Busy Buzzy Bumblebee

Spring has sprung!  I love seeing all the pink and white cherry blossoms, the daffodils right outside my classroom windows (I have a reading garden right outside my room!), and the vibrant fuschia buds on the redbud trees!  Here in NC we are definitely in bloom!
I have to make a disclaimer on this post:  I can't remember if I've posted this before!  I looked back but couldn't find it so I'm sorry if I posted this a while back.. ah well... :)

I found these oh-so-cute bumblebee finger puppets through Oriental Trading.

 The kids love using them for "Flight of the Bumblebee" and then we use Artie Almeida's bee assessment (envelopes with "quarter note", "rest", and "eighth notes" written on the front and they get cards with the actual note/rest and they fly around like bees while the music plays and put their card in the correct envelope.  It's a great assessment as no one knows who put the correct/incorrect card in the envelope and you quickly know if they have "got it"!  I tell them if they get them all right they earn a point per card, if one is wrong I deduct one point; who will win, me or you?  I act excited if I see one wrong and make a big deal that I "tricked" the class and I got  point, yay for me, etc.  They crack up!!

Then we sing "Busy Buzzy Bumblebee" and I show the powerpoint.  Here are a few cards from the slide show.  If you would like the whole thing I would be happy to share; send an email to me at musicquilt@Hotmail.com and I'll send you the pdf to use with your kiddos!  You can see it moves from keeping the beat (heart slide) to

iconic representation of the rhythm:

and then to melodic representation using bees:

Also included is a slide on teaching ideas with Busy, Buzy.

Happy Spring!