When the Beat Was Born, Hip Hop, Keith Haring, and FUNDRAISER for Australian Animals

We all watched the wildfires in Australia and I don't know about you, but I have felt incredibly powerless. The people, landscape, and animals have been devastated.
In case you didn't see it, check out this visual of a map of Australia superimposed on the US and Southern Canada and this will give you an idea of the extent of the damage:


I am an animal lover  - grew up on our family dairy farm and considered becoming a vet.  My friend and fellow music teacher, Jody Petter and I wanted to do something that involved music and animals. We are starting a fundraiser and this one is the first of several to come!
Have you seen the book, "When the Beat Was Born, DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop? Click on the picture to see it on Amazon.

Here is a fabulous post by my friend, Elizabeth, from Organized Chaos, all about Bringing Hip-Hop to the Music Room.

The fundraiser part of this is as follows; you can win a hardcover copy of the book along with a lesson from my Painted Music book (pictured above). The lesson from Painted Music goes along with the story and uses the art of Keith Haring and breakdancing!  Bidding starts at $20.00 and I will match the final bid. All proceeds go to helping care for Australian animals injured or orphaned by the fires.  How to bid - go to facebook -@o for tuna orff, or on instagram -@Aimee_ofortunaorff and bid there!
Good luck!!

Black History Month

Black History Month.
Those three words have power, value, and emotion. Though the story of Black History Month began in 1915, it was not officially recognized until 1976 when President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month, calling upon Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”  Want to read more? Check this out.


.Black History Month is a special "pause" in our year to reflect and celebrate the vast musical contributions of Black and/or African Americans, but it should not be the only time our students see themselves represented and reflected in the music we use in our classrooms.

Things to Consider

• Where is my focus?  Who and what am I celebrating and honoring? Personally, I do not want to be the white teacher telling a single narrative about Black and/or African Americans as slaves and that they are only worthy of celebrating when talking about slavery or the Civil Rights Movement.  How does this impact our students view of musicians and composers who are Black and/or African American? 
• Sing, listen, and teach about music from a broad perspective; spirituals and Civil Rights songs are valuable, but they are not the only music to be celebrated and learned.
• If we teach these songs we should keep our community and parents informed of our intention to teach about slavery.  I have known many music teachers who begin to go down this path and receive emails and phone calls from upset parents who have not discussed slavery with their child and now they are forced into a conversation they were unprepared to have.
• For me, I want my students to celebrate, honor and learn about Duke Ellington, BB King, Billie Holiday, Scott Joplin, Ella Fitzgerald, Leontyne Price, and Miles Davis. I also want them to celebrate, honor, and learn about Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Queen Latifah, Tina Turner, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Denyce Graves, Black Violin, Rihanna, The String Queens, will.i.am, Ne-Yo, Rhiannon Giddens, and Ranky Tanky, (who just won a Grammy and are amazing - listen to this podcast and you'll see why I love them for elementary aged students).
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe - do you know her name? I didn't until this past year. Learning about her was eye-opening and a bit shocking- how did I NOT know her name until now? She was a pioneer and laid the foundations for Rock 'n Roll. Read more about her here from NPR.

Here are some of the things my students and I will be using throughout the year, not only during the month of February.

Children's Literature

Rap a Tap Tap: Here's Bojangles - Think of That 

Change repetitive words to "Rap, Tap, Tap, Think of That". (3 quarter notes, 1 quarter rest, repeat same rhythm).

I use this with Kindergarten students after we first do some movement preparation to "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder.  

1. Read Book, encourage students to speak repetitive words, "Rap, tap, tap, think of that".

3.  Videos - Tap Dancing Group - I like this one - you will only watch until 1:20.

Next I show Savion Glover - this is such a cool commercial- just skip the end (commercial for a fridge). 

How to Tap- this is really good for my younger kiddos - very slow, sequential. We only watch to about 3:00 and we stand up and practice tapping.

4. Then I break out the Heart Chart and we go back to the book of Bojangles - the Heart Chart is amazing and many music teachers have them or something like them - it is the perfect way to  introduce quarter and eighth notes. Once we have explored, ""Rap, tap, tap, think of that" and learned how to clap it, etc. and have discovered quarter notes, we tap it on rhythm sticks.  That leads into eighth notes, and before we know it we are reading stick rhythms with quarter and eighth notes.

Ruby Sings the Blues 

I love the animated video here with jazz music in the background. It is really well done! 

Trombone Shorty

Great lesson to go with this from my friend Charissa! Check it out here. 

Violet's Music 

Another great animated video by PBS!

There are so many other books I use!  Here are several:

 

Songs to Celebrate and Sing 

Sources - 

Let's Slice the Ice - A Collection of Black Children's Ring Games and Chants by Eleanor Fulton and Pat Smith, available from West Music. 

Step it Down: Games, Songs, Plays, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes, available here from Amazon.

(not a complete list)

Head and Shoulders, Baby

Ranky Tank

Just from the Kitchen

I Got a Letter this Morning

Green Sally Up

Go In and Out the Window

Draw Me a Bucket of Water

Shoo Turkey

Little Sally Walker

Miss Mary Mack

Other Resources

• Who is Making Music for Black Children
• SecretAgent 23skidoo.com - mixing Hip Hop and Mozart on Mozartistic, the first 2:20 is about the making of the song.
• NPR's Code Switch has a Playlist for Black History Month
• Decolonizing the Music Room Songs and Stories

Hope this was informative! More to come next week! 

Asian Songs

It is almost Chinese New Year and I needed a few more songs to round out our songs from around Asia.  These songs are generic songs and could be used any time - not specific to Lunar New Year.

1. Jan Ken Pon Yo 

This is a Janken, or hand game song using "Rock, Paper, Scissors". It is a great mixed meter song, check out the previous post by clicking on the picture below.

2.  Hao Peng You

This is from my Sing a Song, Play a Game Book, and is such a fun game. This one is easy for even young singers!

3.  Cha Tsubo

This is from my Hands to Hands book and is a deceptively simple hand game that is really fun! Great for recorder also. My students create a B Section using names of teas!

 Hope you have fun with these - and that you find some things new for you and your students to sing and enjoy!

Chinese New Year 2020!

My family is Chinese American - our daughter was adopted from China so we celebrate many Asian holidays including Autumn Moon Festival and Chinese New Year, AKA Spring Festival. This year CNY begins January 25, 2020, just a couple weeks away! As CNY is a lunar holiday and based on the full moon, the date changes each year. The animal changes each year also, with this being the year of the Rat!

If you are born in the year of the rat, you are known for having quick wit, being hard working, being clever, successful, and great with money! Good for you!!

My students will learn about the holiday in many ways, including using all of this from previous posts:

Once we get through the videos and the book, we will learn about The Rat through the song, "The Quartermaster's Store" which features a rat!  

Then it's on to learning Xin Nian Kuai Le, or "Happy New Year" in Mandarin. 

The song and activities are all included in the older post above or click here. 

I will also be using these Chinese Zodiac Rhythm Cards with quarter and eighth notes - free from TpT and available here! 


I also really like this craft project and can see using it as a melody pointer. There are many others with free printables - click on the picture. 

Happy Asian/Lunar/Chinese New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le or Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I Can't Wait for the Snow to Fall

This is a beloved folk song I learned long ago at a workshop and have loved ever since. The original folk song's words are, "I dont care if the rain comes down, I'm gonna dance all day". Needing a song for our holiday concert with a winter theme, I played around with this one and my students helped develop an easy orchestration and form we have loved using.

Sing the song as written, each time students sing the word, "dance" they strike a dance pose.
Clap "hey, hey" and patsch "carry me away".
For alternating sections, students came up with the idea of continuing the orchestration and humming the tune while doing dance moves.  Here's how it worked out:

A:  Song with orchestration
B:  Hum melody, orchestration continues; perform Macarena movements (this works out perfectly with the song and the dance can be performed twice).
A:  Song with orchestration
C: Hum melody, orchestration continues; perform the Floss (YUP.. what they voted for!).
A: Song with orchestration
D:  Hum melody, orchestration continues; freestyle- students perform movement of their choosing.
A:  Song with orchestration, end with "I'm gonna dance all day" 3 times followed by a final glockenspiel, "plink".

This was SO fun and really had my students moving and grooving. Good for any winter fun!

Hope you enjoy this one now or later!

Goings On

Hi everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week - we stayed in our pajamas all day, watched the Thanksgiving Parade, played games and watched movies! It was so fun and relaxing and my family loved it - I did, too!
Week before that I was in Salt Lake City at the National American Orff Schulwerk Association's (AOSA) Conference which was amazing!  Truly love these peeps and the creativity and collegiality is very special and heart-warming. I attended some incredible sessions and loved reconnecting with folks I took Levels courses with and those who I have taught at Chapter workshops and State Conferences. This is also the one time of the year I see my editor face to face - Brent Holl of Beatin' Path Publications is a friend and amazing musician! Working on a new book can be stressful - and the editing process is difficult and full of discussions about which way to present material and what to leave out and what to include but Brent makes it easy!

One of my favorite finds at conference were the new musical sit spots!  There are several packs but I can see using this one the most frequently. For a quick assessment, lay them out on the floor and as students come in direct each student to stand on a specific note - Josiah, stand on a quarter note, etc.

Outside the conference center there were these amazing signs- so fun

and meaningful! 

We were also invited to attend a free open rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Singing with this group would completely ruin anyone for singing with a small choir ever again. Full orchestra and seating for 90,000 in the hall. AMAZING!

This morning on my fb site - @o for tuna orff I posted a video with a cup game to Trepak from Nutcracker. Click on the picture to go to the video. There is also a book/song/activity to use for Hanukkah season as well called "Shabbat Shalom".

Enjoy! Happy Holidays!

Pairing Partners without Pain

Grab your partner and promenade. I can't help but think of this when I hear the word, "Partner". 

We often ask our students to partner or pair up for dance, movement, instrument play, and other activities in the music classroom. Some of us have "work buddies" that are permanent or semi-permanent partners and others are more random and allow for student choice each time. 

My students are able to self-select and most of the time do a great job with this. Of course I am always aware of who will most likely need help or those that need a different kind of partner - a non-human one. AKA: Works Better Alone. 

Here are some things I have learned over the years about partnering:

1.  Expect Some Bumps

Expect some issues and be ready with strategies to help THAT group that may not be excited about working together. Know who to watch and who to encourage. Also know who is likely to dominate a conversation and try to influence/push/bully their ideas or thoughts in activities. This is especially important when working on creative ideas - someone will always think their idea is better and will be unable/unwilling to let others voices be heard.

2. Self -Selecting Partners

I train my students from a very early age (Kindergarten) to find a partner "sitting next to them". When my students self select partners, I know if there is an even or uneven number of students ahead of time. I am also looking for the student that may need some help in finding a partner. If an even number of students, everyone will have a partner. If an uneven number of students, I ask ahead of time who would like a buddy from the buddy basket.  Depending on the activity and materials, I also allow students who might work better with a non-human partner to get a buddy from the buddy basket.

3. Buddy Basket

Many moons ago I asked parents to donate Beanie Babies. I love using "Beat Buddies" and have several ways I use them. Along with the Beanie Babies came some super special animals and I have found others over the years that have made their way into a special musical basket called the "Buddy Basket". This basket is at eye level and students are able to choose a "buddy" from it.

There are many favorites, including the super soft panda and the silly monkey we call "Kissy Monkey" as he likes to kiss everyone on the neck and arms when he comes out for folk dancing. He has long arms with velcro and is a perfect partner for folk dancing or other movement requiring a partner.

4. The Beauty of Rock/Paper/Scissors

I am fortunate to have enough Orff instruments for each student. My class sizes are small and I have been at my school for 23 years and have built up my instrumentarium and unpitched percussion instruments. 

Orff Instruments

Often, and especially the first time we play something, I might want to have less sound and for students to learn from each other so they will partner. Immediately after partnering my students know they will need to rock/paper/scissors.. shoot! We do this for SO MANY THINGS.  It solves disagreements about order and other things. Once we have a "person who won" and a "person who did not win", I pick one or the other to go to the instruments and it isn't always the "person who won".  Those students select an instrument to play and of course, everyone moves to the back row to play the Basses. If two students are first to get there, they rock/paper/scissors to decide who will stay. It is a quick and effective means of determining who is going to play that particular instrument.  There are other rules in place about how often people go to the back row and we are constantly moving between instruments so no one gets the instrument for a long time. 

Unpitched Percussion

I have a lot of tambourines but do I want everyone in the classroom to play this instrument all at the same time? No, I don't care to have a headache for the rest of the day.  Sometimes too many instruments creates too much sound so we partner.  Same process as above with rock/paper/scissors which determines who plays first and who has to wait a turn to play.

5. Use a Rhyme to Switch Between Partners

I have several nonsense rhymes I use to switch partners and my students know when I say, "Intry mintry tribbledy fig, deema dima, doma dig, howdy powdy, noma nouchy, olliga bolliga boo" that it is time to switch. This allows for me to move partners without saying the words, "Please switch" and losing the beat of the song. We move from song and instrument play with first partner to the nonsense poem immediately into the song and instrument play again.  Nursery rhymes work perfectly, too, in case you don't want to learn a crazy nonsense rhyme -though it impresses the kids and they are AMAZED at these funny rhymes!

Here's to partnering with positivity! 

Hope you enjoyed this post, how do you use partnering in your classroom?