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!