Incorporating literacy into music is an important part of my classroom. Celebrate Music in Our Schools Month and Women's History Month with these 5 books!
1. For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart by Elizabeth Rusch
Many people know about Wolfgang Mozart but his sister is lesser known. This story tells of a brilliant pianist who toured along side her brother. The book is based on actual letters written within the Mozart family.
2. Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat Ella Fitzgerald by Roxanne Orgill
This wonderful story tells about Ella Fitzgerald's life from her childhood to her professional singing days. A great biography written for children so they can understand.
3. Clara Schumann: Piano Virtuoso by Susanna Reich
This book is more suitable for older children. It is a chapter book with 118 pages on Clara Schumann's musical life. The book includes diary entries and letters by Clara.
4. Little Piano Girl: The Story of Mary Lou Williams by Ann Ingalls and Maryann Macdonald
Just like Mozart, Mary Lou Williams began playing the piano very young and became a professional musician before she was a teenager. As a jazz pianist, she had the opportunity to arrange music for famous players such as Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie.
5. Harlem's Little Blackbird by Renee Watson
This story features Florence Mills, a lesser known singer from the 20s. Her singing and dancing dazzled audiences on broadway.
Have an old Wii? Use it in your class through the game Wii Music! It's a fun treat for use in centers or as a full class review!
What You'll Need
Wii Console
1-4 Wii Controllers
1-4 Wii Nunchuck Controllers (some games can be played without it but some also require it)
Wii Music Game - purchase it used for under $5 from Amazon or Game Stop
Introduce the Activity: How to Play Wii Music
The lessons option can help you to introduce how Wii Music works to your students. Select Jam Basics to show students how to use the controllers.
What Games & Skills Does Wii Music Cover?
Jam Session
Select Custom Jam Session to let your students choose song, instruments, and venue. The band set up allows students to choose a bass, chord, percussion, melody, and harmony instrument. Instruments range from traditional such as violin and trumpet to world such as the sitar and castanets. Bouncing blobs at the bottom show students the steady beat, which can help reinforce playing in time/on the steady beat. At the end, students can watch their performance by selecting View Replay.
Pitch Perfect
This game is a great way to reinforce aural skills. A player is randomly selected to complete a challenge. These challenges include tasks like putting notes in order from high to low, finding the Mii who plays the same pitch as the given pitch(picture below), finding the instrument(out of a group of 4 instruments) who made a mistake in the music, picking the group that sings "like a sunny day" (major vs minor), and many more. Players earn points by selecting the correct answer. The quicker they find the answer, the more points they earn. This game can be used as a whole class review in single player mode.
Mii Maestro
This game allows players to become orchestra conductors. The Wii controller becomes the baton. When more than one controller is involved in this mini game, the object is to conduct at the same time. This game can be used to reinforce steady beat and give students a chance to experience what it's like to be in front of an orchestra. At the conclusion of the game, a score is given on how accurate the conductors were. I will warn you, the multiplayer aspect of this game is more difficult than you'd think!
Handbell Harmony
Use the Wii controller and nunchuck to form a handbell choir! Follow the colored handbells on the screen, which tell when you should play. This game can be used to reinforce playing rhythms in time. One trick I've found is you should try to play your handbell slightly before it gets to the yellow strip.
This month, my kinders are starting to explore short and long sounds. We transitioned to call these short and long sounds ta and titi during this week's classes through 2-4-6-8 Meet Me at the Garden Gate.
I believe 2-4-6-8 is meant to be a chant but I wanted to add pitches to continue to reinforce sol-mi-la. Here's what I did:
After discovering one sound in one steady beat is a ta and two sounds in one steady beat is a titi, I added a partner hand clapping activity. First we practiced keeping the steady beat by using a pat-clap pattern. Then I had them practice pat-clap-pat-hands up. The hands up motion preps them for high five-ing their partner later. Once students can comfortably sing and do the pat-clap-pat-hands up motion, I put them into partners. First we practiced the pat-clap-pat-high five partner motion alone and then we put it with music!
November is a time for post-Halloween candy, blustery days, and, of course, Thanksgiving! This week, my students are playing a fun Thanksgiving (assessment) game to get them in the spirit of the holiday.
This song/game is called Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!
To play the game, students sit in a circle. One student sits outside of the circle, facing away from students. Students sing the song and pass a turkey around the circle. I used a Turkey printed on a paper but a stuffed animal would work great as well! Whoever has the turkey on the word day "hides the turkey before Thanksgiving Day" by putting the printed or stuffed animal Turkey behind their back. The student who is sitting outside of the circle remains facing away from the rest of the class and sings "Turkey, where are you?" (sol mi mi sol mi). The student who is hiding the turkey sings "you'll never find me" (sol mi mi sol mi). The student sitting outside the circle has three tries to guess who sang "you'll never find me" without looking. The individual singing responses gave me a chance to assess my students' singing.
It's the end of music class. You line students up, make sure they're standing quiet and still, and open up the door to send them on their way. Much to your surprise(or not!), their teacher isn't there. You estimate you have anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes before the teacher will pick up your students. During that time, students can get pretty restless! Here are some ides on how to keep students occupied while waiting to be picked up.
1. Ask review questions about the concept(s) you covered in class.
2. Sing a favorite song.
3. Ask students to share any "good news" they have.
4. Play an inner hearing game. Take a familiar tune and have students only sing the first word of each line, the last word of each line, the words that rhyme, etc.
5. Sing Happy Birthday to someone who has an upcoming birthday
6. Ask students to name one thing that went well in music and one thing they could do better.
7. Sing part of a song for an upcoming concert.
8. Give standing in line musical meaning! Practice standing like "performers on stage." The more they can practice standing still, smiling, and quiet, the better!
9. Review technique for singing and/or playing. Tell students you are going to demonstrate a skill two ways, one is right and one is wrong. Demonstrate something, such as singing posture: slumped vs. straight and tall. Have students put up one or two fingers to show which one they think is the correct way.
10. Copy me rhythms or sol fege patterns. You can clap, say, or sing a pattern and students repeat the pattern after you. This is especially good for younger students.
11. Review words on your word wall.
12. Ask students what their favorite activity in music is.
13. Rapid fire Q&A. Ask a question that will have a 1-3 word answer, gives students 10 seconds to think of their answer, and go down the line quickly. I used this technique on Halloween when every student wanted to tell me what they were going to dress up as.
14. Name that tune. Hum or play a few lines of a tune that students may know and see if students can guess what it is!
15. Play a short clip of instrumental music. Keep a playlist on hand just for instances like this!
While it may not be convenient when students are picked up late, you might as well make the most of those few extra moments!
