5 Ways to teach the steady beat in elementary music class. At the beginning of the school year. I start with Steady Beat activities.

Free wallet clutch bag sewing pattern alert! What an adorable bag this is! Not only the cat fabric (which of course we love, Susan is a crazy cat lady), but

Hurray! We are back in school and back to making music! This week my students learned how to do the newspaper dance. We started with a section of the paper, unfolding it and laying it flat. This was our "dance floor". Students then could dance in their space. Before we started, each group decided what they considered to be "dancing". Most groups said that to be dancing you had to move your arms and legs in some fashion. And so the dancing began... Now, as fun as that was...it was just getting started. Next, we stepped off the newspaper and folded it in half and stepped on again. After a while, students had to move in very creative ways to stay on the newspaper. We had a great time defining "dance", practing making the fraction 1/2 and movin' and groovin' to some great tunes. With older students we created math sentences like "We are standing in 1/8th of the space that we started on." Some of my favorite tunes to use with this activity: "I Like to Move It" by Crazy Frog "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver "Get Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith "Happy" by Pharrell Williams "Best Years of Our Lives" by Baha Men "The Twist" by Chubby Checker "Goofy Goober Rock" by Spongebob "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles "Everything is AWESOME" from the Lego Movie "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks and Dunn Are you looking for movement ideas for that first week of school? How about ribbon dancing? You can create really inexpensive ribbons or streamers with plastic table cloths and pencils (or chopsticks or dowel rods or something of similar size. Check out THIS blog post to learn how to make them. Then check out these: This collection includes cards with pictures and cards with word prompts to use with your students. Pass out your scarves, ribbons or streamers and start the music. Then hold up the cards and let students choose how to interpret them. I also love to use other sets of movement cards that don't always have one correct way of being interpreted. I have several sets of Freeze Dance and Creative Movement cards that you might be interested in.

Music class is an active, engaging, and joyful experience! This is especially true when our musical activities are grounded in creative and intentional teaching strategies. One of the most important teaching strategies has to do with teaching the difference between steady beat and the rhythm of

Commercial tomato growers use the string method to train their tomatoes. It takes less space is healthier for the tomato and easy for the home grower too.

Choosing songs to teach from in the music room can be tricky business. For one thing, there are an infinite number of songs from which to choose. You can easily put your head down to think of one song to use in a lesson only to look up hours later with stacks of books and binders next to

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A blog with classroom tips and ideas, teacher mentoring, educational resources, and classroom practices for elementary and middle grades.

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

It is possible to naturally beat depression and in this post I give take you through the 7 things that helped me beat depression for good!

See stunning developments spanning the world of science from biology to genetics to sustainability.

Update: With one exception, NONE of these quilts are mine and I can’t tell you about the patterns used or the quiltmakers, except as attributed (however, most quilt makers would be from Weste…

Utah's most famous hot dog is made with the most incredible sauce, JDawgs sauce! It's like a sweet and tangy mix between ketchup and bbq sauce.

You’ve probably heard the expression “Southern Fried” many times over the years, right? We take it to heart in our family and my mama is a Southern cook to the bone. And she fries. Lots

Prayer for victory. Victory over all strongholds is mine and I will rejoice in it. I will overcome anything that tries to hinder me from the path

Are you struggling to overcome writer's block? You aren't alone. Here are 17 proven tips on how to beat writer's block.

Typical Candida protocols often leave you exhausted. How I finally beat Candida: a new approach using foods & natural remedies to support balance & healing.

Every crossdresser wants to look as feminine as possible in their photos. If you are not clicking the photos in the right pose, chances are..

A while back I picked up a beat-up fabric book at the thrift store for 75 cents because it had a great 5.5″ circular mirror in it. I knew I wanted to cut that out and add it to Jax’s qu…