An engaging game for reviewing rhythms with your elementary and middle school music classes. Download the free flashcards and give it a try! %
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Partner Songs & Countermelodies
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Sold by Create your own from scratch Shape: Classic Round Stickers Create custom stickers for every occasion! From special mailings and scrapbooking to kids’ activities and DIY projects, you’ll find these stickers are great for so many uses. Add your own designs, patterns, text, and pictures! Dimensions: Available in 2 sizes: Large: 3" diameter, 6 stickers per sheet Small: 1.5" diameter, 20 stickers per sheet Printed on white acid-free paper Vibrant full-color, full-bleed printing Scratch-resistant front, easy peel-and-stick back Available in a matte or glossy finish Choose between 7 different shapes
Coffee Canon is a fun and energetic singing round with strong harmonies - download it for your singing group free here!
The Yellow Brick Road Blog is a website dedicated to providing music teachers with fun education resources for serious music literacy.
Mama Lisa's World presents thousands of traditional kids songs from over a hundred countries and cultures! We also feature a major collection of Mother Goose Rhymes, global recipes, holiday traditions and lively conversations about childhood around the world.
Singing rounds for the classroom ought to be easy and energetic. Haida, an Israeli song with only two lines, fits the bill! FREE DOWNLOAD
Daddy is even learning a thing or two in music class. This is a güiro, a percussion instrument that Madison will be playing at the upco...
Rounds
Find the perfect activity to get your piano students off-the-bench! These music theory games are organised by level & concept so you can find what you need.
I love classroom cheers and these are wonderful. You have to check out Sugar Blossoms' blog. She provides short videos of each cheer and a printable of all the cheers. I am going to make the printable a poster and hang it up in my classroom. Click on the picture to go to her blog.
The 4th and 5th grade classes have been spending some time reviewing lines and spaces in preparation for our recorder unit. I love using centers to help students practice certain skills. It gives me a chance to assess the students as I observe. The students love centers because they get to play fun games! Here are the centers I chose for our treble clef study: 1) Staff Wars: A Smartboard Game - There are many online games like this but my students enjoy this one because it is all about speed and of course, it's play off of Star Wars. The students can play the game in a variety of ways. Some work together as a team to identify the notes and others compete against each other. I've had a few groups see which team member could get to the highest level or get the most consecutive right answers. While assessing, you can quickly see which students have the notes memorized and which are still relying on their mnemonic devices. 2) Board Games: Trouble and Connect Four - I got both of these games at the Dollar Tree, added some flashcards, and - voila! Students LOVE board games and I usually add a few "Lose a Turn," or "Move Ahead 3 Spaces" cards to make the game more exciting. 3) Staff Spelling Bee - We do this as a whole group activity in previous lessons so that the students understand the concept. I print off a bunch of words using letters from the musical alphabet (i.e. BEAD, ACE, BAG, etc.) and the students take turns drawing words and having the group "spell" them on their staff boards. The student that draws the word gets to be the "spell-checker" and some groups even chose to do speed rounds. You could even have them try to come up with a funny sentence. 4) Beanbag Toss - At this station, the students will take turns tossing a beanbag at the staff and identifying the note where it landed. After a few rounds, the students can try tossing more than one beanbag and identify all of the notes. 5) Boomwhacker Station - This station allows the students to put into practice the note-reading that they have been practicing. They divide the 8-note scale between the group members and work together to play the provide melodies. After all this practicing, my students are MORE than ready for recorders!! Now, the question is ... am I ready?? ;)
Ah Poor Bird is one of the easiest and loveliest rounds for singers. Let your piano players discover this lovely song too, with a new arrangement!
Song Index
This is the best board game to teach beginning students the names of rhythm notes and they love it, too.
Have You Seen the Ghost of John, now in the key of Em for beginning violin & fiddle players. Despite its strange lyrics, this is among the most beautiful short singing rounds in the world.
Viva la musica is a very old round for singing. Find it here for treble and bass voices and for guitar.
Rounds are an amazing way to get students of all ages to start singing in tune, build part independence, and improve aural skills. Below you will find 10 rounds that can be used for warm-ups in choirs from elementary age to high school. In the elementary setting rounds can be used in the general music classrooms to help prepare students for two part music. Additionally rounds in middle school and high school can be used to focus on intonation or other key concepts. Plus students highly enjoy t
Hello! This is Tanya from Teaching Music: Tanya's Kodály Aspiring Blog talking today. Several grades in my school are currently focused on standardized testing this week and, honestly, there is a feeling of stress radiating off the classroom teachers and many students. This has caused me to refocus on a few basic ideas that are important in my music classroom. What do I do with my students that will contribute to their growth as people? There is a well known quote from Maya Angelou that I think rings true: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." My goal is to make them feel joyful, empowered, and confident through music. I have a faded purple notecard pinned above my desk that has lived there since I saw Julie Swank present a ROCKE workshop in 2006. Julie Swank spoke of how she aimed to include these 3 activities in every class every day. This really resonated with me and right after her workshop I wrote out this purple card and tacked it up on my wall. Here are a few reasons and examples: 1. Sing (Of course!) If you are reading this blog, I'm assuming you already understand the value and importance of singing. In tune, artistic, musical singing is a skill that can be taught and learned. Our communities should be reminded frequently that singing is a skill and not a magical talent that some have and others do not. If our society valued singing as much as we value reading and writing, and our schools and families were focused on strengthening singing, wouldn't everyone be able to sing? (I realize I am preaching to the choir!) In my music class, we will sing in every class. When we are playing recorders in 3rd and 4th grade we sing our recorder pieces on solfa and letter names first. There are many strategies to get students singing and keep them singing. (Aileen gave some excellent examples of how to incorporate more singing throughout the class period.) Fun, non-sensical, quality songs can be included to turn kids on to the joy of singing. As Ella Fitzgerald said: "The only thing better than singing is more singing." Here's a 4th grade favorite song, The Hippopotamus. It's a good song for anacrusis and tim ka (dotted eighth sixteenth), and students love singing it in canon. It can be found in Katinka Daniel's Kodály Approach Book 4: 2. Connect Julie Swank mentioned that she uses the word "connect" rather than "join hands." I like the term "connect" because when we engage in a dance or play party that is what occurs; we are communicating and connecting with others. Sometimes a new student will come to my school and is initially taken aback by all the "connecting" that happens in music. Once he sees that this is the norm and everyone is doing it, he joins in. (We take hands, not sleeves or wrists, please.) Students most likely won't be joining hands during math class or during reading. Even during team sports they will not get to work together in same way a folk dance, a singing game, or a play party, requires. What a great opportunity we have in music to show the social bonding and community building that can happen with music! So yes, we will connect! This week my 3rd graders are letting off steam after their testing with the dance Galopede from the Amidons Chimes of Dunkirk. 1. Solo Why solo? These are my top two reasons: Students improve their skills at a faster rate than if they are only performing within a group Solos build independent, confident singers who begin to feel comfortable taking musical risks There are many songs with solo opportunities. Yo Ho, I Pull the Anchor is a favorite with older students. (The opportunity to pull on a big, heavy rope with classmates sure is enticing!) This is another great tim-ka song. I have a collection of finger puppets that I pull out for short solo singing activities. My collection is a bit out of control, I have more than one for each student in my largest class, but hey, if they continue to increase my class size at least I'll be prepared with finger puppets. Once upon a time Starbucks sold seasonal finger puppets, (they came atop sticks of candy,), and I just could not stop buying them! You can play Who Has The _______? with anything, when I was student teaching, my cooperating teaching used every opportunity to connect with classroom themes and students sang. "Who has the igneous rock?" "Who has the sedimentary rock?" "Who has the metamorphic rock?" I'd rather use my Beatles's edition finger puppets: In the younger grades many solos are not sung, but very short spoken solos within chants. A good example is Rooms to Rent. Rooms to Rent Rooms to rent, apply within. When I move out let _________ move in! Solo work is not regulated to singing; there are many opportunities for students to solo as the drummer who chooses our tempo, the xylophone player who plays the ostinato, or the hand chime player who accompanies with a simple harmony. I want my students to build their musical independence and feel good about making music. Have a great week!
Teaching Canon Singing. Organized Chaos. Strategies for introducing canons in elementary choir or general music lessons.
Ah, Fall... the leaves are changing colors, the air is getting cooler, the coffees are infused with pumpkin spice... It's a nice time of year. I'm linking up with my blog tribe to share some of my favorite fall lessons! I am lucky enough to teach in a school that is very pro-Halloween. We have a huge costume parade and every class throws a party. It's easily one of my favorite days of the school year. So I have lots of fun doing Halloween songs along with other seasonal songs this time of year. I'll share some great things I've found to do with each grade level... Pre-K Our Pre-K students just learned the letter "M" in their classroom, so I decided to reinforce that literacy component with a fun movement activity called, "Monsters Stomp Around the House." This is a piggyback song to the tune of, "The Ants Go Marching" which we are going to be learning later in the year. Now that they've heard the melody in this song, it should be more familiar to them when we get to it! Kindergarten I learned this song in college and love doing it with my primaries: To trace the melodic contour, I use foam leaves that I bought at a craft store a few years ago. You could also use scarves or paper cutouts for the same effect. 1st Grade Another favorite song that I learned in college is a piggyback song to the tune of "The Muffin Man." This one is called "The Pumpkin Child." Oh, do you know the pumpkin child? The pumpkin child, the pumpkin child! Do you know the pumpkin child Who goes to [ school name]? I start the lesson by telling my students a story of a day when a little pumpkin came to the school and he went to different teachers in the building and asked them if they knew the pumpkin child. Each time I mention a new teacher, we sing the song again. By the time I've finished the story, they've had at least six or seven repetitions of the song and can sing it independently. Then we play a beat passing game and pass a pumpkin around the circle. Whoever the pumpkin lands on is the pumpkin child! I let the pumpkin child pick a movement (pat, clap, snap, etc.) for us to use to keep the steady beat. 2nd Grade I LOVE the book "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" But do you know what I love even more than the book? This great video that has the story set to a song! I had my students sing along and then act out each part. After singing the song, I bring out the book and we add instruments for each part as well. 3rd-5th Grade For my intermediate students, I've found a couple of fun activities on Pinterest that I use... The kids love reading the notation for Ghost of John in this shape! And we sing it in a two or three part round. I'm excited to try this cup passing game next week. I also do a contest with The Addams Family Song... since music class is a place where we practice performing and stage presence, I challenge them to sing the song like Wednesday Addams: with a frown the whole time and NO SMILING. There is nothing funnier than watching a bunch of kids try their hardest NOT to smile!!! I hope you enjoy these Falloween (as my second graders called it) activities. Don't forget to check out some of the other blogs in the linkup! An InLinkz Link-up
It was time for another rotation of recorder belt testing in my 3rd grade classes, so this week's project was to create another round of stations for students to rotate between while I tested and worked with small groups, grouped by belt level. The kids have been LOVING the stations, as it is very different from our normal routine in the music room. They are producing some nice work and getting focused practice from the options that are provided. I've been impressed with how on task they continue to be. The new theme for this round of stations is "Fairy Tales." Included in the kit are: Character Melodies: Students write 2 beat melodies to match the rhythms of famous fairy tale characters' names. Then, they practice performing the melodies on their recorders and share them with their group. An example is given to help the students understand what is expected. Hansel and Gretel's Pathway: Students play Hansel and Gretel's bread pathway of BAG notes to lead them to the cottage. After practicing playing the pattern, students create their own B A G pathway to help Hansel and Gretel make it to the cottage, by notating B's, A's, and G's on the loaf of bread music staff template. Character Feedback: Students practice the song they are working on. As they practice, they self reflect. Then, they give themselves feedback from the point of view of Cinderella and the Prince. Princess and the Pea Melody: Students play 2 measure BAG lullaby melodies to help Princess Winifred fall asleep on top of the pea. After mastering the beautiful, clean sound of the lullabies, students write their own 2 measure lullaby for Winifred, using B A and G. Download the kit from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store today! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fairy-Tale-BAG-Recorder-Stations-or-Individual-Activities-and-Worksheets
So, I get observed by a Kagan coach once a month doing a Kagan Structure. This month, I found a suggestion in the Kagan Music Book on pag...
Free lead sheets are an excellent way to not only stretch your music budget and your students' repertoire, but also to stretch their musical skills. Build their understanding of how chords are used!
Song Index
In addition to the Do pentatonic scale, I'm also working on some Mi-Sol-La lessons for my younger students. Here's one I adapted from the song, "One, Two, Three, Four, Five" from the Spotlight on Music series. You can download it HERE for free. The lesson plan explains everything!
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Let Us Sing Together
Sing, sing, sing! I want my students to experience beautiful, in-tune singing and I am always on the lookout for songs with solos. I know students are more successful in pitch matching when they sing unaccompanied and have opportunities to sing alone. While I use several songs with solos in the primary grades, I don't use as many in the older grades. Here is one that has been very successful with my older students. I often start with several knots tied in the rope so that a few students are singing the solo, (which cuts down on the initial fear factor for the singers.) I learned this song from my wonderful Level III teacher, Liz Arcaro. Once a student has sung a solo (or duet, or trio, depending on how many knots I tie in the rope,) they go to a barred instrument and accompany with a simple bourdon on C and G. What are some of your favorite songs with solos?
Vocal exploration pathways are a great tool for students to use to warm up their voices and discover their head voice. My youngest students adore these activities, but my 4th-6th grade choir loves to use these as a warm-up. This set includes 15 pathways, 5 draw-your-own, and 2 worksheets, perfect fo...
