KIZZ DANIEL

Can I confess something to you?  I have no idea how any of my elementary or junior high teachers came up with a grade for me.  Not a single one.  Did they just "give" me a grade?  Did I do something to earn it?  Was there every any real assessment?  I don't think so.  I think that I got an A because I was a good kid that did what I was told.  Of course, that must mean that kids that didn't do that would have received a different grade.  Is that crazy?  Have you been guilty of that?

I guess that is one of the reasons that assessment has been so important to me.  I've created hundreds of rubrics, sat through dozens of assessment workshops for math and reading teachers trying to glean everything I could and challenged other music teachers to show me how they plan for authentic assessment.  I've learned that there is a wide variety of strategies for grading or assessing students in music class.  I've seen elaborate data tables and heard others say "I just give them an S, no matter what."  Whaaaat?  I've tried to find a balance based on how often I see my students and what I want them to be able to do when they leave my classroom.

Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite tools for assessing rhythm skills.  I call it ear training, but it isn't exactly what I remember doing for my Ear Training classes in college.  I use these assessments most often with 3rd through 6th grades but they could be adapted for use with younger and older students.  When I taught high school band I used this type of assessment all of the time.

Note Knacks are wooden blocks that are strategically cut so that note value is represented by block length.  So a half note is half the size of a whole note and a quarter note is half the size of a half note and so on.  The set comes with 3 different frames to hold the Note Knacks.  They measure 4 beats, 3 beats and 2 beats.  One side of the block has a note and the back side has the corresponding rest.  

I am lucky enough to have a magnetic set of Note Knacks and I keep them on my dry erase board.  They are much larger so that they can be seen by an entire classroom.  I've used them to decipher rhythms in familiar songs and to create ostinatos for various activities.  I've also used them in workstations.

I've also had students trace the outline of the blocks on long strips of bulletin board paper.  I only have one set of the blocks, so I could only do this activity with small groups as they rotated through workstations.  I hope to get a few more sets because I have SO many ideas I want to try out!

I bet I know what you are thinking.  Couldn't you just make something similar?  Well, sure.  I've made Noodle Notes which are similar.  The tactile experience of Note Knacks is what I like.  I mean, who doesn't like playing with blocks?

You can get Note Knacks from Rhythm Band Instruments.  If you liked these ideas PIN this post for later!

There seems to be a great debate among parents and educators about the value of fidget spinners in the classroom.  This blog post is NOT about that.  Instead, I'd like to share with you a few ways that you can use the spinners for practice and assessment in music class.

I've created a set of activities that use the fidget spinner as a timer and as...well...just as a spinner!  The best way to show you how to use them is in this video below.

"You want me to teach music QUIETLY?" I said in disbelief.  "Is that even possible?"

One of my favorite quiet activities for teaching pitch is to use my bottle cap staff sheets.  I have them laminated and use them for a variety of lesson.  For this lesson I pass out the sheets and a hand full of bottle caps.  I will say a word that can be spelled on the staff and students "write" it by putting their bottle caps in order.  In the picture, we just spelled "cafe".

 There are many ways to work on rhythm quietly.  Consider using chopsticks instead of rhythm sticks to play on the back of chairs or even on the floor.  The sound is light and intriguing for even 6th graders.

Another great quiet drumming activity (I know...quiet drumming?) is to use drum sticks on  foam garden kneeling pads.  I found purple and blue ones at Dollar Tree and LOVE that kids can really beat on them, but they sound delightfully muted.  :-)

Rhythmic dictation is a pretty quiet activity too.  I use dry erase boards or lap packs (staff paper or blank paper stuffed into a page protector) and dry erase markers.  You might consider using craft sticks, rhythm cards, mini erasers (matching the syllables in the name of the eraser to the number of sounds in the rhythm) and more.  Clap or tap the rhythms on an instrument, students echo and then write it down.  It is a great assessment and requires great listening skills.

Instead of writing the rhythms down, you might consider having students listen to the rhythm that you play and then circling the correct notation from a few examples.  I have an entire set of "What Do You Hear" worksheets that ask students to do just that.  They vary in complexity so you can use the set with multiple grade levels.  Click HERE to learn more.

If you are able to show videos, I highly recommend the Composer Series of movies about the lives of famous composers.  (not an affiliate link)  You probably already have these in your classroom.  

In addition to showing composer videos, you might consider planning time for your students to just listen to, read about and color pictures of popular composers.  I've talked about this kind of thing in a previous blog post: Coloring Composers.  You can get the set that I use HERE.

I also LOVE Jena Hudson's composer flip books.  You can find them in her store, Sew Much Music on TpT, or follow this link to try the American Composers Set for free!  

Another quiet, creative activity is listening and responding.  Choose a piece of music that inspires a story or vivid mental images.  Have students listen the first time.  For wiggly classes you may want to have them lightly tap the beat or follow you as you tap the beat in various ways.  

Next, have students lie down (if possible), close their eyes and imagine what kind of story the composer wanted them to "see" in the music.

Pass out blank pieces of paper and have them illustrate what they have heard.  For K-2, I often use THIS set of writing prompts that already have a few words written and blank writing lines.

"Stars and Stripes Forever" by Sousa (Shh! You might want to turn this one down a little!)

"Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" by Mussorgsky

"Funeral March of a Marionette" by Gounod

"Minute Waltz" by Chopin

"Hungarian Dance No. 5" by Brahms

If you are able to show videos, I highly recommend the Instrumental Classmates set of videos to introduce the instrument families.  I found my set on Amazon.  Quaver also has a great series of videos about instruments that your students will enjoy.  

If you are unable to show a video, your students might enjoy putting together a book of instruments.  Students can color the instruments, copy their name or add information about the instrument (with the add-on sheets included).  Click the picture above to get the full set of instrument families or click HERE to get the sampler for free.  Although this takes some time to make all of the copies you'll need, it is a great activity for a quiet day in music.

Another great quiet day activity is to read the book "The Remarkable Farkle McBride".  My 5th graders enjoy this story, so I can use this lesson with all of my classes.  At the end of the story, we will review instrument families and I'll pass out these simple coloring sheets.  While students are coloring we will listen to my classical music playlist for some quiet background music.

Quiet games are not usually favorites in my classroom, but over the years I've come up with a few that students will give a reluctant thumbs up.  They would much rather be drumming and dancing and singing, but quiet days don't always allow for that.

Telephone - This traditional game is played by having students sit in a circle and whispering a message to each other until it makes it all the way around the circle.  Hilarity ensues when the message at the end sounds nothing like the message that started.  The same idea can work with rhythms.  Have students tap a 4 beat measure on the back of the person next to them and then pass that around the group.  Students can usually master this in a couple of tries so then we make it a bit more difficult.  Instead of sending one rhythm around in one direction, start two rhythms.  One goes to the left and the other to the right and they all end up back at the same person.  Tricky!

I hope that you are never asked to teach music quietly, but if you are I hope that some of these ideas will prove helpful.  Like these ideas?  PIN THEM for later.

 

You've probably heard of using your hand as a visual aid for learning the names of pitches on the treble clef staff.  With five fingers....err...four and your thumb to represent lines and 4 spaces, it is perfect!  I wanted to take that idea just a little bit further with my students.  This is what we did.

Using plastic gloves and permanent markers we wrote the names of the lines at the tips of our fingers.  To solidify the concept that our fingers represented the treble clef lines, we drew lines on our fingers too.  Some of my students claimed they were drawing their bones!  

Next we found the spaces between our fingers and labeled them with the treble clef space names. 

With my students this year I used very thin, clear gloves that you might see food service workers use in your cafeteria.  They were pretty inexpensive but were quite large for some of my smaller students.  They were a safe choice for students with an allergy to latex.

Another time I used latex gloves (pictured above).  These gloves allowed us to write more clearly, but were MUCH more expensive.  I bought a box of large and a box of small and they fit better than the plastic gloves.  I would only recommend these if you were working with a pretty small class or were able to secure donations.

Permanent markers dried pretty fast during this project.  I experimented with several other writing utensils include ink pens, flair pens and paint pens.  Permanent markers are definitely the way to go.

After we finished our gloves we practiced using them with Music K-8's songs "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE" on YouTube.   I also love Quaver Music's "Lines and Spaces" for this activity.

Like this idea?  PIN IT for later!

For most flashlight routines that I have used in class I use two or three colors.  I use a large permanent marker and color in the lens. Depending on the marker, you may want to let it dry and then color it again.

Instead of using permanent markers, you could use colored plastic wrap and rubber bands.  I didn't like how often my rubber bands disappeared and turned into weapons, so after a time or two I decided this was not a good choice for me.

I chose inexpensive flashlights from the dollar store about bought about 10 more than my largest class because I expected some of them to break easily.  The batteries were pretty expensive, but with the help of a regional grant I was able to get enough to fill every flashlight.  

When using the flashlights sitting down, you get a large light on the ceiling.  It's pretty, but not very distinct or clear if your room isn't completely dark.  In the picture above you can see what it looks like when students are sitting.  In the picture below students were standing.  That produced a smaller, cleaner look to their light and it looked much better when we were all working together.

You could always buy smaller flashlights with a stronger beam to get the same effect.

Before putting flashlights in their hands we listen to the piece of music.  We either follow a listening maps or we listen and create our own listening map.  This gives students the experience they need to be successful when they get the flashlights.

We label each section with a letter name and decide on an action for the flashlight.

This video is of one of my 5th grade classes and their first attempt at a flashlight routine to "Cantina Band".  This is an unedited, imperfect, completely authentic look at how this works in my classroom.  I love how at section D they are in awe of their own awesomeness!

I hope this inspires you to try using flashlights in your classroom.  Do you have any favorite pieces that would work well with flashlights?  I would love to learn about them.  Let me know in the comments.

I have several sets of bowling pins at my house.  I know that sounds weird, but I've been working on and then perfecting a bowling workstation for several years.  The set that I used in the pictures is a wooden set.  It is a nice size and weight and the pins make a lovely sound when they fall down.

This set was on sale for 75% off when I picked it up.  Music teacher WIN!  I've picked up some at discount stores and yard sales too.

From experience with Layton Music's Music Yahtzee, I knew that putting a single eighth not or a dotted quarter note would up the difficulty of this game to the point where not all of my students would be able to play and successfully record their score.  I decided to use notes that would not utilize fractions, or their mathematical brothers, decimals.  I used quarter note, barred eighth notes, 4 sixteenth notes, half note, dotted half note and whole note.  I drew one of these on each of the six pins.  I used a permanent marker, but you could also use a paint pen.

I have a plastic set of pins.  I used a white paint pen and a silver Sharpie to draw on the notes.  They have held up quite well.  Although you could store the pins in their original box or container, I haven't found a set that holds up well.  I buy plastic storage containers and place everything in them.

Before introducing the game to students I spent some time practicing.  (Turns out I'm a pathetic bowler!)  I experimented with how far apart to place the pins and how far back I needed to stand to roll the boll.  If the pins are too far apart, they won't all fall down even with a perfect throw.  If they are too close together, they will all fall down every time.  I ended up finding the perfect distance for my set of pins and marking their placement with a piece of masking tape,  I also drew the note on the masking tape to help them set up as quickly as possible.

After much experimentation, I decided that my students needed to stand 4 floor tiles away from the pins.  (That's somewhere between 4 and 5 feet.)

If you don't have a bowling set, you can create your own pins with 20 ounce soda or water bottles.  You could even use empty 2-liter bottles.  Spray paint them before drawing the notes on and add about a third of a bottle of beans or sand to steady them.  Small Nerf balls would work great with these DIY pins. 

To complete the workstation, I include a score sheet on a clipboard and a pencil.  One version of the score sheet contains a "cheat sheet" and shows students the note value of each pin.  The other version does not.  My goal in using this workstation is to reinforce note values, so I don't mind if students use the score sheet with the references.  They still gain practice in adding them all together.

You can download both of the sheets by clicking on the picture above or by clicking HERE.  I hope that your students enjoy this activity!