Scat Like That!

 This is a slide set with multiple videos and printables available here! Please note this will force a copy. 

Enjoy!

Jack O'Lantern Song

 I needed a new song for sixteenth notes for this season, so this morning I wrote one. Enjoy! The game is similar to others and will be a quick and easy way for my students to work on playing octaves and sixteenth notes!  Click this link for the google slide.

Enjoy,

Make an Ocean Drum and Ocean Canon

My most lovely friend and fellow Orff teacher, Crystal Pridmore, shared  a beautiful ocean canon on the facebook group, The Singing Space. Most of you know I am originally from Maine and have a pretty serious love affair with all things ocean.  When I heard this lovely canon, I loved it for it's simplicity, but also for the orchestration and minor key tonality. Beautiful! Crystal so kindly gave me permission to share the song and also the activity she sent to her students remotely on making an ocean drum.
Originally pitched in a minor, I have written it in d minor as that would work for children's voices. Hope you enjoy listening and find a way to incorporate this into lessons with students as school ends or as a beginning of the year activity or anytime next year.

Make An Ocean Drum

By the Beach Canon

Have a wonderful day! 

All Things PUMPKIN!

Mmmm... pumpkin pie.  Mmmm... pumpkin bread.   Mmmm... pumpkin spice.  A few weeks ago we were still in the 90 degree temps and I came across this fabulous pic:

Seriously, I do love everything pumpkin!  I also love using the word pumpkin (a perfect eighth note pair) in many ways in the music classroom in the fall.  It is also a very inclusive way to celebrate fall if you have students that do not celebrate Halloween.  Here are a few of my favorites:

1.  Pumpkin Chant

I just found this one yesterday and am already in love with this for my littles!  It has such a cute ending and ties in nicely to the Lynn Kleiner song "Peek a Boo" to use with scarves. I also love this as a lead in to the book, Pumpkin Soup (see below).

2.  Pumpkin Stew Song/Pumpkin Stew Book

I love this musical book-the cat plays bagpipes, the squirrel plays banjo, and the duck sings.  Insert the song, Pumpkin Stew after each page.   Click on the book to see it on Amazon.  Here is a video with an idea for a game with solo singing to play with the song. I use this song with Kindergarten and First Graders:

 I have a homemade fabric pumpkin with a zipper in the side and my students go on a hunt through the music room to find something small they can put in the pumpkin- mini containers of playdough, shaker eggs, castanets, finger cymbals, plastic spider and skull rings, markers, etc. have all made their way into our delicious stew!

3. Pass the Pumpkin

Check out the previous post here with the full activity and song.  My kids LOVE this one!

4. Pumpkins and Ghosts Game

This one uses foam ghosts and pumpkins (Dollar Tree or Wal Mart has these). Perfect for eighth and quarter note rhythm exploration!   Original post here. 

5. Five Little Pumpkins 

This is a well known chant and fingerplay.  It is wonderful to act out, add scarves and movement, too! Click on the book to link to amazon.

6.  Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Original post here - fun game and song!

7. Vanishing Pumpkin Book

This one is great for adding sound effects for each character.

8. Big Pumpkin Book

I have long loved this funny story of a witch who wants to make a pumpkin pie and can't get her pumpkin off the vine.  Along comes a ghost who tries, and then a vampire and several other characters. Of course, it is the bat who finally gets it off the vine.  Each time another character comes along students decide on an instrument sound for their character. Of course it is great for adding scarves, movement, and dramatic play also. 

What are some of your favorite pumpkin activities?

Monsters Love Underpants

There is nothing funnier than saying the word, "underpants" to children.  It is hysterical.  Giggles galore! If you have been on my blog before, you know I love giggles, in face, when my publisher asked me to name my site for my books, I had to get "smile" in there- it is www.singsmileplay.com! 

I love this collection of books by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort- SO funny - if you haven't seen them, hop over to Amazon to see them! Monsters, Aliens, Dinosaurs, Pirates, It is a nice way to finish the craziness of Halloween without being too "Halloween-y". Of course, as the theme is monsters (and aliens, etc.) in underwear, these children's books are good for any time of the year! 
A couple years ago in the Dollar Spot at Target they had some really wonderful heavy-duty chipboard underwear games.  These were perfect for creating rhythms on one side with words!  I have included a few cards with colors, shapes, and lines for you to begin the process as the underwear pieces are no longer available.
There is so much you could do with the rhythms once they have been created - transfer the rhythms to F and D in the d minor pentatonic scale being used, transfer to unpitched percussion, small groups could create non-locomotor or locomotor movement to illustrate their shape and pathway! Possibilities abound! If you would like the pdf, please send me an email at musicquilt@hotmail.com.
Happy Fall!

Nightsong Book, Song, and Movement

Nightsong by Ari Berk is a beautiful book about a bat flying off on his first solo adventure. Mama Bat tells him to, "Sing, and the world will answer". 

Several times in the book Chiro, the little bat, sings his song.  When I first read the book I loved it and the sense of quiet determination little Chiro has.  Of course, I loved that he "sang" although you will need to explain to your students that bats do not truly sing, but what a great opportunity to talk bat facts and echolocation! 
The paperback version is available from amazon for about $6.00.  This is perfect for Halloween if your students cannot celebrate Halloween or if you are looking for a song in minor or a song for recorder to introduce E.

 

 

The orchestration is simple; feel free to add whistling tubes, thunder tubes and other sound effects to create a sense of mystery. Ask the children for suggestions of instruments to use instead of the shakers and chimes. Perhaps you have a gong - would the sound be as effective?  Help them make musical choices about timbres.

 

As an extension activity, small groups of students could create a movement piece using black scarves.  Consider turning the lights off and use battery operated tea lights inside hand drums as moons.  The effect is very exciting! 

Enjoy!

 

Creepy Crawly Spider

This is one of my first graders FAVORITE things to do!  It takes a little instruction in order to get them to understand that when they make the yarn web they have to hold onto the string with one hand and roll/gently throw it to another student AND continue to hold on, but once they get it they BEG to do it again. Be sure to keep the beat once they have it.  I have also used it where we sing and roll the yarn.  When the yarn ball reaches a student, I sing, "What will you be for Halloween" on Sol and Mi if major, Do and La if minor (see notes and music on slides 4 and 5) and the student sings back "I will be a witch" or "I will be a dragon", etc., then I sing to someone else  "What will you be for Halloween", that student sings their answer and the game continues with the creepy crawly spider song.  Enjoy!  If you want the pdf, email me at musicquilt@hotmail.com