Sing, Move and Play! A Workshop with Artie Almeida

On September 28, 2019, the Alberta Orff Chapter welcomed Artie Almeida to present for our members. Many of us were familiar with Artie's Mallet Madness series, but she blew us out of the water with her diverse array of materials for singing, moving and instruments.

Throughout the workshop, participants learned engaging and accessible activities for students in all elementary grades. Some of the amazing ideas Artie showed us where: how to use low cost props (like paper/plastic plates or sports equipment from your phys ed department) to teach listening and beat keeping, using cumulative actions to entice reluctant singers and how to introduce opera to even your youngest students in the most a-meow-zing way! The materials from her workshop were mostly pulled from her resources: "Percussion Parade", "Woods, Metals, Shakers, Skins-Hoop Group Activities" and "Parachutes and Ribbons and Scarves, Oh My!"

It was such a treat for us to learn from Artie! The activities from her workshop were so fun and accessible and we have heard from many teachers that they have tried lots of the activities already with great success.

For more information on Artie Almeida, please check out: http://www.artiealmeida.com

This workshop also hosted a fundraiser for Vision 2020, our National Orff Conference, which will be held in our hometown, Edmonton, AB, this upcoming April. Chapter members helped by purchasing specially selected books to use in the music classroom. Thanks for Tim Paetkau and Lorna Walker who worked on gathering the books and creating lessons to go with them as well as working the sale.

For more information on Vision 2020, please check out: ​http://www.orffvision2020.ca