Positive Thinking Thursday

Though I skipped a week, I am back to linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings Positive Thinking Thursday.

My sentiment for this Positive Thinking Thursday is to "Just Keep Swimming." As a third year teacher, I have all kinds of ideas floating around in my head and never enough time to implement all of them! This is especially true this week, as I attended the NAfME National In-Service conference in Nashville from Sunday-Tuesday. I learned a TON, but my head is rolling trying to keep up with everything I took in over three days. I will definitely post about my experience soon, however, in order to get through the rest of this week, today's thought is simply:

Click the Positive Thinking Button above to join the party!

~Ms. Patrician

Positive Thinking Thursday

Hi everyone!

    I am once again linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Positive Thinking Thursday!

My positive thought for the day is that, though I and other teachers take on a lot at our schools, we still LOVE what we do. Case in point: I taught the last installment of Kindergarten Game Plan's Farm Unit yesterday- Horses- and it was SO much fun to watch the kids make connections, remember all the instrument names, and even start to recognize changes in the music we were listening to! Yesterday was a long day, but it ended on such a positive note!

I hope you have equally positive thoughts to share- you can link up by clicking the picture above! :)

~Ms. Patrician

Five Favorite Pins of October

Hi everyone!

   I am linking up with Mrs. Miracle's Music Room for the Five Favorite Pins of October! Below I will share my five favorite Pinterest finds for this month!

1) I have been working on different movements with my Kindergarten students- in conjunction with the PE curriculum- and am SO excited to use this video in a week or so, once I have taught "gallop," to incorporate sound into the mix!

2) A creative way to do exit tickets, without all the messy clean-up of dry erase markers, etc.!

3) The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything- voiceover with some music added! I use this book for this lesson

4) Halloween Listening sheets- I do listening every class with 3rd-5th, so these are great to have on hand!

5) Video for Dem Bones

Link up by clicking on the October Linky Party button at the top of this post!

Have a wonderful rest of your week!

~Ms. Patrician

Starting my TeachersPayTeachers Store! FREEBIE!!

Today I uploaded my first first TeachersPayTeachers product: Let's Compose! Halloween Edition. It is a very simple worksheet that I am using with my 1st graders this week- they will compose using Halloween symbols that represent ta and ti-ti.

Since this is my first product- it is FREE!! Click on the picture below to download it now and please Follow Me as a seller!!

Thanks and have a wonderful week!

~Ms. Patrician

Michael and Son Jingle Sing-Off Entry!

Good morning!

    I am happy to announce that my 5th grade class finished their entry to the Michael and Son Jingle Sing-Off! I submitted our entry earlier today- we could win $5,000 for our school!

This was a spur of the moment decision on my part- two weeks ago I found out about this and decided the day before class that I wanted my 5th graders to try it. It was amazing to see the amount of thoughtful collaboration and teamwork that went into it from these 10-11 year olds. We may not win the contest, but I am so proud of my students for their hard work. Our Project Edison teacher, Barb Papantoniou worked with me to make this project possible, and even made a Vimeo link to the finished product! You may view it below:

Keep your fingers crossed for us- we would be so grateful to receive a $5,000 prize for our hard work!!

Have a happy Monday!

~Ms. Patrician

Positive Thinking Thursday 10/2/14

Good morning everyone!

     As I sit here at my desk right before the first busses arrive, I am anticipating the arrival of 42 talented 3rd-5th grade singers who have auditioned for me over the last few weeks. The singers who are joining me this morning made it into All Star Chorus, our new before-school chorus that will meet for a half hour once a week every Thursday. I am excited to see the students and work on some fun music with them!

This is my contribution to Mrs. Laffin's Laughing's Positive Thinking Thursday, because, though I have no idea how this pilot year of the chorus will turn out, I am definitely ready to see it through!

15 minutes!! Eeeeek!! :) :)

Have a great day!
~Ms. Patrician

A Peek at My Week 9/29-10/3

Hi everyone!

     Well I'm sad to say that this is the last edition of Mrs. Laffin's Laughings Peek at My Week linky party, however I am glad to link up one last time- if a little late.

This week, 2nd grade is learning the Patacake Polka from the CD series English Country Dances for Children. It's the dance I always start with, since it is very simple, but has a partner change at the end to give it a twist. They will be ending their day with centers. I am prepping for a sub at the end of October and want them to have the routine down!

1st grade is using the Muffin Man activities in Game Plan for Grade 1 to begin to learn sound vs. silence using "sh" or a "quarter rest." They are then continuing centers to reinforce those routines.

3rd grade will do a Listening Challenge using the choral piece Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin- sung by the Congressional Chorus, which I was a member of the past two years. They will then continue centers, adding the ABA Boomwhacker Composition center. I got this Freebie from Music and Technology's TeachersPayTeachers Store. Great way to reinforce melody AND form AND composition teamwork skills!

4th grade will write in their listening notebooks about Baba Yetu as well, and then continue with their Recorder Baseball game to reinforce notes B, A, and G.

5th grade will also write in their listening notebooks about the aforementioned song and then will continue a project that we started last week- staging, choreographing, and filming a commercial for Michael and Sons for their Jingle Sing-Off Contest! We could win $5,000 for my school, which would be awesome!!

Kindergarten will be continuing their Farm unit by learning about pigs- adding the movement "hop," and using woodblocks.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

~Ms. Patrician