Student Progress Report

First Trimester I was dreading report cards. I decided I really needed to come up with a way to efficiently, successfully assess 650 students without driving myself nuts grading worksheets and things. I created a chart for each student:

e Student Progress Report  e

Name:_____________________________­­­­­­­___________ Class:________

	Pitch Accuracy	Demonstrates Steady Beat	Identifies Vocabulary	Demonstrates Vocabulary	Identifies Notation
Trimester 1
Trimester 2
Trimester 3

3- Does it accurately every time 2- Does it accurately sometimes 1- Still progressing

    

It’s small enough that I can fit three per sheet and I copy them back to back.  This saves paper and I stick them behind the seating chart and grading chart for each class. It’s a quick but efficient way to track each student’s progress through the year. 

Dancing Day

Folk Dancing Day 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grades 

"Meet us on the Playground" 

As a first year teacher I’ve assumed the role of either insane or brave for attempting some pretty risky tasks with my students. My most recent endeavor was a 1^st-3^rd grade “Dancing Day” We went outside- all 278 of us and did some folk dances together! I arranged the kids by color and number so each color had two longways sets of dancers. I gave each kid a “token” and when they went outside they found the teacher with their color and the row with their number. This was a great way to combine all the grades so they weren’t dancing with anyone from their class! Teachers even joined in the fun and we had a WONDERFUL time!

We danced to: Chimes of Dunkirk, Kings and Queens, Alabama Gal and Sasha! All from the New England Dance Masters series!

Check out some great pictures courtesy of our awesome technology lady: Jane! 

The "Purple" group doing a two hand turn in Chimes of Dunkirk 

A 3rd and 2nd grader doing a Right Hand Turn 

"King and King" walking down the set and being bowed to in Kings and Queens! 

A 3rd and 2nd grader doing a Right Hand Turn in Kings and Queens! 

Sashaying down the set in Alabama Gal

"peel the banana" in Alabama Gal 

"Sasha Sasha Ras Dva Tri" Two 3rd Graders dancing to Sasha! (Everyone's favorite!) 

"Hey!" Time to find a new partner! 

As you can see we had an amazing time- I would totally go through all the preparation and the effort again for next year! 

ZooZical Lesson

Book Lesson: "ZooZical" 

This lesson is based off of the book “Zoozical” by Judy Sierra and inspired by Artie Almeida. It is appropriate for Grades 1-3. I did it with 2^nd Grade this year. You could even do it with Kindergarten by the end of the year. 

First I read them the book front to back and just let them listen. After we read the book we summarize the story. Then we assign instruments to the words “Magical” “Musical” and “Zoozical” I have a variety of instruments available and each class will choose different instruments to be magical, musical, and zoozical. Next we practice saying: “on a Magical Musical Zoozical Night” playing the chosen instrument when we say the words. Once we can do that successfully we re-read the story playing the instruments whenever the word appears in the story as well as saying “on a Magical Musical Zoozical Night” after each page- this gives every student the opportunity to play.  

I love lessons like this because the students have to be engaged during the entire story or they’ll miss their “entrance” or turn to play (and they hate to miss a chance to play an instrument! ) 

Folk Dancing

Teaching Folk Dancing 

I’ve been told often that this is the “PE Teachers domain” but why? I’m working towards working with the PE teacher on this unit next year. In my opinion “dancing” falls into both categories equally.

I did this Folk Dancing Unit with 1^st through 3^rd grades. We learned four folk dances total from the “Alabama Gal” New England Dance Masters book.

I learned how to teach folk dancing during my student teaching experience and I loved it! I provided the students with some guidelines, which, like my cooperating teacher, I called “Positive Partner Behavior.” I have three questions for the kids to ask themselves before we dance:

1.     Are your hands available?

2.     Are you being respectful to your partner, other classmates and the teacher?

3.     Are you listening?

I review these before every single time we dance- if I don’t, I usually regret it.

I taught my 1^st through 3^rd graders three folk dances from different countries. I gave them a little background knowledge but if I wanted, I could have gone into a lot further detail. We learned three dances that take place in a longways set: Alabama Gal, Chimes of Dunkirk (France) and Kings and Queens. We also learned the ever so popular Sasha! Sasha! is a great filler if you have time left at the end of class as well.

Now that we know these dances we are planning a “Dancing Day” where all three grades go outside and we will do the dances together… We will see how that goes! 

FYI Board

F.Y.I. Board

I was finding that kids often would come in after school with questions about activities outside of music class. I was answering the same question about Music Club, singing at community events, what time to be at school for Fine Arts Night, when they could test for Recorder Karate along with all those other questions kids have when they weren’t listening during class time. 

My solution was to post announcements, upcoming events, and anything else the kids or teachers would find helpful outside my classroom. I used some cheap border and letters from the dollar store. I post a calendar and any other announcements out there. 

Reading Corner

Reading Corner

I often read books to my primary grades. This is a great cross-curricular activity. I’ve been inspired by Artie Almeida and have used several of her lessons as well as created some of my own! I bought a rocking chair at a garage sale this past summer before I began my first year teaching. I didn’t know exactly where to put it in my classroom so for a while it was “find the rocking chair and sit in front of it!”

I realized that it wasn’t the best classroom management and I needed a designated area in my classroom for these kinds of lessons. I looked around at other classrooms and realized a lot of teachers have a “designated reading area” I used my PTA money and bought a cheap rug and lamp at Wal Mart and put it in the back corner of my room. Now I start every Kindergarten class there. They know exactly where to go when they enter the room. We sing the Hello Song and then we can stay there or move to a circle or another section of the room.

I would like to have other “designated” areas in my room. For example, a “singing area” where I have two risers set up at all times. And a “circle area,” whenever we sit in a circle it is in that exact spot. 

I use the small rocking chair if a kid is leading a singing game. The bear is "Jazz" the Birthday Bear. (Another idea borrowed from my amazing cooperating teacher) Kids can hold him on their birthday, or the music class after their birthday. 

Music in our Schools Month

How we celebrated "Music in our Schools Month" 

As a first year teacher, I had no idea how they had previously celebrated “Music in our Schools Month” So I decided to do something that would only take about 10 minutes. (I teach 25 minute classes) I had the kids complete the sentence:

Music means________________ to me.

I had the older kids complete it on a piece of paper and I went around and asked grades K and 1. A first grader asked if the teachers were going to complete the sentence too- sometimes kids give you your best ideas, so I had all the teachers and faculty complete the sentence as well.

When I had gathered all of my answers I plugged them into the website: wordle.net  by grade level and created word clouds. I made them bigger on the copier and covered one of my blank walls with it (since I have very limited bulletin board space.) The kids loved finding their answers and seeing which answers were more popular and which answers were extremely unique!

Now I have to come up with something just as creative and new for next year… YIKES!