2021-2022

June...
May...
April... KidStix!
March is Reading Month!
February... Drum Circle!
January...
December...
November...
October...

2019-2020

Stations!
January and February...
December...
November...
October...
September...

2018-2019

May and June - what did we do in music class?

What did we do in April in music class?

January and February in Music Class

In January, younger elementary classes did some “ice skating” on paper plates to feel the movement of triple meters. And this week was SNOW BALL week! We had so much fun with our indoor snow balls! We used them for showing high/low, go/stop, sang our "In the Snow" song with them, and used them in our Rondo form in Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride", where students could only throw their balls during the A-section. What a crazy week! :-)

Alto and Sopranino Recorders in use...

2017-2018

5th grade graduation and impressions from the month of May

MaKey MaKeys with the 5th graders

Instrument week

January in pictures

Nutcracker in many different ways...

Centers and Stations in Music

Drum Circle Time

2016-2017

4th graders playing along on their ukuleles
5th graders practicing their graduation song and having wayyyy to much fun!
Last Olympic Challenge: Instrument Puzzle Relay Race!
Random shots from the last three months
As part of the Music Olympic Games, 3rd through 5th graders experienced stations this week. They had to work together as a group in order to gain points. They had to go through five different stations:
1. play either "Mary had a little lamb" or "Twinkle, twinkle" on the rainbow xylophone
2. play a chord progression on the ukulele
3. a note name game on the iPad
4. instrument quartett
5. play a song on the recorder (rhythm sticks for 3rd graders)
It was an intense hour filled with great team work and competition!
It has been a great month to come back to teaching! I jumped right back into the swing and it has been a lot of fun.
In the first week, we tried to keep a steady beat by throwing and catching penalty flags and tap balloons with paper plate paddles. The students and I were laughing a lot! Take a look:
Team-building in their Olympic groups
It's an Olympic year in music class!

2015-2016

Impressions from the rest of the year
We have 30 ukuleles at Spring Mills!! It is amazing!!! Thanks to the funds from our Talent Show and with help from our Spring Mills PTA, we were able to bring a new program to Spring Mills! So far only 3rd graders have used the ukuleles in the past few months, but we will expand to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders next year. I'm very excited about this new opportunity for my students!
Thanks to some DonorsChoose gift cards, I was able to quickly fund a project for a beautiful rainbow parachute. It doesn't have handles, but a sewn-in rope. That way, I can fit all my students around it without problems. Kindergarten students used it for their song "Rainbows Rock", 1st graders used it to show the ABA form in Schumann's "The Wild Horseman", and 2nd graders used it to show the Verse and Refrain form in "Rocky Mountain". Every time the parachute comes out, there is so much excitement in my room! It's just wonderful!
Our new smart board at Brooks has arrived! Thank you to the Brooks PTO for their support!
Impressions from The Big Show by Brooks Elementary
Most of our new instruments from around the world have arrived and so, it was time to explore our world through music. Each continent had a station with instruments originating in that part of the world. Students rotated through the continents and got a chance to play many instruments. My 4th and 5th graders even participated in a cultures of thinking routine - the chalk talk! Thank you again to everyone who supported my Donors Choose project!
Check out how we have been using our new smartboard! Every grade level has had the chance to do some interactive learning. It has been very exciting!
Spring Mills Variety Show
Our new smart board at Spring Mills has arrived!!
December Fun with the Nutcracker! Students from 1st to 3rd grade analyzed several movements from the Nutcracker Suite. They used lots of props to show various things like beat and rhythm,  ABA form, or Rondo form. I know there are a lot of pictures, but you can see how much fun we had! This is why I love teaching music - all the smiles around me!
Music math with Legos!
Anticipation in the turkey tango game. So much fun to watch!
3rd graders working on a movement rondo
Solfege with card games, boom whackers and hand bells
Instruments and steady beat exploration

2014-2015

5th grade students had to put their knowledge about "Theme and Variations" to practical use. Groups of 3 to 5 students had to choose a song (for example Mary had a little lamb) as their theme and write three variations to that theme. At the end, they performed their composition to the class.
Here below you can see two examples of their work:
Lower elementary students had fun exploring an app called "Toca Band". It allows them to experiment with different sounds and layer them on top of each other. The students loved this app!
5th graders in Mrs. Aman's class had to use a looper app on the iPads to create a short little composition. They were allowed to work in groups and take four instruments outside. The students had lots of fun!

Our mini iPads are here!!!

I was very excited when I got to school after Spring Break and there was a box waiting for me. Our four new mini iPads have arrived!!! Thank you again to everyone who helped make this Donors Choose project become a reality!
The mini iPads are set up and in the past couple of weeks, we were already able to put them to good use. 4th and 5th grade students increased their note reading speed, Kindergarten students got to explore what various instruments sound like played by professional musicians, and 2nd graders explored the Jazzy World game or did some instrument puzzles.
I was fortunate to be able to go to a professional development class about using the iPads in the Elementary music classroom. I'm looking forward to implementing new ideas from this workshop in the next few weeks, but then especially during the following school year.
Mallet Madness in a circle formation. Working on pentatonic improvisation and bordun accompaniments.
Country Oaks Kindergarten students using guiros, frog scrapers, and a cricket in the song "Go Fish!"
Country Oaks Kindergarten students using scarves for Saint-Saëns' "Aquarium" and playing instruments in the book "Jump, Frog, Jump".
Games to make music learning fun: instrument matching game, Candy Land with musical note reading, and Chutes and Ladders with note value dice...
Partner recorder playing 😄 Lots of fun!!
Nutcracker in December. Experiencing Tchaikovsky's music with scarves, ribbon streamers, and plastic plates.
Music math with LEGOs.
Turkey game 😄 Happy Thanksgiving!
2nd and 3rd graders practicing their solfege skills.
First week of Mallet Madness in October.
Kindergarten students practicing steady beat with Beanie Babies, rhythm sticks, and hula hoops.

2013-2014

Kindergarten students showing with movements or hand signs "opposites".
2nd graders working on Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
3rd graders using scarves to show the Rondo form in Leroy Anderson's "Syncopated Clock"
1st graders in seated train formation, rocking to the steady beat in "Engine, Engine"
2nd graders making a train, feeling the half, quarter, eighth note steady beat as a group

2012-2013

1st graders using Beanie Babies to mark steady beat
3rd graders working on recognizing repeats, steps, skips, and leaps.
Interpreting music with scarves!
Interpreting music with ribbon streamers!
Mallet Madness! Exploring our Orff Instruments...
2nd graders working on steady beat with kick balls and rhythm sticks to Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
5th graders using Legos to understand mathematical relations of note values

2011-2012

workshop with Roland Huber, Orff specialist from Switzerland