Word Wall Update! - Forgotten Words and Great Suggestions!

Hey Ya'll!

I don't know about you guys, but my beginning of the year has been typically CRAZY BUSY!

But the nice thing is that I'm beginning to hit my stride into a routine.

As school was starting I got some really amazing feedback about the word wall. I was amazed at some of the basic words that I forgot to include.... you know some obvious ones like "snare drum" and "spaces"...... There was also some really great suggestions that were mostly "duh" words that everyone wants.

My suggestion list got long enough that I'm even having to break up my updates into smaller groups of words.

SOOOO without further ado..... Here is update number 3

Remember - when I say sentence strip size, I mean that you intend to print your words onto sentence strips.  If I say 8.5 x 11, I mean that you intend to print your words on sheets of card stock and then cut them apart.

Update # 3 - Random words - 

UPDATE #3 (sentence strips 3 x 11.5)

UPDATE #3 (8.5 x 11) 

You should notice that all of my clip art either came from msn clipart OR was purchased through a subscription from iclipart. 

I had more than one suggestion for "tubular bells".  I have not included it here because I have yet to find the right image.  If you come across a picture that I can use for tubular bells that might work, send me a link and we will check it out.  

If you are just coming across the music word wall posts, 

Check out the following links

Musical Word Wall

Update #1

Solfa Word Wall Update #2 

Word Wall Words - FREE UPDATE #1

Ya'll-  the response to the alphabet words and word wall has been truly overwhelming and exciting and really cool!  Thank you for your kind appreciation, patient responses and collaboration in helping me make sure that these downloads I've created are working properly so that you can get the things you need.

I've also gotten some great ideas for some words that should be added to the list.....

My "I" is very lonely! 

After all, we can't have a word wall with a lonely "I"

AND, if you are like me, if my resource doesn't fit the need that I have, then I just don't use it.

That is why having a downloadable AND expandable word wall is just perfect!  We can ADD to it! - It's always good to add more ingredients to our melodysoup!

Through comments and emails I've received enough essential new words that I am going to be able to create AT LEAST 3 Word Wall updates for several blog entries to come.  I hope you will join me in being both urgently expectant (I've GOT to get this done!) and patient (we're all starting a new school year) as we try to get everything done!

August 19 UPDATE!

August 19th UPDATE 3 x 11.5 (sentence strips)

August 19th UPDATE 8.5 x 11 

As a quick disclaimer, these new words are sometimes words that I just simply forgot, but sometimes they are words that I had a hard time coming up with a picture to explain them because they are express more abstract concepts..... so as you see in the picture above, a descant is like "frosting" to the melody.... so I have a picture of a cake being frosted..... a little bit of stretch, but for me it is a pretty good visual of how a descant functions musically.

If you are just now discovering melodysoup Here are some links that you might find helpful 

Musical Word Wall

Musical Alphabet - black line

Musical Alphabet in Color

As always I want to give credit to msn clip art and iclipart for the wonderful clipart.  I also discovered a wonderful website that I can tell has been around for a while, and yet it is a resource that I only discovered today.  That is http://www.acesandeighths.com/

Musical Alphabet in COLOR! = better letters!

Today I put up my new word wall!  I was so excited to put together all of my musical vocabulary words and my musical letters. 

First I put it here on my cabinets..... and then I thought..... NOPE!  That will only last 5 minutes.... my students have to walk by my cabinets to get in and out of the room and things that I put on my cabinets tend to walk off.  

Then I decided to place it here and thought..... This is WAY better!..... BUT I can't see the letters!  

See - they blend into the wall....

Especially the yellow letters

I'm glad that I was able to get up to school a couple days early to problem solve because this is a problem I can solve!  I redid the letters so that they will be easier to see.  I thought I'd share my "better letters" with you! 

Click HERE to download the alphabet cards in COLOR

I got the clip art that I used in these letters from the following sites MSN clipart, ICLIPART, Clip Art ETC, WP Clipart .

Now my new word wall looks better than EVER!

MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to see! 

The yellow letters are much easier to see now! 

Poor "I" doesn't have any words  : ( as I was putting
up my word wall a teacher friend reminded me of the word "Imitation".... I'll have to add it! 

Musical Word Wall - Proof that Learning is Doing

I took some pictures of my "word wall" adventure.  I hope that these pictures might answer some questions that you may have.

If you would like to download my word sets click HERE!

Got these at Teacher Heaven

1. Here is a picture of the sentence strips that I purchased. The key to printing on them as I did is that the back side is blank. I printed them on the blank side.

What I saw on my screen.

2. Based on this picture on the screen and my printer settings, I thought I would have a white edge all the way around the word.  

3. This is what my words looked like when I got finished printing them..... They had 3 sides? of white and many of the shorter words were in need of trimming.  I LOVE my paper cutter!  Without cutting the the words didn't fit into my mini pocket charts..... I don't know if I'll use them with the pocket charts, but I want the choice to do so, so before I was done, I ended up cutting all of the words.       

I got these from Lakeshore!  Aren't they Awesome?

4. Here is what they looked like after trimming

5. See - they fit in the pocket charts just fine!

A Musical Word Wall!

So all summer I've been working on creating a word wall that will work in my classroom..... maybe my word wall will work for you too..... Feel free to download it and print.

You might also enjoy the  Musical Alphabet that I created earlier in the summer. 

There are two versions of the word wall.  The first is intended to be printed on 8.5x11 card stock and does not include the colorful background.   The second version is intended to be printed on 3x11.5 sentence strips which depending on how the supplies work at your school may be easier to get a hold of than regular card stock.  I first learned about printing on sentence strips from pinterest.  Please visit the awesome blog that provided those very detailed and useful instructions click at  "A Turn to Learn" .

The pictures give an example of each sub group of words.  Don't be fooled by the pictures.  The height of each word and most font sizes are identical throughout the entire collection. The clip art I used came from the  following sites: MSN clipart, ICLIPART, Clip Art ETC, WP Clipart .

Instruments

Set 1 (Instruments) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 1 (Instruments) 8.5 x 11

Notation and Theory

Set 2 (notation and theory) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 2 (notation and theory) 8.5 x 11

Musical Elements, vocal and instrumental words

Set 3 (Musical Elements) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 3 ( Musical Elements) 8.5 x 11

(Musical Elements 8.5 x 11 corrected on August 21, 2012) 

Ensembles and Occupations

Set 4 (Ensembles and Occupations) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 4 (Ensembles and Occupations ) 8.5 x 11

Types and Elements of Song

Set 5 (Types and Elements of Song) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 5 (Types and Elements of Song) 8.5 x 11

Performances and Genres

Set 6 (Performances and Genres) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 6 (Performances and Genres) 8.5 x 11

Tempo and Dynamics

Set 7 (Tempo and Dynamics) 3 x 11.5 sentence strips

Set 7 (Tempo and Dynamics) 8.5 x 11

Pictures of this word wall in my class are coming soon!

Musical Alphabet, Music Clip Art and Music Fonts

I have never been happy with how my word wall has functioned in my room.  .I've sort of borrowed and shoved together lots of ideas and ended up with a word wall that was nothing more than a "space taker"..... I don't know about you, but I don't have enough wall space in my room to tolerate any space takers...... soooooo I'm revisiting word walls and trying to synthesis everything that I put on my wall so that everything is accessible, instructional and totally music. 

I found some basic letters that I was going to use as the basis for my word wall, but I decided they weren't quite big enough so I have been looking for letters for some time...... After looking and looking and looking and looking I finally decided to create my own.....  I used an OLD version of Publisher and an OLD version of Powerpoint to edit graphics as needed.  I'm happy with my final product, although it's not perfect and I may continue to tweak it before I finally print it, I thought that I would go ahead and share what I have. ALL of the sources for the fonts and graphics that I used to create my alphabet are included at the end of this post.  I did purchase a couple of the graphics when they were REALLY good, but I've found that purchasing the rights to use really good graphics for teaching are often worth it and the fees are minimal. I made my letters to fit on regular 8.5x11 card stock.  I decided to create them in black and white and then color them so that I can make them fit my decor at any given time..... Right now, my decor is rather colorful.

Download Musical Alphabet HERE! 

I found some musical fonts that I liked at this website.

Musical Fonts 

I learned how to install the fonts.... this part is a little tricky.... who knew????

Install Fonts  

I started collecting the "right" graphics...... as it turns out.... gathering good clip art for an instrument that corresponds with every letter of the alphabet is a little daunting.


For photographic clip art that I use ALL THE TIME in my classroom and on my blog I typically use

Stock Xchange   

but they don't really have clip art.... so I had to broaden my search.


I used clip art from

MSN clipart

ICLIPART

Clip Art ETC

WP Clipart 

deedledoodles

I hope you enjoy these!