Five days of school left! The kiddos and teachers are all ready for summer vacation. We love being outside with the kids, as long as it's not too hot for them! We created the game Rhythm Squares to get us out there on these summer school days!

RHYTHM SQUARES

• Using a four square grid in the playground, draw a different 4-beat rhythm in each square.
• Divide the class into two teams and make two lines, having students line up one behind the other about ten feet away from the rhythm squares.
• Clap one of the four rhythms. The first person from each team finds the rhythm and steps on that rhythm square first in order to get a point.
• Both players go to the end of their respective lines and the next two people face off.
• After each student has a turn, the game is finished and the team with the most points win!
• It is so fun and can be done with any grade level! 

What fun music activities do you do near the end of the school year?

We had a wonderful time at the Carl Orff Canada National Conference CASCADE in Niagara Falls. Sean brought his Orff Club all the way from Winnipeg to perform! Since Steph is now up north and no longer in the same city as Sean, she was unable to help out with the performance this time. However, she packed up the whole family and made it to Niagara Falls to participate in the conference and to see the Highbury Orff Club perform! It was so neat to watch them in action from an audience member's point view! 

​The Highbury Orff Club performance, entitled WATER WAYS, was based mostly on music from Orff-Schulwerk Spielbuch für Xylophon (Play Book for Xylophone). It is a series of three books by Gunild Keetman, published by Schott Music International. As the title implies, the pieces are all written for xylophone. What we love best about these pieces, as with most Orff pieces, is their musical richness and sophistication, yet when they are broken down, they are derived from a pure and simplistic basis. Below is a list of the pieces that Sean, his Orff Club and friends Julie and Heidi arranged for WATER WAYS!

WATER WAYS
Water is the essence of life! It takes on many different forms as it journeys from its humble beginnings to travel great distances and arrive at grand destinations…

1: LAKE
Orff-Schulwerk Music for Children
Volume I (Margaret Murray edition), p.106, no.20

2: RIVER
Orff-Schulwerk Spielbuch für Xylophon
Band I (Keetman, German edition), p.12, no.27

3: RAPIDS
Orff-Schulwerk Spielbuch für Xylophon
Band II (Keetman, German edition), p.23, no.25

4: GLACIER
Orff-Schulwerk Music for Children
Volume IV (Margaret Murray edition), p.14, no.3

5: RAIN
Orff-Schulwerk Spielbuch für Xylophon
Band I (Keetman, German edition), p.28, no.46

6: WATERFALL
Orff-Schulwerk Spielbuch für Xylophon
Band II (Keetman, German edition), p.16, no.15

It was such a great experience for Sean's students to prepare and perform such excellent music from the volumes! They had a great time in Niagara Falls at the conference and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the performance (including Steph)!  

We had the pleasure of presenting Tons of Bugs, Learning through Light, and The Sound of Colour to the Calgary Orff Chapter on March 10, 2018 for their Spring Workshop. Participants were full of energy and came ready for a fun-filled day of learning. Thank you to the Calgary Orff Chapter for having us!

We had a great time presenting for our local Orff chapter on February 10th! Sessions included The Sound of Colour with original compositions Orange and Blue, Learning through Light, and the premier of Musical Lines! 

We had a blast in Edmonton! Thank you for enthusiastically participating and for hosting us! Alberta Orff is an amazing chapter full of welcoming music educators dedicated to the Orff approach. We hope to come back again soon! 

Winnipeg is up next! Here we come Manitoba Orff Chapter!

Like many music teachers, we love using picture books with our classes! We have a list of literacy resources to accompany each one of our units in Music Makers - Book One, coming soon! Check out these great books to use with our units, or use them on their own to create music with your students.  

Enjoy these literacy treasures with your students!

We are currently finishing up graphics for MUSIC MAKERS — BOOK ONE!

This resource is a collection of activities, songs, and games for the elementary music classroom and explores three themes: Bugs, Light, and Transportation. Learning thematically enables children to connect a variety of concepts and focus on multiple music goals. Rather than focusing on isolated outcomes, teaching thematically and using the foundations of the Orff approach allow for many creative opportunities, critical thinking, and reflection. 

Each of the three units can be taught in their entirety, or teachers can pick and choose activities and customize as they see fit. The units each include songs with lyrics and Orff arrangements, games that help build musical skills, listening and literacy activities, and composition opportunities. These lessons are centered around having fun and making music in a meaningful way, all while engaging the whole child. 

Below is a sneak peak at some of the graphics that we will be using in the book to help guide teachers when using the resource!

In the fall, we created posters for Four Corners, a super fun melody identification game that kids LOVE! We now have posters available for the French version! Thank you to My Cute Graphics for providing the cute Alouette and Frère Jaques clipart. The well-known French songs that we include in this version are Frère Jaques, l'Alphabet, Au claire de la lune, and Alouette. Click HERE for instructions to Four Corners / Quatre Coins. 

Christmas festivities are coming to an end and we are excited to get back to work on our current project; Music Makers - Book One. We are so thrilled to be publishing our very first resource for elementary music teachers, due out this spring!

We will keep you updated as to when and where it will be available in the New Year!

We are so excited to be in Atlantic City! After waiting six hours, Steph's flight almost got cancelled due to a Northern Manitoba snow storm, but we made it! We are really looking forward to making music with our American colleagues. We are also looking forward to attending great sessions with clinicians such as Jim Soloman, Christa Coogan and fellow Canadians Rose Suter and Angela Warren!