.

Five Green and Speckled Frogs, illustrated by Constanza Basaluzzo, is a song-based picture book, meaning the text is simply the lyrics of a song.  We sang this song, added non-pitched percussion sound effects on the the onomatopoeia, and clapped the mystery rhythm (syncopation with eighth, quarter, eighth) each time it was heard in the song.  My students at Mill Road helped me prepared for this part of my presentation by singing along with the book during our morning "sing-in"!

Rap A Tap Tap by Leo and Diane Dillon is a book that my first graders will read with me near the end of the year.  We talk about how this book is biographical and I introduce them to the main character, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, by showing them a short video of Mr. Robinson performing a tap dance with child star Shirley Temple.  The first graders are expected to identify the form of the book (Call and Response) and the rhythmic pattern that is used as the response.  The students then perform the response using rhythm sticks to simulate the tap dancing sounds.  Finally, the kids compose their own tap dancing rhythms that we use instead of the response from the book.

Up, Up, Down by Robert Munsch is a favorite for my 2nd graders.  We will use this book near the end of the year when we are focusing on identifying melodic contours like upward and downward motion.  The kids love adding sound effects to this book and singing along with a familiar melody.

If you haven't guessed by now, Robert Munsch is one of my favorite children's book authors!  His writing style is perfect for adding music to, because he uses so much onomatopoeia (words that make the sound that they are describing like "click" or "moo").  He also uses very clear patterns in his writing.  Mortimer just happens to be one of my favorites by Robert Munsch.  In the story, Mortimer doesn't want to go to sleep, so he sings a song instead.  My first graders learn Mortimer's song, add the sound of footsteps on a staircase with the help of drums and even act out parts of the book.  At the end we discuss how our tempo or dynamics had to change to help tell the story.

One Frog Sang by Shirley Parenteau is a new book in my collection.  I found this one at a yard sale this summer and hope to use it as a composition project for 3rd grade later in the year.  I have to extend a big "Thank You" to all of the participants at my presentation for being the guinea pigs for this activity!  We created a soundscape with this book by singing pentatonic ostinati for each of the frog sounds.  Our frog chorus sounded spectacular!

I couldn't do my presentation with out sharing this great activity that I learned in my Orff Level II training at Villanova.  A BIG "THANK YOU" to Janie Vance, my movement professor, who shared this activity with our class.  She read The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle and paired it with "The Fairy Garden" from Ravel's Mother Goose Suite.  It was the perfect ending! Thanks Janie!

Stay tuned for more about the conference!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all of my students and readers!  To get into the spirit this week, my 1st graders read the story The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams and Illustrated by Megan Lloyd.  This is a favorite activity among many music teachers that I know, but not all of my music colleagues may realize just how many ELA connections they make with this 10 minute activity.

Today the students learned that when I was in elementary school, the Illustrator, Megan Lloyd, came to my school!  I got to meet her and even had her sign a book that she illustrated.  We quickly reviewed the difference between an author and an illustrator, which is a Foundational Skill in the PA State ELA Standards.

In the story, the little old Lady goes for a walk in the woods and meets various pieces of clothing.  Each piece of clothing makes a different sound, like the shoes who go "Stomp, Stomp" and we assigned different instruments to each sound.  For example, the shoes were played by the woodblocks.  By giving a summary of the story before we read it, I modeled another ELA skill that students will develop in their elementary classes: summarizing.

Finally, I read the book and the students listened for their piece of clothing to be mentioned.  ELA standards also focus on listening as an important skill to develop.  By giving the students the responsibility of playing their instrument when their assigned sound was mentioned in the book, the students were building their listening skills.  

Many students started anticipating when they should play their instrument because they recognized patterns in the author's writing.  In particular, the sounds were cumulative, meaning that each time they appeared in the book we started with the first and add one more to the list of sounds.  The students were also able to anticipate when the instruments would play because there were repetitive phrase patterns in the book. 

Finding patterns in music class is a skill that we are always working on and discussing, even if it is not being done with an actual book. One pattern that we are currently working on in 1st grade is identifying question and answer phrases in songs.  You can read more about how we started learning question and answer songs in my blog post about whisper phones.

As a final Happy Halloween treat, my first graders showed their knowledge of question and answer patterns by performing different motions for each part of the song.  The piece we used is called "Halloween" composed by Moiselle Renstrom and was taken from the 1st Grade Music Connection Series by Silver Burdett and Ginn.  Students identified the question by floating like a ghost, and they identified the answer by freezing and clapping.  This is Mrs. Shull's 1st Grade class at Mill Road showing what they know!  Happy Halloween!

Christmas in October!

Like many music teachers, the holidays always start early for me.  I sometimes shake my head when I see some of the big chain stores getting Christmas trees and other holiday decorations out with the Halloween candy.  Meanwhile I'm just as guilty!  My 3rd graders are singing songs like "Old Abram Brown" and "Skin and Bones" in the first 10 minutes of class and learning songs about winter and holiday cheer in the last 10 minutes!

We have officially begun the holiday season in my elementary music classes, especially for the 3rd graders, who are the main performers at our annual Carol Sing (what we call our holiday assembly).  It has been the practice for the last few years in my schools for each 3rd grade class to learn 2 songs that they perform for the whole school.  After selecting the songs, I write a story/script based on the songs and the theme of the show that the students read.  I have done everything from a Pirate Christmas to a show based on healthy eating and exercising habits!  

This year the students at Mill Road Elementary will be presenting a show with a western theme and students at Bainbridge will be performing a show based on a super hero theme!  It's always a creative work out for me to bring the school theme, selected music and story together into our carol sing performance and this year is no exception!

 Since choral experiences aren't offered until 4th grade in our district, the 3rd grade Carol Sing performance may be the first experience many of my students have with performing in a choral setting. I love seeing the excitement on the 3rd graders faces when we start preparing for the Carol Sings. Many students are already making plans to create a costume or choreograph different sections of the songs!

For my parent readers, you can stay up to date on important Carol Sing information through my website links for the Bainbridge Carol Sing and Mill Road Carol Sing.

Kodaly...What? Who? and How do you even pronounce that?

First, let me say, I LOVE KODALY (pronounced co-die).  Ok, so I've never actually met the man himself, but his method is pretty great!  In 2012, I finished my master's degree at West Chester University with a concentration in the Kodaly Method.  It was the best thing I have ever done in my teaching career and studying the Kodaly Method has really changed how I think about teaching my students music concepts.

In short, Zoltan Kodaly was a Hungarian musician, composer and educator who strongly believed that the best way to get kids interested in music was to expose them to songs, musical games and dances from their own culture.

The main goals of Kodaly are to instill a love of music in every student and to enable them to become musically literate.  In my music classroom, you will see the Kodaly Method in action in almost every aspect of what we do.  As I prepare my lessons, I focus on three main facets of teaching a new concept: preparing, presenting and practicing.

Preparing:
 I believe that it is important for the students to internalize each musical concept, which might mean feeling, hearing and even performing the new concept before actually knowing what it looks like or what it is called.  Students in my classroom will play games, sing songs and participate in listening activities that contain the new concept in order to prepare them for when I actually label it.


Presenting:
My favorite part about being a teacher is getting to see all of those "light bulb" moments, when a student finally understands a new skill or concept.  Often they are even able to make the connections on their own, sometimes before I label it.  The days I present a new concept are the best days for seeing those "light bulbs" turn on!  After preparing for several weeks to identify a mystery note or rhythm, the students finally understand not only how it sounds, but also what it looks like and what it is called.


Practicing:
After a new concept is presented, we continue using songs, games and dances to help the students maintain their knowledge of the new information they have learned.  Practicing a skill could mean identifying the new concept in a listening activity, performing the new concept or writing it.  The practice stage often links with the prepare stage as the students start to compare known information to unknown concepts.


When you ask the students about what they have learned in music class, you might see them use hand signs or hear them use rhythmic and melodic syllables that sound like nonsense words!  In my classroom we use "ta and ti-ti" rhythm syllables, which help to give a sound to each type of rhythm.  It is almost as the students are learning a new language!

We also use hand signs and melodic syllables to help the students feel and see how high or low pitches are and their relationship to other pitches in music.  We call the syllables "solfa" or "solfege" and the hand signs we use are called the "Curwen Hand Signs."  They may remind you of that iconic song from "The Sound of Music."

For more information on the Kodaly Method, you can visit the Organization of American Kodaly Educators Website.

Whisper Phones

The 1st graders just learned their first "question/answer" song: Cuckoo.  In the song I sing a "question" (a beginning phrase)  and they sing the "answer" (something different than what I sing).  Since this is the first time the students learned a song in which they sing something different from me, it always poses some teaching challenges. 

A few years ago I started explaining the process to the students by comparing it to how we have conversations on a phone and would use my hand as a telephone. This explanation did a lot to help the students make connections and speed up the rote process.

This week, however, I tried a new strategy with the 1st graders.  Each student was given a "Whisper Phone", essentially an acoustical tube that allows them to hear their own voice.  Most students use these devices in their reading interventions, to be able to hear themselves speak and encourage fluency and inflection. I've actually had an entire class set of whisper phones at one of my elementary schools, but never used them before this week.

Wow!  It worked like magic!  Not only did the students instantly make the connection, without much teacher talk, but it was the first time in my teaching career that I've taught the song "Cuckoo" and did not have the students echo my phrases, which is their natural tendency since it is all they have done since the beginning of the year.  This strategy tapped into the students' need for pretend play in order to make connections with their world.  On top of that, I loved that the whisper phones were a great tool to help my emerging singers hear what their voice sounds like and whether or not they are matching my pitches.

A New Activity for 3rd Grade

This year I am trying to do more ball bouncing activities with the 3rd graders.  Here is Mrs. Tuell's class from Mill Road Elementary performing Hammer Ring using the balls.  Normally I do this activity as a stick passing activity, but I decided to try it with bouncing instead this year!

Hammer Ring is a work song that was most likely used by prison chain gangs in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Work songs have an important function in folk music, as they gave a meter to tedious and dangerous jobs, often keeping the workers on task, and out of harms way.  Work songs are a great way to practice steady beat and meter concepts in our music lessons.

In this video you will notice that some students sat out during the activity.  First, we practiced the ball bouncing pattern as a class.  They were then challenged to do the activity again and those that caught the ball were allowed to continue in the activity, while those that missed the ball had to sit out.  In a subsequent week, we may increase the tempo after each round to see who is the last bouncer standing!  Part of our code of conduct talks about having integrity.  As you can see from the video, our students practice that part of the code of conduct every time we play a game like this.

A big "Thank You" to the PTOs for providing funds to purchase the balls for our bouncing activities!

Joining the Uke Nation

The PTOs at Bainbridge Elementary and Mill Road Elementary are gracious enough to provide our teachers with a very nice sum of money to be used to provide materials for the students.  Last year, I used some of this PTO money to buy a ukulele.  Its been one year since I started learning how to play the ukulele and it has been a lot of fun for myself and the kids!

Currently I'm using the ukulele in the classroom to provide accompaniment for the students during game songs and other activities.  It proved to be much more practical than moving a piano around when I had to move to the library for music classes once a week last year.  It also helps students create more concrete connections when we are studying how string instruments work and what they sound like.

At Mill Road, students participate in a "read-in" for the first 15 minutes of the school day, when buses are arriving and students are buying their breakfast.  On the days that I've been on duty for the read-in we have done a "sing-in" instead.  Singing as a whole school has been a really neat bonding experience and its a great way to get the kids focused and ready to learn with a smile on their face!

And more books!

If you read my earlier blog post, I explained how my passion for children's literature has become somewhat of an obsession.  In the last four months I have gone to about 3 different book sales and countless thrift shops and yard sales, scouring Lancaster County for cheap treasures!  

My biggest find was the book "Music Play," which I actually just bought with budget money for this year (more to come on Music Play and Gordon's Music Learning Theory in another post).  At a book sale I found an early edition of "Music Play" in nearly perfect condition for only $1.50!  Now I can have a copy at each of my elementary schools!  

 I recently went to the Etown Library book sale and came home with about 20 books that I can use in the classroom.  Most are song-based picture books, which means that the text is simply the lyrics of a known song. Here are a few of the books that I purchased at the sale:

There is something magical about books. As soon as I mention that we will be using a picture book the room gets quiet and there is this peaceful excitement about the room.  Kids just love to be read to and I love that I can do that in a way that also facilitates the learning of musical concepts.

In preparing for the conference that I will be presenting at in November, I came across some interesting research by Dr. Amanda Montgomery and Dr. Kathryn Smith of University of Alberta in Canada.  They did a study in which students participated in a reading program that only used song-based picture books.  Students that were identified to have an academic need in reading came to a program with their parents on a weekly basis and were given a series of song-based picture books that teachers modeled for the parents and then the parents read at home.  Parents kept a journal and testing was done to see how much progress the students had made during the program.

Some interesting findings from the program were that the song-based picture books made reading fun for the whole family!  Younger, and even older, brothers and sisters also wanted to participate in the nightly reading of the song-based books.  Parents were surprised that songs they considered to be "babyish" were so engaging for the students.  Most importantly, the rhyme scheme and familiarity of the tune acted as a scaffold for the students as they were encouraged to read on their own.  Using the song-based picture books helped the students move through unknown or difficult words.

Click here to read the actual journal article.

Maybe you have some song-based picture books that you can pull out for reading with your family tonight!

Books, Books and More Books!

Aside from music and dance, I would have to say that I have a passion for children's literature!  I love using books in my music teaching and it has become somewhat of an obsession of mine to be able to find children's books that I can integrate into my regular lessons.

This past September, I gave a presentation on using children's literature in the music classroom at a Kodaly Educators of Eastern Pennsylvania workshop, which was held at Etown College.  We had a lot of fun singing and playing while we read some of my favorites from the classroom.

Sing-Along Song, by JoAnn Early Macken will probably make an appearance in 1st grade in a few weeks.  It is about a boy who hears music in everyday things like a bee buzzing or his baby sister cooing and when he hears music he's just "gotta sing along!".

A favorite of mine to use in 2nd grade is Ten in a Bed by Mary Rees.  It is a song-based picture book, which means that the text of the book is simply the lyrics of a song.  2nd graders will be using this story in the coming weeks and I can use it as a great way to assess the students' knowledge of mallet technique while playing our orff instruments.

Another first grade favorite that will be read later in the year when we are focusing on tempo is Love you Forever, by Robert Munsch.  This summer I wrote to Mr. Munsch to ask his permission to use some of his text in my presentation.  He wrote a nice letter back and was happy to hear that Etown kids are reading his stories.  

Here is a link to a YouTube video of  Robert Munsch singing his version of the "Love You Forever" Song.

Wheel Away! by Dayle Anne Dodds is a newer book in my collection.  I found this book at a book sale over the summer and was excited to try it out at the KEEP workshop.  This was not only a workout for the participants who kept an ostinato going the whole time, but also for me as many portions of the text are like tongue twisters!

I will be presenting at our regional conference for the Organization of American Kodaly Educators: Eastern Division in November on the same topic.  You can look forward to hearing about my experience at the conference and some more information on the books I will be presenting.

Welcome to the Music Room Blog!

I'm excited to start a new portion of my website: The Blog!  I'm hoping that this blog becomes a place that I can quickly share activities that the students are working on, including pictures of music room happenings.  This will also be a space for me to post reminders about upcoming events.  I will also be posting some information about different teaching methods and philosophies that I often use in my music teaching.