6 Ways to Avoid the End-of-the-Year Crazies

6 Ways to Avoid the End-of-the-Year Crazies in the Music Room

It’s on!  The end-of-the-year crazy has begun.  You’re probably in the middle of your testing window, or maybe it’s just passed.  If you’ve been teaching for awhile, you know that once testing is over, your students think school is over.  The closer you get to the end of the school year, the worse their behavior gets.  Or maybe it’s just in my classroom?  Nope, I think not.

I have an idea for you today that you might not agree with.  Go with me here for a second.  Are you ready??  Stop teaching new skills at this time of the year..  Don’t stop reading.  I’m going to explain myself.  Your students have checked out.  Most of them are not ready or willing to learn new skills.  Some are truly not able to learn anything new, especially after the last two years.  

I propose that you spend the last month or so reviewing the skills you’ve been working on all year.  Not only will this allow your students a brain break, it will also allow YOU to have a well-needed brain break.  Plus, most of your students need the review anyway.  How many times have you had to remind your students how many beats are in a whole note or what the definition of forte is?  

While I’m totally not on board with giving up on curriculum, I know better than to beat my head against a brick wall.  I know from many years of teaching that my students will NOT learn the same way they did even a month ago.  There’s nothing you can do about it, so you might as well embrace it, right?

So what do you do instead?  Just wait!  Your mind is about to be blown, because I’m going to share 6 ways you can avoid end-of-the-year crazy in your music room while still reviewing music concepts and skills.

1. Bring out the bouncy balls!  What child doesn’t like bouncy balls?  Notice I give them a name; bouncy balls, basketballs, tennis balls.  Don’t just call them balls or you WILL regret it!
   1. Bouncy balls can be used to help your students remember note values and how to read rhythms using syllables like ta & ta-te or doo and doo-day.  
   2. You can also use them as percussion instruments.  I love to use bouncy balls as whole or half notes to go along with several other unpitched percussion instrument parts.

Want more info on how to do this?  I’ll be live next Thursday, 4/28 at 5:30 p.m. to give you the details.  

2. Add the silly to your lesson plans.  You can do this by:
   1. Using a silly song – If you are part of my email community, I sent out a special discount offer this week for the Crab Rave bundle of lesson plans I created last year to help avoid crazy in my classroom.  

Crab Rave is exactly the kind of silly song I’m talking about.  My favorite part of this lesson, besides the song of course, is that students get to turn their chairs around and sit backwards.  Then they get to  actually PLAY their chairs.   You can check out the frame drum part of this activity here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_soPWVjGb4

If you missed the special offer because you’re not part of my email community or just missed that email on Monday, you can still grab the discount by joining my community.  I’ll be sure to send you that special discount.

2. Adding silly movement to a song
3. Be the silly by doing something unexpected, like singing in a silly voice or using a crazy accent

Check out this live for more info about adding the silly to your classroom:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOvzfSllejg&t=1s

Here’s another one called 9 Ways to Add Silly to the Music Classroom:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=394aRPl82rg

3. Bring unique items in for manipulatives – Earlier this year I created a lesson plan using monkey noodles.  If you don’t know about these, they are long pieces of stretch material that can easily be cut and stretched.  I use the longest ones for whole notes, and then I cut those in half to be half notes, cut the halves in half to be quarter notes, etc.  It is a perfect visual and tactile way to help review the duration.  Check out this post for a visual:  https://www.facebook.com/storiesthatsingandmore/videos/1798009623727352/

4. Use scarves to help teach note values or rhythm reading – I love to review rhythm reading and note values using scarves.  It’s another tactile and visual way to review these basic skills.  You’ll use long scarf movement for whole notes and slightly shorter scarf movements for half notes.  You get the idea.  Check out this video to see more about how to do this:  https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=518679279327785

5. Use storybook lessons to teach basic music concepts – I mean you knew I was going here right?  There are so many great ways to use storybooks, and if you haven’t heard me say it before, reading to children increases their focus and creates a peaceful atmosphere in your classroom.  Want proof?  Just scan your students’ faces as you’re reading to them.  They are precious (for at least a few minutes).  Here are just a few basic concepts you can teach using storybook lessons:
   1. Dynamics
   2. Tempo
   3. Mallet skills
   4. Melody

I could go on all day.  Looking for tips on HOW to use storybooks to teach basic concepts?  You’ll find lots of great tips and tricks in my private Facebook group. 

6. Do as little talking as possible – If you have taken Orff levels, you already know this, but even we seasoned teachers can forget (myself included).  It’s so easy to start giving instructions and just . . . keep . . . going.  Not one of your students wants to hear you talk.  All they want to do is have fun, sing, dance, and play instruments.  Here are some suggestions to help keep talking to a minimum:
   1. Train your students to recognize visual cues.  For example:
      1. If I want them to stand, I raise both hands together from waist to head height.
      2. If I want them to echo, I point both hands to myself, then both hands to them.
      3. If I only want one side of my classroom to play, I point to that side and then show the other side a hand stop sign and a shh. 
   2. Use singing or chanting transitions.  For example:
      1. “Let’s make a circle, a great big circle, let’s make a circle and have some fun.”
      2. “Let’s tiptoe to story time, story time, story time.  Let’s tiptoe to story time and have some fun.”
   3. Keep students busy from the moment they walk into your classroom.  For example:
      1. Students can echo or read rhythmic phrases.
      2. Students can echo lyrics to a song.
      3. Students can sing a song they learned the week before.

The last few months of school are usually the most challenging days of school.  Keeping consistent routines and adding LOTS of fun and silly will make your life so much easier and add an extra element of joy to your students’ day.