Submitted by Daniel J. Fee, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Idea posted October 29, 2003
I just wanted to share this thing I did since it has worked out really well. Earlier this summer, I decided that perhaps my students weren't learning enough SONGS. I thought it would be helpful to "track" them somehow, but needed something more/better than just a list of songs that I would keep.
I decided to make "song trees." Each grade has a "tree" in cement in the bottom half of an ice cream bucket. I put construction paper around the bucket (a different color for each grade), labeled each bucket "gr. 4," and so on, and put white lights on each tree. The trees are along one wall of our room. I keep them lit all day and have a sign above them saying, "Watch our song trees grow!"
When a song is learned, we go to the song tree and take a piece of pre-set construction paper (same color as the paper wrapped around the bucket), write the title of the song, and hang it ceremoniously on the tree.
Making them was easy and inexpensive. I had to put wheels on each bucket since I have to empty the gym I teach in each time we have a program, etc. Many teachers have commented on how nice they look. I like the fact that just by looking at the trees, we can see how many and which songs we've learned. When it comes time to choose a song for the beginning or end of class, the song trees will help in that decision.
I was also thinking how easy it would be to use them in other years... one tree for each element of music, and hang music vocabulary relating to that element on each one. Or, use one for each family of instruments, and hang the names of each instrument in that family, etc.