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Test 4 Mrs. Miracle's Music Room

February 16, 2016

Fourth Grade Performance {Olivia's Birds}

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This past week, my fourth graders performed a program based on the book, "Olivia's Birds" by Olivia Bouler.  The book is a really inspiring true story about an 11-year-old named Olivia who helped Audubon by donating her art to people who contributed to the Gulf Clean-Up Campaign. All of the art and text throughout the book is created by Olivia! Today, I'm blogging with a summary of songs and dances I used for the program, as well as scenery ideas and an idea for donating to Audubon! I did this program with fourth grade, but it could easily be adapted for third or fifth. Here ar…

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February 04, 2016

6 strategies for remembering 600+ names

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Recently, I wrote a blog post with 10 things they don't tell you about teaching elementary music , and realized I should have added one more thing to the list: that you'll have to remember hundreds of names. Certainly, no one told me that I'd have to remember so many names! One of the great things about being a music teacher is teaching so many students...but that means there are a lot of names to memorize! I often have a hard time remembering a person's name after meeting them at a party, but yet, I CAN remember 650 or so student names. So how do I do it? Here's my list of…

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January 28, 2016

10 things they don't tell you about being an elementary music teacher

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Over the 17 years I have taught elementary music, I have learned so much about my profession, about the students, about music, and about education. Today, I'm blogging about the things I didn't learn from a workshop, from a book, or from a blog post, but instead just from experience! #1: You will lose your voice...and if you're not careful, you can damage it forever. My first year of teaching, I lost my voice EVERY single weekend. It shocked me how much I had to use my voice as a music teacher: singing, giving directions, managing my class. I wasn't expecting to barely be able t…

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January 24, 2016

Guest Post: The Envelope Game for Beginning Band

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I'm excited to have a guest blogger today! Tamarie Sayger will be writing about a game to help incorporate the  Kodály philosophy into the band classroom. You can read more about her at the end of this post; thanks to Tamarie for sharing her expertise! As someone who has been lucky enough to teach elementary music as well as secondary band, I love finding ways to incorporate Kodály philosophy into instrumental instruction.  Kodály training taught me how valuable different aspects of music education, other than just performance, are for children.  This article explains how I would use The Env…

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January 17, 2016

Composing in the Music Room

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So, you've taught students how to read music, using rhythm, solfa, and letter names, and now you want to have them compose. But where to begin? Just this year, I've really started delving into composition projects with my students, so I thought I'd share some ideas. Up until now, I think I've been so focused on teaching students how to read that I didn't feel like I had time to have them compose. However, after doing some reading on the subject and attending some great workshops, I realize that composition projects are doable in the general music classroom, even if you onl…

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January 11, 2016

Fifth Grade Performance {Wangari's Trees of Peace}

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This past fall, my fifth graders performed a program based on the book, "Wangari's Trees of Peace," by Jeanette Winter (click the picture to view the book on Amazon.) The book is a really inspiring true story about a girl from Kenya who plants trees to replenish ones which had been cut down. It's a great story about perseverance and courage! Today, I'm blogging with a summary of songs and dances I used for the program, as well as scenery ideas.  I divided all of the text in the book into one or two sentences, with 26 or so narrators reading lines and music and dances inters…

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January 09, 2016

Five favorite pins of January

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Hope you have had a wonderful start to your year! Since it is January, I am posting my five favorite pins of this month. If you are a blogger, feel free to join the linky party by following the directions at the end of this post. Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin. #1: Snowman melodic activity I love this idea of breaking down a song into its parts: lyrics, rhythm, and melody! I've been trying to break down songs like this with my students, but I love this visual! #2: Teaching Music Backwards This is a really interesting art…

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