Beginning of the Year Kinder Activity

One major concern I had my first year teaching was how to teach the first day of kindergarten. 5-year-olds were about as intimidating as it got for me. Luckily, an experienced teacher in my district passed on an idea that was a big hit. I’ve added a lot to it since then, and it has become something I look forward to each year.

Many of my kindies don’t have preschool experience, so full-day kindergarten can be overwhelming. I see them at the very end of the day as well. By 3 PM of the first day, many are frazzled and ready to go home.

Enter the epic lesson of epic-ness: Scrub a dub!

To save time the first day, I use poly-spots to help the kids get into a circle. Once there, I congratulate them on making it through the day. Then, I make a big deal of sniffing the air and confide that someone is… stinky. And needs a bath.

It is silly, but it breaks the ice. Students start giggling and forget that they were cranky a minute before. Then, I introduce the chant:

Students point out a body part that needs scrubbing (knee, elbow, underarms, feet, etc.) I pick one, and we “scrub” the area using invisible sponges. After the chant we echo sing “All clean” on sol-mi.

Once students get the concept, we add in real sponges. There is one catch: if students touch their sponge before I touch mine, I take their sponge away. They can get it back, but it isn’t easy:  they have to earn it by using an invisible sponge.

The students think this is a fun game. I sweeten the deal by faking out and pretending I’m about to touch my sponge and yanking my hand away. Giggles had by all! In reality, I’m laying the groundwork for instruments by teaching them to follow rules with a quiet manipulative. They also learn my policy that if you get something taken away, the only way to earn it back is by continuing to participate. They know this upfront and it’s introduced in a no-pressure way, making the policy less of a tantrum-inducer once instruments are on the line.

At first, we play the game simply. Once students have that down, I make the game more interesting by adding in musical opposites. Sometimes I stick to one for the entire chant, and sometimes I do both opposites. Students then decide which term matches what we just performed. Once students have mastered the game, they take over my role and take turns being the teacher. They get a kick out of leading, and it’s a great opportunity to assess individual student knowledge of opposites and singing sol-mi.

This activity has served me well, and is actually one of the most requested at the end of the year when I allow students to revisit old favorites. I hope it serves you well!

Summer Book Haul # 2

Anyone who knows me also knows I am a huge fan of children’s literature in the music classroom. I use it constantly. To that end, about once a year I go to every thrift store in town and raid the children’s book sections. I get some funny looks, but I find great books! Here’s my haul from this week’s thrift store adventure. I’ll include a brief description of the book, an Amazon link if you want to check it out, and how I think it could be used in the classroom. (You can find the first book haul of the summer here.)

Holler Loudly, by Cynthia Leitich Smith

This is an adorable book about a cowboy who is naturally LOUD and finds that there is a time to holler and a time to hush. This lends itself well to loud/quiet and piano/forte, and could easily transition to crescendo and decrescendo. It could also be a fun way to introduce fortissimo.

Elephants Aloft by Kathi Appelt

This sublimely simple book is full of prepositions as you follow elephants in a hot-air balloon on their way to see their aunt. The art is beautiful as well. This book would make a great tone bar exploration activity, so students can explore what “above,” “below,” and “through” might sound like.

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, by Eric Litwin

This fun book is part of the Pete the Cat series. It focuses on verbs and their appropriate locations (like eating in the cafeteria). This opens it up to be a fun locomotor movement activity. Where could you slither? If you were in gym class, what is a movement you could be doing?

Bear AboutTown, by Stella Blackstone 

A book focusing on the days of the week, Bear About Town opens with, “Bear goes to town every day. He likes to walk all the way.” Each day has a new activity Bear does. The opening sentences could easily be a refrain, and the various activities could tie to a song or be group compositions. There is also a map of Bear’s town in the book, which could be used to extend the activity.

Where’sSpot? By Eric Hill

Where’s Spot? tells a story every parent is familiar with: looking for their kid. Each page has a hiding place for Spot to be, and a flap to open to reveal if Spot is there. This could be a great book for kids to play a “drum roll” as a way to explore drums (or any new percussion instrument, really.) Kids love to play fast, and this would give them a productive way to do that so later we can move on.

HungryHarry, Joanne Partis

Poor Harry is a frog who just wants a meal, but every critter he encounters can’t be eaten for one reason or another. Different animals could be represented by different instruments. “You can’t eat me!” could become a sung refrain.

The VeryHungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

A classic! I want to do an Eric Carle unit with my kinders, and this fits right in. All students could play their instrument to match the number of items the caterpillar is eating, or students could be split up into each food. (With the green leaf counting as only one, there are 16 kinds of items, 26 total, on the caterpillar’s menu.)

Down by theCool of the Pool, Tony Mitton

This is a great book. Frog and his friends jam out with different movements, and the book is very rhythmic. There are great opportunities for refrains, too.

Yo Ho Ho!A-Pirating We’ll Go, Kate Umansky

I am collecting any primary poetry book I can get my hands on, and this one is pirate-themed. I would really like to use these for a group project to close out a unit. Students could use instruments to show sound effects that go with a poem, use the words as a basis for a pentatonic melody, transcribe the rhythm into notation, or create an ostinato to go with the poem. I don’t have it completely worked out yet, but collections of poetry like this one open a lot of very cool doors.

Fables,Arnold Lobel

Similar to my intentions for the primary poetry, this collection of short fables could be used for a group project. This would allow older students opportunities to add musical elements to a story. My intermediate kids have extensive experience with me dictating how a story could be made musical, and I would really like to see what they would come up with when given the opportunity to make their own choices. A whole-class version of the project could be used when short weeks prevent you from getting to see more than one or two of your groups.

Summer is flying by, so I hope you find some great materials for your classroom!

7 Music Room Decorating Tips

It’s beginning to be that time of year again: I am starting to, reluctantly, ease myself into thinking about school again. Are you there, too? One way to prepare for the new year is to start decorating your room. I’ve spent weeks decorating my room before, and I’ve also had an exciting experience (that I never want to repeat) of moving rooms and setting up a new room in a total of 3 hours. Here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way.

Tip #1: Know your fire code

This is a biggie because it varies from state, to city, to district, to school. I see all these wonderful things on Pinterest: things hanging from the ceiling, bulletin board with fabric and triple border, and doors decorated to the max. All of those things are a no-go at my school. We have restrictions on how much paper we can have on the walls, where the paper can be, and NOTHING is allowed on our doors. I learned this the hard way when we changed fire inspectors and I found the new one at my painstakingly decorated door, crumpling up decorations and throwing them away. I was furious! But at the end of the day, even though the policy was a new one I hadn’t known I was breaking, I was guilty of breaking fire code and the door had to stay completely bare. Know what your restrictions are BEFORE you spend your precious time making and hanging decorations/boards.

If you aren't sure what the codes are, check with your building engineer or janitor. It's a good idea to check with them anyway before you do something big like paint furniture or use tape on something in the room. I have friends who didn't consult with their people before they used duct tape on the floor- HUGE mistake. The residue never comes off. Some schools allow you to paint school furniture like shelves or filing cabinets, and some don't. It's always best to check, you have little to lose and being on the building staff's bad side is definitely something to avoid. 

R.I.P. epic and awesome meme door.

Tip #2: Consider functionality vs. aesthetics

There are varying theories on how “cute” a room should be. Some find cute decor necessary to be homey and/or organized, and some find it offensively distracting. Think about where you fall on the spectrum. I am solidly in the middle: everything in my room in functional, but I made sure it looks good too. I color-coordinate everything according to grade and group displays according to musical element, so students know to zoom in on anything that is their color and can zone out any information they don’t need. That helps to counteract the distracting aspect of having stuff around the room. Consider your curriculum and how often you meet with your kids. If you see them for only a short amount of time and they are expected to memorize a lot of vocabulary, visuals of frequently-used concepts could really help your instruction. Room size and wall space can also impact what you do. A huge room could have enough room for a display that is “just for fun” to help the room be inviting to students. But you may want to consider before you wallpaper your room in cute clipart you found on Teachers Pay Teachers, or before you leave your room completely bare: How is this helping my instruction?

An example of my color-coded dynamic display. Cute, but useful!

Tip #3: If you’re going to do something, do it well

I was 100% guilty of sloppy, handwritten decor my first year of teaching. That may have been acceptable if I had great handwriting, but I really don’t. Anchor Charts or a small bit of hand-writing is one thing, but I did entire displays with my wonky writing. Taking the time to create a poster on the computer was totally worth it, because it was legible and will look professional. Especially if you have a large population of at-risk kids, a sloppy room gives the impression that you have no intention to stay. Now if your edges are slightly off center, that’s not a big deal. But certain amounts of polish to your room helps to set your classroom environment, which in turn helps set classroom management.

Tip #4: Post your rules

This is hugely helpful for classroom management. When a kid is making silly choices, a raised eyebrow and a finger pointing to the rules is often enough to quell the behavior. Yay for non-verbal cues!

Make a good choice, kiddo.

Tip # 5: Hiding Places

Sooner or later, a kid will be having a very bad day and will break down in your class. Many, especially kinder kids at the beginning of the year, immediately want to find a hiding place. Look over your set-up and see if you have any. Maybe you don’t want to have any, or maybe you do. (Perhaps you want a hiding place to be a cool-down area, or you want one for a game. Perhaps you want nothing but open space.) But if they are there, make sure you know where they are.

Tip #6: Cool-down Spaces

Related to hiding spaces are cool-down spaces. Have a designated space where kids go if they need a second to re-group. What that looks like is up to you: a desk with a think-sheet, a carpet square outside of the circle or rows where they can still watch, or maybe a chair with a glitter bottle. Sometimes schools will dictate what they want cool-down spaces to look like so they are consistent throughout the building. Whatever your cool-down space looks like, make sure it is clearly labeled and communicated to the students so instruction time isn’t wasted when a student needs to go there.

Tip #7: Materials

Consider how you will get materials to your students quickly. How are your instruments going to be set up? Will certain ones be out all the time? Where will the rest go? I leave my tone bars out at the back of the room in three long rows, and have my non-pitched percussion in bins along one wall. All of my instrument bins are labeled with the instrument name as well as a picture of the instrument. This helps primary and ELL kiddos put away instruments quickly. My instrument bins are also organized by category sound: click, scrape, jingle, rattle, and ring. (I got that idea from Barbara Grenoble, and it is SUPER helpful when getting kids to analyze non-pitched percussion sounds.) 

Most elementary music rooms don’t have desks, so that means writing projects like composition can be a bit of a pain to manage. I love my open room, but when I first started I lost a lot of instruction time to handing out pencils and paper. How are your writing materials stored, and how are they handed out? I have shower caddies from the dollar tree (I love the dollar tree. I love that place so much!) that I use to store any materials like pencils and paper. Everything is sectioned out into groups of 6, so when I am preparing for the next class I can just grab a chunk of paper and plunk it into a caddy. 6 boards go under the caddy because they are too big to fit inside. The caddies are also handy for handing out baggies of manipulatives like rhythm kits or for small non-pitched percussion.

It really helps to be purposeful about setting up your room. Keeping things in mind like décor, functionality, and specific spaces in your room can help your class run smoothly and ultimately improve your instruction.

Have fun setting up the perfect classroom for a great year!