Saturday, November 14, 2015

Pumpkin Pumpkin - October 2015

October Greetings,
It's been a busy fall as I'm sure you have been also.  Not much time to even think about sending out a note although I did find time to fix up a couple of Halloween themed solfege tunes that I had laying around. 

Halloween and Pumpkin Pumpkin are not my original tunes. I just put them down on paper so I could easily read them (I need glasses now to read) and each tune includes a few little activities to do with each song.  They are free for the month of October.  They were first put up about a week ago on Solo Time Facebook page so if you haven't liked it yet please do so to take advantage of early listings.
My students are loving Wendy Stevens Halloween  
pieces of ComposeCreate. For some of my students the songs are fairly simple but what I appreciate is that the pieces introduce new concepts; like first and second endings, codas (etc.) and my students love the tone clusters and the use of the very last key on the piano! Loads of fun, easy success with lots learning.  
Before I give a Halloween piece to students I make sure it's okay with the parents to play the piece as some families do not participate in Halloween.  Every parent I shared the pieces with said they were okay with them. Until the next week. One family decided that they were not going to play the piece.  I was a little surprised and I said that was fine but then they left the studio when the other students started playing the piece! 

What to do?   I decided that the rest of the class would still carry on with the Halloween piece as I had gained permission from all the other parents but next year I'll be more conscientious about this family. The reason I choose Wendy Stevens' pieces as they are well written word wise and not offensive. 
My friend, Claudia is ahead of me on the technical side of things (I just am a little competitive.) Our recent Music for Young Children meeting was her home  and afterwards we had a tour of her studio and in it was a TV. That was fine but then she took out her iPad and showed us how it was hooked up wirelessly to her TV and now she had no need of a white board! She just writes everything on the iPad and it shows up on her TV.

What a great idea! Her iPad is programmed with a few different templates with whiteboard, keyboard and grand staff and she writes on it and teaches her lesson and theory concepts from there.
Now I'm on the hunt for a TV  to replace my white board.  Claudia uses Apple TV and an app called Delori but if any of you are already using your iPad this way let me know what you do or use.  I would like to hook up to the TV without having to purchase the Apple TV package.
Thank you for your recent purchases large and small. I'm so glad they help you make a difference in teaching music and its concepts to your students.
Have safe and colourful October!
Musicallyours,

Lois Dicknoether 
Solo Time Music Games
info@solotimemusicgames.com 

September 2015

September 2015
Sight Reading Glasses, Feathers and Posters
Good Morning,

It's been a little bit busy, a little bit stressful while being a lot of fun getting ready to teach this week.  Cleaning the studio - spiders where do they come from? And not just the fake kind and how did they get so big? Sorting out games and teaching aids and making new ones.
Starting today at the Teachers Notebook Store the Metronome teaching aid will be free to all who are members of Solo Time Games Teachers Notebook. If you are not a member "join" and you too can get it for free. 

Print one off for yourself and one for all your students and use it as a game.  I play different tempos and students have to guess what the tempo is or put on the metronome at different tempos or a recording. 
It's a great listening and learning activity.


I bought a ukulele in August to use with my preschool classes and it's turned out to be a lot more fun and useful than I thought.   I bought it firstly for support for my singing voice as it feels like my voice is not as strong as it used to be. I haven't started the preschool classes yet but I started using the ukulele in the Music for Young Children classes and it's turned out to be a real hit especially when we sing the  "Yelling Song."   I can play the ukulele louder and save my voice.
 
That's all for now.
Have a colourful September with music!
Musicallyours,
Lois

Give it a Rest
Quite some time ago my amazing printer made a mistake and printed off the "Give it a Rest" teaching aids in 8 1/2 x 11 format instead of the usual 11 by 17in.
I wasn't sure if they would sell and sure enough they did.    
It was a mistake with great possibilities.   
One of the reasons for the interest in this different size
is that the game is easier to store  
and doesn't take up so much space. 
So I'm offering this month all three levels in 8 1/2 by 11 for $30.00 with shipping included.
(regular size would be $20.00 per game)  
Email me if you want this amazing offer  
info@solotimegames.com  
 
Just Some Ideas to Share 
Sight Reading Glasses - I'm sure I heard about using old sunglasses for sight reading at some seminar in the past but didn't get around to having them in my studio.  Recently  a teacher posted a cute picture of her son wearing sight reading glasses from her studio.
Immediately, I went to my toy box and took out all the 3D glasses I was keeping for my grand kids to play with.  Sure enough, I had a set of 6, so I punched out the lenses and made a class set. 
What a great idea!

Thank Heavens for Feathers (picture at this link) - Thanksgiving here in Canada always seems to come so much quicker that I want it to arrive, this year its on October 12.  This game is a great group activity and term review. It is in the resource page called Thank Heaven's for Feathers.

Hang Your Games! This idea came from Michelle Miller from  Edmonton Alberta.  She posted some pictures of her studio on Facebook and on her wall were games from Solo Time!  I was delighted to learn that she uses them not only as decoration for her studio but if you take a look at the picture below shows how she creates easy access.
Thanks Michelle