Snow Days, Moving On, and New Ideas

I’m sitting here after shoveling snow, the snow that gave much of our region a bonus snow day…a day off to finally get my brain to settle after a busy conference and busy school week. And, I realize, it’s my last article!

I would like to thank all those people, who, for the past two years, helped me with our elementary conference sessions and concerts, ideas for articles, suggestions, moral support, and their patience. Cak, Patti, Sheila, Tracy, Robin, Cindy, Artie, Kalani, and Carol provided us with terrific sessions. Ed, Jennifer, Beth, and Jeffrey showed us the possibilities for children’s choirs with their groups’ performances. Special thanks to my family for their patience during these past two years! I’ll be passing the gauntlet to a terrific, terrific lady. Kathie Appleton is energetic, enthusiastic, and is going to do a knock-out job. Please make sure you give her all your support and help.

I’ll have to admit: there are a lot of memories from the past two conferences that’ll stay with me. For instance, I’ll never look at 5-gallon plastic buckets and trash cans with swinging lids the same way again! But, they’ve become a part of my classroom and curriculum in a way I never considered. Mallet Madness is ingrained, as are drumming circles and play party games. No matter how long one has been teaching, it never hurts to revamp, rejuvenate, and renew ideas.

In thinking ahead to next year (speaking of performances), don’t forget to submit an audition tape to be considered for next year’s concert! Keep your eyes peeled in the Missouri Schools Magazine for more information and the application form.

Now that this conference is over, I have a whole ‘nother semester for which to plan, National Boards to pass, programs to direct, and future education goals to research. Some of my classroom activities include the following:

• The Musical Heartland Hoedown for my fourth grade. This is becoming a tradition for my school. If you are not familiar with this musical, written by Bitsie Callahan, it’s an adorable way to introduce and reinforce the Missouri History GLE’s for music and social studies for fourth grade. I plan to incorporate the Missouri version of Skip to My Lou with this musical, since my fourth graders love it! If you’d like more details, please feel free to e-mail me, and I’ll send them to you.
• Utilizing Kalani’s African Drum and Dance, my sixth graders are going to start a unit of African music. This makes a terrific cross-curricular theme with P.E. and sixth grade social studies. You don’t even need authentic instrumentation to do this.
• My younger students are also drumming. Using Kalani’s Amazing Jamnasium and Together in Rhythm curriculum, my students are playing a variety of games that allow them to improvise and experiment with the different sounds their percussion instruments make. One game they enjoy, in particular, is Rumble Ball. Using a small playground ball, the students perform their instruments based on the way the ball is bounced or tossed. For instance, if the “rumble ball master” tosses the ball in the air, the students are instructed to find a way to play a higher “pitch” on their percussion (bear in mind, these are traditional non-pitched instruments. But there are ways!). If the ball is rolled, the students perform an extended sustained sound on their instrument. If the ball is bounced, the students are to strike their instrument only as the ball strikes the floor. (Great for attention spans!)

Looking ahead to March and April:

March is my Mallet Madness month. Artie Almeida’s Mallet Madness has become a staple in my classroom. (I lost my copy at the conference and got on Amazon right away to get another one!). This is a flexible system of rotating students among instruments. Orff proficiency is not necessary! Several of her lessons utilize literature, a way to incorporate communication arts into your classroom.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month. Do a simple blues project with your third and fourth graders. I’ve had students create their own lyrics to the tune of “Joe Turner Blues”. This would be a great time to introduce Scott Joplin to your fourth graders to correlate with the GLE’s and their social studies GLE’s.

One project I’ve done in the past with fifth grade is have them compose a jazz slang poem, based on their perceptions of popular classic jazz arrangements. Glossaries of jazz slang can be found on the Internet (be selective, though!). Select a variety of slang terms to post, as well as a jazz classic for listening purposes. After the students listen to your selection, they can work alone or in groups to create a poem using jazz slang to describe what they have heard in the music. Have your students perform their poems for the class. The kids can be as basic or showy as your imagination allows.

My sixth graders look forward to their jazz talk show. First, I give a very brief summary about several jazz greats from the past (again, being selective because of appropriateness). The classes divide into groups and select one of the musicians to research. When I do this, I print off biographies from the Internet and order youth-appropriate biographies. I will not allow the students to do Internet research on their own. Again, I have to be concerned with age-appropriate sources. The students pick on group member to portray the jazz great, another student to be the talk show host, and other members to take care of audio, props, cue cards, etc. The students produce a script of questions and answers about the jazz great, practice, and produce a talk show that I videotape. The fifth grade classes watch these “talk shows” and vote on the best production. The winning groups from each class have won the “Jazz Talk Show Emmys”. My prizes have ranged from snacks to extra recesses. It’s a fun unit, and the creativity of 11 and 12 year olds is priceless.

In signing off on this last article, I again want to encourage you to submit performance recordings for your groups and to give Kathie all your support and encouragement. I look forward to seeing everyone next year, when I can wear my blue jeans and sneakers!

Karen
Karen.stafford@washington.k12.mo.us