Staff Wars!

This week the majority of my lessons played a game for a few minutes at the beginning of their small group lesson called, "Staff Wars." It was a game that helped to work on note-reading, which is an area that everyone can improve upon. Learning how to read music and how to play a new instrument is the same as learning a new language. With only one lesson each week, the skills needed to improve do not get honed as much as is necessary to improve quickly. So if students are able to, playing fun games like "Staff Wars" would be a great way to get in some extra practice. In fact, if the bandlings play a music game like this or any of the others I have written about in the past, they can count 15 minutes of it as practice on their practice records.

Staff Wars is a free game, but it does need to be downloaded by an adult before you can play it on your computer. Click HERE for the link to the page where this is possible. Just click on the disk with the downward-facing arrow to get to the download page. There are many other cool games that you can download from this page! Some do cost money, but there are others that are FREE!

When you've downloaded it, here is what the game looks like:

You have to "select your mission" which means to select which clef you read music from. Trombones and Baritones read bass clef (on the right) and everyone else reads treble clef (on the left). After you've selected which clef you read, you will see this:

After you press "Start," notes will start flying (slowly at first) across the screen and you have to click which letter name it is. Even if there are some notes that your child has not learned how to play, they can still figure out which letter name it is if they remember the mnemonic devices we learned. For Bass Clef readers (trombones and baritones):

 

 

But for Treble Clef note-readers:

I hope your bandling has fun playing this game and any other you find! If you find any other games that they like, please let me know, I'm always looking for new ways to impart the important things I teach. Have a great week!


Amanda Storer
678-6726
astorer@nsd2.com
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Pancake breakfasts, Spaghetti Dinners and the Inauguration

I hope that any of the bandlings that watched President Obama's second inauguration on Monday (how great was it that we had the day off of school and could watch it?!?) noticed the President's Own Marine Band providing much of the music before, during and after the ceremony. I didn't mind waiting for the festivities to begin because I was able to just sit and listen to this fantastic and professional group perform. I thought that the other performers who sang and/or played instruments were wonderful too.

Thursday and Friday I am headed to the Illinois Music Educators Association Conference in Peoria with Mrs. Olson, Ms. Barski, Mr. Nowickas, Mr. Mazzetti and my husband (also a band teacher!). It is one of my favorite yearly rituals. I get to witness fantastic music making, learn about new philosophies and teaching strategies and just be with my other music-teaching peeps for an extended period of time. This conference is always a much-needed recharge for my teaching battery.

If your child is going to participate in the Lion's Club pancake breakfast performance, please let me know ASAP. I will be picking music for the groups performing and will hand it out next week.
If you can make it, the NMS 6th grade band has a concert tomorrow night, Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 7:00pm at the middle school. It would be a great idea to go and see how the 6th grade band is doing and what you can look forward to next year! You will be amazed! I sat in on their rehearsal today and I was blown away with how far they have gotten. Having band everyday helps the bandlings cover a lot of ground very quickly! The entire NMS music department will be hosting a Spaghetti Dinner on Wed., February 6, 2013 at the middle school and all of their musical groups, including choir will be performing. Please consider having dinner there that night and supporting the NMS music department!

Have a wonderful week!

Amanda Storer
815-678-6726
astorer@nsd2.com
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Welcome back!

Happy New Year! I hope that your families made wonderful memories together during the holiday season! I know I went into my winter break very pleased about how well the 5th graders did on their concerts in December. I was very proud of both of the groups and I left excited about the fun things we could do when we got back in January.

I sent home a letter with the RGS bandlings yesterday detailing a few of the fun things we have coming up in the next two quarters. I meant to send the note through the inter-office mail so that the SGE bandlings could take it home today as well, but I didn't get to it before I left. I emailed that note to everyone and I will have it available at lessons on Tuesday at SGE.

I was very impressed with how many students came back this week with BINGOs! It was a testament to how committed these students are and also how much they enjoy music in their lives! Thank you for assisting your children with the BINGO cards during break! I really enjoyed hearing and watching the videos I was sent and I even learned a few new facts about various musicians. WIN-WIN!

Please continue to encourage your children to practice and stick with their instruments. Sadly, there have been a few students who have quit this week and the whole rest of the band's morale takes a hit when this happens. I know that other organizations (i.e. sports/dance/cheer/etc.) are not as willing to let children just quit their teams. I hope that we can keep the great groups that we have. We have so many fun opportunities lined up for the next two quarters! I've also picked out some really fun music for our next two concerts. Next week, I'll share some recordings of the pieces I've picked.

Have a wonderful week!

Amanda Storer
678-6726
astorer@nsd2.com
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com

Happy Holidays from the BAND Department!

I was so incredibly proud of the bandlings this last week! Both concerts at SGE and RGS went off without a hitch and were pitch-perfect! I hope you all enjoyed them as well. I passed out special practice cards for  Winter Break called, "Band Bingo." The library in Mchenry always has winter and summer reading programs to motivate children to read during breaks, so I decided to do the same with my bandlings! On the bingo card, (HERE is a link) you will see that there are always options to simply practice for 20 minutes. However, there are also really fun options like "play holiday music for friends and family," and "teach yourself 2 new notes from your book." There are also options that ask the students to surf on You Tube (with parent permission, of course) to find videos of people playing their instrument and/or the President's Own Marine Band. I know that every household has their own rules about You Tube and I did talk with the students about following their household rules and to seek your help. I did want to include these activities because it is SO incredibly helpful for students to see and hear good examples professionals performing. With the Internet, these experiences are much more readily available. If your child does want to complete any of the You Tube squares, be sure to have them fill out the survey on my website so that I know what video they watched and what they thought of it.

As the bandlings complete the activities, they should mark an "X" on the square and have you initial the square. I will have small prizes for up to 3 BINGOS and if they complete the whole card, there will be an extra prize. I know that practicing is not always possible over these breaks as there can be a lot of travel. If students don't complete any of the card, there is no repercussion. However, some students can practice more over break because they are not traveling and I wanted to make it a bit more fun.

Please scroll down to the second sheet of the Bingo card for links to important websites that might help and further instructions.

HERE is a link to the "Schedules" page of my website with the schedules for January and February. I had a lot of things to work around in January (namely Scantron and Isteep testing for 5th graders.)

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful full of memories and maybe a little music too!

Amanda Storer
astorer@nsd2.com
www.mrsstorersbands.weebly.com