First graders are at such a fun age. They are curious, but can follow directions a bit better than their Kindergarten counterparts. They are excited, they are joyful, and they can really start diving into musical literacy! In today's blog post, I'm writing with tips for teaching first grade. Routine In this blog post , I wrote about my tips for teaching Kindergarten, which included routine. With first grade, routine is still important. Just like I do with Kindergarten, I start with a singing game, such as "Apple Tree" or "We are dancing," and then we do the song "…
The term "differentiation" has been used more and more often in education lately. What does it mean? How does it apply to the music room? According to Carol Ann Tomlinson--an expert on differentiation-- differentiated instruction is defined as factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan (from this blog post from Concordia University- Portland.) So what does this look like in the music classroom? I've heard many music teachers say that differentiation happens naturally in the music room. I agree...to a degree. There IS…
I've been using centers for several years now, and have really enjoyed the student-centered learning environment and the chance to work with students one-on-one. In today's post, I'm writing about something new I've been trying: giving students choice during centers! So why give students choice during centers? In my experience, students really love the ability to choose what they do, when. In fact, just this week, after I told the students they get to choose, I had a student look at me incredulously and exclaim, "We get to choose?!?! That's COOL!" So how does it wo…
I've been super excited to dive into ukulele this year, as I wrote about in this post . In today's post, I'm writing about something new I've tried recently: centers for ukulele! If you're wondering about centers in general, and how they should be set up, check out this post , as well as this helpful post by David Row at Make Moments Matter. I typically set up four centers in my room, around the perimeter, and we rotate every five or so minutes, so that students can go to all of the centers. I like to have my centers all be focused on one concept, or one instrument, so all fou…
This past week, with my second graders, I have been doing centers to practice sol, la, mi, and do. Typically when I do centers (which you can read more about here ), I choose the groups and tell students when to rotate. Last week, though, I've let the students choose which group to go to and when to switch, and I have LOVED the results. It feels so student-centered, and the students take so much ownership in their learning and their choices! Today, I'm blogging about the set-up, the six centers, and how I provided intervention for those struggling melodically. Keep reading until the end…
This past week, with my second graders, I have been doing centers to practice sol, la, mi, and do. Typically when I do centers (which you can read more about here ), I choose the groups and tell students when to rotate. Last week, though, I've let the students choose which group to go to and when to switch, and I have LOVED the results. It feels so student-centered, and the students take so much ownership in their learning and their choices! Today, I'm blogging about the set-up, the six centers, and how I provided intervention for those struggling melodically. Keep reading until the end…
A few weeks ago, as I was looking at the results of a dictation for ta and ti-ti with my first graders, I saw that while most students "got it" and did very well, I still had a few in each class who seemed to struggle, who perhaps could dictate simple patterns but nothing beyond that. This always seems to happen--the struggling few--and in the past, I've shrugged and moved on. But this time, as I sat there, thinking about those kids, I thought of a grade-level teacher, and how they handle struggling students. I knew they didn't just shrug and move on....they kept trying! Of c…
A few weeks ago, as I was looking at the results of a dictation for ta and ti-ti with my first graders, I saw that while most students "got it" and did very well, I still had a few in each class who seemed to struggle, who perhaps could dictate simple patterns but nothing beyond that. This always seems to happen--the struggling few--and in the past, I've shrugged and moved on. But this time, as I sat there, thinking about those kids, I thought of a grade-level teacher, and how they handle struggling students. I knew they didn't just shrug and move on....they kept trying! Of c…
Even though I've been doing centers for a few years, I am still learning how most effectively to run a centers lesson in my music room. I've written a few blog posts about centers, which you can read here , but thought I'd offer five tips for doing centers in your music classroom. #1: Think about noise This week, I've been using materials from my fourth grade centers set, shown below: Two of the centers--the solfa manipulatives center and the instruments center--depend on students being able to hear. Here are a couple pictures of these centers: I knew they both involved being able …
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