Episode 41 - Holiday Hacks - Easy Peasy Music-Making for December

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Are you an elementary music teacher who's frustrated and overwhelmed? I'm Jeanette Horri, a happy music teacher who loves teaching every day. But it wasn't long ago I was in your shoes. Join me Wednesdays to help you find happy in your music classroom.

It is the beginning of December, and that means that first of all, there is lots of random behavior happening in your classroom. It also means that there are lots and lots of random events happening. And it's really difficult, more difficult than anybody else in the school, except the other specialists in the school know, to navigate all that randomness.

You want to keep teaching. You don't want to just put on a movie. You want. your class to be valid no matter what's going on. But, you've got your concert coming up, or maybe it just finished and you're thoroughly exhausted. You've got Mrs. So and so's class didn't show up because there was a field trip, and Mr.

So and so's class didn't show up because they had their holiday party, etc. So, there is a lot of randomness. going on, not to mention, you know, illness because it's chilly in a lot of places in the country right now. And, you know, there's just a lot going on. So we are going to take a deep dive into what to do.

for these couple of weeks before the break and then I'm going to give you some tips on what to do after the break. Because sometimes, I don't know about you, but we start on Wednesday, like right in the middle of the week. So what do you do? These are my three rules for before the break survival. First of all, no new learning.

You have probably, if you follow me anywhere on any social media platform, or you're a member of my email list, The Happy Highlights, then you know that This is what I always say. No new learning before a holiday. There's too much random activity happening. There is too much behavior happening, and you are better off to just do a review no matter what you want to do.

I am telling you it's better to just do review, you know, keep it simple. Keep it easy. Give your students and yourself a brain break. It is a difficult time of year. I know this because I've been there, and even though this year I'm not responsible for concerts, which while I miss doing the concerts, I have to tell you that it's not so terrible not to have that stress, having seen both of the music teachers who I co teach with in that heavy stress mode and looking at their faces and being like, Oh, you need a hug today.

It, it's just, it's a lot. And so you don't need to take any extra time, no extra brain time away from your concert development and all of the logistics that go into planning and executing your concert. So I say. No new learning in the music classroom. It's just really the best way to go. Do review. If you've been working on meter, find a way to extend meter.

So, what I mean by that is, for example, I have a really fun basketball activity to the Russian dance. And that is in meter of two. So you could talk about meter of two and talk about the, the strong beat and the weak beat, and you could do that basketball rhythm and the basketball bounces on some of the measures on the strong beat.

So that is one type of lesson you could do. Or you could take my Waltz of the Flowers lesson plan and just review meter of three, or you could take a fun Christmas song like Everyone Wants to be a Reindeer or Jingle Bells or any other Christmas or holiday, Hanukkah, Hanukkah, the dreidel song. If there is a Kwanzaa song that you like to use and just do some steady beat activities, get out some of your fun instruments and just do some steady beat activities.

Do things that are review, that are not new learning, that are not going to be challenging for you to teach or for your kiddos to learn. Number two, keep it fluffy. What I mean by fluffy, I like to do fluffy lessons at this time of the year because they're lessons that don't involve a unit and they do involve lots and lots of fun.

So that's why I call them fluffy lessons. So It's not part of any unit. It's not something where the kids have to remember the background knowledge or when they come back from the break, they need to remember what you taught. Like, don't start a whole unit on teaching the staff or the, the, how to read the notes on the staff.

This is not a good time to do that. Keep your lessons fluffy. What do I mean by that? Well, something like Mr. Henry's activities. He's got lots and lots of fun activities for the holidays. There are lots and lots of other types of activities. Do a rhythm play along. Do a fun holiday escape room. Do, I mean, people are sharing all over the place different activities that you can do for the holidays that don't really, they still involve.

You know, teaching music, practicing music, playing music, singing music, whatever, but they don't involve being a part of a unit and they don't involve anything where students have to really learn a lot. Are you seeing the theme here? So I should say are you hearing the theme here? So a fluffy lesson doesn't involve a unit and it does involve lots and lots of fun.

Bring out your basketballs, bring out your super stretchy, bring out any of those activities. Make sure that You are keeping it so much fun and so engaging that your students are not going to know what to do with themselves. Number three, practice your silly. Bring the silly into the classroom. The other day, and I did it with every class because the kids loved it so much, the other day, I, instead of just handing scarves to each person, I kind of just tossed the scarves to everybody and you know, they're all giggling and they're like, you want to do things that they don't expect because.

The more unexpected your behavior is, the more they're going to be listening to you and watching you. And I know you're tired, but if you can keep yourself into that kind of silly framework, that is going to help you. One of the ways that I like to do that is quaver. Graham. I think his name is Graham. Um, he tends to do lots of silly things.

So when I need to get into my silly mindset, I will watch one of his, like on my own, a couple minutes of one of his teaching videos and get myself into that silly mood. Another thing I like to do is get on to TikTok or Instagram, not with my students, of course, but Get on to one of those sites, get on to YouTube and look up funny teacher memes and just get yourself into that silly mood.

Because I know it's hard this time of the year. It's really challenging to try to be silly. But the more silly you are, the better your kids are going to listen. I was talking to a music teacher a couple of months back and she was telling me that sometimes she just rolls on the floor. She just goes down, like if the kids are really being wild, she just goes and rolls on the floor, and they're like, What are you doing?

And she'll be like, Well I just felt like rolling on the floor, or I had a choir director that I taught with, and I use this now, um, when I'm having my kids sit in seats, I like them to sit in what I call active posture, where, you know, they're on the last four inches of their chair, they're sitting up straight and tall, their feet are flat on the floor, and I'll do like, Feet on the floor, hands in your lap, sit up straight, slide to the edge, but not too far, and I'll have them echo each one.

So it'll be, feet on the floor, they say feet on the floor, hands in your lap, hands in your lap, you get the idea. So then what I'll do is inevitably, there are always some kiddos that do not want to slide to the last three inches of their chair, or they get tired and they're like, I don't want to do this anymore.

So they sit back. So as soon as I start seeing people sit back, and this again was stolen from another music teacher, I will go and walk behind them. So like, I will actually get up on the chair. Now, if you have balance issues. And I'm starting to get to the point where I don't really want to be doing that so much anymore And and I'm not on chairs this year anyway, but if you have balance issues, don't do this I don't recommend it.

But if you are like very balanced and you can do this easily Then you just stand up and you walk behind their backs There should be enough room and i'll be like and I won't say a word I'll just stand up and I'll start walking on their chairs, like on top of their chairs behind them. Another thing I like to do is instead of getting my drums out, this is another like just random thing I like to do, instead of getting my drums out, I like to find instruments.

So for example, I might have the students turn their chairs around and sit on them backwards, and they think that is hysterical, and that's what they will do. And you can use the form of any song, and you can create one rhythm. It could just be like ta, ti, ti, ta, ti, ti, and Then, uh, so that rhythm would be for like the, the A section, the B section could be ti ti ti ti ti ti ta.

I mean, just like basic, basic rhythms and just play, play that same rhythm through the entire. part, the entire section, like the whole A section goes ta, ti, ti, ti, ti, ta, and then the second, the B section goes ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ta. So you want to do things that are silly and fun. You're going to engage your students more.

You're also going to keep them listening to you because they're not going to know what you're doing next. And you are adding that element of play and silliness that they absolutely love. And this is the way they learn best. I can't tell you how many times I've read that. When people are having fun, not just children, people are having fun, they are going to remember better, and that means they are going to learn better.

Now, I'm keeping this short because I know you don't have a lot of time, but I promised you that we would go into what to do after break. Like, let's say you've only got two or three days, you don't want to start a whole new unit. Or maybe you want to kind of ease your kids back into the school year, and maybe you want to change some things up.

And next week, that's what we're going to be talking about. We're going to be talking about changing some things up. At the beginning of the following school year, you are going to find some other podcasts on this. This one's going to be a little bit different than the other ones, but some of the very first podcasts I did were on how to change things up at the beginning of the school year.

So we will be going into a deep dive on that next week. But before we do that, let me talk to you a little bit about how to start your new year. with some fun activities where your kids do not have to think too much. You could do kind of like a name refresh. I don't know about you, but after a couple of weeks off, I always forget names.

So you could do any one of, I have a blog post that I will link to, and it's 300 names, legit learn 300 names by. December and then then you can use those same games to review and I actually did a podcast on this as well. I think in September, but I'll link to that as well. So that is something you can do.

You can do a name game kind of thing. You can also do something like, um, just like doggy doggy. Where's your bone or Who's that knocking on the window or one of my favorites and one of my students favorites and believe it or not I've even played this with my fifth graders is We are dancing in the forest while the wolf is far away Who knows what will happen to us if he finds us at our play?

Wolf, where are you? And I love to do that funny, like, where are you? And we do like it just as silly. I'm not as, not as silly as I just did it, but to give them a little like extended hold on their, their last note. And then if you don't know this game, it's super fun. It can be played indoors or outdoors.

And if you're playing it indoors, obviously you want to stipulate that there is no running. There is only. Fast walking and if you just, and I know like sometimes students are not going to listen to that, but if you like put people out right away, be like, okay, the only way you can get out is if you run, if you do any running, you will be out for three rounds and then be on them.

if they see that you are going to be following that rule, they are going to follow those directions. So that one is fun. You, um, they, they dance around in a circle to the left or to the right, holding hands. And believe it or not, even my fifth graders are cool with that because it's such a fun game. And then there's a wolf.

And when they say, Wolf, where are you? The wolf is like, Oh, I'm tying my shoes and then they're like, Oh, okay, we get to go again. And then maybe I'm eating my lunch. And then the next time I'm coming to get you. And he comes after that after them and everybody that he tags is out for one round. Now. I am possibly making up some of those rules, but that's the way that I play it.

So that is one really cool thing to do. Another thing you could do is, again, get out your fun manipulatives. Get out your scarves. Get out your super stretchy. Get out your streamers and just do something fun with them. Something else you can do. I have a fabulous song that is really popular, not only with my students, but also with other elementary music teachers.

It's called the Back from Break song. So what's fun about it is there's a, there's a really fun song and it goes like this. Winter break. Ooh, ooh, so much fun. Ooh, ooh, winter break. Ooh, ooh, oh, no, it's done. Aww. It's kind of hard to sing both parts, but you get the idea. And then, so that's the first part. And then in the second part.

They go, my name is, I went, I did, and it was, so they get to fill in each one of those. So I'll do it. My, my name's Ms. Shorey. I went to the beach. I did some swimming. And it was awesome. So that is how the song goes. And there is the, the, the song, you can do it as a chant. You can do it as a song. And then there is the verse and you go back and forth.

What I do is I like to have. My students will, will sit in a circle and we'll start out going around the room and we'll sing it and then, um, somebody will say their part. We'll sing it again. Next person will say their part, et cetera. And then after we've done that, we'll add, uh, there's a whole orchestration and we will add our, Orf instruments, and we will do it that way.

So my students love it because they always want to share what they did on their break, don't they? And you can do this for after winter break, after spring break, after summer break, after Thanksgiving break, if you had a long extended break. Any of those work. That bundle will also be linked in the show notes.

So let's go back and do a quick review. How do you keep your sanity before a break? First of all, no new learning. Do all review. Second, keep it fluffy. Do something that doesn't involve a unit, but does involve lots of fun. And third, bring out the fun stuff. Bring out the basketballs. Next week I'm bringing out basketballs, and we're going to do the basketballs to the Russian dance in first grade, because those are my biggest kits.

And so basketball, scarves, any kind of kickball, bouncy ball, any kind of stretchy, you know, like monkey noodles, anything like that is great. And finally, don't forget about When you come back from the break, do the same kind of thing, keep it simple, keep it easy, do some name games or a rhythm play along or something like that, or use my back from break song bundle and make sure you don't do too much thinking and let the kids sort of settle in.

They're going to get slammed right away. with learning because testing is coming up and the classroom teachers are super serious, of course, about making sure that they're learning. So it might be nice to just let your kiddos ease in in music. If you got some great tips and tidbits that are going to help you become a happy music teacher, I would be so thankful if you'd leave me a review.

Thanks so much for your time. Well, that's all I have for you today. But before I go, let me remind you, keep learning, keep growing, and keep being fabulous you.