Surround the State in Song

The NDACDA "Surround the State in Song" honor choir took place on Oct. 8th. This is one of my favorite activities as a music teacher, because I remember my very first honor choir better than any other I attended. The first time you sing with a large group of talented, passionate people who love singing as much as you do is always amazing. This year I had the opportunity to take seven wonderful singers from my 5th and 6th grade chorus. I hope they had as much fun as I did!

Star Spangled Banner

The 4th graders did a fabulous job singing the Star Spangled Banner at the last home volleyball game. This is something I do every year after we finish our unit studying and memorizing the song. It has become a very popular tradition that the students all look forward to. Here is this year's performance.

Robot and Inventor

I had the wonderful opportunity to receive my Level I Orff training this summer at NDSU. I have been having a blast incorporating all of the wonderful things that I learned. One of my favorite activities is called "Robot and Inventor" and the purpose of it is to help students explore ways they can move their body parts, helping them gain body/kinesthetic awareness. It also helps them become comfortable creating on their own in a non-threatening environment.

Here's how it works: Partners choose one person to be the robot. The robot stands in the "off" position. When the music starts, the inventor may tap a joint on the robot and the robot must begin moving this body part to the beat. To stop the body part, the inventor must tap that part again. We started off with only one body part at a time, then slowly added more. Eventually, the robots were able to travel! The kids had a blast with this and it was really fun to watch even my most reserved students get into the activity.

Thank you!

Thanks to a grant from the Community Endowment fund, I was able to purchase a new Yamaha Clavinova for my classroom this year! I love having the ability to transpose, record, and add background music to my playing. Plus, it's much easier to move around my room than my giant piano was. Now to figure out what the rest of the buttons do!