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Free Download: Major Scale Strip for Elementary Montessori Tone Bars

I am happy today to share with you a download of the major scale pattern strip that we are using with our elementary Montessori tone bars.  This is the green and white strip you can see in the image above.

I made mine reversible.  I wanted the numbers 1-8 on the front and solfege (do, re, mi...do) on the back.  This means there are two files.

Major Scale Pattern Strip for Tone Bars:  Numbered Version
Major Scale Pattern Strip for Tone Bars:  Solfege Version

Instructions:

• print the files
• cut and trim (each side of the strip will be in two pieces to fit into laminating film)
• place and/or glue back-to-back
• laminate
• tape the two sections together

Caveat:

I can't promise that the width of the rectangles on the strip will match your tone bars.  I can say that it is likely to match the width of your tone bars.  If it doesn't fit, you may be able to tweak the size by changing the percentage of the size that you are printing the file.  If that is more trouble than it's worth, this can be easily made with fadeproof construction paper.

Another note:

When your child begins to play songs with this material rather than just build one-octave scales they may need to pull forward the appropriate tone bars above and below the highest notes of the scale.  There are three ways to do this.

1.    The child observes which letter names they used on the major scale strip and their color and pulls forward the matching bars above and below the scale they have already built.  This is the method we are using for now.

2.  Slide the strip you've already made up or down so that it begins with number one on what WAS number eight or so that it ends with number eight on what WAS number one.

3.  Make three additional strips as you did above, BUT cut off the highest "do" or "number eight" from each strip.  Then you will have three strips that go from do-ti or 1-7 that you can use in a chain to find all of the bars you need.  You would start by using one strip starting on the note you wish.  Then, you would ADD the other two strips above and below the first strip.  The strips will be longer in both directions than the tone bars in total.  In the case that you choose to begin your scale on G, you will use only two strips and they will run the entire length of the tone bars.  This is probably why you see some sets sold in multiples and numbered 1-7 instead of 1-8.  It is important to introduce the scale in a do-do or 1-8 manner because a scale represents a particular division of the octave and without that eight note you don't have an octave represented.

Montessori Music: Elementary Tone Bars

I am sooo excited to report that we have our version of the elementary tone bars completely up and running!  You may have read our previous post about Montessori music in which we began to transition from the bells to the tone bars.  If you you can find all of my posts to date on Montessori Music under the Montessori Music tab below my blog header.

First, I introduced our new DIY tone bar keyboard.  The "real thing" is a painted wood board and runs about $50 at Nienhuis.  Ours was made from fade-proof construction paper, a Sharpie, and my laminator and was essentially free.

I apologize for the photo quality in this post.  It is REALLY hard to take a picture in this location at the time of day that we do work.  It is a south-east window and the sun is blinding.  I have to counteract terrible sun and shadows.  I should reshoot all of this in the afternoon, but we do our work in the mornings.

Anyway, you'll notice I put a tiny stripe of green down the right-hand side so that the boys can make sure the keyboard is right-side-up before they begin work if they are loading the tone bars themselves.  It is tricky because the resonator bars we purchased in place of the real (and really expensive) Montessori tone bars have a range from g-g instead of c-c.  The g-g range means the tone bar keyboard starts and ends with a split group of three black.  The traditional c-c range of the Montessori bars maintains the pretty groups of 2 and 3 black together but is a little high for singing.  The resonator bars we have are ranged to match a plethora of Suzuki and Orff instruments which are ranged from g-g for singability.  By-the-way, this means that you can't buy the Nienhuis keyboard to go with your non-Nienhuis resonator bars.

I didn't scan this to make a printable file because of it's size.  I used legal-sized laminating film to laminate it in two sections and taped them together.

Me Too placed all of the white tone bars on the keyboard for me and explored them with the mallet.  He noticed the different lengths and Kal-El reminded him that a lot of instruments are lower when longer and shorter when higher.

Kal-El used his new knowledge of sharps and flats to place all of the black tone bars.

I was super-excited to introduce the major scale strip.  These are traditionally all in white and I've seen a few pictures of it done in black and white (not recommended), as well as green and white or blue and white.  I chose green and white rather than all white in order to highlight the whole steps and help the boys be more sure of positioning as they slide it beneath the tone bar keyboard.

The major scale strip slides along in front of tone bar keyboard.  The child can build a major scale starting on ANY note.  You decide which note you want your scale to begin on and place the number one in front of that bar.  Then, you pull forward all of the bars that are positioned behind a white, numbered rectangle.  You don't pull forward any bars behind a green rectangle. Kal-El had a LOT of fun building many, many major scales that day.  My husband was tickled when he built the F# Major scale (pictured) because older students we work with consider that "the hardest" and here our first grader was building it with a smile.

Musicians have to understand multiple ways that scale degrees are identified.  For this reason I made my scale strip reversible.  If the boys flip it over they will find the same thing on the back but labeled with solfege (do, re, mi...) instead of numbers.  I made the major scale strip from construction paper and laminated just as I did with the keyboard.  However, I did scan my pages before I laminated.  My post tomorrow will have the major scale strip available as a free download for you all.  (Edited to add: Here is a link to the post with the free download)

Kal-el quickly moved on to playing melodies on the tone bars.  He has large charts I made him for memorizing the note names of his Suzuki violin music.  His violin teacher wants them to be able to sing all of their violin music on pitch by note name for now.  He knows what key each of his pieces are in.  For this reason, he was able to go grab any one of 20+  pieces I have written out by letter name (without sharps or flats), pull forward the correct tone bars using the major scale strip, and play any of his violin pieces in the correct key.  In the photo above he is playing Suzuki's Allegretto in D Major.

He had a fun surprise when he started to play some of the Bach Minuets because some of those pieces use C-natural and C-sharp, D-natural and D-sharp.  So already he learned that a scale is a collection of notes that can be used to write music.  He also learned that sometimes a composer will "accidentally" use a note that is not in the scale or collection he chose.  Those notes are called "accidentals."  Because they are still on the window seat along with the tone bars he chose forward he can still play them.  However, their position in the back (not pulled forward along with the notes that belong to the key signature or scale) highlights their "accidental" status.  I really enjoyed this.

Tomorrow I will put up the major scale strip as a free download.  Also, for those who are wondering, our tone bars are the Basic Beat BBA25 25 Note Resonator Bells.

If you are looking for the rest of my posts about Montessori Music you can find them under the Montessori Music tab at the top of my blog, under the header.

There's Always Time for Botany...

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I caught this photo of Kal-El when I couldn't find him to get in the car for church.  He had stolen away to the school room to sneak in a little botany before we left.  Thank you to Maria Montessori for discovering a way to teach children that makes them love learning!

Mountain Bike Obstacles

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My husband and the boys have started their big building project for the summer.  They are putting together backyard obstacles for their mountain bikes.

Here Kal-El is just playing around with some of the loose pieces.  The "trails" are actually going in behind our back patio.

Kal-El wanted to make sure everyone knew how tough he can be when he's not doing his school work :)

Word Study: Two, To, Too

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Both boys have been reading for long time now.  I think we are about two years past Dwyer at this point.  That doesn't mean there isn't still more to learn about reading.  When you've finished the Dwyer pamphlet, or the reading section of your AMI or AMS album, work begins in the elementary language albums.   Most of those albums deal with grammar, not reading.  However, they do begin with a *few* word study presentations.  These typically cover suffixes, prefixes, compound words, word families, synonyms, and antonyms.  NOW does the child know everything they know about reading?  No, but it can seem on the surface like what one might call specifically "reading work" stops here.

In reality, the work doesn't stop there.  My understanding of the Montessori approach is that the fourth Great Lesson, the history of writing, spurs continued work in this area.  This lesson keeps returning the child to the study of etymology and that the study of the origins of words takes care of a lot of the spelling and reading issues that remain.  The party line seems to be that as long as the child is provided with real (not dumbed-down) reading materials, a notebook, and the freedom to make and record observations, most of this will take care of itself.  It is also my understanding that the directress is supposed to pay close attention and make sure they ARE covering what they need to cover through these explorations.  

Kudos to quality directresses that manage this with up to 30 children because when I was honest with myself I realized right away that I was going to drop the ball with my two children.  So, while I trust the method when implemented well to do the job, I honestly knew I was not going to implement this well.  I am too lazy.  I was going to forget.  I was not going to pay close enough attention.  I've talked about this many time in the past, but I thought I should mention again that this is one of two purposes for which I bought The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  I didn't use it to teach my children to read, they learned to read using the Dwyer approach and traditional Montessori works.  However, when I was looking for readers that used single and double-letter key sounds, and not 500 sight words like most of the "easy" books at the library, I made some from the OPG.  It is also working well for reminding me about all the little weird things they need to learn about the English language, for spelling purposes as much as reading, and prompting me to make sure they are exposed. Frankly, most adults myself included need a little reminder of what the rules of this language actually ARE.   

I don't sit down with the book and say "let's do a lesson out this book."  I make a word list that we read together and hope that they make their own observation about what those words have in common.  I might make a couple green cards to add to their ever-increasing collection of sight words that we began with Dwyer.  Then, they read a little book that I have made using text from the OPG that practices the rule or observation at hand.  That is usually it. I could have them record the observation in their journals, but I haven't been.  I don't think that what we are doing is terribly different from what the Montessori procedure for this kind of learning is.  What IS different is that the experience is manufactured.

For example, recently Me Too did a word study of "to," "two," and "too."  He already knew how to read all three of these words but he needed to learn when and how each is used.  This is the type of thing that is from one perspective just "missing" from the Montessori albums.  It isn't truly "missing" from Montessori because etymology, wide-reading, and guided observation "could" cover this.  However, if you are expecting everything your child needs to know to be in those albums, it just isn't.  

What I did to manufacture an "observation" moment with Me Too was to hand him three new green cards for his sight word/puzzle word collection:  to, two, too.  He, of course, noticed that they all said the same thing.  He was super bothered by this.  He has been reading those words in context for a long time but had probably never seen them side-by-side all at once.  I explained what each is used for ("two" represents the number, "too" can be exchanged with the words "also" or "very", "to" is used the rest of the time).  Then, he just did some simple sentence to picture matches using sentences that had these words in them.  We observed that different spellings were used in the different sentences.

Afterward he was ready to decide which spelling to use for himself.  I provided him with sentences with a blank where the to/too/two should go and little cut-out words to use to fill in the blank (check out Kal-El in the background with his fraction circles and fraction charts!).

Here you can see he is part way through the work.  I wanted to leave this work on the shelf for him to repeat independently so I built in some controls.  First, I only provided the right number of each word.  If he gets to the end and he has the wrong to/too/two for his last sentence he knows he made an error.  Second, I did make a control chart with the answers.

We did our last to/too/two activity on a different day when I wasn't taking photos.  The last activity was a sentence and picture match in which the sentences had multiple versions of to/too/two in them.  For example:  "My uncle went to the store to buy two umbrellas.  I wanted to go too."  (I think I provided a picture of two umbrellas.)

So, you can see through all of this Me Too is not getting a sit down lesson out of a scripted book (Although the scripts are very helpful when you need help articulating the rule in clear words that a child of this age will understand.).  However, I didn't have to remember on my own that Me Too needed to learn this. I didn't have to think of examples for a word list by myself (That sounds silly in this instance, but is less silly when you are doing something like studying the schwa sound.), I didn't have to invent my own sentences. I didn't even think of the fill-in-the-blank activity myself.  I just tweaked it to have Montessori-like controls.

And the whole time Kal-El was just plugging away on fractions.  He loves the fraction charts and stares at them like they are a picture book.

School Days: Maths

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Kal-El chose to do a lot of work with the small bead frame this week.  As you can see he pulled out three (+, /, x) of the large drawers from our math cabinet.  I used to have these drawers separated into dynamic and static equations but I reorganized them.  I created "finished" and "unfinished" compartments instead.  I also moved all the static equations into the "finished" section because he doesn't need practice on those anyway.  He can do the equations on any apparatus he wishes. This keeps him supplied with fresh equations for whenever he doesn't want to invent his own.  He records his work on free bead frame paper from Livable Learning.  He keeps a page going until it is full at which point he punches it and adds it to his math binder.

Me Too started work on the last game on the last addition board.  I've already checked his mastery of the addition equations (through a sum of 18) with the flashcards and he knows them all.  We could move on to the subtraction boards but Me Too memorized all the steps Kal-El went through and wants to do them ALL.  It's good practice anyway.  When Kal-El finished all of the games on all of the addition boards he had not mastered all of the equations.  Me Too is doing these about a year younger than Kal-El did which makes him more "absorbent."  Also, Me Too is just better at memorizing things in general.

In this last game Me Too has organized all of the sum tiles by number.  He chooses a number, you can see he has chosen 11's to start, and then places all of that number on the board and records the equations.  In this way he reviews all the different ways to create a particular sum.

Kal-El liked the multiplication bead board with the tables book so much he asked me to make him another tables book to do before he moves on to the loose equations.  Here he has just completed the table of seven.  

Clock Stamp

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The boys had a fantastic time learning to tell time back in September.  We didn't have to do any follow-up work with that.  The boys are very proud to be able to tell time and once they had the skills, they have picked up a lot of skills using our clocks daily.  Me Too's skills aren't as strong as Kal-El's, but he will get a nice review next year if he needs it.  Today Kal-El was looking for something interesting and new to do.  I have been getting some passage of time story problems ready for him.  I though some work learning to record the time using a clock stamp would be a fun first step.

Our clock stamp is from the local teacher-supply store.  Our jumbo stamp pads are from Discount School Supply.  I didn't ask him to record any particular times, I left it to him to think of his own work and was pleased with the variety he came up with.

Me Too thought this looked like great fun and soon got in on the action.  Having to draw the hands was a good review of where the short and long hands are truly pointing.  Afterward they kept the ink out and created a lot of art with our geometric stamps.

Multiplication Bead Board: Introduction and Presentation 1

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Kal-El started the the multiplication bead board today.  He finished the first several presentations with the multiplication bead bars last week.  In my post on snake games I discussed how bead bar works seem to be at the beginning of the memorization sequence in my AMI albums to provide a sensorial introduction and in my AMS albums they bead bar works are always at the end of the sequence to celebrate the facts just memorized by providing practical use for them.  The multiplication sequence is no different and just as we did before, our family will use them in both positions.  We will revisit the bead bars again in the future when we do a lot more squaring work.  Right now we needed to move on and work on getting some of this memorization under his belt.

If you enlarge the photo you can see that we reviewed the nomenclature for the parts of a multiplication equation.  Kal-El defined the terms and I wrote down his definitions on the white board.  First I taught him how to use the board.  There are ten white wooden cards that slide into a slot on the left side of the board to represent the multiplicand.  The multipliers are printed at the top.  There is a red disc that you slide along the top to keep track of the multiplier.  Kal-El fills in the board with beads to find his product.  I let him experiment for a while and invent his own small equations to get used to the board.  Then I gave him the little book I made of the multiplication tables to work with.

I printed the pages from the booklet for free from Livable Learning.  You can also find the other multiplication charts free at that website including a control chart like the the one Kal-El used to check his work when he was done.  Kal-El loves getting new math materials and completed the whole booklet today.  Tonight I have to make him a booklet of squared paper to record his work with the loose equations tomorrow.