Happy 2018! I hope you've all enjoyed the holidays. I had a great time relaxing with my family! This year, my break is rather short, and I'm going back to school January 2. With the short break, I've had to do some reflection during break to make sure I was in the right mindset to go back! Here are a few ways I've reflected on my school year thus far: Where have they been? Now is a great time to look at my year plans and previous lesson plans to see where my students have been. Are they "on track" or did we get a bit behind? Which concepts have they learned so far? How …
With December upon us, today I'm teaming up with Amy Abbott to blog about my favorite December activities for the music room! The kids are SO excited this month! Here are my favorite activities to keep them engaged and celebrate winter holidays while still practicing musical concepts and skills: #1: Singalong Whether you simply sing through your favorite carols in your room or have a school-wide singalong, it is SO fun to sing holiday songs with your students! If you're looking for more information on directing a singalong, check out this blog post . #2: Picture books I love using children&…
Since it is Thanksgiving week, I thought I'd write a quick blog post today with a round up of some fun ideas for your music room this week! Here is a post I wrote with a few different ideas for the music room, including using turkeys to write rhythm, a picture book for thankfulness, and more! (Click the picture to go to the post.) Amy Abbott just wrote this post with lots of great ideas for Thanksgiving, including a stick game, turkey beach balls, and more! Here is a post by David Row, from Make Moments Matter, about the Thanksgiving song, "Over the River and Through the Woods." Jen…
Upper elementary can be a tough level to teach. They are sometimes "too cool" for school, and self-conscious of their singing voices. Academically they are advanced, yet musically they may need the basics. In this blog post, I'll detail my tips for lesson planning for the upper elementary music room. Keep reading for how to receive a free upper elementary music lesson with songs, materials, and more! A little background about my situation: most of the fifth graders I teach, I've had since Kindergarten. I know, I'm very lucky! But I have been in other situations, where th…
Since Halloween is just around the corner, I'm blogging today with four of my favorite picture books for the music room during Halloween! Two of the four books I'm blogging about aren't specifically Halloween books, but because of their theme, can work really well during this time of the year! Here goes! Go Away, Big Green Monster A few years ago, I saw this book being read at my daughter's daycare and fell in love with it! I decided it would be a great book to add instruments to...so here's what I do: First, I just read the book to students and we discuss it. Before the secon…
I've been posting lately about great games and hand jives for upper elementary , and in today's post, I'm writing about beat passing games, which are also a favorite of upper elementary students! So what are beat passing games? They are games in which the beat is passed from one person to the next. Typically, at the end, the last person to be hit is "out." They are GREAT for reinforcing steady beat. It is so much harder to pass the beat than it is to keep it on your lap, so whether your students have a solid foundation of beat since Kindergarten and need a challenge, or i…
Today, I'm sharing another one of my favorite songs for fourth and fifth grade...an old standard called "Liza Jane." I learned this song while in Kodály Level II at Capital University, with Bruce Swank. Here's the notation; it can also be found in 150 American Folk Songs . Additional verses: I’ve got a house in Baltimore, Lil’ Liza Jane. Street car runs right by my door, Lil’ Liza Jane. (Chorus) I’ve got a house in Baltimore, Lil’ Liza Jane. Brussels carpet on the floor, Lil’ Liza Jane. (Chorus) I’ve got a house in Baltimore, Lil’ Liza Jane. Silver doorplate on the door, Lil’ Liza Jan…
Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite songs for fourth and fifth grade...a fun song called "Sandy's Mill." I learned this song while in Kodaly Level III at Capital University, with Joan Litman. Here's the notation: The song is great for several concepts. Typically, I would only pull out the hardest rhythmic concept from a song to teach it, which in this case would be ti-tam, or eighth/ dotted quarter. But because the first two measures only have tika-ti, or 2 sixteenths/ 1 eighth, I've used it for tika-ti. You could use it for tim-ka, or dotted eighth/ sixteenth, but …
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