Creating dance space at home - great ideas for creating a dance room or transforming part of a room to practice dance.
How many of these Mountains ideas are you practicing in your Dining Space?
We think that children will love learning to use their scissors when they have something this enticing to aim for at the end! Four space rockets zoom off into the distance on this fun cutting skills worksheet...
My kids love to read and hate to read at the same time. It's kind of odd, really. They love when I read to them and when they are engrossed in a book. But sometimes they just don't want to read. I typically lay off because they will not learn to love reading by me
These free Planet Counting Puzzles for kids are a great way to practice number sequencing while learning more about planets and outer space!
Free printable Subtraction Color by Number Worksheets for Kindergarten! our free Color by Subtraction Printable Worksheets. Once your students have mastered our Addition Color by Number facts, provide them with this fun set of color by number subtraction activities. With these PDF color-by-code subtraction worksheets, your students will work on single-digit equations from 10, and […]
The school year has officially begun and the crafts will follow! Allow students to creatively express themselves in their art projects and in class. Check out some class activities for the new school year.
These ideas and activities for students will help you teach kids about what personal space is, why it matters, and how they can respect others' personal space.
Looking for fun space theme preschool Activities for kids? Check out these 16 Hands-On space Learning Activities and Crafts for Preschool or Kindergarten.
Space Shape Matching features 4 exciting shapes to be sorted and matched. This Space themed printables great for toddlers, preschool and preK
For many homeowners, the garage is often an underutilized space, primarily used for parking cars or storing items that don't fit in the house. However, with
These personal space worksheets are a great way to help students understand and practice social norms that may change as they get older.
Practice cutting with these cute rocket cutting strips. A Great way for preschoolers to develop those scissor and fine motor skills!
This is a fun board game to help children develop skills such as problem solving, communication as well as practice counting.
Free Printable Vehcile Activities to help children strengthen and practice a variety of skills all while having fun and playing a game.
Looking for fun space theme preschool Activities for kids? Check out these 16 Hands-On space Learning Activities and Crafts for Preschool or Kindergarten.
KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 1 I am thrilled to be sharing this huge Counting and Cardinality Unit with you! This is the math unit we start the year with in kindergarten. The kids love all of the hands-on activities we get to do, and I love how easy it is to keep them engaged.
Build your kid's scissors skills with our printable summer cutting practice worksheets. These are great for preschool and kindergarten.
Teaching music with fun, tried & tested lessons, DIY classroom projects & ideas your students will love with Tracy King, the Bulletin Board Lady.
Kids will love these fun patterning activities! They are perfect for preschool and kindergarten math centers. Patterning with Pattern Blocks
One of the most important things we can do at the beginning of the school year is practice classroom procedures- the less time we have to spend explaining and managing logistics throughout the year, the more time we have for music-making and the smoother our lessons will go in general. Part of creating a "safe space" classroom is making sure students feel confident that they know what to do in common lesson situations, and procedures are the foundation for that. Here are the most important procedures I make sure to make time to practice at the beginning of the year with my elementary general music students. Before we jump into the list, I want to make it clear that I do not cram in practice of all of these procedures in the first lesson, or even the first week, of the school year. But I do try to introduce them within the first 3 weeks or so. I found if I don't make the time to practice them within the first month, the first time we really encounter the procedure with a particular grade I forget they haven't practiced it and I get impatient when they don't know what to do, which invariably leads to problems. And I definitely do not tell students how to do these things, or even have a class discussion about them or have students model examples- I build the actual activities for which the procedures are needed into my lesson plans so that the students naturally have opportunities to practice them when the need arises. Contextualizing it helps students understand the importance and purpose so much better! If you want an example of how I do that in the first few lessons with each grade level, see my first day of music lesson plan blog post. 1. Entering and exiting the room Establishing how to enter and exit the room is probably the most important procedure for elementary music because we tend to have such short class periods, and the students spend so much of the rest of their day in one room with one teacher- coming into and leaving a room is not something they do all day like high schoolers and middle schoolers do! My procedure for leaving class has changed very little in my 16 years of teaching: we quickly review what we learned, line up in a very specific order on the line marked on the floor, give compliments, and walk into the hallway. Students know class is almost over when I give the silent signal for them to stand up and walk to the line, and they know exactly where and when to go. Keeping the end of class predictable and highly structured makes the transition out of music class so much smoother! Read all the details of my exit procedures in this post. Predictability at the beginning of class is key as well, but my procedures have shifted over the years as I've recognized that I need to build in time to address any "baggage" students come into my room with, whether it was an argument on the playground or a test right before class they think they bombed. I've also realized nobody can (or should) be expected to instantly switch into "music class mode" the minute they cross the threshold of my classroom- they need time to transition into the space, some more than others. I started doing student-led warmups at the beginning of class a few years ago and it has been magnificent. I get those going as soon as the first few students are walking in, and everyone knows they need to join in as they get to their seats. Read about the kinds of warmups I do, and how I've made them student-led to free me up for side conversations etc, in this post. 2. Standing, sitting, and sitting up This isn't always at the top of other teachers' lists but it is on mine- with all the singing, movement, and other transitions I have in my lessons we are rarely in one position for long, and it's important to me that students learn how to sit up properly in chairs for singing or playing wind instruments to give them proper breath support (one of the reasons I am a firm believer in using chairs rather than just sitting on the floor). I've established a silent hand signal for standing, sitting, and sitting up that we practice starting on the very first day- read about those in this post. 3. Redirection One of the most important procedures I go over with students at the beginning of the year is how to handle themselves when they feel themselves getting out of hand, they're upset and aren't quite ready to resolve the issue yet, or need to share something with me that I can't listen to right away when they need me to hear them. We talk about taking responsibility to take space themselves rather than waiting for me to intervene, and I show them a few different places they can go when they need to remove themselves from a situation. I also have sticky notes and a pencil in a corner where students can write notes to me if they need to tell me something and I either can't listen right away or they want to keep it confidential. And I also try to reinforce with everyone that if I'm asking a student to go sit in one of those spaces or take space away from the group, that's to give them the opportunity to resolve the situation before it escalates, not as a "punishment". 4. Instruments The most important expectation I establish with instruments is written on a giant poster on my wall: if you play before I say you'll make the instrument go away. We practice the importance of holding instruments in a way that they won't accidentally make sound when they are waiting to begin playing, and we also practice what happens when they do play out of turn- I make sure they see early on that if they make a mistake it's not a big deal, they put their instrument down for one turn and then they always get another chance to join and try again. Besides that though, I also believe it's important for instruments to be visible and available for students, and for them to learn how to safely and appropriately handle them early on. So we practice how to get instruments off the shelves and put them away, and how to hand out instruments or collect them from other students if they are assigned to that team job and we are using small instruments like egg shakers or rhythm sticks. 5. Movement I'm lucky enough to have 2 areas in my room: one where chairs are set up, and another with floor spots in a circle. The kindergartners sit on the floor most of the time, but for the older grades we practice how to safely move from one area to the other and back again. Seems self-evident but I learned very early in my teaching career that it definitely is not! 6. Writing I don't have desks or tables for each student in my room, so when it's time to write or color it is quite an ordeal without procedures in place. I have teams assigned to pass out and collect things, and we practice how to get everyone pencils and paper. For younger grades I just have them use their chairs as desks and sit on the floor to avoid more transitions and logistics, but for older students who tend to find that uncomfortable I have clipboards, lap desks, and some table space that we go over how they can get and use. I keep all of our supplies organized by color team to make it easier to keep track of everything- you can read about that in this post. 7. Bathroom/ tissues/ nurse To be honest this is the procedure I tend to forget to practice because I'd rather just have everyone stay in music and never have to use the bathroom, blow their nose, or visit the nurse! Of course life doesn't work that way so when I'm on my game, I make sure to show students where the tissues are in my room and where nearest bathroom is and (especially for younger grades) practice walking between the music room and the bathroom, and I tell them my one rule to not have more than one student in the bathroom/ at the tissues at a time (mostly because it's too much for my brain to keep track of, but also to avoid dilly dallying). I have tried to have students use whatever hand signals they have in their homerooms in the past to avoid confusing them, but I'm considering establishing a hand signal for bathroom and tissues this year and putting a poster up in the room for their reference, because I have had too many times when students are trying to signal something to me and I don't know what the signal means! :) Regardless, they're important to review so they don't become disruptions throughout the year. I know what you're thinking: what about emergency procedures? I honestly don't count that as a separate thing to practice for music class because we go over emergencies in general as a building and discuss various scenarios, including if students are in art, music, the cafeteria, the bathroom, etc. If we didn't do that as a building, I would certainly include that on my list as well! What else is on your list that didn't make mine? What are some ways you've found to help the procedures above go more smoothly in your room? I'd love to hear more ideas in the comments!
Get your students back into writing with these awesome August Writing Prompts!! Great opinion ideas, fictional narratives, and relatable informative topics.
Teaching students about respecting personal space (and getting consent) before entering is important - "Personal Space Camp" and practicing the skills is a great way to do it!
Written plus video tutorial shows you how to sew a zipper pouch - great practice for zippers and fun and quick gifts to make
Depending on the student, astronomy can seem a bit laborious. Why not make a study of the planets interesting with a fun game? This Solar System activity is a super way to practice using information that's been learned!
Learning the names of the treble clef lines and spaces is a basic music skill. Using workstations to practice it only makes sense. See ideas for using centers in your music classroom to teach pitch names of notes on the treble clef staff.
My sister made me a preschool lesson about Space that we are going to use next week. Here are a few activities I made to add to it. Planet Cards Planet Hide a Number (original idea from Applesauce and Flipflops) Constellation Lacing Cards Space Songs Number Rocket Ship Activity Enjoy!
