Here is the score for the adapted version of "Beneath the Raven Moon" to be performed on Recorders.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Kindergarten Music Outline
I've been doing some work on kindergarten music for a long time. When I started teaching 5 years ago, the way my traveling job was set up involved teaching 11 kindergarten classes. One school in the district was all kindergarten, 10 classes, so I was there half the day three days per week. My new job has had 5 kindergarten classes every year. So, I'd say I'm pretty used to teaching kindergarten, and I think I've gotten pretty good at it. Not amazing or anything, but pretty good.
I've had two kindergarten curriculums. I've liked both, but I have felt that they weren't as all-inclusive as I'd prefer. They are much more unit-based, which is okay, but I want to make sure my kindergarteners are getting a well-rounded and full standards-aligned curriculum, so I've added lots to both. The first curriculum I had was Share the Music, which I felt was really great at the kindergarten level. At my current school, I have Music Expressions (made by WB...how strange!) which is very, very good. I've sort of mixed the two together. I purchased my own kindergarten level Share the Music book and CD set when I taught at my previous school, so I still have access to the music I used.
I think my April goal here will be to write up an entire kindergarten curriculum by posting something each day related to kindergarten music teaching. Of course, I am always looking to improve and get better, etc, and I know that I'll need to start aligning things to the Common Core standards, but those will be secondary to the music standards, which are my job-required standards to align. I live in Illinois, so I will be using the 1994 National Standards for Music Education established by then-MENC now-NAfME, and I will be using the State Goals and Standards #25, 26, and 27 for the Fine Arts, with a focus on the music ones, for Illinois.
Today, as a start, I'll just post my primary unit topics. I will add here that I like to try to include all nine standards at least once in every unit that I write because I think it is more important to include all of the standards and to write my lessons around those than it is to write my lessons first and then try to pick and choose standards that work. So here they are, in the order that I like to teach them.
First Semester
1. Get to know me, get to know you, get to know music class (singing, movement, and beat)
2. Beat/Rhythm
3. Singing
4. Opposites (Fast/Slow, High/Low, Loud/Soft, Up/Down)
5. Singing/Rhythm games
6. Same/Different
Second Semester
1. Percussion
2. Beat/Rhythm with Percussion
3. Instrument Families/Aural Recognition
4. Carnival of the Animals
5. Open House Musical
6. Reading Rhythms (Quarter Notes, Quarter Rests, Two-Eighths)
Throughout the year, I have "days off" from the units we are doing to celebrate seasons and holidays. We also do listening assignments in every unit. With listening assignments, we do movement activities, history learning (about the composers, their lives, and stories about their music), and form. One of my improvement goals is to write in evaluating lessons.
I feel like I should also note that I try my best to incorporate everything we learn from the first semester into our studies in the second semester whenever they apply. For example, in the first semester, we learn about opposites. I try to bring our opposites back in to all of the other music we learn for the rest of the year.
I hope I can continue to post parts of my units until I've got the entire curriculum up here. Wherever there are technology materials available, I'll try to post links. I use a Promethean Board in my classroom, so I am able to upload any flipcharts I make to the Promethean website to be available for download for others. Any PowerPoint presentations, I will also upload. I hope to eventually have everything that is legally mine here and available for use for others.
I felt so overwhelmed my first year of teaching. I had minor training in elementary music. I was focused on teaching high school, but that isn't where the cards landed. I think it is important to try to plant roots where you are if there aren't options to go where you need to go. Therefore, I want to do the best I can teaching what I've been blessed to teach and improve as much as I can. I hope these posts will be useful to someone else who might be in my shoes!
I've had two kindergarten curriculums. I've liked both, but I have felt that they weren't as all-inclusive as I'd prefer. They are much more unit-based, which is okay, but I want to make sure my kindergarteners are getting a well-rounded and full standards-aligned curriculum, so I've added lots to both. The first curriculum I had was Share the Music, which I felt was really great at the kindergarten level. At my current school, I have Music Expressions (made by WB...how strange!) which is very, very good. I've sort of mixed the two together. I purchased my own kindergarten level Share the Music book and CD set when I taught at my previous school, so I still have access to the music I used.
I think my April goal here will be to write up an entire kindergarten curriculum by posting something each day related to kindergarten music teaching. Of course, I am always looking to improve and get better, etc, and I know that I'll need to start aligning things to the Common Core standards, but those will be secondary to the music standards, which are my job-required standards to align. I live in Illinois, so I will be using the 1994 National Standards for Music Education established by then-MENC now-NAfME, and I will be using the State Goals and Standards #25, 26, and 27 for the Fine Arts, with a focus on the music ones, for Illinois.
Today, as a start, I'll just post my primary unit topics. I will add here that I like to try to include all nine standards at least once in every unit that I write because I think it is more important to include all of the standards and to write my lessons around those than it is to write my lessons first and then try to pick and choose standards that work. So here they are, in the order that I like to teach them.
First Semester
1. Get to know me, get to know you, get to know music class (singing, movement, and beat)
2. Beat/Rhythm
3. Singing
4. Opposites (Fast/Slow, High/Low, Loud/Soft, Up/Down)
5. Singing/Rhythm games
6. Same/Different
Second Semester
1. Percussion
2. Beat/Rhythm with Percussion
3. Instrument Families/Aural Recognition
4. Carnival of the Animals
5. Open House Musical
6. Reading Rhythms (Quarter Notes, Quarter Rests, Two-Eighths)
Throughout the year, I have "days off" from the units we are doing to celebrate seasons and holidays. We also do listening assignments in every unit. With listening assignments, we do movement activities, history learning (about the composers, their lives, and stories about their music), and form. One of my improvement goals is to write in evaluating lessons.
I feel like I should also note that I try my best to incorporate everything we learn from the first semester into our studies in the second semester whenever they apply. For example, in the first semester, we learn about opposites. I try to bring our opposites back in to all of the other music we learn for the rest of the year.
I hope I can continue to post parts of my units until I've got the entire curriculum up here. Wherever there are technology materials available, I'll try to post links. I use a Promethean Board in my classroom, so I am able to upload any flipcharts I make to the Promethean website to be available for download for others. Any PowerPoint presentations, I will also upload. I hope to eventually have everything that is legally mine here and available for use for others.
I felt so overwhelmed my first year of teaching. I had minor training in elementary music. I was focused on teaching high school, but that isn't where the cards landed. I think it is important to try to plant roots where you are if there aren't options to go where you need to go. Therefore, I want to do the best I can teaching what I've been blessed to teach and improve as much as I can. I hope these posts will be useful to someone else who might be in my shoes!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
Welcome!
Welcome to the Music at RES blog! Here, I'll be updating the fun lesson plans and ideas that I use for my elementary music classes at Riverton Elementary School.
Just for general information about my school:
I teach K-4 music at Riverton Elementary School. Our school hosts students from Pre-K through 4th grade, and we have about 650 students. I have all students in kindergarten through fourth grade, and I see them every other day. I see 11 classes per day for 25 minutes with 5 minutes between. Our school has between 20-30 kids in each class. I have 5 4th grade classes, 4 3rd, 2nd, and 1st grade classes, and 5 kindergarten classes. I see two kindergarten classes at once every other day, which provides a new challenge. I absolutely love my students, and teaching them and interacting with them every day is a great joy to me. There is very little that I enjoy more than seeing my students enjoy themselves while making music, and I love to sneak in as much learning as I can to make them lifelong music learners.
Technology:
My school received a grant thanks to our excellent principal a few years ago that provided 1:1 mini laptops for all students in our district from 3rd-8th grades. We also have a computer lab with minis for our K-2 students. In my classroom, I have a Promethean interactive whiteboard and we use the ActivInspire software. It is my goal to figure out new ways to incorporate the use of the minis with my students as much as possible, especially with the 3rd and 4th graders, who have their own.
Curriculum:
One of the reasons I am creating this blog is to help organize my curriculum better by blogging about what lesson plans or units have worked well and what hasn't. I have a curriculum that is very good, but it is not all-inclusive, so I feel the need to use my own resources quite a bit so that my students are receiving what I consider to be a well-rounded music education. It is also a goal of mine to figure out a way to develop an honor choir to give my students more opportunities to participate in music ensembles from a young age.
My education:
I received my Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois in 2009. I taught for 2 years in Charleston, Illinois public schools. I took the job at Riverton in 2011. I began my masters in music education in January 2013 at the University of Florida online, and I will complete it in December 2014. I will also be beginning my Kodaly certification process this summer at Silver Lake College in Wisconsin.
I hope you enjoy reading my blog and are able to find useful resources for your music education classes. Or, if you are a Riverton parent, I hope you enjoy the blog as you venture into the activities of your child in music class at Riverton each day.
Enjoy!
Melody Kneezel
Just for general information about my school:
I teach K-4 music at Riverton Elementary School. Our school hosts students from Pre-K through 4th grade, and we have about 650 students. I have all students in kindergarten through fourth grade, and I see them every other day. I see 11 classes per day for 25 minutes with 5 minutes between. Our school has between 20-30 kids in each class. I have 5 4th grade classes, 4 3rd, 2nd, and 1st grade classes, and 5 kindergarten classes. I see two kindergarten classes at once every other day, which provides a new challenge. I absolutely love my students, and teaching them and interacting with them every day is a great joy to me. There is very little that I enjoy more than seeing my students enjoy themselves while making music, and I love to sneak in as much learning as I can to make them lifelong music learners.
Technology:
My school received a grant thanks to our excellent principal a few years ago that provided 1:1 mini laptops for all students in our district from 3rd-8th grades. We also have a computer lab with minis for our K-2 students. In my classroom, I have a Promethean interactive whiteboard and we use the ActivInspire software. It is my goal to figure out new ways to incorporate the use of the minis with my students as much as possible, especially with the 3rd and 4th graders, who have their own.
Curriculum:
One of the reasons I am creating this blog is to help organize my curriculum better by blogging about what lesson plans or units have worked well and what hasn't. I have a curriculum that is very good, but it is not all-inclusive, so I feel the need to use my own resources quite a bit so that my students are receiving what I consider to be a well-rounded music education. It is also a goal of mine to figure out a way to develop an honor choir to give my students more opportunities to participate in music ensembles from a young age.
My education:
I received my Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois in 2009. I taught for 2 years in Charleston, Illinois public schools. I took the job at Riverton in 2011. I began my masters in music education in January 2013 at the University of Florida online, and I will complete it in December 2014. I will also be beginning my Kodaly certification process this summer at Silver Lake College in Wisconsin.
I hope you enjoy reading my blog and are able to find useful resources for your music education classes. Or, if you are a Riverton parent, I hope you enjoy the blog as you venture into the activities of your child in music class at Riverton each day.
Enjoy!
Melody Kneezel
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