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

Signs of the Weather is the perfect piece for part-singing, with opportunity for students to practice both the upper and lower parts.

One of my favorite songs to bring out in the spring is 2, 4, 6, 8. I can use this with any grade level that is preparing or practicing beat vs. rhythm or is practicing ta and titi. The dance that I learned with this song is set up in longways sets with each student facing their partner. Phrase 1: Take four steps towards your partner Phrase 2: Shake hands with your partner Phrase 3: Right hand turn to trade places with your partner Phrase 4: Take four steps backward into your partners old spot IDEALLY the head couple sashays down to the bottom of the set during phrase four and the other partners move up a space to start again and there is a new head couple, but you can work up to that. Sometimes they need extra time to get down there, especially if you are teaching it to the whole class at once. Some of my kids won't remember to go because they march backwards instead, but I don't make a big deal out of it. I just add a little rhythm improv between repetitions to get them down there and then we start again I should have made my kids listen a few more times before joining in on the singing, as you will hear that some of them throw in a la and make the last phrase ta titi ta ta. Once we really honed in on the rhythm of the song and read it with ta's and titi's that fixed that right up. Here are some of the visuals and manipulative I use with this song after they have learned the dance. When practicing steady beat or working on beat vs. rhythm, I can pull out this slide and students can pat beat on laps while I point or they can take turns tapping at the board like the teacher. I also have slides for prepping the rhythm of the words as well as with stick notation. Click here to find these ready made slides to use in your classroom. On a different day in ta and titi practice stage, I divide the class into small groups and I pass out baggies that have foam flowers that I picked up from the dollar bin. On the flowers, I have notated (in stick notation) the phrases of the song with one phrase on each flower. Students work in groups to put the song together. When they have the song notated I come around to each group and they perform it for me. I hope this gives you some fun ideas to try with your kids!

Music education blog, K-8, teaching ideas & resources, advocacy, quotes, Kodaly, Orff, bells, Boomwhackers, integration, & home-made instruments.

This 3-part post was drawn from my presentation for the Michigan Kodaly Educators in September of 2019. Read Part 1 if you missed it. Solfege is one of the giant’s in the music word having been around since Guido of Arezzo invented in the 11th century, but is it still relevant and useful today? You […]

A few weeks ago, I shared a “What to Teach When” post for Younger Elementary (read it here, in case you missed it!)Today, I’m sharing the same type of post for Older Elementary singers. Here is a general list of musical skills and concepts you can teach to children in 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade. Use this chart as a point of reference in your teaching, an outline of what to teach when, and a guide to what children at different ages may be capable of, developmentally and musically.Like with Younger Elementary, remember that children are often capable of higher levels of learning and musicianship when surrounded by others who are a bit older and more experienced. If you have younger and older elementary children together in one group, you may be able to introduce things that are a level or two above the youngest members of your choir.

Music education blog, K-8, teaching ideas & resources, advocacy, quotes, Kodaly, Orff, bells, Boomwhackers, integration, & home-made instruments.

Subscribe to the Sing Play Create Free Resource Library. Music activities, worksheets, songs and games for PreK-6th grades.

Here's a peek at my Watercolor Music Room: I have found it really helpful to have a lines and spaces bulletin board of some sort up in my room year round. This is helpful especially for my older kids who are playing recorders. Someone in my "Lindsay's Kodaly Inspired Classroom - Share Group" on Facebook suggested the title "Brush up on your Lines and Spaces" for the title of the board and I loved it! I actually put this board together twice. Originally I had it backed with white paper and it was just a little too boring. I thought about splattering it with paint, but I didn't trust myself and thought it might become a huge mess, so I ended up finding a really pretty yellow fabric from Hobby Lobby. I had a 40% off coupon and I think it took a yard and a half to cover it. I got the scalloped bulletin board boarder from my local school supply store. You can find it online thought here. I used black streamers for the lines. The printables for this board can be found here. On my other square bulletin board, I backed the board with a pretty floral fabric that had a watercolored look tot he flowers. The fabric is so pretty, but busy, so I wanted something simple for this board. I usually have my Solfa Street on this board, but I thought it might be a good place to post my objectives this year. I bought these really cheap document frames for $1 each from Dollar Tree and printed off some mostly blank pages that had the grade levels on them. I use an expo marker each day to write on the board what the objective for each grade is. My administrator loves this. I did have laminated cards that I tried using last year, but I would forget to change it out. These I can keep up for a while as I am preparing or presenting a concept. I might write "Use my singing voice to match the pitches" or "Move to the feel of the music" when I am prepping a concept. After the concept is presented I can be more specific "I can sing (or read) songs with sol-mi". "I can move to the beat of the music" or "I can clap patterns with ta titi and rest". Find these blank objectives pages here. The colors of mine are a bit different because I wanted them to look good on top of this particular fabric. The ones in the file match (as close as possible) to the grade level binder covers in my watercolor teacher binders set. I love to dress up the side of my file cabinets. I taped butcher paper to the side, trimmed the edges and added border trim (from the same line as the scalloped borders). I love the posters I found "It's RUDE to EXCLUDE!" and "Don't decide that you can't before you discover that you can". Both are very applicable to my kids and my room. Sometimes when we play singing games some kids get left out, or some students don't take hands nicely. This poster is a great little reminder for some of my kiddos. The other one is for when things get "too hard". I have really high expectations for my kiddos and some of them have very low self esteems because of their home lives. I am always encouraging my kiddos to try and telling them that I believe in them. The posters came from my local teacher supply store. You can also find them online here (It's Rude to Exclude) and here (Don't decide you can't before you discover that you can). I was SOOOO excited when I saw how my music rules printed out. I did not know if the watercolor would print well or if the music noted I added to the background myself would show up well. It's my favorite set yet! I have a little rule for each song that makes learning these rules really fun the first week of school. You can find these rules posters and the corresponding songs here. I thought I would try something new to track class behavior this year. I blogged last year about our class rewards for five star days in music. Then I saw this cool pin: I loved the idea of having a colorful xylophone on my wall as a way to track class behavior. Each day when my kids line up, we go over the music room rules and see if we followed all five as a group. If they did, they earn a 5 star day and get to move their class clip over one bar on the xylophone. When they reach the top bar, they will earn a free day for their next music class. Free days in my room are singing games or children's literature that were their favorites from the year or previous years. I didn't have as much space on my wall as the pinner, so mine is a much smaller version above my counter and below my cabinets at the back of my room. For my big bullet board I wanted to do something that incorporated paint chips and the saying "Each individual is like a single note. Together we create a masterpiece." My sister in law painted the staff on my light purple fabric for me. I got the idea from a combination of several pins on Pinterest, but instead of using a die-cut for each note, I wanted the note heads to be the kids thumbprints. I used acrylic paint and in about 8 minutes per class period. Each class all used the same color so I wasn't having to switch colors or brushes during one class. I used a brush to get the right amount of paint on each kid's finger. They went straight to the board, made their print in a place of their choosing and immediately wiped their finger clean with a Clorox wipe. For K-2 I cleaned their fingers myself. It still didn't take much time at all and went much smoother than I anticipated. The kids got excited when they came in the next time and saw even more colors added to the board. This board represents half of my school The other half will be adding their prints on Monday. As I am posting this, I just realized I was trying so hard to get close ups of everything that you don't see the room as a whole. I will see if I can do a view whole room shots next week for you! I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of my music room. If you used any of my decor in your music room, I would love to see pictures. I have started a photo album on my Facebook page of classrooms around the world using my creations. I am slowly getting pictures you share added to it! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great year!

Music education ideas, activities, games, and songs | Technology tips for the music classroom | Resources for the elementary music room.

I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target

Teaching Elementary Choir. Organized Chaos. All of the best teaching strategies for elementary chorus.

NOTE: This post was originally published in August 2011 and I decided it was well overdue for an update. The original post […]

Double blog post today, because that's the kind of day I'm having, lol!! I made two batches of muffins for my kids (blueberry and chocolate), bought two new outfits, so things are coming in twos!! This is an idea that I got from two of my friends who teach in my district (Jenna O. & Cathy K.). These are beat strips and are great for rhythmic dictation and notation. They were a little time consuming to make, but I hope to give you some tips to make it go faster and easier! Here's the general idea. Every student gets a beat strip, like this: This is Jenna's original template, I have redone them, using a different font to look more like a time signature. From there, I have rhythms that are prepackaged according to grade level (this will vary for everyone, depending on your sequence). Here's a picture of the beat strip with my first grade "pouch" of rhythms: Here's the way they look on the chart: After first grade, students will have more then one "pouch." So, when my second graders use half note they get the second grade pouch with half note in addition to the first grade pouch with ta, ti-ti and ta rest. ** Note: I don't call them "first grade pouch" so the kids don't have a misconception if they are behind in the sequence. I refer to the rhythms in them with the students. Then, when they put them away, they must return them to the correct baggie, kind of like sorting out legos when you're done building! Here's a couple pictures of the first grade pouch with the third grade rhythm baggie: And here's a couple shots of my fourth grade pouch: Now, I mentioned I re-did Jenna's file. Here's the four beat dictation board that I showed above: What you would do is print these out on card stock, laminate them (so they'll last a long time) and then cut them into the strips that you saw above. I started thinking about the Common Core Standards and wanting my kids to do longer dictation/compositions so I created an 8 beat board (below): I also wanted my students to write in 3/4 meter, so here's a 3/4 board (3 beat dictation/composition): And here's a 3/4 meter board that's 6 beat dictation/composition: I also made all of the rhythms in both stick notation and notation with note-heads. You print these out on card stock first, then laminate and cut along the dotted lines (for a class of 30 you print 10 pages of each rhythm): With the rhythmic elements that last longer than one beat I made light gray lines to show the beats (it's a nice reminder to the students that a dotted half note gets three beats, or a half note gets two beats or syn-co-pa is three sound over two beats). It's important when cutting these cards to NOT cut along the gray lines!! :) Here are the time saving tips: Print them on card stock, they'll last longer Color code them, if possible, according to rhythmic element- this will make assessing them much quicker- you can do a quick glance for color, major time saver during class! For a class of 30, you'll need 10 pages of each concept Cut them out on the paper cutter AFTER you laminate them Look at your curriculum and print the ones you need. Or print as you go. Start with the 1st grade set one year and gradually print more Recruite some 5th graders to sort them- it's a great reinforcement for them too :) If you're interested in these cards, they can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. And there you have it, the double post for the day!!! Have a GREAT Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow!!!

Have you ever wondered what’s developmentally appropriate for children in 1st grade versus 2nd grade, or what order you should teach things in? How soon should you start talking about things like steady beat or vowels or breath? When are children ready to sing in parts?There aren’t hard-and-fast rules about this sort of thing in church choir settings, but I’ve put together a general list of musical skills and concepts for children in Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade, a group often referred to as Younger Elementary.Use this chart as a point of reference in your teaching, an outline of what to teach when, and a guide to what children at different ages may be capable of, developmentally and musically.A note for those of you with a combined choir: I know it can be a challenge sometimes to know what to teach when. How do you challenge your older children while not planning activities that are over the younger ones’ heads and keep everyone engaged and participating the whole time? Do you aim for the median grade level?

This little invention has been a hit with kids as well as teachers. I first created a Bop-o-phone out of desperation for additional xylos. The frame/box costs basically nothing, and it adds some versatility to a set of Boomwhackers. Here are easy instructions and pictures. Please post additional ideas or feedback. Enjoy! Materials needed: an empty, sturdy box that contained a case of 8.5" x 11" copy paper (usually easy to find in the faculty workroom), wide tape, a meter stick, a marker, sturdy scissors, and a about six feet of yarn or soft string. For each mallet, you will need a pencil or 10" length of 1/4" diameter dowel, a small rubber ball (party favor or from 25 cent vending machine), and glue.  Step #1 (1) Begin 2 cm from the left side of the box and mark along the top edge 4 cm wide by 1 cm deep arcs, 1 cm apart. Repeat markings on opposite edge. Cut out the arcs. (Cutting from each side and meeting in the middle will give cleaner results.)   Step 2  (2) Gently pull the glued seams on one side of the box apart and lay the end flap flat. Mark a line through the center of the bottom of the box from the open edge to 7" from the opposite side. Then mark a "V", extending from the center line to each corner of the box. Cut along these lines.  Step #3 (3) Fold the bottom sections over each other with the "V" on top (inside), narrowing the width of the open end of the box to about 8". Then fold the end flaps up, trim/square them up, and tape your seams. (4) Place Boomwhackers in the 'cradles' in diatonic order. (You can leave some off for pentatonic activities). Tie two lengths of yarn around the box and tubes lengthwise as shown in the top picture. Tape yarn in place on bottom of box to keep it from sliding around. The yarn will keep tubes in place, and it doesn't really inhibit tone. (5) Make a mallet by carving/drilling a hole in a rubber ball, applying glue to in the hole and on the end of the dowel or pencil, and inserting the stick into the ball. (Soft rubber balls actually sound better than hard ones.) You can use the Bop-o-phone as an Orff-type instrument for ostinatos or as a melody instrument. It's very easy to convert Boomwhackers to and from this mallet format. Here's a link to my digital song collection of color-coded melodies (with ostinato suggestions), which you might find very useful and versatile: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-BIG-BOOK-of-FOLK-SONG-FUN-for-Bells-or-Boomwhackers-466033

3 Books for Back to School Music Class. Organized Chaos. Great for the first day of music lesson, or any time of year in elementary general music! The Really Awful Musicians, Song of Middle C, and Mole Music.

In this blog post I'm going to talk about what I think are the five best activities you can use in your learning centers rotations!

In order to introduce tika-tika to my 2nd-3rd graders this week, I needed a super engaging activity. [Enter Target mini erasers]

What do you do when the lesson plan is just. not. working? These tips will help you stay ahead of the game and give your students the best-- even if it is not what you intended.

Creative Music Education lessons, songs, games and creative movement activities. Education resources for the elementary music classroom.

In this blog post I'm going to talk about what I think are the five best activities you can use in your learning centers rotations!

Learn how to practice rhythms with this budget-friendly and fun rhythm game in your elementary music classroom.

My Favorite Warm-ups for Children's Choir. Organized Chaos. So many amazing warmup exercises for elementary choral ensembles!

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.

I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target

Kids love Halloween. As a kid, it was my favorite holiday. I loved getting to dress up and go trick or treating. Here are some of the tricks and treats from my music room this week: Skin and Bones is so fun to play with any age! I turn the lights off, students sit in a circle and I go around the outside of the circle singing the song and I use an egg shaker to shake on the "oo's" just for a fun sound effect. On "boo" the whole class is usually scarred. I have best success with this game around 3rd grade, but it's fun all the way up through 5th grade. I've seen lots of fun variations on games for skin and bones on facebook recently. My favorite (though a little creepy) was to have the kids all lay on the floor and rise up to a sitting position on to "oo's" then lay back down. I will have to remember that for next year. This song is perfect because I am about ready to present low la! It is a really easy repeated part to play on the Orff instruments too. This morning I did rhythmic dictation using Q tips as "bones" with my fifth graders. After a few practice rounds, they got to create their own four beat bone rhythm pattern. It was a little difficult to get the tiri-tiri's to stay so some are falling down, but you get the idea! They loved it! Monster Mash Freeze Dance has been a big hit today. I play the song Monster Mash, but you could use any spooky dancable song. When I pause the music the kids have to freeze like the picture. This activity is fun way to get them moving and isolating different parts of their bodies. They have to think creatively for some to figure out how to make their bodies best match the pictures: They have to really think creatively for some to figure out how to make their bodies best match the pictures: These are available on my TPT store here: We are busy practicing ta rest: During prep, we may just play a singing game. I play this one kind of like Closet Key. My students sit in a circle. I put a witch had in the middle and select a student to sit by the witch hat (they don't wear it because you just never know about head lice). I go around the circle with a penny and hide it in one student's hands. The witch has three guesses of where the penny is. The kids really enjoyed playing this game. Reviewing high low in prep for sol-mi: I found these great Halloween erasers at Target in the dollar bins to use on our high/low staff: Pitch matching: The students would not see this. Teacher sings "What will you be on Halloween night?" (s mm s m ss m s) Students answer in their singing voice with whatever they will be (ex. I will be a black cat - ss mm s m) I cover a mallet with Kleenex and drew on eyes and a mouth and now have "Spooky the Ghost". The kids love to sing to Spooky. He can only hear us if we use our singing voices! :) If you have a different Halloween puppet that would work too, but this is so easy to make! Children's Literature: The Halloween House can be sung to the tune of Over in the Meadow. Instead of counting forwards, it counts backwards, which is a lovely skill to work on with kindergarten. Here's a little video of me reading a portion of it so you can get the melody I use. What's going on in your music room? Share some ideas in the comments! Lindsay

I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target

Ready for some winter lesson ideas for your elementary music classroom? I'm sharing 4 of my favorite winter elementary music lessons!

If you go to the grocery store or the park or Target, you’re likely to hear it - the sound of a small child singing a song they know by heart (often looping through a favorite section over and over). “The impulse to move, speak, sing, and play rhythmically is a natural and vital part of being human” (source). But, if it’s not encouraged and nurtured from an early age, children can “forget how to sing.” How do you help them rediscover their singing voices? How do you develop it and teach them to sing in a choir? Where do you start?In today’s post, I’m walking you through the ins and outs of developing children’s singing voices in a choir setting - from vocal exploration to developing choral musicianship. Let’s get started!Exploring the VoiceThis is a vital step in the process. Give children numerous opportunities in rehearsals to explore what their voices can do. This helps them build coordination and gain control of their voice, develop an understanding of the voice and what it means to sing, and build confidence.

I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target

I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target

Music education blog, K-8, teaching ideas & resources, advocacy, quotes, Kodaly, Orff, bells, Boomwhackers, integration, & home-made instruments.

Children's Literature in Elementary Music Lessons. Organized Chaos. Over 10 full elementary music lesson plans based on children's books.

Signs of the Weather is the perfect piece for part-singing, with opportunity for students to practice both the upper and lower parts.

I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target

Subscribe to the Sing Play Create Free Resource Library. Music activities, worksheets, songs and games for PreK-6th grades.

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

I'm returning to the topic of behavior management today to tell you about the incentives that I use in my classroom. I have already written about my individualized system that I use to reinforce positive behavior with "happy notes"- you can read more about those in this post (and you really should, if you haven't yet, because those little notes have made a huge difference in my classroom!). Today I want to tell you about a new whole-class incentive I have started using this year. I believe that one of the most important things that we as music teachers can teach our students is working cooperatively (and the interdependence that comes from that). Music is one of the only school subjects that truly requires students to depend on each other in order to succeed. I try to take advantage of every opportunity to emphasize that aspect of my classroom, because I think it is such an important life skill and they get so few opportunities to practice it! To that end, although I have several systems for dealing with behavior individually, I emphasize the whole-class behavior management systems the most, encouraging classes to work together towards a common goal. You can read more about how my system works in my posts on behavior management, but basically each class earns points for their behavior each class period, and when they earn a certain number of points they get a prize. There are 3 levels of incentives: the first 2 are centers that I choose, and the 3rd is a free choice "party". The first 2 times that the class earns the incentive, we use the next class period to do centers. I use centers in my regular lessons as well, but I use them sparingly. For their reward centers day, I usually incorporate a couple of centers where I know they will be practicing content skills, and the rest encourage them to enjoy music in different ways. Out of all the ones we have used, here are some of my students' favorites: One of the most popular is the listening station, where students can pick their favorite songs from my preset list on the computer. This is different from the usual listening station, though, because there are no headphones- they listen to it through the speakers. I have a second center nearby that is a dancing station, and the listening station students do double-duty as DJ's for the dancers as well. The dancers are not allowed to give input into the songs the choose, so it makes for some funny moments and the kids think it's tons of fun. Kaboom sticks are another popular station, and I usually have a couple of iPad stations. You can read more about those in my previous posts on centers, but these are great ways to incorporate some skill practice while still keeping it fun. I used to use only free choice parties as my whole-class incentive, but using centers days as rewards has allowed me to infuse a little more meaningful learning into the reward time, which makes it easier for me to give them more frequent positive reinforcement- it's a win-win! Do you use centers as a reward in your classroom? How do you do it? Share your ideas and experiences below.

Here's a list of fun activities you can do with preschool and kindergarten using tambourines!