#OneWord

The trending # on Twitter with educators right now is #oneword, as in, what is your #oneword that will shape or encourage you this year?

I've seen a lot of great ones so far.....from dream to believe to courage. It's easy to imagine what those words may invoke for someone. While I would love to use one of those inspiring words, I am going to take it back to the basics and go with something simple.

My #oneword is live.

No, I'm not talking in a physical sense.....I'm not sick or dying! Nothing like that. It's been a rough year and I've been through quite a bit in the last 12+ months......I feel like I barely made it through. I've had a lot of challenges that I'm still not over and done with, and I want 2016 to be a year where I start living and not just surviving. (And admittedly, I've been listening to waaaaaaay too much Adele. What a powerful line......if you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to her entire album NOW.) 

So while I'd love to say create, inspire, dream, hope.....my #oneword is just live. Live life and enjoy and appreciate the little things. Find myself and live a life of happiness rather than what ifs. Remember why I got into education and rediscover my purpose. We all have one and mine is here screaming to get out from behind the wall of a tough year. 

Happy 2016, everyone. 

In this music classroom....

I think we've all seen the popular printables about "In this classroom..." stating the expectations of the classroom or characteristics of the students. I changed it up a little bit, played around a bit in Photoshop and came up with this one:

Click here to download a full size copy.

I had it in one of my favorite color combinations (aqua, red and white) and it ended up looking patriotic....so I switched the colors around. Now it's a bit Dr. Seuss? I don't know. If you like it, feel free to download and use it! If you like it but want a copy in your school colors or classroom colors, contact me on Twitter @KellyParrish605 or leave me a comment.

If you think there is a very important adjective that describes the music-makers in your music class, let me know! There's always room for improvement.

'Tis the Season

Around this time of year, it's Nutcracker Season! Tchaikovsky's beloved music is studied and enjoyed year after year in music rooms all over the world. In my classes, it was always concentrated on first grade. However, I have used the music with other grade levels as review and I always included some cool performances of it in my annual singalongs in the past. These two are my recent favorites:

As for the first video, do I need to say much about Pentatonix? I love them and the kids go crazy over them. They are so amazingly talented! And for the second video, it is fascinating on a musical and a scientific level! The kids really enjoy this one as well.

As for other activities students could use when studying The Nutcracker, there are SO many great things out there already! Search on Pinterest and you'll find some wonderful units. While I have not usually have the class time in the past to go into major unit, I did think that a bingo game might be fun. It gives them something to listen for and gives some motivation to pay close attention to the details. There are five different pages you can print out. Feel free to make up your own rules as far as the "bingo" goes.

Just a screenshot....when you print, those annoying "you spelled these words from another language wrong" lines won't show up :)

By the way, if you haven't discovered Picmonkey yet, it's an easy-to-use web-based graphics site. I used it to make the candy cane frame and the Nutcracker clipart. (For this reason, this is another for personal use only.) I can't guarantee that some of those didn't come from my upgraded membership, but there are a lot of fun features on the free membership of the website. And did I mention it's easy to use?

Anyway, I made most of the answer squares educational references to the story, music and ballet but a couple are easy freebie "are you listening?" squares. :) Some of them require a couple written words and they may have to turn it over to the back for a bit more room.

Enjoy!

Nutcracker Bingo - Free for personal use

Snowmen in Kindergarten

As I sort of thought, the weather is......pretty much back to the normal low of 40's and high of mid 60's. Did you think I would say it was snowing? If you did, I bet you've never been here. :)

But it doesn't prevent us from continuing on with the snow theme in the music room. This Kindergarten favorite is one that I actually learned from my son about 6 years ago! Talk about the true oral tradition living on.....he learned it in his preschool class for their winter performance and came home excited to tell it to me. I hadn't actually heard it before and it was just too cute! (Anything from a 4 year-old is though!! Well, almost anything.)

I made this as a picture book (before I got my projector), we act it out, I have made masks (which I sell in my Etsy store), we do it as just the fingerplay.....whatever feels right. I did add one thing that makes it a great vocal practice for Kinder especially.....after each snowman melts, we say "OOOOoooooooo" in a high-low sliding voice and we "melt" down to the ground (or use our hands if we are seated) to reinforce high to low. That gives us a moment to pause and think about how many are left and they are usually very eager to tell you how many the answer. (I always play innocent, though there are some days I truly can't remember which one we left off on......) 

The Powerpoint is animated to melt each snowman if you're not too click-happy and I've checked it a million times.....hopefully everything saved properly.

Five Little Snowmen PowerPoint Show

I was hoping to add in one more thing that I shared around this time last year, but the website is changing up. I found the book Snowmen at Night on a great online website called "We Give Books" but it does not seem to the there anymore. So instead, here's a link to it on Amazon and what the cover looks like:

This book is great for movement! These crazy snowmen go on an adventure all over town, sliding and gliding around.....perfect for the kids imitate. It's a delightful story. And I can't leave this post without mentioning Frosty! I love this book version:

What are your favorite snowman activities in the music room? What can you think of for the older grade levels?