Practice, Practice, Practice!

Hello!
Today I'm blogging about individual practice habits. As we start getting into recorders at my school I'm reminded that all students need guidance when it comes to practicing at home. As their teacher I provide them with many tips an how to practice on their own.
This post is focused on how to guide practice at home from a parent's point of view.

Over the winter break my son and I started organizing his piano practice. He has been taking Suzuki piano lessons for a little over two years and we are approaching his Book 1 recital. In the Suzuki method students learn all of the pieces from the first book by rote and have a book party when they have perfected all of the pieces. There are nineteen pieces in Book I, seventeen of which he'll perform at the book party. He has played them all over the past couple of years but some pieces have been out of rotation and they all need to be performance ready. 

Also, while my son does enjoy playing, he does not always enjoy the hard work of practicing. He has reached the point where playing is not coming as easy for him as it did during his first year of playing. There have been some frustrations at the piano. Interestingly, I've noticed that he seems to be in a good mood after particularly challenging practice sessions.

Here are 5 tips for parent involvement in music practice.

1. Schedule practice time for around the same time every day
In our house, if it's not scheduled, it's probably not happening. While we are out of school, and on the weekends Jude practices in the morning. That way he doesn't have it hanging over his head all day, (and I don't have to remind him all day.) During a typical weekday we have to practice later in the day because we all have to be at school at 7:15am and I'm on duty supervising kids at 7:20am. Being at the same school definitely has advantages! On some days he practices in the music room after school if I know we're going to get home later. (If practice has to happen after dinner it probably won't be as productive!)

2. Develop a practice routine with your child
As a child I had a couple of years of piano lessons with a handful of mediocre piano teachers. One thing that was missing from my lessons was instruction on how to practice at home. I would half-heartedly play through my pieces, gloss over the more challenging measures and avoid working on them at all. (Or I would only try to tackle the hard parts after I had already been at the piano for a while and my concentration was spent!)

When Jude practices he plays a couple of warm-up scales, one or two easy pieces that he has mastered and feels good about, and then he focuses on his most challenging measures in a harder piece. I try to build his practice time the same way I build my class lessons: beginning with warm-ups and then alternating periods of high concentration, (pieces he has mastered,) with relaxation, (already mastered pieces that don't require as much concentration.) 

In December I created cards for him listing a separate piece on each card.  Each time he includes a piece in his practice we write the date in the top right corner. We draw a star if he can play it perfectly. If the piece is not yet 100%, I write in a different percentage of how far along it is along with the date. The percentage is not from a hard and fast number of mistakes, (I'm not a tiger mom who keeps those kinds of records!), it's just an idea of how far along the piece is. Jude responds well to the percentage idea. We have seventeen pieces he'll play at his book party and this way he can easily rotate through them. At this point his book party is in two weeks (!!) and he's playing most of the pieces in the order he'll play them for the recital. 

My son's book and practice cards.
(Can you tell that the book's been dropped in a puddle on a snowy day?) 

3. Stay nearby during practice
Part of the Suzuki requires parent to be actively involved in their child's practice. I definitely don't hover over Jude as he practices but I'm usually a few feet away making dinner or working on my laptop, (our art/music/play room is connected to the kitchen in our house.)  Like most kids, he can get side-tracked; those lego bricks are so close! I'm there to help and and get him back on track if needed.  

4. Don't watch the clock!
Practice time should be about working on the music, not a number of minutes sitting on the piano bench. Make a plan of what pieces to work on and stop when it makes sense or when your child shows that they are no longer productive and are just spinning their wheels. Sometimes it makes more sense to break up practice into two or even three shorter sessions during the day.
5. Encourage Your Child 
Give authentic and specific praise and encouragement. It is more meaningful to say, "I noticed you really brought out the dynamics in the second half of that piece!", then "great work!" 

6. Have fun!
Kids should have opportunities to have unstructured time with their instrument and just play whatever they what. I know free play in learning is not in-vogue in most public schools. There are so many tests and assessments to prepare for and the higher-ups don't acknowledge the value of learning through discovery, (at least in my district.) I want Jude to enjoy the piano and have fun figuring out songs by ear or making things up; even when it's cacophony, (especially when it's cacophony- that's a great release!)

There are a few ideas from me from my experiences as a mom.
At my Teachers Pay Teachers store I have some fun piano practice cards/records that I originally made for Jude. 

Do you have any helpful practicing tips you've stumbled on with your kids? Please share!

New Year's Resolutions

Hello and Happy New Year!

Today I'm linking up with Mrs. Miracle's Music Room to share a few New Year's Resolutions for 2015! (Thank you, AIileen, for the opportunity!)

Personal: Enjoy more time with my family: 

My husband and I have two school aged kids and they seem to be growing up super-fast. We are very lucky because we are all at the same school; my husband is the art teacher, our son is in 4th grade, and our daughter is on Kindergarten this year. We usually travel together to school and we're together outside of school. We have the same school breaks and summer vacation. However, I think we sometimes forget to plan regular fun family times, (beyond everyone together doing homework, dishes, and other necessary chores!) 

This year we made a point of purchasing ski passes and lessons for the kids during a big sale in September. I grew up skiing and my husband has been skiing since he was a teenager but neither of us have been for five years. We went up to Loveland earlier this week, and we all had a blast! (Even though it was -3°!) I was nervous about the kids in their ski lessons but they both did very well. After a few more lessons I'm sure they will both be able to join us on some beginner slopes! We plan to go again this Friday. Here's a picture from this week of me and husband just off the lift. (No, I'm not turning gray; the condensation on my hair from breathing into my neck gator turned to frost quickly!)

Professional: Re-organize my music ed session resources

I've been teaching for twenty years and I have participated in a lot of professional development. I'm a gen-Xer and I have had the interesting experience of starting my teaching career when the only computers in the school were in the main office and a few in the library, to the current technology explosion we have in education (and everywhere else!) 

When I was in college, students did not own computers; we all went to a computer lab to write papers. I was firmly out of college when I got an email account and during my first few years of teaching I wrote all of my plans in a spiral plan-book. I have a lot of paper. I have 3 large, alphabetized by presenters, notebooks of music ed session/workshop notes and those are the ones I thought were worth keeping. It's time I make digital copies of everything from my paper days. It's a big job that I've been avoiding but it needs to be done.

Classroom: Schedule kindergarten music time
Kindergarten classes do not get art, music, or PE at my school. I know that in the past, when I've scheduled a few kindergarten lessons, it makes a difference when they start music in first grade. When the new first graders have had some prior positive musical experiences with me, they progress much faster! Even though it will mean some days without a planning period, I plan to visit kindergarten and teach a few music lessons.

Blog/TpT: Blog weekly
I have been blogging off and on now for a couple of years, sometimes much more "off" than "on!" I want my blog to be a solid resource and positive contribution to the music ed blogging world, and that requires consistency. 

Just for me: Make more music/listen to more music
Music is my passion. I am always energized after playing music myself, (even if it's just a simple piano piece while helping my son with his practice,) and listening to music. I've played bass guitar and sung in bands off and on and I have plans to start that up again in January. I also enjoy listening to music whenever I can. My tastes lean mostly towards classical, jazz, folk, and alternative/indie rock. My mood is almost always lifted by listening to music and I hope to include more listening, (and concert going,) in 2015!

Be sure to stop by Mrs. Miracle's Music Room to check out other bloggers' resolutions!

I wish you a very happy 2015!

Christmas Centers

Hello and happy almost-to-winter-break!

I've noticed that the closer we get to the two-week break, the more distracted the students get. I've been trying something different this year to channel their energy- Christmas centers! The class is divided into four groups and they have about 7 minutes at each center.

Each grade level has 2 centers focused on a rhythm or melodic concept they've been working on and 2 centers focused on Christmas music.

Here is an example with 4th grade:

Center 1: SMART Board
Christmas Around the World

Aileen Miracle's excellent Christmas Around the World file has pictures, information, and video links showing how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world. The students love it!

Center 2: Ti Tika Flashcard playing

At this station students practice playing rhythms.

Thanks to Glitter Meets Glue for the snowflake clipart

Center 3: Santa Hats Post Office

The Santa Hat post office games have been a big hit in my classroom!

The students spread their cards out in front of them and then take turns calling out a card for the others to find. I let them choose between speaking the rhythm with rhythm syllables or clapping. It's interesting to see which students choose to clap and challenge their classmates! In third grade I'm calling all the cards and using this activity as an assessment for identifying patterns with tikka tikka.

Center 4: Nutcracker Selections Listening

This center includes headphones, an old iPod touch, and rhythm play a longs for Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy and Russian Dance (Trepak) We have practiced the play a longs in class together as a large group. I give students the option to play a long or just listen to the selections. Many choose to play along.

For most of the classes I am able to "float" and help with any technical difficulties or group disputes, (which occasionally seem to surface!) For 3rd and 2nd grade I've been able to assess students at the post office center.

It's been a more relaxed time then I usually have this time of year and the kids have enjoyed the variety! This week I'll be doing sing a longs to finish December.

I hope you are having a great time in your classroom. Do you have activities you love to use this time of year? Please share!

Rockin' Resources and HUGE TpT Cyber Sale!

Hello all, 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I have loved spending time with my family, cooking, (even though my children refuse to eat my fantastic green bean casserole,) playing games, and sleeping in. Unfortunately, the sleeping in stops tomorrow. (Insert Charlie Brown sigh.) However, I am super excited about the GINORMOUS Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Sale starting tomorrow and Tuesday, Dec. 1st and 2nd! 

My friend Amy over at Music a la Abbott is hosting a Linky Party for us music sellers to highlight a few TpT items we are excited about:

Resource from my store:
Melody Singing Snowmen- do Edition!
Oh my, this one has taken quite a while to create! It's a powerpoint game to practice aural identification of do melodies. 

What took so long in creating this set? Several audio clips of my son singing do melodic patterns! He is in 4th grade and was just selected as one of the six students to sing at the Colorado Elementary All State Choir in January! Yes, I am his music teacher but as in years past, I have another music teacher audition, score, and select the singers. (A HUGE thank you to my friend and fabulous music teacher Steve Soich!) We start rehearsing the music after school tomorrow. 

This was super-fun to make and the backgrounds from Educasong are beautiful! I'll be presenting do to my 2nd graders at the end of the week and they'll be playing this in centers the following week.

Resource from another music seller:
Malinda Phillips has some wonderful resources in her store! Here is her Treble Clef Review Game Stockings Hung With Care:

I'm really looking forward to using this one to review letter names with the 5th graders as we gear up to start alto recorders.

Jamie Parker is another music seller makes wonderful resources. I picked up her Shattered Solfa a couple of weeks ago; I just love stick to staff activities and this one is very well done! I'll be using it this week.

Non-music resource:
Well, it is kind of music related, just not from a music seller. This clip art from Whimsy Clips has been on my Wish List for a while now. I'll be picking this Music Night clip art up during the sale. These adorable kids will look great on newsletters and programs!

Now for the important info:

My entire store will be discounted 20% off on December 1st and 2nd. You can get an additional 8% off by entering the code "TPTCYBER." (Thanks to the 3am teacher for the banner!) Thank you, Amy for hosting this Linky Party! Head over to Amy's wonderful blog to connect to other bloggers who joined the party!
Happy shopping!

5 Favorite Pins of November

Hello! Yes, I know I haven't blogged for a while. Life just keeps moving! 
I really wanted to share a few my favorite pins and participate in Mrs. Miracle's Room: Five Favorite Pins of November.

1. Christmas Present Sound Match
This is actually a post aimed at toddlers but I think it would be a very fun matching game in the music room to direct and focus student listening. I'm thinking of using it as a center for 1st graders.

2. English Idioms/Figurative Language

The 4th graders are really involved in using idioms and figurative language. (So much that their classroom teachers have trained them to raise their hand every time they hear an idiom!) It will be fun to show them how many musical idioms we use in our society.)

3. 3 Time Management Rules I Wish I'd Learned 10 Years Ago.

(Here's hoping it's not too late for the rest of us!)

 4. Music Around the World Unit
This looks like such a well thought out and attractive set!

5. Smart Teaching

There are some interesting ideas here on how to present material.

I have the day off, (hurray for Thanksgiving break!) and my children are playing hide and seek. I'm going to join them! Thanks to Aileen for hosting this linky party!

Wishlist Wednesday

Hello!

Today was my second day of school with students. I love the summer but after the first day of school, I always have that "Oh yeah, that's right, I love to be with these kids and I get to teach them music! How lucky I am!" feeling. Yesterday afternoon I was pretty exhausted after the first day but I'm working on getting back into a good routine. My stamina will kick in soon, I hope!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Miracle's Music Room and her Wishlist Wednesday Linky Party to tell you about three TpT products I'm excited about!

Wednesday, Aug. 20th is a big day at Teachers Pay Teachers. They are having a Back to School Boost Sale. 

Additionally, many stores, including my own, will be discounted at 20%! The big sale is only one day, so don't forget to move those wish list items into your cart to save!

Be on the lookout for these promos:

(Thanks to Jena at Sew Much Music for the cute images!)

Several music teachers are coming together to help out a fellow music teacher in need. I'll be donating a portion of my Beginning Recorder Bundle to benefit this wonderful teacher during a challenging time for her and her family. Tomorrow search for TeachersHelpingTeachers at TpT for several music items for which a percentage of sales will go to our fellow music teacher.

Wishlist Item #1
I admit to being very discriminating regarding clipart. I am attracted to cute clipart, of course, but being married to the art teacher for 11 years has had an affect on my taste in drawings. My husband is primarily a comic book artist and I've grown accustomed to illustrations that are slightly more off-beat than the round, cherub faced clipart that has become very popular on TpT. I really like the look of A Sketchy Guy's clipart. It's kind of scruffy and cute. Here's a set that will be in my cart tomorrow.

Wishlist Item #2

Tracy King (AKA The Bulletin Board Lady) has many fun products in her store. One thing I've had my eye on is her Carnival of the Animals Listening Logs. For many years I've used my old Music & You textbooks for Carnival of the Animals listening and I've been needing an upgrade. These listening logs are just what I need; it guides student listening for dynamics, tempo, and instruments. The Cukoo in the Heart of the Woods and The Aviary are two of my favorite primary beginning-of-the-year listening lessons. I look forward to having a fresh look to accompany these pieces! (Tracy also has a bundle of Carnival of the Animals materials including bulletin board materials.)

Item #3

My last item to share is one of my own that I finally added to my store tonight.

Who Sang It? is an interactive PowerPoint game that includes embedded audio. 

Students press the speaker to hear a mi sol la melody sung. I recorded my 9 year old son singing the patterns on "loo." Children are best able to match pitch from another child's voice, so it seemed like a natural fit. Don't worry, he was paid for his time and performance, I'm just glad he's not part of the studio musicians' union, I can't afford their rates!

Two owls show two patterns notated and the student matches the written pattern to what was heard.

I really like that each correct answer slide includes the pattern so that students can sing it after identifying the pattern.

There are ten slides with patterns to match and two levels.

Level One shows patterns written in the melodic contour with solfa. Level Two shows the same patterns on the staff; sol is in the third space:

Thank you for reading! Have a great Wednesday!

My Music Room Set-Up

Welcome back to school! I had an active summer with my family. We were happy to stay in Colorado this summer; I often forget how lucky we are to have so many beautiful places nearby. We took a fun road trip to Mesa Verde, Aspen, and Glenwood Springs and even tried white water rafting for the first time! (My 4 year old daughter loved rafting and enjoyed pretending that she controlled the rapids by conducting the water!)

School starts tomorrow for my family, (eek!), and I have been busy getting everything ready. I'm happy to link up with Mrs. Miracle's Room's My Music Room Set-Up Linky Party, (even if it is bit later then many other "beginning of the year set-up posts"!) Here are a couple of things I'm excited about!

My cabinets that hold all of my small percussions have been in need of a makeover. I also keep the boomwhackers near the orange cabinets in paint buckets, which take up too much valuable floor space. The small percussion signs were just a bit dark for my windowless music room.

"Before" Small Percussion Area

I spruced those up with new signs, (thanks to Aileen Miracle for the fun frame from her freebie Cover Page Starter Kit.)

Then there's those boomwhackers and their cumbersome buckets!

I adore the colorful "boomwhackers velcroed to the wall" idea, beautifully displayed here from Jena at Sew Much Music.

Love it! Unfortunately, I know my students will peel off the bits of velcro from each boomwhacker. I know this because I have several "naked" boomwhackers where the clear labels have been stripped off completely by students. The naked boomwhackers don't bother me too much because I use moveable do. I'm not crazy about students seeing boomwhackers labeled in solfege that is usually wrong for the song we're playing and singing. (C major is not a great key for kids to sing in!) I simply write the letter name of the boomwhacker directly on the tube with a sharpie.

I was very excited to try a new boomwhacker storage solution that my friend, Carrie Nicholas, shared with me last May. I purchased thirteen plastic bag dispensers from IKEA and attached them to the cabinets, and voilà!

"After" Small Percussion Area

I placed the IKEA containers to the bottom left of each cabinet so that the boomwhackers would not get in the way of the cabinet door handle. The containers come with sticky tape to attach to a surface and that's what I used. You could screw them into a wall or cabinet if needed. 

Maps!

Like many music teachers, I display maps in my room. It's wonderful to be able to point out the countries and states of where our classroom songs originate. I've had these maps on the wall for several years.

"Before" maps. OK, but a little small and drab.

A JoAnn's store recently opened near my school and I was excited to find world map fabric and US map fabric! It's sold by the panel and it's very large and colorful.

"After" US Map

"After" World Map: colorful fabric!

Here are both maps on the back wall of my room. The students will be adding descriptions to the music elements board during the school year. 

Music Elements and Maps

I hope to share other pictures of my music room set-up later this week, so please check back. Have a great week whether you're already teaching or getting things ready for your school year!