As we near August, you may be starting to think about your music lessons for the upcoming school year. Today, I'm blogging with six musical ways to begin your music class. Please note that there is no right or wrong answer with how to welcome your class. It's totally up to you and what you think is best for your students! You might try changing it up a bit to see which way you like the best! #1: Singing game This is my preferred way to begin music. I want my students to be immediately singing and experiencing joy, so playing a singing game is a great way to do that! One of my favorites…
Today, I’m continuing my "Three Things" linky party, in which I blog about three things that worked for my and my students this week. Thanks to Whimsy Workshop Teaching , Kimberly Geswein fonts , and Jax and Jake for the cute clip art and fonts! #1: Instruments of the Orchestra website My third and fourth graders are learning about instruments of the orchestra right now. I'm having my third graders focus on the strings family, since they are doing a dulcimer unit, and my fourth graders focus on the woodwind family, since they are playing recorders. After showing this strings slide…
A few days ago, I wrote about 10 strategies for rhythmic reading and writing , in hopes of giving you ideas for your year plan. Today I will blog about 10 strategies for melodic reading and writing! As in the last blog post, some of the ideas I will describe in this blog post, some will link to other blog posts, and some will link to freebies and other products. Here goes! #1: Ghost Melodies In this blog post , I wrote about how to do ghost melody composition on dry erase boards. This is a great precursor to having students listen for and begin writing specific pitches, like sol and mi. #2: Staff …
A few days ago, I wrote about 10 strategies for rhythmic reading and writing , in hopes of giving you ideas for your year plan. Today I will blog about 10 strategies for melodic reading and writing! As in the last blog post, some of the ideas I will describe in this blog post, some will link to other blog posts, and some will link to freebies and other products. Here goes! #1: Ghost Melodies In this blog post , I wrote about how to do ghost melody composition on dry erase boards. This is a great precursor to having students listen for and begin writing specific pitches, like sol and mi. #2: Staff …
Looking for ways to improve your students' pitch-matching? Vocal exploration is such a great way for students to get into their head voices...and it's so much fun! Here are three quick ways to get students exploring their voices, especially around Halloween! #1: "Ghosts in the House" by Kazuno Kohara This is a really fun book, especially around Halloween! For vocal exploration, you could have students make ghost sounds to match the ghosts on the page (for the ghosts on the clothesline, students could just sing one pitch, for the ghosts who are upside down, you could have stude…
Today, I'm blogging about four great picture books I'm using in my music classroom. Click on the pictures to see the books on Amazon (please note, these are affiliate links.) #1: "This Land is Your Land" by Kathy Jakobsen and Woody Guthrie Since it's Constitution Day today, I sang this to my third graders. Before I sang it, we discussed the holiday, how people sing patriotic music for patriotic holidays, and what the word "patriotic" means (it's surprising how many of them weren't sure!) The illustrations are beautiful, and there is some wonderful informa…
I'm always looking for ways to include vocal exploration in my lessons--especially with my younger students. Vocal exploration is a great way to help students find their head voices. One of my favorite vocal exploration activities is ghost melodies. For this, you can draw a ghost on the board, and then draw the sound the ghost makes, by drawing a small hill and a big hill, loops, or whatever you'd like. Then you have the students explore their voices by going from low to high for each hill, getting higher as the hills get higher. (If this is confusing, see the pictures below...hopeful…
I'm always looking for ways to include vocal exploration in my lessons--especially with my younger students. Vocal exploration is a great way to help students find their head voices. One of my favorite vocal exploration activities is ghost melodies. For this, you can draw a ghost on the board, and then draw the sound the ghost makes, by drawing a small hill and a big hill, loops, or whatever you'd like. Then you have the students explore their voices by going from low to high for each hill, getting higher as the hills get higher. (If this is confusing, see the pictures below...hopeful…
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