1 Kahoa Band

Welcome to Kahoa Elementary! (Pronc. Kay-ho) Home of the Cougars.

On Thursdays, I am teaching at Kahoa for the entire day. Kahoa is located at 7700 Leighton Ave. The school phone is 402-436-1147
Kahoa website

Subject: 5th grade band

Lesson Room: 126 (just off of the multipurpose room)

Full-Band practice room: 103 (in the kindergarten wing)

The teacher’s lounge is located in the media center, which is in the very center of the school. Feel free to store your lunch in the fridges. The closest bathroom, to the band room is in the back hallway that leads to the custodial office and kitchen.

Grade book: usually in the top right hand drawer of the desk

Schedule: I am including an outline of the daily band schedule below. You can also find a link to the daily band schedule HERE via Google Docs. *Note* you must use your LPS email account to access this Google Doc.
That Google Doc will provide more details on each lesson (time and student names). I typically rotate the lesson times each week so the kids will not have the same lesson time each week. Kids will likely be used to the rotation.

Kahoa Band
Band Lessons
Thursdays

*I have been giving a 5 minute buffer between lessons.

Full-Band Rehearsal

In the event you are asked to teach the full-band….

Time: 8:00-8:50am (before school)

The band usually practices in room 103, which currently serves as a general purpose room. There is a divider wall that separates from the kindergarten room next door. Custodians usually clear the room of tables. I, the teacher, take time to set up chairs and stands for the students. There should be a seating chart in the top right-hand drawer of the desk, in the band room. If you cannot find the seating chart, feel free to ask the kids to help you figure out who goes where. Most kids will be good about going to the correct spot but a few might try to sneak into a different spot.

Entrance/Attendance: Students will enter the door connected to room 103. That is door #3. The teacher will need to let students in but sometimes kids want to do it and that is okay. I typically watch the door from 7:45 – 7:58am. Please mark down what students came to the rehearsal.

Storage/prep area: Students should put their cases next to or under their chair after they put their instruments together. Students should not be wandering around with their instrument. I tend to not allow this group to warm up on their own, prior to the start of rehearsal. Until they have been given the “ok”, they should sit at their seat and wait. It is okay to talk to neighbors while everyone is getting read. Making obnoxious/loud sounds is NOT appropriate so please keep reign that.

What to practice

I will try to get a lesson plan to you, in case you do teach the full band rehearsal. 

Warm-ups: Use the warm-up sheets that are in the folders. The students will know which ones they can do successfully. Don’t worry about trying to learn any new ones, especially if you are not comfortable with teaching band.

Review: Take a look a students practice record – there should be a list of songs that they have been working on in their lesson groups. It will be okay to go back a couple pages and review some “old favorites”.

*If the rehearsal is close to a concert date (December or April), students might have a very specific list of songs to work on.

Clean up: Around 8:48am, I start prepping kids to pack up. You can dismiss the students as you see fit. They should put their instrument in their case and take it with them to their locker. Students should take time to put their own stand away and stack their chair on another. Let me know if they were helpful or not with this process.

Kids should exit Door #3– That is the door that connects to the room. They can either walk around to the playground or go back to the main entrance to get in to have breakfast. In general, we want to avoid having kids just walk through the halls without supervision. I usually spend time, after rehearsal, cleaning up the chairs and stands.

How to run lessons

Lesson groups vary in size from 1 – 4 students. I usually set out that many chairs and stands in the band room, usually in a straight line, facing the white board. You can space the chairs and stands 3-4 feet apart. This helps them to maintain personal space. I usually allow students to pick any of those chairs to sit in and we spend every lesson sitting while playing. The exception to this would be percussion students as they usually stand when they play.

Cases: Can go under or next to their chairs. They should not use them as foot rests.
Practice cards: There will be some sort of practice record in the folders. You should collect them and mark down any practice times or achievements they made. You can write that in the grade book or just on a separate piece of paper. Somewhere on the practice card will be a list of things they should have practiced over the past week. Use this to help you with what material to work on.
Warm-Ups: The students will have a warm-up sheet in their folder. They should be able to tell you which ones they have worked on so far. Pick 1 or 2 warm ups to do and then move on to other music.
Review: A couple options exist – if students want to review (old) songs from the book, you can have them pick 1 of their favorites. OR, you can go with the list of songs that are listed in the “review” box on their practice record. Chances are they might still struggle with those songs so it is okay to spend time work on them some more.
New material: Students are usually given new song(s) to practice when they are at home. Take time to go over as much of those songs as you can.

Assignment for next week

When there are just a couple minutes left of the lesson time, have student write down the assignment for next week’s lesson.

Warm-ups: Probably write down the same ones they know.

Review: If there are songs that they have down pretty well, from last weeks assignment, then those can be review.

New: Put down songs that they still need to work on. If they really have them all down, put down 1 or 2 more songs that are next in the book.

Example:

Clean up: Once students have written down their assignment, they can pack up their instrument in their case and get ready to head back to their classroom. Once you see everyone is ready, walk back together to their homerooms. Students should take their instrument and music with them.

Thank you again for subbing today at Kahoa. I hope you enjoyed your time and that the students met your expectations. Please take a few minutes to let me know how things went as I do like to know what did or did not go well.

~Zach Brown