Dance On!

Hi eveyone - this is Karla from CMajorLearning. I am currently working with some amazing folks at Colorado State University in the Colorado Kodály Institute program where I have the privilege of teaching Level III Methodology and Folksong Research.  I cannot put into words how much I love working with fellow music collegues in this capacity!

One of my favorite Level III topics is teaching movement and dance in our general music classrooms.  If you are at all interested in this topic, I encourage you to dust off your Choksy Kodály Context book and read Chapter 3 "Movement and Dance in Kodály Practice" (page 40).  This chapter includes a brief history of dance and how it came to be in the United States - a very interesting ready.  My favorite part, however, is at the end of the chapter where Choksy has included "A Developmental Sequence for Teaching Movement and Dance via Kodály Principles" (pages 50-51).

I would like to share some of my favorite structured movement pieces (done to recorded music with no singing) that are towards the end of the sequence in the Choksy book.  I don't get to dance these much since I'm teaching K-2nd grade and so when I do get to dance them I'm pretty excited - just ask any of my former Level III students!

(in no particular order)

Zingernerpolka - a circle game from Teaching Music and Dance with the recording on Rhythmically Moving CD #2 by Phyllis Weikart

Salty Dog Rag - a partner circle game from Teaching Music and Dance with the recording on Rhythmically Moving CD #9 by Phyllis Weikart

Amos Moses - from Teaching Music and Dance with the recording on Rhymically Moving CD #8

Sashay the Donut - a double circle game with lots of sashaying from Sashay the Donut by the New England Dancing Masters

Troika - a circle dance in groups of 3 from Russia from Teaching Music and Dance and Rhymically Moving CD #2 by Phyllis Weikart

Fjäskern - can be done as a stick passing game or I just learned it as a circle game (thanks Tanya LeJune!)  Recordings can be found on Rhythmically Moving CS #2  or Dance Music for Children Level I by the Shenanigans

Borrowdale Exchange  - a mixer done in groups of 6 - as learned from Sandy Knudson, OAKE National Conference 2014

Happy dancing!!!

 

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Brain Breaks

I think they do make a difference!

Howdy friends!  This is Karla Cherwinski from CMajorLearning.com – no I’m not down south YET but I am looking forward to my trip to the Organization of American Kodály Educators conference in Atlanta from March 20-22!  It has been a few years since I’ve been able to attend a national conference and I have missed it so very much!  I can’t wait to spend time with friends I only get to see once a year as well as meet new Kodaly inspired teachers who share my approach to music education!  Are you going to be there?  If so, give a shout out in the comments section – would love to see as many of you as I can!

The inspiration for this blog post came from fellow teachers at my school, Indian Trail Elementary a kindergarten through 2nd grade building (about 850 students) in Canal Winchester, OH.  It has been a long, snowy and cold winter here in OH and the kids really need to get outside and blow the stink off (as my mother would say) but due to the cold they can’t do it at school or at home!  In a Kodály inspired classroom, we have brain breaks built right in naturally, but classroom teachers do not have the same situation. My teaching colleagues were discussing creative ways to get the students up and moving during inside recess as well as ways to give them some brain breaks throughout the day in order to maintain concentration and focus for learning.  I am very fortunate because I am included in these conversations and even sought out when they are looking for ways to improve their daily school experience.  My teachers and administration get that music is not just an extra but a necessity to a well-rounded education!

We are fortunate that everyone can access the Internet (yes – even YouTube!) as well as we all have a SmartBoard that can be turned into a big screen TV for viewing video's in our classrooms.  If you have done any looking around for these brain breaks, you are probably aware that they usually involve MUSIC!!!  So, I’m going to share a few of my favorites, these are not used for the purposes of fulfilling the music curriculum but rather to expose students to something new, get the blood pumping and the brain ready to learn, or to fill those 2-3 minutes that you have at the end of class.

#1 – GoNoodle – I just learned about this last week from the blog Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreation and can’t wait to try it out in my classroom! 

You do need to create an account but it is FREE and it allows you access to all the brain breaks they have.  What I really like about this site is that it allows you to set up classrooms where the avatar ‘grows’ the more you do brain breaks.  It is a really fun way to get students engaged and I think they will really like it!  The songs are for all age levels and include Dinosaur Stomp, Dancing Robots, The Continental Drift, Cupid Shuffle, “Run With Us” where you go through training to run in different track and field events – you are even ‘coached’ by Olympic athletes!  I think there is great potential here for ALL teachers to get their kids up and moving!

There is even research that supports the GoNoodle idea of brain breaks and improved student performance.

#2 – Wii Just Dance Kids – Did you know that you can find just about anything on YouTube! Ha!!!  I like to fill those few extra minutes with Wii Just Dance Kids.  In preparing for this blog, I just learned that there are new ones out there from the Wii Just Dance Kids 2014 game!  My students LOVE Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bedbut I can’t wait to try out What does the Fox Say?, I Like to Move It, and The Chicken Dance! Simply search Wii Just Dance Kids and you will get lots of results.

Here is a short clip of my K's doing Five Little Monkeys and it just happened to be pajama day when I video taped them!

#3 – Move It!  and Move It 2! – I felt like a genius when I realized that I could just put the John Feierabend’s DVD right up on the SmartBoard and have the kids learn right from him!  you know - one of those "why didn't I think of this before" type of moments!  This is great to do when you have a sub or want to introduce a movement activity to your students for a future performance.  I have found better buy-in from the students when I present the activities this way and it is fun to be on the other side of the teaching for a change – I get to do the movements WITH my students not for or in front of them.  I think that they have liked that too!  If you are not familiar with this resource, please check it out, they are a little pricey but worth every penny in my opinion. Both DVDs are available through WestMusic.

Best wishes for a happy and warm spring with lots of great fun had in all of your music classrooms!!!

   

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Thoughts on a conference: KMEA

This past Thursday through Saturday was our state music conference, KMEA, in Kansas. This time is always such a nice time to get pumped up again, rejuvenate, and get some fresh ideas for teaching.

Below are some of the great ideas I collected from the conference plus a few great finds at some of the booths. You can check out my blog, Pursuit of Joyfulness for even more thoughts on the conference (coming soon).

The presenter I was most looking forward to seeing was Andrew Ellingsen. He presented in Wichita last May and if you haven't seen him yet, you need to!

He presented two sessions, one on sequencing movement and another on play. Two things I hold so near and dear to my teaching.

Before I started teaching at my current school, I had never done much in the way of folk dancing with my kids and it was not something I had been exposed to prior to that, but they had a tradition of having a square dance night the week of Kansas Day at my school and I was in charge of teaching each grade level a dance to perform on the stage in front of parents. It is a huge fundraiser for our school and coincides with a book fair on the same night!

When I found out I was going to be in charge of this, I called upon a good friend, Hannah Northerns, who is currently our KMEK president. She came out to my school and presented a folk dance to each grade level. I video taped her so that I could remember all the steps and the sequence she used for teaching each dance. Each summer during our Kodaly training at Wichita State University there has been a special topics on folk dancing and I have been able to expand my knowledge on dancing, teaching, and repertoire.

When Andrew presented he laid out for us a sequence for teaching movement in circle dances and explained that in the same way that we prepare, present and practice rhythmic and melodic concepts, that movement should have a sequence too.

He suggested the following circle dance sequence:
1. Chasing circle games "duck duck goose" style
2. Follow a leader around
3. Circle left/right without holding hands
4. Circle left/right while holding hands
5. Circle one direction only, add in/out
6. Circle left/right going forward and back
7. Trade places with a partner
8. Changing Partners Around the Circle
9. Changing partners with other dance patterns between
10. Changing partners with more complicated dance patterns
11. Changing in groups of three
12. Changing in groups of three with more complicated dance patterns
13. Sicilian Circle with pauses
14. Sicilian Circle without pauses
(Sequence by Andrew Ellingsen- used with permission)

Some of the things that I am sure I have seen before but it was nice to be reminded of where the quick fixes for teaching movement such as "point your toes in the direction that you are going to be traveling" and if anyone is facing each other, someone is going the wrong way. He also did a great job of isolating new movements either by having us try it on our own first or trying it with our partner but without the music.

All of the dances that he presented were brand new to me! YAY! So now I have fresh, new ideas and dances to add to my mix.

Which leads me to my next topic. Every year at KMEA it is incredibly hard not to go crazy and spend millions down at the booths in the exhibits. I am really interested in incorporating the dances that Andrew showed us so I looked for Rhythmically Moving 3 which had the Mexican Mixer dance as well as Fjaskern.

When I was at the West Music booth I saw that I could get all nine CDs for a discounted price, so I am putting that on my request list for school!

Phyllis Weikart also has this book available and it looks like a true gem. I think I need this too!

Since these were bigger ticket items, I wasn't able to walk away from the conference with them in my hands ready to use this week at school, but I am definitely going to ask for them!

I didn't leave empty handed though! I did get many great new books to sing to my kids. My kids just love when I sing them a story. You can find out more about my story corner here.

All of these books are available through West Music.

We used this song in Level 3, but it would be a great one for steady beat and could also be easily paired with Going on a Bear Hunt or Grizzly Bear.

There is a song that goes with this book but when I saw it I thought of the song "Mother, Mother"

This is the book of my long song that I collected in Level 3 this past summer. I feel like it is called something else in my song collection though, like "There Once Was A Man".

Fortunately will be a fun one that I plan to use with vocal exploration. I have also seen it used with major and minor. 

The last two books, I got to sing to my daughter, Ellie. She has a bunch of rubber ducks that we line up in the bath tub and sing this song during bath time. We make the ducks go away and come back. I read this one to her first when we got home from KMEA and I could tell by the look on her face that she was just so amazed that there was a book that went along with the song.

 

I can remember this being one of my favorite songs when I was really little, so when I saw this little board book, I had to buy it for Ellie as well.

Do you use a similar sequence for teaching folk dancing and movement?

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More Moving and Grooving!

Happy Wednesday! 

This past weekend was the Colorado Music Educator's Association Conference in Colorado Springs, CO. It was great to see so many wonderful presenters (like our very own, Amy Abbott!) and spend time with colleagues making music and sharing ideas. It is so easy to feel isolated as a music teacher, which is why I am so grateful for opportunities to collaborate and for all the online communities that have popped up to keep us connected and supporting each other!

I am going to piggy-back on Karla's movement post, and add a few more ideas for you to try! I am a HUGE fan of movement activities. The more I learn and research, the more I am convinced that giving our kids chances to move leads to higher engagement, increased learning and many more smiles in your classroom.

One resource I have been using recently and loving is Lynn Kleiner's "Kids Can Listen, Kids Can Move."

I have put my "Kodály Twist" on a few of her activities and my kids love them! Here is a highlight...

Hungarian Dance No. 6 with Queen Caroline

Queen Caroline is one of my absolute favorites! Like many of you, I use this chant to teach beat, rhythm, high/low, inner hearing, quarter and paired eighth...it's a gold mine!

Given my love for Queen Caroline, I was so excited to find a listening and movement lesson to connect to it in my classroom. I have adapted the story from the book, to go something like this...

"Queen Caroline was throwing a birthday party at her castle for all the most important people in the land. She told her servants that they needed to be very proper and always bow or curtsy when they met a guest at the party. To prepare for her party she had the servants practice walking around the ballroom with their heads held high, bowing and curtsying to each other. What Queen Caroline didn't know is that when she would look away, her servants would dance and make silly faces to one another." 

I then play the recording of Brahm's Hungarian Dance, No. 6 (click here to hear the piece on YouTube) and let them listen for when they think the servants are serious or silly. There is a clear contrast between the a and b motives in timbre and tempo. They then get to act out the story walking around. You can also add another level, saying that if the queen (you) catches them being silly when she turns back around, they have to sit in "the dungeon" or sit out. It is fun, fast, and a good listening example for same/different and fast/slow for your Kindergartners or 1st graders. Plus, my kids BEG to play it, so it is a nice carrot to have on a wild or crazy day! 

There are many other great ideas for your younger students in this resource that you can tie into your folksongs, so I encourage you to check it out if you are looking for ways to meld listening and movement!

It is always fun when you can make a connection to your classroom literature in a movement or listening activity, but I also try to find ways to include opportunities for movement in day-to-day activities. Here are a few more ideas of ways to get your kids up and moving...

Movement with Flashcards

Flashcards are such a quick way to practice concepts, but let's be honest- they can get boring. I am always trying to keep my kids engaged and IMPROVING when we use flashcards, so one activity I came up with was "Music Walk." For this activity, I give every kid a flashcard with the concept that we are practicing (rhythm works best in this activity). Then I play something fun for them to walk and dance around to (ABC by Jackson Five is always a hit) and let them move throughout the classroom. When you pause the music, they have to partner with the person closest to them and read the rhythm on their card. Their partner reads their card, and then they switch cards giving each kid a new flashcard. The music starts again and they repeat the activity. It gets a little noisy, but I have found that my kids get more practice this way than when we read as a whole class. I also will often participate with them and strategically partner myself with kids I know need a little extra help.

Body Scales and other Simple Games

I sometimes find that as teachers, our tool box gets so full that some of our simplest (but still effective) treasures get buried at the bottom. I keep a list by my desk reminding of all the basic ways to prepare and practice to draw from when I am lesson planning, and I find it really helpful!

Things like body scales (having your kids move to show the contour of the pitch), walking the rhythm, chair dictation, etc. are great ways to give your kids a chance to wiggle and move while getting in some extra practice or preparation for what you are working on.

Using Movement Canons to help with Part Work

I am new to my school this year, and one thing my students need a lot of help with is part work. So, for my last tidbit, I thought I would tie into some of Sue's post and share some strategies for improving part singing through the use of movement. When teaching rounds, partner songs, ostinati, and harmony, I have found that movement is an awesome way to help your kids improve their part singing. Here's an example...

My 2nd graders are pretty strong singers, but were struggling with rounds. In particular, I found that the 2nd group would often come in on the wrong pitch, matching the group that had already started. For example, in "Are You Sleeping," my students would start the round on mi instead of do. There are many strategies you can use to address this (maybe I'll get to that in a later post...), but one strategy I've found very effective is including movement. Movement helps kids visualize how the pieces fit together so well!  You can break it down like this...

Step 1: Divide your class into two circles. Have both circles sing at the same time, walking around the circle and stopping at the end of the song.

Step 2: Repeat, but this time in a round. Being in the circle formation will help them hear their part, and the movement cues them to start from the beginning. I would recommend you join the 2nd group to start.

Step 3: As a challenge, you can repeat the round in concentric circles. I have used movement like this for programs before... it looks and sounds beautiful!

Adding movement like this, or even simple layered actions, gives your singers a visual representation of the harmony and keeps the active and engaged.

I hope you are having a great week and that you will find some of these ideas helpful! Happy moving and grooving!

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Get up and Get Moving!

Winter greetings to everyone!  My post today is inspired by the very cold weather we have been having in Ohio and how that has impacted my teaching this week!  I know some may say that the weather in Ohio is not really that cold but this week we have had temperatures in the single digits with wind chills below zero everyday!  A friend posted on facebook the temperature in Anchorage, Alaska - 36 degrees, the temperature in Canal Winchester, Ohio - 3 degrees!  Crazy!!

So with the very cold temperatures that means 2 hour delays for school, inside recess and no playing outside!  I find the students to be very antsy and needing to get their bodies moving!  I’m sharing 3 activities that I have used with my students this week for the sole purpose of getting them up and moving.

One the students favorites is to do Jim Along Josie.  I actually started using this in kindergarten with them because I needed a very short movement activity and they LOVED it!  I play Jill Trinka’s recording off her cd titled ‘My Little Rooster’, Jim Along Josie is track 1.  

The first time I play it, the students must listen and tell me all the different motions are that she sings about (walking, skipping, flying like an eagle, jumping like a kangaroo and spinning).  After listing them all, we get up and move the way she says.  This recording is less than a minute long so it is short and sweet but serves the purpose very well!  The first motion is to ‘jim along’, I tell the kids that I don’t know what it means to ‘jim along’ and that we have to come up with our own motion during that time of the song. 

Inspired by Sue and her video’s, I’m posting a short clip of my first graders doing ‘Jim Along Josie’!

Another activity my students really enjoy and gets them up and moving is called ‘The Freeze’.  I must admit that I have had this recording for a very long time and I think it was originally on a cassette tape that I transferred to a cd.  I honestly don’t remember when I got it AND who it is!!!  If someone knows, please please please tell me!!!

The way I do the games is the music is playing and the students can move freely around the room.  When the music stops, everyone must freeze in the position that is held up by a student.  Since my students know this very well, I choose a student to hold up the cards.  I have used many different ‘picture cards’ over the years but my favorite are ones I found on line!  Get the movement cards FREE at Artie Almeida's Website  http://www.artiealmeida.com/resources/Statues.pdf 

Shout out to Katie Wynkoop for spending a good chunk of time on a Saturday afternoon locating the download on the web for me - thanks friend!

Here are my first graders playing 'The Freeze'

Finally, I'm sharing one of the students favorite games of all time -  I call it ‘Statues’.  Very simple - when the music is playing the students can move freely about the room, when the music stops they must freeze like a statue.  Now, statues don’t talk or giggle but they can blink and breathe.  If you move when you are to be frozen you are called out.  This is their favorite part, I give 2 students ‘jobs’ to do; one to start and stop the music (using the pause button on the remote controll for the cd player) and another to call people out (sitting at the front of the class watching - I can also call folks out too).  These are the most sought after jobs of all!  They are much harder than I am when calling each other out!

The music used in this video is from Les Gustafson-Zook’s Skip to My Lou Songs of the Pioneers.  Les has been to my school several times as an artist in residence and he is GREAT with the kids!  He is an award winning autoharp player but plays all kinds of folk instruments.  He does a great job teaching the kids song and how music was used in the past and sings all folks songs performed on traditional instruments in his sessions.  I use his cd for many different things in class. You can find it at 

http://gustafsonzook.com

Lastly - check out my own blog at CMajorLearning.com.  It is brand new and I would love to hear from all of you!

Have a great week everyone - get up and get moving and - STAY WARM!!!!

 

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