Today I'm giving a glance into my first day of school lesson plans, from TK - 5th grade. In the first day of music class, students are arguably the most attentive they will be all year. This puts a unique pressure on the first day's lesson plan to set the tone for the rest of our time together.
Today I'm giving a glance into my first day of school lesson plans, from TK - 5th grade. In the first day of music class, students are arguably the most attentive they will be all year. This puts a unique pressure on the first day's lesson plan to set the tone for the rest of our time together.
Simple STEM Stories will help you merge literacy and STEM with fun and engaging, hands-on STEM challenges based on a children's book.
With Piet Mondrian’s compositions in red, yellow, and blue, he is the perfect artist to be able to tie art history and primary colours together. Before doing the project, show the students o…
Fixed schedule in your elementary library? You can still offer makerspace learning activities with makerspace centers as part of a library centers program.
The main hallway of Zilker Elementary is now the Zilker Museum! Every student has a piece of artwork on display...it is a sight to behold. This year the art show is also interactive because you can scan QR codes to find out more about how we created the art, or find out more about the artist who inspired us to create. Fifth Grade's Hundertwasser Collages Fourth Grade's Wayne Thiebaud cupcake Sculptures Third Grade's Weavings Third Grade's Keith Haring Collages Second Grade's Georgia O'Keeffe's Flower Paintings First Grade's Eric Carle Collages First Grade's Quilts Kinder Pablo Picasso Guitar Collages Mr. McNitt's class made these awesome house prints and added color with chalk in Ms. Jepson's art class. Every year students continue to amaze me with their talent in art! I sincerely hope you had time to see this art show in person.....what a lucky art teacher I am to be able to work with such creative art students!
5th grade artists are learning about Grant Wood's life and work. We talked about why "American Gothic" has become so famous. We discussed how artists use parody to reference a famous work of art and change it some way to make a statement. Check out all the creative ideas our kids came up with! Learning Goals: I can describe what a parody is I can list at least 6 facts about Grant Wood's life and work. I can create my own parody of American Gothic
Behold! The Wall of Whackers! Boomwhackers are great for the elementary music classroom, but they are such a pain to store. For the past six years I have kept my large Boomwhackers in laundry baskets and my smaller ones in buckets. It looked messy and was hard to find the tubes I needed. I just moved to a new classroom with a very long, empty wall. I knew I wanted to use the large space for a word wall (which as you can see is still on the to-do list,) but then I found this.... The original inspiration for my wall. This picture (above) was the inspiration for my Wall of Whackers. How simple! What a great idea! I had searched all over the internet for Boomwhacker storage ideas, and this was the only picture I found that really got me excited to try something new! After figuring out how much space this whole thing would take, I ordered 14 feet of 1-inch bulletin board strip through my school. The maintenance crew installed the bulletin board strip. I used long strips of self-adhesive Velcro (prickly side) on the bulletin board, and put short, 2-inch strips (fuzzy side) on each Boomwhacker. It took about an hour of my time to complete. The pitches are much easier to find now, and are very easy to grab! The tubes also give me an easy visual/auditory reference to show students that large instruments make low pitches and small instruments make high pitches. They also provide some much needed color to my new classroom! I plan on using the remaining top half of the wall for a word wall or musical timeline. The black things on the top of some of the tubes are the Octavator caps. I would love to get enough caps to put on each tube! I also have another few feet of space to put more Boomwhackers! Because I use this blog to share interactive resources, I thought I would share a useful (and free) Boomwhacker program called "Boom." Boom is a program (yes, you have to download it) by The Music Interactive that you can have students use on individual computers, but I recommend using it on an interactive whiteboard. You can drag and drop virtual Boomwhackers into melodic patterns or chords. It also has a writing space at the top of the page where you can write rhythmic notation or anything else you may need. The beauty of this program is that you can use it in whatever way works best for you. You can click here for the link, but will need to scroll down a bit to find the program. Make sure you check out some of their other great music programs, too!
If you need STEM projects ideas, this is THE place to go! This is a collection of over 200 STEM projects and activities that kids love!
This is a great rubric for students to use for self-assessment. Easy to read, easy to understand, easy to complete!
Rhythm Practice Click here for the pie rhythm maker to practice your note names and durations. Treble Clef Practice How quickly can you name the notes of the treble staff? You can go to Mr. Riley’s
STEM Bins for Elementary Students “I’m finished! What do I do now?” How many times during our teaching day do we hear these words from our students? Oftentimes, it is much too often, and students are provided a handful of the same options to keep them busy until our next transition. Sometimes students are instructed...
There are so many ways to open a class musically. Just like our morning routine sets the tone for our day as teachers, the opening activities of your music class set the tone for the rest of the lesson. We want those activities to be: Musical Engaging Purposeful
Here are five things every teacher should do for a successful back to school year. In this post, I'll share the top five necessities.
Today's post is perfect for anyone with an infant, toddler, preschool, or early elementary student who loves dinosaurs!
From a photo of a simple landscape, I tried to inspire my paintings in the style of Kandinsky. He painted many landscapes, where it is recognizable the style that characterizes his abstract paintin…
Academic Ways to Use the MaKey-MaKey in the Elementary Classroom: Fun ways to advance coding in the classroom!
STEM activities are fun and engaging, but this type of learning is even better when it’s connected to a great children’s book. We’ve shared books that are aligned to social emotional learning and books with themes for every month of the year. This post will share 10 great read alouds for any element
Library centers have been in full swing for more than 1 1/2 years at DC Elementary, and with the new semester just a few days away, it's tim...
This is a digital product. You will receive a pdf document via email to print on completion of your order. Get creative at home with our Frida kahlo inspired printable art activity sheets. The printable includes 6 pages of creative activities; create a Frida Kahlo inspired self portrait, colour a Frida portrait and mak
Interested in learning how to start, schedule, and manage an elementary Makerspace?! Check out these supply suggestions, organization tips, and more.
Ozobots can be so much fun, but sometimes give you multiple problems. Here are some of the troubleshooting tricks I have discovered along the years of using Ozobots. I first purchased Ozobots for my classroom in 2015!! What really drew me in, was that that they do not need a computer or iPad to be ... Read more
Free STEM challenges with a zoo theme. Fun for preschool or elementary aged kids.
I made these dinosaurs with Kindergarten, but this lesson is a very engaging lesson that could be used for any elementary grade! The first page of this download is of the Basquiat-style dinosaur handout that I used with students to draw the dinosaur inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting "Pez D...
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.
Here is a perfect challenge to practice using area and perimeter in a design project. Design your Dream House! What a perfect idea this little project is! I still remember designing my dream house when I was a little girl. I filled notebooks with drawings of the rooms and where the furniture would be. I
Clare is a designer/maker working with paper and fabric. She trained as a graphic designer and has worked in the industry, mainly in packaging design but has a life long interest in everything hand…
If the coronavirus has you sheltering at home with your kids, this art and play guide will help promote learning while staying creative!
Third graders have also been learning about art from India. They looked at examples of dhurrie rugs and created their own with cut paper an...
This kindergarten lesson is about shape and Mondrian. It would work well for an art sub.
