“THREE THINGS THAT WENT WELL” WEEK 2

This week I’m teaming up again with Aileen Miracle on the theme of “Three Things”  (Week 2) that went well for me last week. We all have those magical teaching moments and I thought it’d be a great idea to share mine with you my three magical teaching moments.>

 

Three things that worked really well for my students last week.

 

 

1-Writing notes on the treble clef AND playing the matching game on the laminated staff sheets.

I purchased a bag of odd foam shapes and let my students use them to place notes on the lines and spaces. For some “odd” reason–they just love reaching in the bag and choosing their own shapes and colors…yes, I could micro-manage this and count them out myself into little piles–but I don’t because THEY LOVE TO CHOOSE!  I think that experience has made a big impact on my teaching too. If the kids LOVE it–they will DO IT!  Hmmm–makes us work harder as teachers, but the rewards can exceed our expectations.

The process of teaching the notes on the staff and helping students internalize the concepts of lines and spaces, sequential note names and pitch identification can seem overwhelming to many teachers. I’ve found that breaking down the components of those skills into small, teeny, tiny segments really makes a difference in students’ ability to understand and show these concepts. I have them “DO THINGS”. First I teach and then the students have several activities that they do in order to understand the concepts. I have to say that one of the most fun things we did all week was to create ACRONYMS.  

 

 

 

The Treble Clef activities come from my product BE A WIZ ON THE TREBLE CLEF

 

 

 

3-Teaching the “HIDE THE SCARF” Game song to Second Graders. We’re working on our Program of Music from Around the World. Here’s my authentic Chines puppet they loved watching during the Chinese Music Montage that I played for them. My students love to chase each other around the circle with the twist of adding in a bright red scarf for China!