Wacky Wednesday with Lynette Winterton

Lynette Winterton teaches at South Weber Elementary which is the furthest north elementary school in our district.  They have the coolest campus!  There are 3 (maybe 4) separate buildings and Lynette's music room is housed in the Family Recreation complex where the community recreation department is also housed.  The kids come there for music and pe.  Lynette has a great set up in her room.  You might think it was like a hotel suite without the bed or comfy chair.  She has a kitchen in her room!  What?  Okay...it's not for her use...but what?  I bet she can keep her lunch in the fridge... in her room! 


The day I visited Lynette the school had been celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday.  The kids don't always dress the way they are dressed in my pictures and Lynette doesn't usually wear a pony tail on top of her head or button her shirt crooked or wear 2 different shoes...but it was WACKY WEDNESDAY!


I had so much fun with Lynette.  She is another one of our master teachers!  She never ceases to amaze me with what she does in her class and how well she knows and loves all of her students. 


Lynette begins each of her classes, every day, with Pop Up.  She uses it a little bit different than what we learned at our opening training in August, but I love what she does.  Lynette uses it as an opportunity to take roll in her class, see who isn't there, reinforce alphabetical order with the kids, pitch matching and vocal exploration.  When the kids are singing Pop Up they get  to use any part of their voice they would like, high or low and the rest of the class is their echo.  Each student can start in a different place when it is their turn.  They may also stylize their voice anyway they want to.  But I love what they do when someone isn't there. 

Today Lynette was using a Music Express magazine in her teaching.  If you attended UMEA then you will remember John Jacobsen, he is one of the contributors to this magazine.  The magazine they used today talked about lots of different styles of music. 


The first piece they worked on was called Spirit of America.  This is a great piece that actually turns into a partner song.  Lynette had everyone sing both parts and then the second time she divided the class in half and they sang both parts together at the same time. 

When Lynette was working through this piece with the kids she talked about rests and had them identify the pattern of rests in the song and then put a clapping pattern where the rests were.  This really helped the kids as they were reading the music to identify where there was silence...or a break in the melody.  Of course they performed it twice and everyone got to sing both parts. 

In the same magazine was a great piece from The King and I, Getting to Know You.  I love this song!  Lynette was great at telling the kids about the REAL story behind the musical.  Kids love stories whether in a book or one that you tell.  It can be personal or related to the subject you are studying.  They don't care!  They just love stories.  Stories engage students socially, culturally, behaviorally and academically and Lynette is a great story teller.  After the story they got sing the song and it was precious!

Some of the kids got to practice playing some simple classroom instruments to a fun song from the magazine called Gypsy in the Moonlight.  It was a fun calypso piece and Lynette chose appropriate cultural instruments for the kids to play.  They practiced the steady beat and had a ton of fun!



Lynette has also been working on recorders with her students.  They have been playing for about 5 weeks.  The book they are working from is called My Recorder Book published by PlayinTime Productions, Inc.

The kids were working on a specific song that used a 5 note scale.  Lynette worked through it with them at the board by having them re-write what they saw in the book by adding appropriate stems, values, note names, etc.  I was so impressed with how much the kids knew!

Once they had re-written and reviewed the song they practiced playing it.  Lynette asked for volunteers to play it on their own and then she did a group practice.  This ended up being a great opportunity for assessment as she created different opportunities for smaller group playing.  Watch what she did.





The kids loved playing together and in smaller groups and were so excited when they got to play more than once. 


I truly enjoyed my day at South Weber Elementary.  There are times in the classroom where we as teachers are touched to our very soul.  It could be because of how well the kids sang a song, when they finally latch onto a difficult concept, when a students tells you he/she loves you, but for me it's seeing amazing teachers like Lynette working their magic and loving the kids whole heartedly.  Being in Lynette's classroom touched me as an individual and I can't wait to visit again!