3-5, Elementary Music, Games, K-2, Lessons

Monkey Game for Crescendos and Decrescendos

January 31, 2019January 29, 2019 redavis521

Is there a game at your school that your students beg to play? Like all of the time? That’s the Monkey Game for me. I know that it teaches piano and forte to the littles and crescendos and decrescendos to the older students, but they do not care. They want to play it all the time.

Seriously. I’ll say, “We’re going to play a game!” and they’ll say, “The Monkey Game?!”

No. It’s not always the Monkey Game.

It actually got to the point where I was so sick of it that I started telling them we couldn’t play it because it took too long to get the drums out.

Anyway, this is a game that teaches crescendos and decrescendos (or piano and forte, if you differentiate). I learned it from my mentor teacher during student teaching, and I do not know where she came up with it. But it is so much fun.

Why do I call it the Monkey Game? Because we use a stuffed monkey. In your class it could be the bear game or the owl game or whatever depending on your stuffed animal collection.

Also read: Extra Beat, Take a Seat

The Monkey Game

Materials:

Tubanos or other large drums (I use five, but you can use what you have. If you don’t have any, you could use hand drums.)
Djembe if you have one for you to help while working the room (here’s the one I have and love)
Stuffed animal (here is a cute and cheap monkey!)

Instructions:

First, discuss what crescendo and crescendo are. I like to have the students say the words with a crescendo and decrescendo. So when we say crescendo, we crescendo. When we say decrescendo, we decrescendo. I also like to have them move their hands up and down to show the dynamics. Then I project them onto the board so that we remember them.
Then, have a few students come up to the tubanos in the front. (After the long discussion about how we do NOT LEAN ON THE DRUMS, of course)
Have one student hide the monkey. They are the hider. (We always let a piece of the monkey stick out to make the game go a little bit faster.)
While that person hides the monkey, another student goes in the corner and closes their eyes. They are going to be the finder. Once the hider is finished, have the finder come out and open their eyes. They are now going to walk around the room and look for the monkey.
The people at the drums help find the monkey by playing with different dynamics. If they are close to the monkey, they play forte. If they are far away from the monkey, they play piano. This causes lots of crescendos and decrescendos. Throughout the game, ask the students, “Was that a crescendo or a decrescendo?”
The students at their seats watch, and I usually tell them they can help by playing on their legs or the ground if they want to. This helps those friends who just cannot sit still have an outlet.
Once the monkey is found, switch out the people. I usually let the drummer stay for two rounds before switching them.

Easy peasy! It’s kind of like hot and cold but with music. I know some people play Lucy Locket in a similar way (I don’t– you can see how I play here)

Note– if you do not have tubanos, don’t stress. Use whatever you have– hand drums, bongos, rhythm sticks, egg shakers. If you can play crescendos and decrescendos, then you can play the game.

Free Music Lesson: Grizzly Bear

January 24, 2019 redavis521

Teaching dynamics in your elementary music class? Then you need to teach your music students the song Grizzly Bear.

This song is one of the main reasons that I decided to do a bear and mouse unit for my kindergarten and first graders this year. We did Grizzly Bear, Hickory Dickory Dock, Mouse Mousie, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do you see? We related forte to bears and piano to mice, like I outlined in this post.

Out of all of the different songs and activities that we did, this was the favorite.

There are a bunch of different games that go along with this lesson. I will include a few versions that I have seen/heard of along with the one that I actually did with my students.

You can get a lyric and rhythm sheet for FREE in my free resource library. All you have to do is sign up to get the password and then you can access all of the resources in the library! Sign up here!

Grizzly Bear: Free music lesson for piano and forte. This lesson is a song and game for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Includes free resource to help teach the lesson. Becca's Music Room

Grizzly Bear Lesson

First, I had the students warm up with the rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock (you can check out my FREE product on TPT here)
Ask your students: are mice loud or quiet? Musicians call quiet a special word– piano. What kind of animal is loud? (keep going until students guess a bear)
Sing the song for the students and have them listen the first time. It is extra fun if you walk around while you sing it because the students get really shocked at the end. Sing it again and have students hold their hands up high when it is forte, low when it is piano, or in the middle when it is in the middle.
Then ask for the students to join you in singing.
Ask them: If we don’t want to wake up the grizzly bear, what dynamic level should we be singing?

Also read: Free Music Lesson: Bizet Scarf Routine

The game…

Like I said, there are many different types of games for this song. I know of at least three different versions.

Sing the song and walk around in a circle. One student is in the middle, laying on the floor. This child is the grizzly bear. At the end of the song, the teacher walks up and taps the child. The child jumps up and roars at everyone else. (I have also done this without anyone touching the child, they just hopped up at the end of the song.)
Sing the song and walk around in a circle. One student lays on the floor in the middle– this child is the grizzly bear. At the end of the song, the bear gets up. All of the students have to be frozen. If they move, then they bear pretends to eat them. They have to get out of the circle (or just sit down).
Sing the song and walk around in a circle. One student lays on the floor in the middle– this child is the grizzly bear. At the end of the song, the bear pops up. The other students try to get to a safe place in the room (maybe a wall or a carpet). The bear tries to tag the students before they get to the safe place.

Also read: Lesson Ideas: Creative Movement with Scarves

I used the first version until I heard the second version of it– then we switched. The third version looks like fun, but it is a little bit too chaotic for my population of students.

Don’t forget to sign up for the exclusive FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY so that you can download the lyric and rhythm sheets to go along with this song.

Which one do you like? Is there a different version that you like? Let us know in the comments!

Happy teaching!

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3-5, Elementary Music, Games, K-2, Lessons

Music Christmas Game: Oh Christmas Tree

November 20, 2018 redavis521

Are you looking for some really fun Christmas lessons? I feel like I am always looking for ideas, and I have a hard time narrowing down the amount of songs that are available for the holidays. I was looking for a song that was common enough that I wanted all of my students to know, but different enough that not all of them would know it. Oh Christmas Tree was the perfect combination or common but unknown by my third graders.

And you know what? In the first two classes I have used this song with, I had a total of about 5 students that knew it.

You could use this song to work on low sol (each line goes sol-do) or for teaching dotted eighth note sixteenth note rhythms. But you know that I used this song for? Fun.

And that is ok.

I am using some of my other songs to push concepts we are working on, but for this one we just had fun.

And we had a lot of fun.

If you are looking for a a bunch of Christmas ideas, check out my Christmas in the Music Room Bundle on TPT.

If you don’t want that many ideas, you can check out the links and see the individual products that are in the bundle.

Christmas Music Game: Oh Christmas Tree. Super silly and fun game for the song Oh Christmas Tree or Oh Tannenbaum. Includes a free lyric sheet and Christmas coloring sheet! Becca's Music Room

Oh Christmas Tree

So how do I play the game?

First, teach the students the song Oh Christmas Tree. You can see the sheet music in Beth’s Music Notes here or get my free lyric sheets (for projecting or printing) in my resource library here. If you do not have the password to the resource library, you can get it by joining my email list! Then you can get all of the free resources.
Sing the song and focus on the contour. I love to use scarves and have students move the scarf up when the song goes up and down when the song goes down.
Have students get into groups. It really doesn’t matter how many are in each group, but I like to do 2-4 for this game.
Then, have one student stand with their arms straight out. This student is the Christmas tree.
Sing through the song Oh Christmas Tree. During the first verse, have students decorate the Christmas tree in their group. Give them a box with a bunch of (non-pointy or breakable!) Christmas decorations. I went to the Dollar Store and bought garland, tinsel, and some ornaments with strings instead of hooks.
During the next verse, have the students undecorated the Christmas tree.
Then sing the next verse (or the first one again) and have a different student be the tree.
Repeat as many times as desired.

What are you doing for Christmas in the music room? I am doing all of the lessons from my Christmas music bundle on TPT! Do your students know the song Oh Christmas Tree? Let me know in the comments?

Happy teaching!

Christmas Music Game: Oh Christmas Tree. Super silly and fun game for the song Oh Christmas Tree or Oh Tannenbaum. Includes a free lyric sheet and Christmas coloring sheet! Becca's Music Room

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Elementary Music, Games, K-2, Lessons

Free Music Lesson: Brown Bear Brown Bear

November 8, 2018November 6, 2018 redavis521

We all love to use books in the music classroom. Brown Bear Brown Bear is one of my favorites—and it has so many extensions! I am planning to do a bear themed unit in January, so I am trying to find some fun things to do. If you have some ideas for bear themed lessons, let me know in the comments!

This lesson includes a solo singing game, a book, and a rhythmic/composition extension my students have really enjoyed.

You can get the Brown Bear book here.

I also saw this version in one of our first grade teacher’s rooms this week. It’s about polar bears and it uses the same structure, but with endangered animals. I am planning to buy it soon.

Also, I am starting something new! I wanted a way to provide my subscribers with extra exclusive free content, so I have created a resource library. As of Nov. 2018, I have a free beat chart (in 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4) and 2 music interest surveys available in my free resource library. Sign up for my email list and I will send you the password to the library. Once a member, always a member. More things are being added every few weeks, so check back to see what is new. Sign up here.

Also read: Free K-1 Music Lesson: It’s Raining and Que Llueva

Free Music Lesson: Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see? This is one of my favorite lessons-- my first graders request it by name! In this kindergarten and first grade lesson, students will play, solo sing, read rhythms, and read a book! Becca's Music Room

Brown Bear, Brown Bear lesson

First off, read the Brown Bear book.
Next, read the book while singing. I have seen a few different songs, but I have always used the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You use the melody for “twinkle twinkle little star” for the words “brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” and “how I wonder what you are” for “I see a white dog looking at me”. And it repeats over and over and over again.
Read the book again, and have the students sing along with you if they have not already been singing with you.
Then you can play the game!

Game instructions:

Get into a circle. Every student gets a stuffed animal (if you don’t have stuffed animals, then you can download my stuffed animal cards here). I usually start holding a brown bear. Everyone sings the opening melody. Since I am holding the brown bear, then I get to sing, “I see a ______ looking at me.” I put a name of someone else’s animal in the blank. I put my animal in the middle. Everyone sings to the person who has the animal I called. Then that person picks another animal.
For example: I am holding a brown bear. Everyone sings “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” I sing, “I see a cheetah looking at me.” Everyone sings “Cheetah, cheetah, what do you see?” and the person with the cheetah sings, “I see a red bird looking at me.” And we keep going until all of the animals are in the circle.
PS. I usually have the kids echo sing the animal names on sol-mi before we do the game. This is helpful, especially if you have any weird ones.

Also read: Free K-1 Music Lesson: Singing Voice v. Talking Voice

Extensions:

You could stop there, but I usually take it a step further. I will put up rhythms. With kindergarten, we will use ta and titi. With first grade, I will use quarter note quarter rest, two quarter notes, and eighth notes quarter note. We will sort the animal by the rhythm of their name. So “brown bear” would be two quarter notes. We do this together once and then in groups after that. There are some discrepancies, so I always ask the kids the name of their animal. Because “bear” and “brown bear” have different rhythms, but they are not wrong.
You could also use my Brown Bear Rhythm cards to play rhythms with instruments, or to match to the animals.
Then we use the Brown Bear rhythm cards to have students compose new rhythms. I don’t like to use the actual animals, because composition is a little too free and I find they end up just playing with the animals. If your kids are more self sufficient, then you can try the animals and let me know how it goes!

I am working on a few more extension activities, but for now, this is it! That is a lot of content for just one book.

Also read: Free K-2 Music Lesson: Rhythm

I hope your students enjoy Brown Bear– mine love it and ask for it by name! I usually pull it out twice in the same year because it is so much fun… And I also use it as a solo singing assessment.

You can get the book here.

And you can get 25 beanie babies off of Amazon here!

If you liked this post, make sure that you share it so more people can enjoy it too! You can also subscribe to my email list here. You will get two emails a month with updates about my blog, YouTube, and TPT shop. You will also get a FREE music interest survey for signing up!

And let us know what your favorite activities for Brown Bear are down in the comments! I would love some ideas!

Happy teaching!

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Children's Church, Games

My Kids’ Favorite Church Games

December 18, 2017January 9, 2019 redavis521

We play a lot of Children’s Church games. We always have one or two games at the beginning of the class, and a few at the end. Why so many? We strategically do them at the beginning to help get some of the wiggles out, and to make our Children’s Church more high energy.

We recently restructured our Children’s Church to include more volunteers and make it feel separate from Sunday School. Having church games allows the students to have a concentration break between Sunday School and Children’s Church—and helps them learn more! At the end of service, we play games because I am honestly never sure when the parents will show up. Church could end at 12, or the first parent could come at 12:30. You just never know.

There was one time that I was still giving a lesson and church got over early. After that, I decided that we would plan to be done with the lesson at 11:55, so that when parents come, we will be done with the important part.

So we play games at the end.

Read all about how I structure Children’s Church here.

Here are some of our favorites. Some of these church games are actually church-related (or could be) and some are not. Granted, if you think hard enough, you could probably make any of them relate to a Bible story. My Kids' Favorite church Games. What we play in Children's Church to help us take up time or energy! These could work for Children's Church, Sunday School, Awanas, homeschool group, elementary schools, etc! Becca's Music Room

Church games that are church related

Resurrector

Students sit in a circle. Everyone receives a paper with a “d”, an “r”, or a number on it. The d is the detective, the r is the resurrector, and numbers are people. Detective stands in the middle. The resurrector winks (or points, depending on how old your kids are) at people. When someone is winked at, the stand up and say “I’m alive!”. The detective has to decide who the resurrector is. I found this game on Ministry-to-Children. They call is Wink, Alive! Click here for the full instructions. Goes with: Jesus’ resurrection, Lazarus raised from the dead, Dorcas raised from the dead, talking about being spiritually awakened from the dead, etc.

You can see this game in action here.

Four Gospels

This is really four corners but with the names of the four Gospels instead of numbers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. One student stands in the middle and closes their eyes. They count to ten. All of the other students go into a corner. Once after counting to ten, the student who is it calls out a corner name. Students in that corner have to go sit down. Goes with: Learning the books of the Bible

Lazarus wrap up

This is really a bridal shower game. Students get into groups and wrap up a student in toilet paper to look like a mummy. You can judge how good they look, or see who can use the most toilet paper in a set amount of time. Goes with: Lazarus, Jesus being raised form the dead, or Dorcas raised from the dead.

Also read: The Beginner’s Guide to Children’s Church

My Kids' Favorite church Games. What we play in Children's Church to help us take up time or energy! These could work for Children's Church, Sunday School, Awanas, homeschool group, elementary schools, etc! Becca's Music Room

Church games not church related

Obstacle course

This can be related, depending on how you do it. One of my favorites has been to draw on the sidewalk with chalk that says things like “spin 3 times” or “hop on one foot”, etc. one student does it all ant then comes back and tags the next. You could also like set out hula hoops and have them hop though them. These will help with the obstacle course:

Relay race

This is similar. Basically, a whole group of students has to go through the race, come back and tag the next person. You can do this in any way—walking like a crab, carrying something on a spoon, hooked onto someone else, with a balloon between the legs, etc. this is my go to for when I am not sure what to do, because there are so many options!

Riverbank

This one sounds so simple that when a student explained it to me, I thought it was going to be a dud. Boy was I wrong. You put a line on the floor with tape or chalk outside (my room has a line in the carpet anyway, so I don’t have to worry about it). Designate one side as “river” and one side as “bank”. One person stands at the front and says either river or bank. Students jump to that side of the line. If they are on the wrong side, they sit down. As they get it, you can start saying more than one thing at a time, like “river, bank, river” to make it more difficult. Super simple and surprisingly fun.

Freeze dance

This is always a hit. Students dance when the music is on and freeze when it is off. You can use pretty much whatever music you want. Not sure what to use? Toby Mac is usually a big hit and he has enough songs that it will entertain them for a while.

Also: How to Structure Children’s Church in 6 Easy Steps

Museum

AKA my kids’ favorite church game ever. One person is the museum guard. The close their eyes and count to ten. When they come out, all of the students are “statues”. The kids must freeze when the guard is looking at them—but only if he is looking. They are able to move as long as they are not caught. This is particularly great because it keeps them quiet. And if you wanted to, you could tie it into a lesson if you were talking about Lot’s wife turned to salt.

Cat and Mouse

This one is super fun, and you can see exactly how it is played here!

Since it is this time of year, read: Church Christmas Program: What do I Choose?

So there you have it! My kids’ favorite church games. What are your kids’ favorite church games? Let us know and add a link to instructions in the comments!

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Category: Games