How many of you readers out there have ever heard of Recorder Karate? Pretty much everyone, I would assume, but just in case you’ve never heard of this awesome recorder method, the basic gist is that there are belts representing different levels of difficulty, much like in actual karate. Students work their way through increasingly difficult music and earn belts along the way. I personally love it, but you do need to be organized to really make it work. So today I have my brand new Recorder Karate Resource Board to share with you. TA-DA!
Ah! What a thing of beauty! (Ok it would be a little more beautiful if my iPhone camera focused a little better, but I will have some close up pics later in the post). I LOVE this area because it is highly visible and easy to find what you are looking for, it contains all the Recorder Karate stuff in one place, and everything stays so well organized. The inspiration for this board comes from a Pinterest post, but I have adapted it based on my needs. Ready for the grand tour? First – check out the RULES. I don’t have a close-up of them, but they are MUY IMPORTANTE when you are doing independent recorder practice time. So check them out, use them if you want, or make up your own, but definitely make sure to have some rules and procedures before you just let all your kids go do their own thing. And now, the photo tour: Let’s check out the actual music.
These are just file folders that I stapled to the bulletin board. I give the students all the easier belts on one page and they get the advanced belt page once they have mastered the the easy ones (less copies – let’s get real, not every student is going to need the advanced belts). I also do “Cheat Sheets” where the fingerings are written out for students. They can use these for practice but not for testing. At the bottom you may also notice fingering charts. So basically everything you need to get started with Recorder Karate. Next is the order of belts.
This keeps kids from asking constantly which belt comes next – or at least lowers the amounts of times I have to answer that question. There is always that one kid … You might notice that I use different songs than the “official” Recorder Karate. These are just ones that I likes better for what I do in the classroom. Remember, rarely are anythings set in stone in the music classroom. Create what works for you. Next, lets check out the classroom dojos.
Whenever more than half the students in a class have earned a particular belt, I put it up under their class dojo. Right here in this picture, we were just on the first day, so you can see that my first fifth grade class has earned their white belt. Hooray!
Here is my helpful little holder for all the belts waiting to be stapled under each class dojo. It is just a mini pocket chart, stapled to the board, and it makes updating the board quick and easy. The supplies are right there and organized.
So there is my Resource Board. it is new this year, and I love it. Hope you enjoyed it and maybe one or two of you will be inspired to try one of your own. Until next time!
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