Run Big Old Turkey, RUN!

 This is a fun game I watched during a morning meeting last year when I was visiting a Kindergarten class. I loved it so much I had to create a song for us to sing to go with the game! This would work well with the children's book, Run Turkey Run! This is also a good one for prepping half note (see measure 4 of the song). 

For a copy of the slides, check out my Patreon site! 

Name Games Repost

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a great summer! Mine was a mix of yin and yang with an amazing trip to Japan and coming home to learn our sweet dog, Mo (Mozart) had passed away. He was my baby and I loved him so very much. It has been a time of so much sadness while also processing this amazing trip to such an incredible place on the other side of the world. School begins next Thursday and today was our first day back with meetings. I am ggetting ready for the first couple of weeks with lots of name games. Here is a post with a bunch of name games and songs. Enjoy!

Singing Games - WHY? WHAT? HOW?

 Have you ever wanted to try more singing games but are stuck in the questions that arise about which ones work well and how to manage students in the midst of games?  And why do we even do these?  

Well... here you go!! 

Victoria Boler and I sat down for a lengthy conversation around the what, when, where, why, and how of singing games.  Go have a listen to the podcast or watch the video HERE! 

Need more? 

HERE are all 23 tagged and labeled posts on the blog with singing games - scroll all the way to the bottom and click "Older Posts" when you have finished with each page and it will load all the other posts with "Singing Games". 

I will also be posting more in the next couple weeks on TikTok and Instagram so check those out, too! 

Enjoy,

Bounce High, Bounce Low

 This is one of those games that is played many ways and has a myriad of concepts to focus on.  I love using this in Kindergarten as a beat game, then later in the year as a rhythm game, and then spiraling it up into first grade as an introduction into La.  

For the full slides, please click here and note this will force a copy. 

Turkey Game

This time of year I often need a few filler activities as classes that would normally have 18 students shows up with 6 due to illness, field trips or parties where students leave after the event and such. I have a few simple games that are great filler activities but still allow for singing and community building. This is one I wrote this year after observing a classroom teacher play the game and the students begin chanting, "Run, turkey, run!" while passing the objects around. Hope you find it useful! 

  Game 

 One each of printed image of farmer and turkey. Cut out, laminate, etc. 

 Teach song. 

Players sit in circle. Sing song, pass turkey as quickly as possible from player to player. After a few players have passed, begin passing farmer to try to catch the turkey. 

Teacher can say, “reverse”, or “freeze” (or have a sound cue for each action) and students respond. 

Game ends when turkey is caught by farmer.

Enjoy!

The end of each school year is ... well... interesting.  Looking forward to summer plans but in the middle of stress and the behavior of students either escalates into chaos and typically well behaved students go bananas, or students simply check out mentally and emotionally.  Our caffeine and sugar stashes are exhausted and our patience and enduring kindnesses are at Defcon 2.  I have been teaching almost 30 years - it doesn't seem to get easier and children and (some) parenting expectations and consequences are not what they used to be.  It seems like we are in the tornado and definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto. 

So, breathe in, breathe out.  Don't be afraid to show videos - there are many play alongs, dance alongs, and other activities from Musication, Mrs. King's Musical Corner, Ready Go Music,  Swick's Classroom, and many more.  

There is magic in the number three, so today here are three things you can do to continue actively making music in the classroom and keep your sanity. 

Playful and Purposeful 1 - AKA "Nail it Down"

Take those music concepts and play with them.  Play games and review those sixteenth notes in a new way.  One of my favorite things this time of year is to make rhythm snakes.  Give partner pairs two different rhythm cards, practice with body percussion - assign each rhythmic element a different body percussion- chest tap quarter notes, clap eighth notes, pat sixteenth notes.  

Everyone places their rhythm card in a long "snake" on the ground - students read/perform rhythms, then put students into 3 groups- each group has one timbre to play- hand drums, woods, shakers. Each group is responsible for playing ONLY their rhythmic element. Switch so each person gets to play a different instrument from each timbre.  Make it more interesting and musical by adding one of these backing tracks from Music Will. 

Playful and Purposeful 2 - AKA "Gameify It"

Singing games are playful and purposeful and if you can turn it into a "Level UP" game with various challenges in each level - even better!  One of my favorites to teach second grade on up is Pass the Beat from my Sing a Song, Play a Game book.  Level Up by teaching the basic as Level 1, replace the word "beat" with a clap for Level 2, replace "room" with a stomp for Level 3 and replace "Pass" with a snap for Level 4.  

If you are not following me on instagram, here are a few other games we love to play this time of year. Click on the picture to go to the link. 

Soy una serpiente

Humpty Dumpty Campfire Song

Forty Years on an Iceberg

Lemonade, New York

Mouse Mousie

And more from a facebook live! 

Playful and Purposeful 3 - AKA "Campfire Sing Along"

This is a beloved tradition at my school - click here to see all the past posts. 

All posts with "end of year" label can be found here.

Hope this helps you know you are not alone and helps in planning your final weeks or month!  Happy almost end of the school year! 

Great Big House in New Orleans

 I love this song at this time of year as there is SO much that can be done with it- add an ostinato with pie flavors, perform the dance, talk about dance styles, create a new dance, student created B Section, and a game from the wonderful Mrsmainsmusicians on insta! 

Grab the full google slides here. Please note this will force a copy. 

For the game, I glued my pies to paper plates.  This helps them to slide easier as most inexpensive paper plates have a wax coating on them.  This also makes them round and pie shaped! 

Here are a few slides from the set.

Enjoy!