MadPad App Review

I have
used this app with a few classes in rotations and it's pretty amazing. The video above is older (2011) but is a great intro. to MadPad.

 I am looking at using it as a composition project for next fall, probably with fourth grade.  I like that you can adjust the pitch of each sound set, and you can loop and record a rhythm. There are so many sound sets you can download.. try the toys one and find the guy with the mouth.. awesome!  It's just his mouth making various sounds!   There are also great ones with kids making sounds with various objects from around the house. This is  a great way to incorporate tech with music and can be used in the classroom to reinforce the concept of ostinato.  How would you use it? 

Rhythm Eggs to PLAY with

There are so many uses for these; I use them in a game called "Steal the Banana".  You can look up the directions on the internet, but there are many other games and activities you could do with them.  Enjoy!  If you want as a PDF, email me at musicquilt@Hotmail.com

Planting a Rainbow book and lesson and Upcoming Workshop!

I know.. it's been a while since posting but I've been CRAZY busy writing music to go with three Amazon/South American jungle stories; Conejito, Jabuti, and Papagayo.  Lovely childrens books and my first through fourth graders are performing these with music, speech, dancing, and a narrator!  More to come on that later...

I am so excited and honored to be the clinician at the newly formed Southeastern Carolina Chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association!! We are going to sing, play, dance, move, groove and have a blast in Lumberton, NC on March 29!! 

Today, I am excited to share with you a lesson that was inspired by Thom Borden's blog:  http://thomborden.blogspot.com/  Thom and I took Master's Level of Orff Certification together and I truly enjoy his creative energy.  A while back he posted about this Lois Ehlert book:

Planting a Rainbow.  I loved his idea of using seed packets with rhythms and I made seed packet rhythms from vintage seed packet images I found online.  You can save and print them here:

 

Yes!  Some of them are upside down; if you print them in color, then all you have to do is fold the pages hot dog style (long end to long end), glue together and laminate; then you will have the seed packet on one side and the seed packet with the rhythm on the other side!  Voila!  Yes, it took me a while to figure that out; first time I made them I didn't do this but I figured if I was putting it "out there" I wanted a better, easier way to make these!  I only used flowers but you could easily make vegetable seed packets or even "core value" seed packs; your imagination/creativity is your only limit!!
I put 8 various seed packs in an envelope made from laminated construction paper so I had enough for partners or small groups.  Each group may end up with a completely different set; that is so much fun.. what an amazingly diverse group of flowers! I also have discovered it is really smart to use a sharpie and draw a small colored circle on each set so you have a "yellow dot" set and a "blue dot" set, etc.  If groups work close to each other then their seed packets won't get mixed with the other groups; each group has their own specific colored dot on all their manipulatives.  This has helped me tremendously when manipulatives are the same. 
If you haven't used the heart charts before from previous posts I've had; here is an example you can save and print:

 

1.        After reading the story, tell students that we are going to create a garden of flowers in the music room today.  Demonstrate how to create a 4 beat rhythm using rhythm packs.  Ask students to clap the words of the flowers.  Show the seed packet side without the rhythm note first.  Using the 4 beat heart charts  and small manipulatives (flower erasers or small glass gems from Target or Dollar Tree) “write” the rhythm of the words.

2.        Clap and say the rhythm of the flowers using “ta” and “ti-ti”.  Turn the seed packets over, say, “Let’s see if we are right”. 

3.       Divide students into 7 groups; each gets a seed packet, manipulatives, and a heart chart.

4.       Ask them to create as many rhythms as they can, showing the flower side up (not the flower and rhythm), then “write the rhythm they think goes with the words, THEN check their answer by flipping the seed cards over.  There are 8 seed packets but they will only use FOUR each time so there are MANY possibilities of rhythms. 

5.       On another day, ask students to create 8 beat rhythms and use the dry erase 8 beat grids to draw their rhythms; demonstrate how to place 4 cards (flower side up, not flower and rhythm) next to one another, then another 4 under that (just like the 8 beat grids; 4 boxes over 4 boxes) and ask them to write the rhythms THEN check their answer by flipping the seed cards over to show the rhythm.

6.       Extensions:

a.       Use scarves and a piece of music to create a movement piece.

b.       Students create a tune on E and G (sol and mi) with glockenspiels and rhythms

 

HAVE FUN!!!

Music Olympics!

Here in NC we RARELY get snow.. it's been 2 years since we have had a snow day.. well, woohoo.. got one today! Perfect timing as I've just come back to school from a medical leave (surgery 8 weeks ago.. final exclamation point on this past year of 4 surgeries and intense medical issues and emergencies! Yeehaw!). I've taught 2 whole days.. whew.. and now a snow day, then tomorrow (if we have a full day of school, which is in question because the high today is a whopping 28 degrees, we have an exploratory day and we have students going to a museum and visitors coming to do rotations in the afternoon, so no regular classes then, and back to a regular schedule Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, then a half day Wed. with Chinese New Year assembly that I run Wednesday AM so no regular music then either.. a fun 2 weeks being back at school! It's been so great to see the kids but my energy and my physical strength is not quite up to the task of my normal, so I have set up some rotations with the kinders. and first graders and the 2nd through 4th graders will be getting ready for Music Olympics in early February! Please email me at musicquilt@hotmail.com if you'd rather have this in powerpoint. I've given credit where I've found games/ideas from other sites.. if you see something you've developed or know an original source I didn't credit, PLEASE let me know. Thanks for stopping by!

Chinese New Year Dragon/Lion and Song

**UPDATE February 3, 2016.. check out this additional post for more activities to use with Chinese New Year or to learn about Chinese music and customs!

Chinese New Year is celebrated throughout Asia and is coming January 31 this year (2014)! It marks the Spring Festival throughout Asia and this year is the year of the horse! In a previous post last year I published a song here called "Xin Nian Kuai Le" which means "Happy New Year". VERY accessible! We celebrate Chinese New Year at our school but also in our home as our daughter, now 6, was born in China and adopted into our family at 18 months. She loves everything about China and we celebrate Chinese New Year and Autumn Moon Festival! At school we have a BIG assembly that is soooo much fun; complete with relay races, a noodle contest, the teachers participate in a fortune cookie eating contest and students stomp on bubble wrap to mimic the sounds of firecrackers. It is a fun celebration and the kids "get it" and understand the significant points of CNY (Chinese New Year) without worksheets, didactic instruction, or meaningless activities. We end the assembly with a fan dance performed by fourth graders and a dragon/lion dance. I taught this song while presenting at the Orff National Conference back in November and had to figure a way to inexpensively and easily constructed dragon that I could put at least 10-15 adults under. AND- I had to make it in a hotel room! So, here's what I came up with. It worked incredibly well and one lucky participant got to take it home. I wish I had pictures of the participants moving and dancing underneath it; pretty awesome!! The best part.. SIX DOLLARS!!!!!! For the WHOLE dragon/lion!

Valentine Candy Rhythms

I LOVE Target.. especially the dollar spot area! Found these oh-so-cute foam stickers and put them onto red cardstock then cut them into squares and added stickers on the back. Each package has 80 stickers!!! For $1.00!! Stickers are in two sizes. When I saw them, I thought, yippee.. eighth notes and quarter notes! Wahoo! Use these with a heart chart such as this one: I put about 10 of the hearts into a plastic bag and made 10 bags (the max number of students I have in a class is 20 and I have students work in pairs) and put all the bags in a large gallon size plastic bag along with instructions on the front. Students work in pairs to create a 4 or 8 beat rhythm using the words on the hearts; "Guess Who?" will be spoken as eighth notes and placed on a single heart, "Kiss" or "Hugs" is a quarter note and each heart rhythm will be placed on one heart (beat). Once a rhythm is created, students can practice speaking the words in rhythm and accompanying body percussion. The 4 or 8 beat rhythmic phrases could be written out in rhythmic notation, maybe played on unpitched percussion or on Orff instruments set up in a pentatonic key. I will use this as a B section to a Valentine song, perhaps "Do You Love Me?" from Gameplan, I think it's Grade 2. This would also be a great way to review iconic to actual rhythmic notation for eighths and quarter notes; each partner pair could speak their rhythm once, then play on drums or with drum sticks or chopsticks on the floor while internalizing words the second time. Have fun with them!

Elf on the Shelf Speech Piece with Ostinati and Possible UPP

So.. don't laugh.. last night I woke up at 1:45 AM with this ostinato (#1 and #2) running through my head! We had just tried a few new Elf on the Shelf things with our daughter... we love our elf, Eeewee! Most of my students have an elf and so this will be fun to try with them! I couldn't get it out of my head so had to get up out of bed (now 2 AM!!!) and write it down; well, once I'd done that I couldn't leave it alone so had to write a little poem to go with it for an "A" section and a third ostinati. So many possibilities to play with; write a little BAG melody for recorder students to play the A section instead of speaking it; review sixteenth and eighth note patterns, play on boomwhackers, develop pentatonic melody in C and accompany with Boomwhackers; play ostinato on Orff instruments in small groups set up in C pentatonic, improvise melody using rhythm of A section, use C, E, and G for ostinato parts 1, 2, and 3, etc. As you can see, once you get going the possibilities are loaded! Have fun!