Tin Whistle Series: Teaching Tin Whistle to Beginners (Key of D)

This is the first of a series of posts based on teaching the tin whistle to children in primary school.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting tunes to teach beginners, intermediate and advanced students, tunes suitable for a school masses, 'child friendly' songs and some extra resources you might find useful.

This week, I will be focusing on teaching the tin whistle to beginners. 

Step 1: Holding the Tin Whistle:

• It is important to show the children how the left hand is placed at the top of the tin whistle (whether the player is right or left handed) and how they need to rest their thumbs underneath the tin whistle to hold it.
• It is also important to get the children to practice covering all of the holes fully before they start playing anything. Get them to practice 'going up the stairs, and down the stairs' to practice the muscle movements of playing. 
• Emphasise the importance of blowing gently.
• Finally, tell them that when you put your hand in the air you expect silence and tin whistles on the table ('give me 5' also works for this!).

Step 2: Teaching the notes B A G:

• Without them blowing into the tin whistle, teach them the notes B, A, G (using their left hand). Point out how this makes the word 'bag'. 
• Call out a note for them to show you and get them to test each other in pairs (without blowing).
• Get them to try and play the notes, by blowing gently and covering the notes fully.
• Put various combinations of the notes on the board and get them to play these for you slowly. You could also get them to test each other in pairs too, by getting them to write note combinations for their partner to play. 
• Don't worry too much about funny sounds at this stage, as a lot of children need a considerable amount of practice before the notes sound 'right'. Make sure they are covering all the holes and blowing as gently as possible however.
• When they have spent some time practicing these notes, in your next lesson you can teach them the song: 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'.

Step 3: Teaching the notes F E D:

• Without them blowing into the tin whistle, teach them the notes F, E, D (using both hands). Point out how this makes the word 'fed'. 
• Repeat the above activities with the new notes.
• When they have practiced and mastered these notes, teach them the song 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'.

Step 4: Teach them some more simple, repetitive songs:

• The Whole World In His Hands
• Oh Susannah
• Fáinne Geal an Lae

Step 5: Homework Sheet:

• As they start building up tunes, they can use a homework sheet to keep a record of the pieces they have played. 

Finally, if you are a little rusty on the tin whistle yourself and would like to brush up a little on your skills, tinwhistletutorials has some excellent lessons, for all ability levels. I hope you found this post useful and keep an eye out for future posts on teaching the tin whistle!

Throwback Thursday: Maths Centers in Senior Infants

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This week, I am re-posting a very popular post from 2012. The post was based on my first experience using Maths centers in my classroom. I used these in the morning time for 20 minutes as well as teaching my regular Maths lesson later on in the day. Using different centers to teach Maths was something I had been very weary about, considering I was the only adult in the room, and worried that I would not be able to support the children enough. I was pleasantly surprised however, to discover how well it went and how much the children enjoyed the activities.
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Below are some of the Maths centers I chose to use in my classroom. I chose mainly activities based around the Number strand, as I felt this was the area they needed the most extra support in.
1.) Counting counters:

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Each child at the table had one of the above sheets with different numbers on it. There was a bowl of counters in the middle of the table. The children used the counters to add spots to the ladybird, add apples to the tree, etc. These sheets could be made using the numbers 1-10 but I felt at the end of the year that my students were well able to use numbers 1-20.

                                                                                                                        

2.) More or Less Cubes: 

The children were given a bowl/bag of cubes each. Each bag/bowl had a selection of cubes in 2 different colours. They wrote the two colour names at the top of the sheet over each column. They had to close their eyes and pick a handful of cubes out of the bowl/bag. They wrote in the amount of each colour they picked out under the colour name on the top two lines. They circled the colour number there was more of. They repeated the exercise until the sheet was completed. (Trust me, it's easier than it sounds!)

3.) Making Number Necklaces:

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I gave each child at this table a sheet of the above sample and a jar of beads. They had to line up the beads around the shapes to make a 'necklace'. You can also have the children thread spools onto string for this exercise - just write numbers on masking tape and attach it to a piece of string.                                                                        

                                            

4.) Piggy Banks:

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The children at this table each got one of these sheets of piggy banks each and they had to fill them with coins left on the table. We made quantities of 2c - 10c using 1c, 2c, 5c and 10c coins.                                                                                                                                                   

5.) Race to Ten:
This is my favourite station as it is brilliant to use as an informal way of introducing take away and revising addition with infants. Each child gets a game board and each of them take turns around the circle to roll two dice. One dice has numbers 1-6 on it and the other has a mixture of + and - signs on it. If they get a +3 they put on three counters, if they get a - 4 they take away 4 counters from the board, etc. The first child to ten is the winner.

Note: I found some of these ideas on www.kidscount1234.com. You can find lots more maths center ideas there based around topics such as colours, shapes, tessellation, etc.

These are just some ideas for Maths centers in your classroom. Maths centers provide a great opportunity for children to work on difficult topics, in a fun, hands-on way. As you get more adventurous, there is huge scope to create new centers involving bought Maths games, board games, shape hunts, colour hunts, Numicon, matching and sorting activities, etc. The most important thing is: don't be afraid of trying new things. While the concept of teaching through centers scared me at first, it was more than worth it in the end!

Thematic Unit: Italy (and the Renaissance)

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I'm posting another thematic unit this week, which contains lessons I have used with 5th class (and some which I have used with 3rd and 4th as well) based on the theme of 'Italy'. This theme offers a huge amount of opportunities for integration so here are a few of my ideas:

Geography: Italy:
Discuss prior knowledge about Italy (food, climate, sports teams, etc.). Go through the information in this PowerPoint and then create a booklet (in pairs) containing all the information a tourist would need to know about Italy.

Note: I have edited this PowerPoint to suit Irish classes, but you can find the original here.

History: The Renaissance:

The video below gives a synopsis of changes in painting techniques during the Renaissance. It can be used alone to focus on this specific aspect of the era (activities are included in the video), or can be used in conjunction with the PowerPoint below, to give a more rounded view of the era!

Science: Da Vinci's Flying Machines:
Discuss briefly how people get from place to place and lead the discussion towards the importance of the development of flying as a mode of transport. Brainstorm some ideas about what you need to consider when building something you want to make fly. Use the PowerPoint and video below to study some of Da Vinci's flying machines as well as other key moments in the history of aviation.

  

Give them the activity at the end of the PowerPoint to work on in small groups of 3-4. This activity involves designing a plane that will fly by man power or by gliding through the air using lollipop sticks, sellotape, blue tack, a glue stick, tooth picks, paper, elastic bands and crepe paper. 

My class  really enjoyed and engaged with this lesson and learned so much during it. It highlighted and corrected many misconceptions they had about forces, helped them to acquire new skills and gave them the opportunity to work on their ability to solve problems as a team.

Art: Mock the Mona:

The next lesson idea came from here. I adapted this idea into the following PowerPoint lesson which also includes some detail on the life of Leonardo Da Vinci and his other works.

Art: One Point Perspective:
If  you would prefer something more technical for an older class, they could create a one point perspective painting using the following PowerPoint to guide a discussion of the subject (This  also ties in nicely with the Art History video based on the Renaissance which I have embedded above).

Note: This lesson idea came from Deep Space Sparkle's website.

Music: Listening and responding:

Listen and respond to different pieces of classical, operatic or film (e.g. Romeo and Juliet, etc) music by drawing emotions, identifying instruments used or studying the various musical elements that feature in the music.

History and Drama: The Myth of Romulus and Remus:

Read, discuss and act out scenes from the story. 

Religion: St. Valentine:

If you choose to teach this unit near Valentine's day, the story of St. Valentine could be covered in Religion.

The lesson possibilities for this theme really are endless and I hope that you found some inspiration for your own lessons in this post.

Until next week! 

The Celts

Seeing as the season of giving is almost upon us, this week, I'm sharing a full History/Drama lesson with you all based on The Iron Age/The Celts.

When I taught this topic to my 5th Class, I used this interactive PowerPoint throughout the lesson. It worked really well as a lesson because it was interactive, it involved collaborative based learning and very little teacher talk. You can go through the PowerPoint lesson below, or you can download it off SlideShare here (it's free to sign up and you can download as many PowerPoints as you want!). By downloading it, you can also edit it, use it offline and the animations I have added will become fully active (which in turn makes it easier to use with a class). 

The Celts from SeniorInfants

I hope you find this resource/lesson useful and don't forget to let me know how your class enjoy this lesson!

10 Christmas Art Ideas!

This week's post features some old and new Christmas art ideas that I have used with various class levels over the past few years.  

1. Sock Snowmen: I have explained how these are made in my Winter post, but I love them so much, they are getting included again! They are really easy to make and the children love them! This is a craft that can be adapted for any age level too.

2. Reindeer Christmas Cards: These thumbprint cards are very effective while also being very simple! Here is a sample of one I found at: Madeinthedessert 

3. Christmas Brown Paper Stockings: I made these socks with a Senior Infant class. While they require some preparation (hole punching and gluing the sock together before you get the children to sew the edges together), they look great when finished and decorated. I put chocolate Santa lollies into each of them as a Christmas surprise on the last day of school. I got the idea from Enchanted Learning.

4. 3D stars and angels to hang from the ceiling: 

5. Christmas Wreaths: I have tried these out with senior classes, however, I think they would work well with younger children also. They start by cutting the centre out of a paper plate and colouring it green. Next, the children trace their hand on various shades of green paper and cut them out. They stick them around the outside of a paper plate. They then can add bells, berries and holly to their wreath with coloured paper. 

This particular example is from Rockmybabynewzealand.

6. Gingerbread Houses: When I taught Senior Infants, I made Gingerbread houses with them. The children brought in shoe boxes, painted them brown and then finger painted 'smarties' on the walls and roof. They drew and coloured in some 'sweets' to stick onto the outside of the house. They then added cotton wool to the roof, along with a chimney. The most difficult aspect of this project was attaching the roof the the house (it took up a lot of teacher's time unfortunately!). It's one of those painstaking projects which you feel very proud to have accomplished and vow never to do again, all at the same time! 

7. Christmas Tree Decorations: This year I am making two Christmas tree decoration crafts with my pupils, both of which I found on this wonderful website, pagingfunmums. The first is a clay owl decoration (which you can read all about here), and the other is a reindeer craft (which you can find here). I also really like this Christmas tree craft too!

8. Festive Scene: I was browsing through the Lidl (I think!) Christmas brochure a few weeks ago and found this really nice craft idea. I had my class bring in shoeboxes, they used the lid as the base and the box itself for the figures and the 'roof'. We then dangled stars from the 'roof' using thread. As my class are a 4th/5th class, they were given the freedom to decide what to put in their scenes (but also the advice to 'keep it simple!'). 

9. Paper Plate Crafts: I thought these paper plate Christmas character crafts from kixcereal were really eye catching and although I haven't made them with a class, they would be quite an easy art lesson for a younger class.

10. Pine Cone Christmas Trees: Recently I have seen a lot of pine cone Christmas tree art ideas and if I had a younger class, I would definitely try some of them out. Have a look at one idea here.

Merry Christmas everyone!