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Blue Jello and Improvisation (activity for recorders, melodic instruments or voice)

October 5th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

Using Blue Jello cards with instruments can be lots of fun and also a great way to fit improvisation into your lessonsl!

I ask students to sit in pairs or trios and have one designated as the turner.  This student will be in charge of turning the cards and will not play.  

I give two clicks in tempo to prep each card.  First all the "turners" say the blue jello card out loud and then each card is repeated by recorders in the same tempo.  The card is turned and the two clicks signal the start of the next card in the same sequence.  

At first all recorders play the same pitch.  After a few turns I will give them a choice "you may play rhythms on A or C (can use G and B or any third really)"  After that I'll slowly add choices so that they have a choice of all the notes in C or G pentatonic. So I will say any note but F's and B's or no C's and F's.  Soon they are improving pentatonic melodies.

Students will switch places so everyone gets a turn to improv.

After this activity is easy I will use the rhythm bingo cards - 3 or 4 students to a card and all 3 or 4 students pick one of the three lines to read.  Same sequence as above - start with words - then all on one pitch-then a choice of 2, and add until you have a pentatonic scale.  It should sound nice all together, but then you can have each group of students at each card play alone so the rhythm will be the same but melodic variations, OR one student from each card play so you have melodic and rhythmic variation. 
The students love hearing the end result and think they are all musically brilliant, which they are :)

YOu could do this with any melodic instrument or with the voice using solfege (which I have done) and meet the same objectives.  

Fingering Fine - with RECORDERS

October 1st, 2009 | posted by splizzie

 

  Students at my school begin Recorder when they enter the 5th grade.  By the end of september they are playing a few songs, which they learn mainly by rote.  To transition into reading and learning other pitches we play Music Alphabet Fine forwards and backwards in 2nds.  I noticed the other day that when we start with letter C on the bottom it ends up matching the way the notes fall on the recorder.

Immediately a new game came into my head!  Students had just learned a new song using B and G.  I asked them if they noticed anything about the way the letters looked - if it reminded them of anything else we are doing in music class.  Of course after a minute of thinking and some very creative answers a student said "B is on top just like on the recorder"  A-HA!!!!  Students laid their recorders down next to the letters and immediately made the connection.

I asked each student to take a mental picture of the way cards looked and then we turned them all over letter side down.  Next each student got a blank WILD CARD to use for the thumb hole.  The cards represent the holes on the recorder. Each student gathered 8 magic notes to represent fingers - 4 of one color for the Left Hand and 4 of a different color for the Right Hand.  We lined up the magic notes, one next to each card (hole).  Then I took a set of alphabet cards that were a contrasting color to my own, pulled out the notes they knew how to finger, and as I turned them over they showed me the fingering with their magic notes and said "FINE" when they were done. To check we would say the letter followed by what holes to cover:  "A - Thumb, 1 and 2".

To make sure students were making the connection from the floor to the recorder I did a quick echo pattern for each note (my students have neck straps for recorders so they are always handy when we need them and out of the way when we don't). Then we were ready to play Recorder Fingering Fine :)

Here is what you need:  Two different colored sets of Music Alphabet Cards for the teacher - one for each student, 8 magic notes per player (4 of one color for the Left Hand and 4 of a different color for the Right Hand), one wild card for each player (to serve as the thumb hole), and a recorder.

Here's how to play:

Each student plays Music Alphabet Fine starting with C.  When we are all Fine all the cards are turned over.  Each student places a blank wild card for the thumbhole next to the top card (B).  Next, a magic note is placed next to each card. 4 for the Left Hand and 4 for the Right Hand.

The teacher shuffles a deck of alphabet cards and lays out the card on top while calling it out. Students then place magic notes on the cards that represent the correct fingering for that note.  (you may say High C, High D or C2 and D2, but remember to differentiate which one you mean or students are confused). When they are finished they say "Fine" of course!

Finally everyone checks.  EX:  B - Thumb and 1

                                            G - Thumb 1, 2 and 3

Teacher says clear and you play to your hearts content.

I tried this game with my 6th graders later that day as review and they impressed themselves with how quickly

it all came back :)  I asked them "Does this feel like a test?"  They said "NO!  It feels like a game" Assessments as games?  It's a good thing :)

If you try this game out please let me know how it goes!

 

 

Keeping Track of Magic Notes

October 1st, 2009 | posted by splizzie

 

This is a GREAT tip from a fellow classroom teacher in Prince George's County, MD:

 

Greetings!

 

Here is a tip for keeping track of magic notes:

When I introduce the use of magic notes to my classes, I have one tube that is full, and one container that has a few magic notes missing. I ask the students to listen as I shake each container. I ask them why one makes sound and the other does not. (I joke with them and tell them that maybe one has magic notes, and the other has magic rests!)

After we establish that the silent one is full, I request that they return their tube that way. The "materials manager" for the day shakes each tube before they are handed out. Students are great about shaking them when it is time to clean up, and gathering any missing magic notes in order to return their full tube.

I look forward to reading tips from others who are using Music Mind Games that will help all of us to manage the materials while teaching back-to-back classes.

Jessi

 

Staff Slate Bundles

September 24th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

With larger classes I was finding it a challenge to manage all my ledger lines, clefs and accidentals in regards to handing out, collecting and staying organized.  I created these Staff Slate Bundles that have saved me so much time and made more room for fun learning.

 

First, I went to an office supply store and bought plastic sheet protectors for business cards.  They have slots for 10 cards.  I cut them in half down the middle which created a perfect pocket for 1. Flats 2. Sharps 3. Double Flats/Sharps 4. Naturals and 5. Ledger Lines.

Then I used small binder clips to hold the clefs together.

 

 

Finally, I packaged them all together in little snack size ziplock bags.  Each one is marked with a music symbol sign so that students can identify one from another and if we find something is missing in one bundle, I can easily keep it separate from the others.

Students also think I am "super crafty" for making these, which is a bonus.  But the real benefit is the tons of time you will save from dealing out and collecting materials.

Please keep me posted when you have your moments of crafty genius Laughing

5 business card slots and clefs with binder clip
Snack size ziplock bag, folded card pockets with accidentals, and clefs with binder clip
Staff Slate Bundle

 

Blue Jello Cards in Classrooms

September 23rd, 2009 | posted by splizzie

Don't have enough sets of blue jello cards for every student in your class?  Great!  Pairing up to read blue jello cards can actually be more productive and fun than when students have their own!  In pairs or trios, students work together learning and saying these rhythms as a team.  If your students are smaller/younger 3-4 to a set works fine as well.  As students grow (middle school) 2-3 is ideal.

 

When you introduce blue jello cards to students the first thing to teach is not "blue" but how to turn the cards. Take some time to efficiently teach students how to turn the blue jello cards and keep them in the correct order. Remind them each time they turn at first to make sure they are being consistent. Believe me, when you are using many sets you will not have time to fix and check them in between classes, and when students try to read a set that is out of order class time ends up being wasted to get re-organized.

 

For when a set does get mixed up, make sure you can easily distinguish one set from another.  I draw a note/rest or music symbol on small dot stickers and place them on the plastic bags that hold the blue jello card sets.

 

"blue blue blue blue huckleberry"  Goodbye :)

  

 

 

 

 

 

Say YES to Plastic Ziplock Bags :)

September 23rd, 2009 | posted by splizzie

When Storing materials that are decks of cards like blue jello cards, music alphabet cards, do re mi cards, rhythm playing cards, tempo cards, blue jello word cards, music symbol cards, and grand staff cards it is best NOT to use rubber bands. 

1.  They will wear away at the ink on the materials

2.  They will begin to cut through the materials

3.  Students will put them on too loose or too tight - or break them each time so you will need new ones every week

4.  Students can do naughty things with rubber bands Frown

It is best to use the plastic bags they come in.  If they tear, try taping them up or finding a bag of similar size.  Always save any extra plastic bags you may have from other materials, incase you need it to replace a broken one one day.

Another idea that I use for smaller decks like blue jello word cards is binder clips.  These tend to hold nicely but don't protect the edges of the cards as well as the bags.

I also keep guide cards in the bags but separate them with paper clips, so when students take cards out of bags the guide cards are ready for easy reference and don't get mixed in with the deck.  I do this with all but blue jello cards - those are always one guide card on top and one on the bottom!

 

Let me know if you come up with other great ways of keeping materials like new :)

Grand Staff cards in snack size bags and guide cards paper clipped.

 

 

Melodic Bingo Copy Game - Sing Finger and Play with Recorders!

September 17th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

Melodic Bingo Copy is a great game for orienting students with notes on the staff and also a great transition into reading notes for beginning Recorder students! The beginning recorder repertoire in my class is in G pentatonic, so the fact that Melodic Bingo Side 1 uses notes G through D on the treble staff is a perfect opportunity for my beginning readers. 

After many singing games with Do Re Mi cards, and playing songs by rote, students are ready to read and play music on the staff.  I have taken the game Melodic Bingo Copy and added a Sing, Finger and Play Variation. This is usually the first time they are assigning a letter name to DO. I have found that it is helpful if students have done beginning Grand Staff Games prior to playing this game:  Hello Grand Staff, GGG and FFF, Clefs, Fine with G and F.

Students are in groups of 2 and 3 per Melodic Bingo Card. In these small groups they choose one measure to copy onto their treble staff.  When they have an exact copy of the measure, they raise their hand to show me they are finished. Together we sing the notes using solfege and hand signs. Next we rest recorders up on chins so we can finger and sing the letter names that correspond with the recorders. Finally we play the measure on recorder and poof!!! they are reading notes G through D :)  This is also a great opportunity to assess recorder fingering, air, and tonguing with beginning students in small groups. 

Students love doing all the measures on the Melodic Bingo Cards and quickly become successful and happy readers.  

Enjoy!***

You will notice that on the new Melodic Bingo Cards, the notes in the top left corner are color coded to match the Do Re Mi Cards.  Michiko now suggests color coding the magic notes this way while playing Sight-Singing and Dictation Games.  My students adjusted to this new element very quickly and happily.  Visual learners really benefit from this new aspect and the kids love having a purpose for each magic note color.***

  

 

 

Blue Jello Beginnings

September 17th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

I start out the year reading through Blue Jello Cards set one with all my students regardless of grade level. It is great for students who haven't thought about rhythms all summer, and more importantly for new transfer students who think they are about to get a snack when you say "get out Blue Jello". For the most part, side one is a breeze for returning students, but they will stop and ask "wait, so how do we make this rest" or "can we do that card again" when they've made a mistake. They quickly remember how to read these cards but show me they want to do them well!  I love seeing that come out of them!  Also, no matter how many times we've done it I can always count on the giggles during the "pineapple pineapple pineapple pineapple pineapple" card, which they know is my favorite.

I have all my students use Blue Jello Cards in pairs. I can't tell you how nice it is watching a transfer student with her partner, who will guide and help out by tutoring them in hand signs and making note of the guide card information.  This kind of peer teaching is motivating for all students in the room.  And above all it demonstrates the kind of environment we want to teach and learn in.  One where students are focused, show a desire to do well, and support each other.

I use the same process with Daily Do at the start of every year and all of the same positive results appear.  

As one student said today halfway through a side one review "Blue Jello puts me in a better mood".  Yes indeed.

One student teaching a new student how to do the hand sign for "purple" in Blue Jello.



Music Symbols - Beginning of the Year Assessment

September 16th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

Last year I started at a new Middle School.  With all new students, I needed a way to find out what they already knew so that I could plan for a challenging curriculum.  When playing Music Symbol Games the usual course is to teach Dynamics followed by Learning the Others, however I did not want to spend time teaching students what they already knew.  So I created a game called What Don't You Know? I laid out all the Music Symbol Cards and asked students to place a magic note on any card that they did NOT recognize or could not name. When they were done I only needed to teach whatever had a magic note on it. Sometimes that was every card, and sometimes not. A wonderful result was that some more advanced students volunteered to teach or demonstrate the meaning of symbol cards to the students who were unfamiliar with them. It ended up being very interactive and fun.  

One thing I recommend is to play Hello Grand Staff and Clefs before doing this game.  That way there are a few symbol cards that students should be able to recognize even if they do not know many others. 

Happy Music Mind Gaming :)

Hello Jello with Instruments (Drums and Recorders)

September 11th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

Hello Jello is a great game played with the downloadable Blue Jello Word Cards.  The directions are on the game ideas card that comes with the deck.  I often do this game with all my classes at the beginning of the year since it is great for remembering and learning names.  It also gives me a chance to see how much blue jello the students have retained over the summer. 

This year my 6th graders are starting off with a unit in World Music Drumming.  The start of this curriculum deals with basic technique on the tubano drums and then a lot of Teacher/Student echo exercises. With each student sitting at a drum in a circle, I put out a few Blue Jello World Cards to choose from to play Hello Jello (usually Blue, Jello, and Rest to start).  We went around the circle and played Hello Jello as usual - each student says their name in one beat and one of the showing Blue Jello Word Cards in the second beat, which everyone then echos. After everyone had a turn playing Hello Jello with only voices, we went around once more, only this time students were to speak and drum the rhythm of their name and Blue Jello Word Card, followed by the echo of the class.  Example:  "Ma-ry Blue" - class echos "Ma-ry Blue" "Lau-ra Jel-lo" echo "Lau-ra Jel-lo"....and so on.  This turned out to be a great exercise in steady beat, and high open tone drumming technique.  Also, because everyone had a solo first it was very easy for me to assess their hand positions and performance skill on the drums. The kids loved it and want to play each class with more choices.  

I also tried this with my beginning recorder class.  We had Blue Jello Word Cards out for choices and each student said their name followed by one of the cards (Jello, Blue, Pineapple, Rest etc. - only choices I knew they could play successfully) then each child played the rhythm of the name and the blue jello word card chosen.  They LOVED IT!!!!! We chose the pitch ahead of time - A.  Next I will try and add two pitches (A and C or Sol and Mi) for singing and ear training.  Their favorite part was actually when a student chose "rest" for their beat we played the name followed by a beat of silence.  This was new since we've been whispering "rest" up until now.  They LOVED the beat of silence...and we had some giggles when some forgot and played.  All in fun.

Try it out and let me know how it goes!  You'll know all your 100's of students names before you know it :)


Music Mind Games in the Classroom: Materials and Class Sizes

June 17th, 2009 | posted by splizzie

Greetings!  My name is Elizabeth Cunha.  I am the chair of the new committee:  Music Mind Games in the Classroom.  I have used Music Mind Games in the classroom for over 5 years now and am so excited to share some of the wisdom I have gained during that time with those currently using or hoping to integrate Music Mind Games into a music curriculum.  It is my hope that these blogs will help make this process a little easier so that classroom teachers are free to focus on the fun of learning that Music Mind Games can bring!

Before you can start playing with your students you need to make sure you have enough materials for successful lessons. With one student ordering materials is a cinch.  One puppy packet and you are ready to go!  For a classrrom however, your money is probably better budgeted by ordering enough of the specific materials needed for the number of students you have.

Here is an organized list of materials for a medium to large classroom. Please keep in mind that the list below displays best case scenario and remember,  there are many games that can be played as a class that require less materials than noted below. And if you are just starting out or still looking for funding, Music Mind Games CAN be introduced and utilized with only one puppy packet, even in classrooms!  To take the curriculum further you will want to consider the investment laid out below. There are many grants available to music teachers or  fundraising events and programs through your school that can make this investment less of a strain on your wallet. Along with the listed materials below I recommend the Panda Pack 1, designed for use with larger groups! Also, Look for the Panda Pack 2 coming soon.

Good luck and have fun playing!

1. Blue Jello Cards * obviously one set per student is great but 2-3 students can easily share. * I do not suggest more than 4 students per set.

2. Blue Jello Word Cards * 1-2 decks per class.

3. Alphabet Cards * One deck has 6 sets of the music alphabet. You will need enough so that each student has one complete set of the music alphabet. * Remember there are games you can play as a class where each student does not need their own!

4. Do Re Mi Cards * One deck has 5 sets. You will have the easiest time when there are enough so that each student has a complete Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do set.

5. Staff Slates/Accessories * This is something that works best when students work alone or in pairs. * 1 for 1-2 students.

6. Rhythm Playing Cards * 1 deck per 4 students

7. Grand Staff Cards * These can easily be shared but the best situation is 1 deck per 1-2 students. * I also play many games where 1 deck is used per 4 students.

8. Music Symbol Cards * 2 decks will be enough for many games early on. * Later, I suggest 1 deck per 4 students.

9. Tempo Cards * 1 deck comes with 2 sets. This is enough for Teaching Games. * For Memory Games, it is best is to have 1 deck per 2 students (this gives you 1 set per student)

10. Magic Notes and Wands * Magic notes are needed with many games in the curriculum. I suggest collecting between 400-800 for a medium-large size classroom. You will find that you can never have too many magic notes. * Wands can be helpful organizers and rewards for students. 4-6 is a nice number so that students can be involved in the clean up process.