Making Instruments

We read the story Beth and the Band in our reading book.  In this story, the kids make instruments out of things they have and they play in a band with them.  The kids got to make an instrument at home out of things they had and brought it to school to show and play.  They were very excited about doing this and we had some very creative instruments that came in.  During Music class, they were able to play their instruments.  They were all smiles!!  Check them out:

Have a great week!

Goodbye Job Chart and Hello Music Room!

Happy Friday!

I am sooooo exhausted. I have made it through the first full week of school--or I will if I make it until 3:00 this afternoon. Ha!

I'm popping in to share pictures of my music room (as promised). 

These cabinets used to be bright red, green, and blue. I knew I wanted to paint them black, but I was afraid it would be too much black. Then I had the idea of using black chalkboard paint. I *love* how they turned out. The kids were so excited to make their mark on the music room by writing their names. :-)

This is the view from the door. Notice the red arrow pointing to my stuffed dog, Duke. He happens to be the best classroom management tip I have for teaching music (not that I claim to be an expert at all). 

Last year with my first year teaching music, the management part of it was definitely the biggest challenge for me. It is just so different than how I handle my second grade classroom. Kids are in and out in 20 minutes and I just didn't feel like I had the time needed to really bond with students to promote good behavior (other than my 2nd graders). 

Duke watches every day for a student making good choices who he can sit with during each music class. The kids also enjoy the stories I tell them about how ornery Duke is when they aren't around...swinging from the ceiling fan, dumping out my markers, etc. The idea is he has to sit with someone who can help him be good. :-) I wasn't sure using Duke like this (similar to how I used him when I taught 1st grade) for music would work, but for now he is definitely a keeper! 

This is the view from the other side of the room.

I only use the music room for 1 hour each day (20 minutes each for K, 1, and 2), so in the mornings it will be used for reading groups. I set up this little area for the teacher who will be working in here.

And finally...goodbye job chart!

Last year I got tired of swapping jobs and trying to remember who had which jobs. I knew I was going to one special helper a week, but I hadn't figured out how exactly I would make that work.

I was talking it over with another teacher and she gave me the BEST idea!

I use an assigned line (I know Kristi talked about this before...of course, I learned it from her) and in the past I have left it exactly the same all year long (except for the line leader). Sometimes I would feel bad that those in the back were always the last to lunch...and everywhere really. 

So my teacher friend's suggestion solved both my problems. Rotate my assigned line and have the first person in line do all the jobs. The next week, that person goes to the back and I have a new special helper. The line is really the same (so no getting confused on the order)--just rotating it. LOVE IT!

My first special helper has done an amazing job. I posted these pictures by the door to help him remember all the things he is in charge of doing.

This system, along with the colored dots on the desks being used to help out with team jobs, is working wonderfully for our class.

Have a wonderful long weekend! 

I know I have big plans to rest up on Monday. :-)

It's OVER!

No, not my school year.

 

Although I do only have 7 1/2 more days...we dismiss on the 16th at 1:00!

Yes, I know, it is early and you are jealous.

We do a condensend calendar so we start late August and get out mid-May, but we have longer days than you...

 

The spring program is over.

 

The kids did a wonderful job last night performing Squirm!

 

I woke up with a smile on my face knowing it was over!

 

Then my sweet coworker decided there should be no music classes today! Instead she bought Popsicles for the kiddos and took them outside for an extended recess while I got a little break during our normal specials rotation.

 

I'm telling you...this teaching music (in addition to 2nd grade) would have been much worse if I didn't have such supportive coworkers. They helped me pull together the details of the program and were always willing to help out and rearrange schedules for rehearsal.

 

As for 2nd grade, we started our 10 day balloon countdown yesterday!

 

I can't believe we are this close to the end of the year.

 

CRAZY!

Disclaimer: This is not my classroom. This picture is from Erin over at First with Franklin. Kristi and I took this idea and ran with it back when Erin first posted it. Check out her original blog post here. It includes a freebie of things to put in the balloons that I'm still using this year.

The kids were SOOOO excited. Yesterday was bubble gum day. I gave the kids a piece in the morning, after recess, and after lunch. Then today was ink pen day. Hubby did a great job picking up some cool ink pens the kids were excited to get and use. Tomorrow they will get to rearrange the room...that one always makes me a little nervous. Ha!

 

I'm using quite a few of Erin's ideas, but this year I'm going to have "Build a Fort and Read Day" and "Surprise!"

 

That surprise one is because I couldn't find any cheap-o sunglasses like I wanted, so now I'm on the hunt for something totally cool to give to my kiddos on the last day of school--which is Rodeo Day (western inspired field day). Ideas welcome! :-)

 

A Bit of Randomness and an /aw/ Sound FREEBIE!

Okay...I'm feeling it.

 

The end of the year is looming ahead (truly--my last day is May 16th)!!!

 

My time with this particular group of kiddos is quickly coming to an end.

 

What am I feeling exactly?

 

PANIC!

 

Does anyone else feel a bit of panic at the end of the year? Please tell me I'm not alone.

 

Thoughts like...

 

"So-And-So was making so much progress, but now they seem to have gone backwards."

 

"So-And-So is not quite where I thought they would be..."

 

"Why haven't I been able to motivate So-And-So?"

 

"What  should I cram into your little brains this last month of school?"

 

"What do you mean you don't know how to do expanded notation? We've been doing it ALL year!"

 

"Really? You think that letter is perfect and yet there is not one capital or end mark on the page?"

 

"The word is were. How can you not know the word is were?!?!"

 

"The word is away. How can you not know the word is away?!?!"

 

Now, remember I said thoughts! I would never say such things. I think this year my worries may be worse because it is my first time teaching 2nd grade...and I'm hoping I've done everything I can do to prepare these kiddos for 3rd grade.

 

Add to the panic the fact that my spring program is on May 5th! We are performing Squirm! It looked like an adorable little musical and it sounded like so much fun.

 

 

 

See? A Wiggly, Giggly, Squiggly Musical! Sounds fun, right?

 

Well, now that we are in the final weeks of preparation, the kids are having fun and I'm not! I'm just hoping they can pull it off despite me. As I said to my coworkers this week, I feel very unorganized with my music classes. Not that I needed to tell them...I sprung a schedule change on them today so that I could practice with all my worms, bats, spiders, and snakes at the same time.

 

Anyway, last week we were working on the /aw/ sound spelled al, augh, aw, and au. Kristi and I have a Connect Four in our TPT shop for the aw and au, but I needed something a little bit more challenging for my second graders. I whipped up this game and decided to share it with you. Best of all, it's free!

 

 

 

Now...as I searched for that picture of Squirm! I noticed lots of youtube videos of the musical, so I'm off to get ideas.

 

Hmmm...

 

Why didn't I think of that before???

Creative Musical Instruments

This past week, we read the story Beth and the Band in our Treasures reading series.  In the story, the kids wanted to play in a band so they used items that they had to make instruments.  My co-teacher had the great idea to have the kids make his/her own instrument using items around the house and bring it in on Friday.  The kids were so excited about doing this and many of them already had the instrument made the next day (we gave them the full week to work on it at home).  Let me tell you that these kids were very creative on what they made.  

On Friday, our music teacher had the kids bring their homemade instruments to music with them.  He had them play the instruments and then he had the great idea to see if they could tell which instrument group their instruments belonged.  Below you will see some of the pictures of the kids holding their instruments:

Here they are having fun playing their instruments!

They had a great time with it and were very creative!!

Hope you have a great week!

D5 Update and Some Funnies!

Last week we started our Daily 5 rounds. It went good....a little bumpy the first couple of days, but by Friday the kiddos were doing pretty well. You may remember that I was using my projector and a PowerPoint presentation as a rotation chart...well, on Thursday my projector stopped working! Ugh! We went on to Plan B and I printed out the slides. Thankfully, it was a minor issue and my projector is up and running again!

 

Our secretary stopped in to snap some pictures for the school newsletter one day last week... Here's one of the first shots she got:

You might not be able to tell, but the cubes on the bottom right desk say, "dr__unk." Wonderful! Then she snapped another picture...another little sweetie had written on the top of her page "crap." Now I did know that the cubes had potential for these questionable words, but my kiddos last year would have notified me that they rolled a bad word. Then I told them not to write it down. I didn't want to start the activity by telling them that...well, you know then some would have tried for the bad word. Anyway, the secretary promised not to include those parts in the newsletter! Ha!

 

Maybe I should rethink those cubes for next year...

 

Here's a picture of my kiddos in music. We pulled out the bells this particular day. Anytime I pull out the instruments, I am a "rockstar teacher." LOL! Instruments even work on Kindergartners (who are making progress, by the way). 

 

Here's another funny...

A first grader in music, " Are we having a program?"

"Well, of course we are," I said.

First graders cheer as if I had just done something amazing.

 

Then I thought...hey, it will be amazing if I can get these kiddos ready for a program. And then I wondered...were they thinking the same thing? Ha! ;-)

New Appreciation for Kindergarten Teachers!!!

If you would have asked me how the first day of school was today at 1:29 p.m. I would have said, "It was my best first day ever!"

 

Then came 1:30...

 

...and Kindergarten music class.

*Remember I'm teaching 2nd grade and K-2 music this year.

 

I wondered why I didn't have any back-to-school "nightmares" this year. Obviously, it was because I would be living one for 20 minutes today. Ha!

 

You know those dreams where the kids are out of control and won't listen to you...

 

Yep! That was me today in Kindergarten music.

 

All I can say is Kindergarten teachers are amazing!!! I mean, I knew that already, but I didn't really know that (with first-hand experience if you know what I mean).

 

In fact, I'm pretty sure this picture should say "I teach K...What's your super power?"

 

 

I have a new plan for tomorrow and it includes "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Couch Potato Pokey" which I'm hoping praying will capture the attention of those little 5-year-olds.

 

Nightmare aside, my new bunch of 2nd graders (and even the firsties in music) were great! It was a fun day in my new school...and best of all, when I was so exhausted I just needed to get out of there, I was home in about one minute! ;-)

 

Oh, and if you have advice for dealing with Kinders, I'd love to hear from you!

 

Five for Friday Fun!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday! I finally remembered to take some pictures this week--my last days of freedom! I reported back today for new teacher orientation.

 

House guests! The last couple weeks I have let my kiddos have friends (the ones in this pic happen to also be their cousins) over. We are so busy during the school year that my answer is usually no... We had two friends Monday to Tuesday and these two Tuesday to Wednesday. I couldn't believe the dishes!!! Mental note: Buy paper plates next time!



Hair appointment! Of course, I had to get a last minute visit in to have my hair done. This pic was taken in my kitchen after the appointment - didn't want to be too weird taking pics at the salon. Hee hee!

I spent some time thinking about first day activities for my music classes. First I thought of musical chairs. Then I remembered horror stories of Kindergartners crying when they get out...and I don't have chairs--just benches--anyway. I decided to look for something else. I found a Hello song here. I then had my son write it to music for me. Yes, those are the fingering numbers above the notes. He was just horrified when I asked him to do that for me! Ha! Thankfully, the curriculum looks great and it came with CDs and fun Smart board files so I think I will do okay when I get going.
I also tried to make a deal with my principal that there would be no observations or walk-thrus during music for at least a couple months. He just laughed... :-)
***If you're just joining us, you can read about how I became a 2nd grade classroom teacher and the K-2 music teacher here.

I may have sent the above text to Kristi while she was at a 'work day' on Wednesday. ;-)
***Sorry it is blurry...I think I need an app to do a screenshot...
We have had a few weeks of rain and cooler weather...and I mean lots of rain! The lakes, ponds, and rivers have filled up--and so has my yard. It really has been crazy! I felt like I was losing my summer tan before summer was even over so I decided to brave the cooler weather and water to do one of my favorite summer activities - float on my raft in my pool.

I had new teacher orientation this morning. It was a quick meeting - small district - only 3 new teachers total. Then the administrators took us out for lunch. Afterwards we went back to our rooms and worked. This is a picture of one thing that I accomplished. I have no wall space! Two whole walls are whiteboards. One wall is windows. And the last wall is bookshelves. This was a challenge...it is a "bulletin board" attached with scotch tape because I don't want to damage the whiteboards!

That's my FIVE! Click the button below to go link up!

 Have a blessed weekend!

Monday Made-It - Birthday Cupcakes and an Awesome Piano!

Made-It #1

 

 

Aren't these cute?

 

I'm glad you think so...

 

...because getting to this final product was a nightmare!

 

You know when you have a "great idea" but then you get started and that great idea transforms...many times. I'm not going to go into details, but I will admit that I spent about 2 hours total getting to this point and it took a friend of mine (thanks Sara!) to give me the idea to line them up in this straight line.

 

Go ahead...laugh and make fun of me (Kristi).

 

I will admit that I am--hmmm--particular about things. I had seen the cupcakes with candles for birthdays on Pinterest. I thought it would be pretty cool to somehow make them 3-D -- easier thought than done.

 

Anyway, I'm going to tell you how to make these cool cupcakes and save you the headache (and trial and error) that I had after messing with them.

 

First, get the corrugated border that has been hiding in your cabinet or closet from back when it was cool. Then cut it the length you want to make the bottom of your cupcakes. Hold in place and staple to your bulletin board. Next fluff and stuff tissue paper in the top. Finally, add glittery "fire-looking" poms to craft sticks (mine are small because I wanted colored and my jumbos were plain - I think jumbos would be easier to see...). Write your kiddos' names and birthdays on the sticks. Use a tiny bit of hot glue to hold them in place. Add the month labels--I'm sure you could make your labels cuter but I was DONE by this point in my experiment. Ha!

 

Easy peasy...well, for you anyway because you get to benefit from my OCD ways! :-)

 

Made-It #2

 

Check out this piano!

 

I tell you, my kids are such a blessing to me! They are always willing to help me in my classroom. My 13-year-old son made this awesome piano and put together this bulletin board. We are planning to add some black Mustangs (that is our school mascot) to finish it off.

 

Why am I decorating a music bulletin board? Well, I told you I'd explain later so I guess this is it...

 

My new job is at a very small  K-2 school. The specials teacher--she taught music, PE, art, and technology--retired and the district decided not to fill her position so the classroom teachers are each taking a "special."

 

The K teacher is also teaching PE.

The 1st grade teacher is also teaching Art/Technology.

The 2nd grade teacher (me) is also teaching Music.

 

We will have one hour a day where we rotate the classes through the specials (20 minutes each).

 

No, I do not play piano nor do I consider myself all that musical, but I can push play on a CD player and the school does have a music curriculum for me to use. It's going to be a learning experience, but I am going to try my best! I made the principal promise that I wouldn't get fired over my music teaching - HA!

 

My son has played piano since he was in the first grade. He loves music AND he loves to organize. While I worked in my 2nd grade classroom, I was able to send him over to the music room to organize and tidy up. He was perfectly happy to do so because it meant he could stop and play on the Clavinova every so often. :-)

 

My daughter was also helping during this time. She did another bulletin board, passed out all my books, and labeled almost everything.

 

Like I said I really do have the best kids!

 

Oh, and the winner is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Congrats, Jennifer! I'll be e-mailing you shortly. :-) 

 

Head on over to link up your Monday Made-It (or to check out all the other cool projects)!