Grumpy Cat Christmas

I use memes often in my classroom, so I just couldn't resist having a Grumpy Cat Christmas this year. I had already created a DiatonNOc scale board, so when it was announced that we would be doing a Christmas Door Decorating contest, I knew exactly what I would do.

This door was crazy easy to create. I projected a picture of Grumpy Cat onto some butcher paper, traced it, went over it in marker, and colored it in. Add in some Fa La La’s and extra Christmas decorative stuff, and you've got a hilarious door!

The final product!

My favorite part is seeing the kids’ faces when they see it. Priceless! It’s even enough to make me feel a little less grumpy when kids lose their minds this close to break.

Nutcracker Scarf and Wand Dances

I love December: Nutcracker time! My kids love it, and so do I. Every grade has a least one Nutcracker class every year, but primary grades focus on it the most. We focus on the story of the ballet first, and talk about the music. I focus on instruments and dynamics. Then we move on to dancing with scarves and wands.

Dance #1: Trepak

Ah, the good old Russian Dance. I love this one because it tires kids out. Perfect for a day (or a string of days) with indoor recess! Students are given 2 scarves, though 1 scarf will still work if your scarves are in short supply.

This dance is very simple. This is a good dance to practice with hands before you throw in the whole body, since the scarves are basically doing the same thing as your feet. For the A, we jump while we have our scarves go up and down. Then we kick while doing a similar motion with the scarves. For the B, we pulse our hands to the beat while we make a big circle in the air with the scarves. First we go clockwise, then counter-clockwise. For the bridge, we freeze on the strong beats. Below is the visual I use with the kids.

Dance #2: Chinese Dance

I love all three of these dances, but this is the one that is most likely to make me laugh out loud. This song has two basic phrases, so there are two basic movements: Frozen and swirling the scarves downward until you have your hands at your sides (think penguin walk) and tip-toeing around the room.

Dance #3: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

I love this song, and it is so iconic. But how do you get boys to dance to a “girly” song about a fairy? Tinsel wands, my friends. That’s how. I’m fairly sure they would be willing to walk around in sparkly pink toe shoes if it meant they got a tinsel wand. The wands are also easy to make: get a bunch of recorder cleaners that usually end up unused anyway, tie some long tinsel to the end, and cover it with tape. I covered quite a bit of mine, so students would know they shouldn't touch the wand above the tape line. I was worried at first that they wouldn't last long, but I still have wands from five years ago!

For this dance, students are put into two groups: the sneakers and the magical ones. The sneakers have scarves and the magical ones have tinsel wands. They take turns freezing while the other one gets to move.

When we are done, I always have kids fold their own scarves. Below is the echo song I use as we fold our scarves. (If you don’t want to have to use an echo song, you could always have them fold as you play March of the Soldiers instead.)

Using Memes in Music Class

This year, I am mentoring four new music teachers in my district. When asked what my favorite trick for teaching hard concepts was, my immediate reply was, “Memes!” That may seem strange, but I swear these things are magic. A few years ago, a class was really struggling with the concept of DS Al Coda. We tried stories. We made up a rhyme. We looked at visual examples, audio examples, visual AND audio examples… nothing stuck. I made a silly meme (Grumpy Cat, I believe), suddenly every kid got the check-in questions right, and I got a new tool in my toolbox.

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Bah humbug for the holidays! 

I love posting memes outside my door. If a class is early, the kids will find memes they like and talk about them. Some are rather silly, but others tie directly to concepts I will be teaching. I also went a little meme-crazy for my holiday board this year. No regrets. I highly encourage any opportunity for students to think about musical concepts, even if they are just giggling at an unfortunate T-rex as they walk by.

The first meme is mine, the second is from here. There is a PTP posting, too.

At the beginning of the year, I used memes to help explain the rules. Kids were more willing to deal with procedures when Spongebob and Grumpy Cat were involved. I have two rules: Respect and Participate. Both were explained using the memes above. 

 

Piano and Forte cat are always helpful!

I like to use memes to introduce concepts. It’s a good hook, and provides a visual aid you can bring up later if you need to. I have my favorite memes in a Pinterest board and use them all the time.

Are you're kids struggling with slur vs. tie? NOT ANYMORE.

Memes can also help to serve as review. I have review questions for my older kiddos as they come in. Posting a meme or a comic and asking the kids to explain the joke is an easy way to review a concept while getting students to use academic language. 

Yup. Spongebob memes galore. 

I have a Pinterest board of my favorite memes here, and use them constantly. I hope you can find one that will help a concept stick for your kids! Happy meme-ing!