Kindergarten music centers can be daunting to try! These centers with a huge success with my students! See how I did it!

You'll love this variety of preschool songs for every season of the school year!

Hi :) I just thought I'd pop up a quick post to share a little Shape activity that I've used as an intro to teaching 2D shape.. its a good way to get an idea about the shapes that kids can identify. The kids love it too... anything that gets them up and moving! We also take our shape hunt around the school and see what shapes we can find in the different areas of the school. We get a new intake of kids from Kindy every term, so its a great way for the newies to feel more confident about being at school and learning where everything is - all while learning Maths! :) If you'd like to download a copy of the Shape Hunt Recording sheet from Google Docs, just click here Hope you're having a lovely week!

Singing during transitions makes moving from one thing to another almost seamless. These classroom management songs and chants will keep students engaged, focused, and excited to learn, which in turn will save valuable instruction time. Most of the songs included are parodies of popular songs all kids will know. The words have been changed to help students transition in a positive manner. Simply print and laminate. I like to hang them on a binder ring in my classroom for easy reference. Three color options are included! SONGS and CHANTS INCLUDED: New songs have been added! Editable versions of the songs and chants have also been added! Like It Was (centers clean up song) (Tune: As It Was) We're Amazing (words of affirmation song) (Tune: Levitating) Good For You (student praise song) (Tune: Good4U) •The Carpet (transition to the carpet song) (Tune: The Middle) •All I Do Is Freeze (freeze and focus song) (Tune: All I Do is Win) •Clean Up (clean up chant) •Back to My Seat (transition back to seat song) (Tune: Old Town Road) •Let’s Line Up (line up song) (Tune: Let it Go) •Partner Up (partner signal song) (Tune: The Git Up) •Quiet Time (quiet signal song) (Tune: Frere Jacques) •Learning Math is Awesome (math song for signaling the beginning of math) (Tune: Everything is Awesome) •We Can’t Stop Reading (reading song for signaling the beginning of reading) (Tune: Can't Stop the Feeling) •See! (share time song) (Tune: Me!) TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stephanie M. says, "I am a teacher who ADORES incorporating music into my everyday instruction and these songs add life/zest to it! I am so happy this resource was made and my students love it too! Thank you for making something that greatly enhances the learning experience!" ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sarah W. says, "My students loved using this! It got them so engaged and made their learning so fun! I would highly recommend this product to anyone and everyone!!" ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hannah M. says, "I love this resource so much! I started using the carpet song on the first day of school and my students love it, plus it helps with our transition time! " You may also love: Classroom Management Games for the Entire Year Back to School Classroom Management Activities and Crafts First Grade Interactive Read Aloud Lessons First and Second Grade Learning Toolkit Reading Comprehension Activities and Craft Bundle Second Grade Interactive Read Aloud Lessons Get more classroom tips and instructional strategies from me below: INSTAGRAM PINTEREST THE LEMONADE STAND BLOG Would you like to SAVE on new resources? Just click the GREEN STAR below my name. This will allow you to follow my store and receive e-mail notifications when a new resource is added. Don’t forget to leave feedback on your purchase to earn TPT credits!

20 fun shapes rhymes, finger plays and action songs, including words and actions. Great for preschool, kindergarten and the early elementary grades.

Once upon a time, I attended a Jim Gill early childhood workshop and he brought out a giant dance scrunchie. He showed off how he used his scrunchie and it was a lot of fun! Fast forward about 10 years to when I had extra money in my programming budget and my library got our own giant scrunchie. I will admit that giant scrunchies are not necessary to putting on a quality story time. There are many supplies that I would get first (such as books, shakers, and scarves), which is why it took 10 years for me to get one. There is a lot of good that you can do with them, though, in a group environment. The scrunchie that I bought is from Bear Paw Creek. There are various sizes that you can purchase, depending on your needs. I use the XL stretchy band that they say works with 11-14 people, but I can easily fit 25 2-year-olds around it. While it would be possible to make your own, this one is brightly colored and durable. My ideal group to use this with is with kids ages 2-5. I have tried it with the babies (under 24 months) and they like to squish it. They just aren't ready for the movement that this entails. With my 2-year-olds, we used to do Ring Around the Rosie and hold hands in a circle. My kids here don't like to touch so we would end up with a snaky shape, rather than a circle. They will hold the stretchy band though. When looking for songs, I look for ones that use a circle, similar to what I would do when planning parachute activities. Up and down, fast and slow, and colors all work well too. Here are some of my favorites: Ring around the rosie, A pocketful of posies, Ashes, ashes, We all fall down! While the kids work together on their circle, promoting cooperation and following directions, we all know that falling is the best part of this song. London bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down. London bridge is falling down, My fair lady. Take the keys and lock her (them) up, Lock her up, lock her up. Take the keys and lock her up, My fair lady. This one works best for me if the parents hold the ring up tall while the kids walk around the room. When you get to the second verse, have the parents bring the ring down to trap the kids. You will get a lot of giggles as everybody wants to be trapped. Since the ring is stretchy and there is some give in it, it isn't scary like being trapped. The wheels on the bus go round and round, Round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, All through the town. The people on the bus go up and down, Up and down, up and down. The people on the bus go up and down, All through the town. For the first verse, we spin the circle as we walk with the scrunchie. For the second verse, we bring the scrunchie up and down. While there are more verses to the song, my 2-year-olds can't handle more and continue to pay attention. Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush, So early in the morning. This one is just a spinning circle song with the scrunchie. Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. If you see an alligator, Don't forget to scream. For this one, we sit on the floor in a circle and row the giant scrunchie. Since there is some tension in it, we are working the kids' arm and hand muscles. At the end of the second verse, we all do our fake scream. These are some songs to get you started. Which ones work best for you?

Rhythm sticks are one of the best tools to teach a range of early phonics skills. They are fantastic for syllables, segmenting, body percussion, and music.

I’m sharing with you 10 scarf songs for preschool and kindergarten music time, perfect to share with your elementary music students and clients or during your next movement break with scarves on your early childhood music classes.

So we’ve decided what we want to teach . We’ve chosen our musical materials . Now it’s time to plug it all in. Today I’m sharing how I’ve planned the first month of Kindergarten.

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Parachute games are great for building many different skills. They're even more fun when combined with parachute songs. Try these examples.

Kindergarten teacher, how mindful are you from an occupational therapy perspective? Which ideas are you executing to be the best for your students?

Little children love to sing and learn through songs and hand motions and activities. Singing is such a great way to get your little ones to learn and memorize things. It's great for gross motor skills when you add motions to the songs as well.

Free Spring music and movement activities for teachers in music, preschool, home, and kindergarten classes.

Illustrated activity sheet describing a really fun whole class activity that involves the children running around pretending to be magic beans and avoiding capture!

You can’t have a preschool classroom without music! But if you’re a tone deaf preschool teacher like I am, putting together a music curriculum can be a daunting task. These are some of my go-to resources for music in my classroom. Free Music Nancy Stewart has a hundreds of free songs available to download on her website. […]

Since the middle of February while were creating our dragon project, I started to notice something. The kids were taking the logs out of our building area and creating "bands" with them as drum sets. Kids were making shaker's at the maker's space, two friends brought three sizes of clay to me and wanted to show the class how when they thumped them each size made a different sound. Another friend took a plastic bottle wrapper off the bottle and pulled on both ends sharply and showing us the snapping sound it made. I was hoping to avoid it this year, but somehow, every year, kids start exploring sound! So....guess what our next large scale inquiry is: Sound! I set out some areas for them to explore first. Then we will let them wonder. I set out glasses for them to compose their own music and perform for the class. I had planned on it being an exploration of pitch, but they noticed something else instead. At first the compositions were very random, then one friend colored an AB pattern and played it. It sparked a discussion on how there could be patterns in sound and also defined "rhythm" as their patterns became more complex. After they were done with this area, I set out these materials to see what they noticed about sound. We discovered that the more water that was in the bowls, the lower the pitch and the less water the higher the pitch! For our Engineers, I put out materials for them to create instruments and show what you have to do to get it it to produce sound. They created instruments that produced sound through shaking, striking, rubbing and strumming. For our artists, I set out pictures of instruments for them to look closer and then draw its outline with a sharpie and creatively paint it with watercolors. We also looked at Picasso's Blue Guitar painting, then hung it at our easel to inspire artists to create their own. As they explored, two main things came up in our wonders which became our driving questions. How is sound made? When does sound become music? We learned that sound is caused by vibrations and that the sound waves travel through the air to our ears. But something had to happen to make the vibrations start? The kids through exploring came to the conclusion that sound is made by striking, shaking, blowing, rubbing, strumming and plucking. We made instruments to model the different ways to make sound. To show that sound can be made by shaking, we made maracas. To explore the concept of pitch, we provided different fillings for maracas: Sand (not pictured), rice and two different sizes of beans, then we compared them. We also used these as guiros to show show that sound can be made by rubbing. They just ran a craft stick over the ridges of the bottle. To show that sound can be made by blowing, we made harmonicas! The first time we tried them they didn't work. I realized that we needed thicker rubber bands to create the sound. They could tell the rubber bands were vibrating as they produced sound. They were very loud! The kids loved them! To show that sound can be made by strumming or plucking, we made cup guitars! They have a great rich sound when you put them by your ear and pluck them as the sound is amplified by the cup! We used three different sized rubber bands to create different pitches. The kids could really see the vibrations with these. They could also feel the vibrations on their hands. To show that sound can be made by banging, we made drums! To organize our data, we created a web map showing the different ways to make sound and the instruments that are used for each one. To explore when sound becomes music, I showed them videos of a group called STOMP. They use random objects to create different rhythms with different pitches. Look them up on YouTube! They are amazing and the kids loved watching them. They were inspired and created their own STOMP inspired groups using random objects we could find in our room and our closet! You can see some videos of these on my Instagram account at darlamyersclass. Through STOMP we realized that when sound has a pattern it gives it rhythm, and when sound has different pitches added to the rhythm it creates music! After all of our exploring and investigating, we wrote informational books about sound to show what they learned. The kids really loved exploring the science of sound! Another thing going on in our room is a Mo Willems author study. These little friends have been in our reading area all year long. The kids didn't think they were really anything special until... we read one of his Elephant and Piggy books. The kids have really enjoyed listening to and reading his Elephant and Piggy books. They have been very inspired by him in Writer's Workshop and many Elephant and Piggy stories have been written by them. They decided that they wanted to turn our dramatic play area into an Elephant and Piggy Workshop where they could read and write stories about them! Now these stuffed animals are extra special to them! Here is our finished area! They made a sign: This area has been very popular! A lot of reading and writing skills are being practiced here! I am sure as we read his pigeon and Knuffle Bunny books, they will be inspired to write stories about them in this area also! We brought out our collaborative canvas again! It just didn't seem finished yet! I poured some paint on it and the kids used large craft sticks to scrape the paint across the canvas. They loved this process! I think next we will start adding some texture and three dimensional aspects to it! Here is a clue as to what we are going to discover next! It fits in this box!

One of my daughter's favorite toys is her parachute. We have played so many parachute games for toddlers specifically. They keep her so busy and entertained. Parachute games can help kids with social skills, coordination, and fine motor skills. It is great for a single child or a large group of kids. This is the

Help your child to isolate finger movements - vital for fine motor skills, playing musical instruments and keyboarding!

One of my daughter's favorite toys is her parachute. We have played so many parachute games for toddlers specifically. They keep her so busy and entertained. Parachute games can help kids with social skills, coordination, and fine motor skills. It is great for a single child or a large group of kids. This is the

Pronouns - Fun Language Activities for Speech Therapy with Preschoolers.  This pack contains activities to target pronouns - 'he', 'she' and 'they'. (Written cards are also included if you need to target - his, hers, theirs, him, her and them). All instruction sheets in this packet are written in a manner suitable for providing to parents. They included scripted "You could say..." examples for explaining the activity to their child and well as extension activities with common household items. This makes them the ideal packet to provide to parents if you are being asked to facilitate distance learning at this difficult time.  ♥ Teach pronouns with bright and engaging concrete activities in full color combined with cost-effective, copy-friendly carryover sheets. ♥ The theme is appropriate all year 'round. ♥ 10 x ‘at home’ pronouns practice activities with instructions written in full for parents. (The take-homes, worksheets, and carryover sheets to go along with all materials/ pronoun activities are included in the packs). ♥ 3 x BOOM! Cards decks featuring movable pieces and audio prompts perfect for distance learning! To use Boom Cards, you must be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). ******************************************************************** Buyers Say... "I use these cards constantly with my little ones! So many different ways to use the materials to keep the kids interested for the entire session. Thoughtfully made." "My preschoolers love this! I use it for pronouns, following 1 and 2 step directions, listening for negatives, etc. Great resource! " "My kids love the pictures and my parents love the 'what to do at home' resource that's included. I use this multiple times a day throughout the week. Great product!" ********************************************************************  There are 8 packets in this Preschool Language Packs Series. Each packet contains concrete activities for;  ★ Basic Sentence Construction and Early Grammar ★ Comprehension of different sentence structures & Following 2 step directions ★ Language concepts  They have been created for SLPs working with Preschool children (including those with limited focus and attention span, very low language and / or lower cognitive abilities.)  Each pack is crammed with:  ★ Activities with pictures that are practical, fun, and can be used to target a variety of goals. ★ Copy friendly, printable take-home activities.

Hi! I’m Miss Carole of Macaroni Soup, Active Music for Active Learners in cold and snowy Chicago! Let’s get the action g...

One of my favorite things about the Orff Schulwerk philosophy of teaching is the ability to go from something relatively simple to an experience that is complex and exciting. You start with a song, add in movement, add in new layers, add in an ostinato, include a game, move students […]

Since the middle of February while were creating our dragon project, I started to notice something. The kids were taking the logs out of ou...

Build community and name recognition with preschoolers and kindergarteners.

I'm sharing creative ways to use Stretchy Bands in the classroom. In fact, I know you can stretch learning with Stretchy Bands.

Teaching preschoolers about music is both easy and fun! These little learners enjoy making noises with almost anything they can get their hands on, so it is very simple to take their love for noise and make it a preschool music lesson! Rhythm The first step for your preschooler’s music lesson is rhythm. Without rhythm there …

A music education blog with lesson plans and ideas for the elementary music classroom.

The first time I taught a group of kindergartens I was pretty excited. This age is so fun! But as the group walked in I realized the HUGE struggle it is to get Kindergarteners to do anything on their first day of school. It's the most adorable little struggle to get them to sit on the rug

Transform your preschool day with effective transitions. Explore how music, chants, and stories can engage and guide children through different activities.

Make your own little puzzle challenges for the children by drawing around different formations and seeing if they can match the tiles up.

Dinosaur Music, Movement and Literacy Activities for preschool through first grade children. In this post you'll find fun dinosaur activities!

These Matching Numbers with Ice Cream are perfect to use in your classroom to help students continue to practice numbers and counting.

Teaching tips, ideas, and resources for teaching through inquiry and concepts; a great resource for PYP teachers, classroom teachers, and music educators - Part 2

How to Easily Improve Your Child's Language Using Songs and Music. Today let’s talk about why music is a powerful tool in early intervention and how to use songs in speech therapy (and at home!) to improve your child's language.

Think of how great it would be to have an activity that combines both movement and the alphabet! The Alphabet Movement Cards and Printables are your answer! With your purchase you will receive a downloadable PDF file.  Read more details below.

The slippery fish song, the words, actions and super cute free printables which can be used as a music resource or as a fish craft for preschool kids

These 10 Best Songs for Gross motor movement are just what is needed to keep even the liveliest toddlers active!