Trying to learn how to teach elementary music without a music degree? These music teacher resources will make it easy and low prep.
Grab these free printable music worksheets for elementary age kids to learn the musical symbols, instruments, and introduction theory.
Music theory worksheets are valuable tools for individuals who are learning or studying music. These worksheets provide structured exercises that focus specifically on note values. With a range of activities and exercises tailored to different skill levels, music theory worksheets help students grasp the concept of note values and their significance in creating rhythm and melodic patterns. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced musician, these worksheets are designed to enhance your understanding of note values and improve your musical performance.
The school year is just about over so here are eight end of year music class activities for the elementary music classroom.
Check out this post for creative and exciting ways to add scarves into your music activities. Also, find some specific scarf music examples.
Bring music to life in your classroom with this engaging "Music & Movement" resource designed to introduce your students to the fundamental elements of music! This comprehensive resource is perfect for elementary school music teachers looking to provide their students with a strong foundation in musical concepts. The poster features six essential musical terms, each accompanied by a clear definition and a relatable example to help students grasp the concepts easily. The terms covered in this resource include: 1. Tempo: the speed of the music (slow vs. fast) 2. Steady Beat: the steady pulse of the music (like a heartbeat) 3. Rhythm: the sound pattern of a song's words or syllables (like drums or percussion) 4. Dynamics: how LOUD or quiet the music is (loud vs. soft) 5. Pitch: tells us if the notes are high or low (high pitch vs. low pitch) 6. Melody: a sequence of notes (like in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat") The poster also features an inspiring quote by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, reminding students of the incredible power of music: "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." This resource is designed to be visually appealing and easy to understand, making it an excellent addition to any music classroom or bulletin board. By introducing these fundamental concepts, you'll be setting your students up for success as they continue their musical journey. Included in this resource: - A visually engaging poster featuring six essential musical terms, definitions, and examples - An inspiring quote about the power of music to spark students' imagination and creativity - A PDF file that can be printed in various sizes to suit your classroom's needs Help your students develop a love and appreciation for music with this must-have "Music & Movement" resource!
Looking for engaging, musical games to play with your students? Here are a few of my favorite games and activities for elementary music classes, children's choirs, and elementary group classes.
Do you have a favorite rhythm game or activity to use in your music lessons? Rhythm is something that always needs review, so you can never have too many
May can be a pretty tough month for music teachers. . . here are some May Space lesson ideas for your elementary music room!
Coming up with engaging games for a middle school classroom can be daunting. They are at an age where they want to be independent, yet need some hand holding. They start the “I’m too cool for school” attitude and it can be intimidating at times when you introduce a new game or project - immediately the eye rolling takes over and you are stuck with questioning yourself. I’m here to tell you, I’VE BEEN THERE! MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY AWESOME MUSIC GAMES THAT REQUIRE NO MATERIALS AND THE KIDS LOVE
...enhanced learning through tactile means. Here are a few of the most frequently used music manipulatives in my elementary classroom...
If you're starting centers in elementary music class, then you may need some ideas. These are my favorite rhythm centers for general music!
Subscribe to the Sing Play Create Free Resource Library. Music activities, worksheets, songs and games for PreK-6th grades.
Class Jobs: Key Player Tidy Up Team Door Monitor Speedy Safety Substitute Descriptions are on the papers. I use my laminator to laminate and then label each job with a dot to show who will be doing the job that sticks to the white board.
Want to make your elementary music lessons more engaging? These are ways to add more instruments to your general music lessons.
On the first day of music class (and in fact, the first few classes), I recommend focusing on three goals:
Back to school means it's time to set up your elementary music classroom-- but what do you do? Make it simple with these tips!
I love using body percussion in my music classroom. It's an effective way to TEACH Beat too. So, here are my easy body percussion activities.
I saw an example on pinterest but could not find the file and wanted to create my own version of these posters. This set includes kindergarten through fifth grade. It includes pitch, rhythm, world skills, performance skills, listening skills, and vocabulary. I used my poster maker at school and prin...
Music Listening Writing Prompt Worksheets Looking for some worksheets that can guide your students while actively listening to music? These writing prompts can work for any genre of music and encourages students to record their thoughts while listening to music and to listen for musical elements such as tempo, dynamics, and instruments used. Included: 18 worksheets that allow students to identify musical elements, the mood or feeling of the music, and their personal opinions of the music. How to use: 1. Choose which worksheet(s) you would like to use and print 2. Play any type of music that best fits your lesson and have students fill out the worksheet(s) while listening Also Great for Sub Plans! -Just leave a list of music for the sub to play and have students fill out worksheets! *If you enjoyed this product or have any questions/suggestions please leave a review! By leaving a review on this product, you can not only help me enhance my store but you can also earn TPT credits to use towards your future purchases!!
Sometimes your brain is just overloaded, and you can't process any more information. And by sometimes I mean music teachers in December. For those days when you don't have any more space left in your brain to think, here are some lesson ideas that require very little mental energy (but are still fun and educationally valuable). 1. Winter Play-Along by Mr. Henry's Music World OK yes this is a video and yes there are a million play-along videos out there but this one has rapping, singing, steady beat body percussion, movement breaks, and rhythm notation reading (quarter, eighth, and half notes and quarter rests). You might think it would be too corny for the older grades but I have found my students loved it, even up to 4th grade, when I used this last year. Have students do the song/ rap the first time with the body percussion/ motions, then repeat it and have them sing/ rap as well! The song is guaranteed to get stuck in your head too. 2. Instrument Merry Go Round This is one of my favorite lesson activities to use when I know it will be difficult for students to focus, I know they need a mental break, or we need something to get us back on a positive track after some negative class periods. The best part is you can easily throw in some practice with multiple concepts depending on what you're working on at the time! Have students sit in a circle and get out one instrument for each person (or let them pick one themselves). Have the instruments sitting on the floor in front of them but tell them not to touch them until you tell them. Show them a gesture to cue them to pick up their instrument quietly without playing it, then tell them to play when your hands are open and stop when you close your fists. Then gesture for them to put the instrument down, and scoot one spot around the circle to the next instrument, and repeat. Once they get the hang of it you should be able to keep them moving around pretty quickly without anyone saying a word. You can add in some concept review by doing different gestures to have them play at different dynamic levels or speeds, or tell them to echo the rhythms you clap, or call out groupings of instruments (pitched, unpitched, shakers, woods, etc) or names of specific instruments and only those instruments play. This works with truly any age group, from preschool to adult. 3. Animal Music Composition Play a couple of examples from Carnival of the Animals and discuss how the music conjures the image of the animal: what instrument timbre, pitch and rhythm elements, and expressive qualities match the animal? Then tell students to either individually or in small groups create a song about an animal using instrument sounds. That's it. Those are the parameters. At the end of class, have students play their composition and ask the class to guess the animal. For older students, have them identify the musical elements they used to try to convey the image of their chosen animal. What do you do to keep things going when your brain is fried? This time of year can be overwhelming, for teachers and for students!
I know it can be hard to think about going back to work when you're enjoying a relaxing winter break snuggled on the couch under a blanket, so today I thought I'd share all of my top tools and ideas to make your life easier as you head back to school, from calendars and organizational tools to lesson ideas and management tips. Hopefully this will help you be able to focus on the joy of seeing your students again and less on the dread of returning to a pile of work! 1. Lesson Ideas for January For me January actually kinda plans itself. I always focus on reviewing all the main concepts I introduce in the beginning of the year- rhythm and pitch concepts in particular- and include lesson material centered around new year's celebrations and winter themes. I promise you, all of these ideas have been big hits with my students year after year and they are highly effective for reinforcing and learning key concepts. And if you want a little extra help putting all the lessons together with each grade's plans written out and all the materials put together for you, you can grab the January curriculum set here and check it off your list in one click! 2. Behavior Management Reset If you had a tough time with difficult/ disruptive behaviors in any of your classes at the beginning of the year it can make it particularly difficult to think about going back (I know because I've been there). Just know that it is never too late to implement new procedures or systems to help your classes run more smoothly and help foster a positive classroom environment! If you left for winter break feeling dissatisfied or discouraged about your classroom management for one or all of your classes, here are my top recommendations for procedures and systems to implement midyear and hit the reset button, both general strategies and ideas to address specific issues. If you want to set up any of these systems quickly without having to make visuals and materials from scratch, here are the posters and visuals I use ready to print and go! 3. Organization I know for me, January is when I get the urge to organize, purge, and streamline everything! Here are my favorite organization ideas for the classroom, planning, and home life to help get your life in order and take away so much stress! And of course if there are 2 things that I think play the biggest role in relieving stress and keeping me from dropping all the balls I have in the air, it's my planner and my K-6 general music curriculum. Trust me, if you are really serious about making your life easier to focus on what matters most, those are the two biggest "bang for your buck" things you can get. I hope you find something here to help make back to school a little less intimidating and a little more exciting. If there's something else you're feeling anxious about or just wanting to improve that you don't see an answer for here, let me know in the comments and let's talk!
Learn how to practice rhythms with this budget-friendly and fun rhythm game in your elementary music classroom.
Classical music to teach emotions, to be used alongside for imaginative movement, background to imaginative play or simply to listen to.
Step skip leap repeat - Teaching intervals such as step, skip, leap and repeat is an essential step in helping students to learn to read music fluently.
Fun music relay games you can play in elementary music class, piano and music lessons and at home with small groups.
Mapping out a general music curriculum can be a daunting task, but once you have a solid plan in place it makes the day-to-day lesson planning so much easier and the lessons become so much more purposeful as well! Whether you're starting from scratch and being asked to create a curriculum on your own, working with textbooks or other resources, or reflecting on what you already have in place, consider this your idea bank for everything you need to create and/or develop your elementary general music curriculum! Lesson Content/ Sequencing If you're looking for lesson ideas on specific concepts, or trying to figure out how to sequence skills and concepts from grade to grade, these are your best friends! I'm continuing to update these with more topics as I write new posts so bookmark these and check back when you need some fresh ideas: Curriculum Mapping If you are adjusting or creating your curriculum or long-range plans, my #1 recommendation is to sign up for my email series, "Lesson Planning Made Awesome". It's completely free, nothing extra to sign up for, and takes you through the process of mapping out your curriculum and long-range plans all the way from standards and scope and sequence down to your daily lesson plans with all of the templates you need to write out and organize everything: If you want to explore a specific topic further, here are several blog posts I've written on various aspects of curriculum writing/ long-range planning: Ready to Use Resources If you are looking for ready-made resources to save you loads of time (and headaches), I have lots of options available- if you are in a district that doesn't allow TPT purchases but you can purchase through JWPepper, many of these are also available there. Long-range planning templates with a sample sequence for K-6: Completed yearly outlines with editable K-6 monthly sequences and complete skills checklists by grade: Planning sheets with all of the standards listed by grade (there are versions for TEKS, Ontario curriculum, and PK-8 general and ensemble standards for the National Core Arts Standards): Assessments organized by skill/ concept and sorted by grade level: Complete curriculum set, including full lesson plans to address the concepts/ skills outline for each month in each grade, with all the visuals, assessments, and materials needed to teach them: I hope you find all of these resources helpful in your planning process, whether you're just getting started or updating what you have! If you have questions or topics you'd like to hear more about, please reach out any time and I'd love to talk with you further.
Five fun and action-filled circle games to practice rhythm, pitch, and more with your elementary music students.
Discover 7 gross motor music activities & strategies for your elementary music classes. Perfect for your kindergarten music class & centers!
The Elements of Music posters are useful for both teachers and students of music. These are based on the Australian Curriculum. They are helpful to students when creating music and responding to music. There is a Year 5/6 version and a simpler Year 3/4 version.In my classroom, I print A4 copies for ...
Music Games for the Classroom: A collection of fun games and activities that incorporate music and instruments. Not only are they fun they help develop kids
