An update to everything happening in the world of Musicplay, MusicplayOnline, and Themes & Variations directly from Denise Gagne!

Valentine's Day is almost upon us again, so I decided to post some activities I've done this week and last week that could be used for a Valentine's theme. If you look at the Kodaly Corner blog (linked on the right...a collaborative blog I contribute to), there are some more Valentine's activities if you're interested. I have no idea where I learned this song, but my students love it! I've been using it this week, and I plan to link it to Saint Saens Carnival of the Animals Aquarium movement and the book Swimmy. The game is simple. On the first day I discuss with the class what the name of a group of fish is (school) and why do small fish travel in large groups (to not get eaten by big things like sharks). The first time we play, I lead, walking around the room with my hands swimming like fish fins and singing the names of students in the song (in place of Suzy). Each new student joins the line behind me (hands on shoulders or just walking) until the entire class is part of the school of fish, and for the last time through the song we sing, "Oh, everyone, everyone, we love you!). My students today spontaneously started giving each other hugs. Feel the love, people. On another day when we play, the newly called student becomes the leader and must stop at their chosen person when we sing the long "Oh" so the class knows whose name to sing. If you want to, you could have each new leader be in charge of singing the last phrase of the song as a solo to assess singing voices. After the game was over, students froze with a shark fin on their heads. I then played the half step Jaws theme at various tempos and pausing at different times. Students put the notes in their feet moving when the keyboard was playing and stopping when the music stopped until all had returned to their carpet spots. One little boy today said, "I LOVE this part!" Either the same lesson or another lesson the same week, I use the book, Swimmy (which shows the idea of a school of fish and different predators). I usually read the book the first time with the Aquarium music as accompaniment in the background. Then on another day when I introduce the Aquarium music, I ask where they've heard the music before and students can usually tell me from the Swimmy book. I then introduce briefly the idea of the Carnival of the Animals piece in which the composer wrote small songs to represent different animals. So what animals does this song represent do you think? Then I introduce a listening map for Aquarium. Here is a simple one. To further familiarize the class with the piece, we make our own Aquarium. Half of the student use blue scarves with partners holding opposite ends to make the water waves, (you could do green seaweed as well if you need to) and the other half use bright, colorful scarves to pretend they are the fish swimming in the aquarium. Then they switch parts and the water students become fish and vice versa. We, of course, talk about moving like the music sounds. This will lead to learning about legato (and then staccato when we move on to doing the Kangaroo). So, you could use these activities during Valentine's week, or not. It doesn't have to be Valentine's themed. By the way, my meyersmusic visuals website I used to have set up is now defunct, but Blogger doesn't have a good way to post full-sized visuals for you to print out and use. I'm in the process of changing the visuals website over to a Weebly website which allows me to post not just picture files, but also other document formats. Check back and you'll find some of my older blog visuals reposted to the new site soon. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. "Oh, Kodaly, Kodaly, we love you!"

This is a fun conversation board game to speak about summer holidays with your ESL students.

This is a pretty simple picture crossword for revising sports related vocabulary. Recommended for elementary students who are asked to complete the crossword by using the across and down clu

CUPS are an amazing resource. You can drink out of them, they hold things (like popsicle sticks for one of my favorite games- BUSTED), and they make music! I don't know about you, but especially last year with the popularity of Pitch Perfect, my students LOVE cup games. All classes from 3rd grade and up have mastered the basic cup pattern most of us know and love so I have to up my game and introduce many more variations on that pattern, or new cup games that get progressively more difficult. Pitch Perfect 2 is coming out soon- so I am sure CUPS will be popular for a long time- but even if they aren't in the movies, CUP games are so fun! I always find it hard to remove myself from the game because I love them so much and my students are always asking to play as a reward because THEY love them so much. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite cup games and activities- sound off in the comments about your favorites! CUP MAGIC TRICKS! ABRACADABRA! Students start to see cups early on when I do rhythm cup magic tricks. I learned this at a work-shop a few years ago and students love it! Unfortunately, I searched high and low for who taught this to me and I could not find the handout! If this was you- so sorry you aren't credited! Let me know if this sounds so familiar, that you think you may have taught it at a workshop in Ohio 4 or 5 years ago :) Basically I have four cups on a table (or music stand)- each representing a beat. Hidden underneath all of the cups is a cup cut in half to represent ti-ti. We tap the cups, think of "magic" words that only have 1 sound (Bam!, Poof!, Trick etc.). We do this for a little, moving the cups around- stacking and unstacking them, etc. and then I tell them its time for the magic trick. We say A-bra-ca da- bra! and the Ta Ta ti-ti Ta pattern is revealed! They then come up with a few "magic" words that have 2 sounds and we practice more patterns. (Poof! Poof! Magic! Poof!) Sometimes the ti-ti half cups are revealed, sometimes they are covered up. This is great for Prep OR Practice of Ta and Ti-ti- with prep, you can just continue to use magic related words when reading the cup patterns, but once they know the rhythm names, you can reveal a pattern and have them read it on rhythm syllables then notate it with manipulatives. They love this activity! The teacher does have to practice a little to make the reveal of ti-ti cups smooth, without cups or cup parts falling all over the place! My 1st graders are always impressed though- even if half a cup gets stuck... If you do not want to deal with actually cutting some cups in half, I am sure a thick black line drawn down the center of the cup would work just as well. This would be less parts that could fall on the floor- though the kids are always super impressed when I slice the cup in half without scissors :) CUP RHYTHM/ MELODY WRITING You can also have the younger students write out their own rhythms or the rhythm of a song using cups as well. Use big beat strips with hearts for each beat and then have students use BIG cups for quarter notes and smaller cups in a different color for beamed eighth notes. I have also seen using clear cups for rests. This idea I found on pinterest so check out the original pin HERE. Rhythm writing can be done in a different way as well- by writing 1 beat patterns on the edges of foam cups and then having students spin the cups until they find the pattern they want (great for dictation too!) and then writing in on a worksheet. You could also having staff cups with the musical alphabet written on the edges of the cups and they spin the cups to write a song. Take it up a notch by combining the two. This also comes from pinterest so check out the orginal pin HERE.  CUP CIRCLE PASSING GAMES As for cup passing games, I start but just teaching the typical pattern I learned at camp when I was 10 (and is the same pattern from the Pitch Perfect Movie). Once the Pattern is learned on it's own I add it to I've Been to Harlem (AKA Turn the Glasses Over)so students can practice it continuously. When we are good we get fast and faster and students who mess up move to another circle so we can see who can do it the fastest and longest without making a mistake! I also use it with Kodaly's Viennese Musical Clock. We do the cup pattern in a big circle on the A section and then students lead non-locomotor movements to the beat on the B, C, D, etc. to show the Rondo form. When teaching the pattern I use the following phrases to keep my students on track, but I have seen it a few ways in various resources such as Game Plan so use what works for you and your students! Phrases are in 4 beat patterns (beats are separated by a comma). After the 1st phrase, all actions happen on the beat- even if I say more syllables. I have indicated a pause with a z to show the rest. Clap, Clap, Tap-Tap, Tap Clap, Move-It, Over, z Clap, pick-it-up, hit-your-left-hand, down Switch, Tap, Pass, z I hand out the following half-sheet so students can practice at home- one side is just the words above and the other side (shown) explains each move in more detail. 3 other cup passing games I love are: la ti do ti do ti la, Chevaliers de la table ronde, and Ludaim One changes directions every other line or at cue of the teacher, one has changing meter (3/4 vs 4/4) and one has 2 cups (and a tricky time signature 8/8 broken down as 3/8+3/8+2/8). ALL are super fun and challenging! I have made videos of myself demonstrating the patterns for 2 of the games- slowing down and explaining each step. They are slightly awkward because I am by myself BUT hopefully they will help you figure out exactly what the directions below mean (as I know written directions can be confusing). I hope to be able update this post in the future with videos of student hands playing! 1: la ti do ti do ti la-This melody is really familiar to me but I can't place it. For this game, the ultimate goal is to change directions at every line OR at the cue of the teacher. Directions: Most beats have an action on the first half of the beat and the 2nd. These actions have been separated by a slash. Beat 1: Tap the floor to the right of the cup with your right hand (RH)/ Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your left hand (LH) Beat 2: Clap/ Tap the floor to the right of the cup with your RH Beat 3: Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your LH/ Pick up the cup with your RH Beat 4: Pass the cup to the person on your right, being sure to place it all the way in front of them. Once your students have mastered the above pattern- reverse it to be as follows: Beat 1: Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your LH/ Tap the floor to the right of the cup with your RH Beat 2: Clap/ Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your LH Beat 3: Tap the floor to the left of the cup with your RH/ Pick up the cup with your LH Beat 4: Pass the cup to the person on your left. Eventually students should switch every other line of music for a fun challenge.. A Super Challenge is to have the students switch at the signal of the teacher. The video shows how to do the motions both ways slow-mo style. 2: Chevaliers de la table ronde- This one has changing meter AND you can change directions for a challenge! Super fun and it has a beautiful melody! Translation: Knights of the Round Table taste to see if the wine is good. Taste see- yes yes yes. Taste see- no no no. (I usually just say this is about the knights of the round table when asked!) This first video is a YOUtube video of men singing the song on a street in France. Directions: When there are 3 beats in a bar the cup is passed as follows: Beat 1: Pass in front to the person on the right Beat 2: Clap Beat 3: Pick up new cup (passed from person to your left) When there are 4 beats in a bar the cup is passed as follows: Beat 1: Pass in front to the person on the right Beats 2 + 3: Tap the rhythm ti-ti Ta on the cup Beat 4: Pick up new cup (passed from the person on your left) Challenge! When the melody repeats, change directions! There is no slow-mo video for this one because the motions are fairly self explanatory but I do hope to upload one of my students singing and playing the game soon, as they are learning it right now! This is one the teacher has to practice before teaching A LOT to be sure they are changing at the right time. A tip is you are tapping "Ti-ti ta" in the 4/4 measures when you are singing "oui oui oui" or "non non non" so the words fit the movements really well at those parts. I prep this game by having students first just read the rhythm and show the changing meter by hitting the floor on beat one of a measure and then clapping the other beats. Next we do basically the same pattern as the ultimate game, but on their laps before putting cups in their hand. When it says pass students would tap the floor to their right and when it says pick up new cup students tap the floor to their left. A clap is still a clap and when they would normally tap ti-ti ta on their cup, we tap our legs. Only once most of them have mastered this action do we add the actual cups in a circle- and even then, it still takes a few weeks for some to master but it is still super fun! 3: LUDAIM- This is the one with the funky meter AND 2 cups! Super fun! Translation: Geese, Geese. There were twelve. All of the twelve were white. (Note: this comes from google translate so it could be a little off, but I think I got the basic meaning). Directions: Hint- start with cups of two DIFFERENT colors (ex. everyone has a red cup in their left hand and a blue in their right), because you always keep the cup that starts in your left hand! This way you can tell if you are on track when the patterns always alternates colors. If you have two cups of the same color next to each other, something is wrong! 1st Eighth note: Pass cup in right hand to the person on your right while simultaneously passing the cup in your left hand to your own right hand. 2nd eighth note: Clap 3rd and 4th eighth notes: Clap the rhythm ti-ka ti (ti-ri ti) on the cups (Right-Left Right) 5th eighth note: Click (Snap) Fingers (this is always on the 2nd half of a quarter note in the melody so be sure to snap BEFORE you sing the next word!) 6th eighth note: Pick up both cups 7th eighth note: Cross hands and set cups down (cups switch places so cup that WAS in your right hand is now on the left and cup that WAS on the left is now on the right) 8th eighth note: Pick up cups to begin again! This one I start right away with cups (after knowing the melody and words of the song of course!) The visual of having the two colored cups really helps in figuring this one out. Of course we start slow, and without singing at the same time. They are always so excited when they get this one! I think this year I may make a recording of the students singing the song after they have learned it so that they can then play the game to the recording and sing along when they are ready. Update: I attended a workshop this summer (July 2015) and we used these same motions with the song Land of the Silver Birch. It worked really well and I can't wait to use it in my classroom. My students learned Silver Birch last year so we will be starting the year off right- with a cup game! The video just shows a slow breakdown of the movement so you can kind of get a visual. It is not as hard as it seems! I learned all 3 of the trickier CUP games in Hungary last year from Lucinda Geoghegan during her Singing Games Class and they are great for upper grades. All are challenging enough to motivate kids, but not so difficult that students will give up easily. I had a lot of fun learning them all! In addition to playing cup games, I love to share the HARVARD CUPS! Videos. 2009 is my favorite, but the Harvard Percussion Ensemble THUD makes a CUPS! video every year. Check them out on Youtube! I also just saw this other great CUPS video that uses the traditional cup pattern to accompany Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Super Cool! I may have my older students make up their own CUP passing patterns to a given song this year- It would be a great activity for a sub. Rhythms we use in class would be a must in their pattern, but other than that they would have creative freedom! Since it is currently winter (though I know... Christmas is past...), I have one more fun activity to share which I found via pinterest. This is a great Nutcracker Cup game made by Eric L. Young. So fun! My students loved this activity- and making up their own cup movements to other Nutcracker songs this year! Share your favorite cup game or way you incorporate cups into your classroom below! Do you use them for listening like with the Viennese Musical Clock by Kodaly or Trepak activity from the Nutcracker? Do you use them to practice steady beat/ rhythm/ mixed meter?

Here's a fun way to engage student's with Holiday themed vocabulary using our Codebreakers decoding worksheet. Use the number key to create words. Thanks For Stopping By We're always trying to bring brand new teaching worksheets to supplement instruction. If there is a teaching page you’d like to see, send us an email right here.

I love this time of year in my classroom because it signals the beginning of a delightful string of holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! The music of Halloween is especially fun̷…

Song Index

Next time you are heading off on holiday, remember to print off and pack some of our FREE Printable Travel Games to keep your little ones entertained! Mini Holiday Diary What holiday is complete without a souvenir of your travels? With this Mini Holiday Diary children can draw a small picture and jot down a ... Read more

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! I know a lot of you are still in school so here's a fun song to use with your 1st graders . .. . and 2nd graders! I found it in Holidays and Special Days by Grace Nash and Janice Rapley during my college practicum classes and have used it every year. The kids eat it up! Here's the song: Now, this is NOT a folk song. But over the years I've accidentally changed the melody. Here's the way I sing it with my kiddos (and we sing it with swung eighth notes): I use this to aurally identify/reinforce quarter rests with my 1st graders. Other than that, we use it for expression and FUN. Here's the game: Formation: circle, with one student (the "farmer") on the outside of the circle and 2-3 turkeys in the middle. Action: as the song is sung, the farmer walks around the outside of the circle while the turkeys trot around the middle of the circle. At the end of the song the farmer chases the turkeys. Depending on where your students are in your movement sequence, you can have the students in the circle walk the beat while the song is sung with their arms acting as a fence. At the end, the students can choose to make their joined arms gates or leave their section of the fence closed. You can also add instruments. In Holidays and Special Days there are more elaborate Orff parts. I simplified it so my 1st and 2nd graders can play is successfully and independently. Here are a couple of my 1st graders playing it this year. It's a lot of fun and it's great to get some of those pre-holiday wiggles out: Liza Meyer's wrote a post that included this song a couple years ago. She notates it as la,-do at the beginning but my source uses so-mi. You can read her post by clicking here. This post also has a fun Thanksgiving song to the tune of Zum Gali Gali- it's a must do! Your older kiddos with LOVE it! Have a GREAT week everyone!

Boggle is such a great game for pattern recognition and spelling. You can even get a little math in there with the scoring. Kids (and adults) love it! Here is a template you can use with your class. The color version is for using with your document camera, while the grayscale version is perfect for ... Read More about Boggle Template: Make a New Game Each Time!

This has become one of my ALL-TIME favorite songs for Thanksgiving. It's great for right before break because the kids LOVE the game but it's also great for do-re-mi-so intervallic practice. In my Portland State University Kodály levels and in some of the SWOKE (Southern Washington and Oregon Kodály Educators) workshops we browsed each others collections and exchanged songs. So, this in one of the gems that I got from Melissa Roth (who's now teaching in Texas). Here's the song: Here's the game: Formation: students seated in a circle on in rows. Action: one student goes into the hallway and can't see into the classroom. The teacher or a chosen student hides a "turkey" somewhere in the room. The only condition is that part of the turkey has to be still visible to all the students in the class. (I have a fun stuffed turkey that we hide but there have been times when that turkey has "gone missing" and I've used a die cute of a turkey.) Once the turkey is hidden, the student comes back in the room and the turkey hunt begins. The hunter has the class helping them, as they sing the song more quietly as the hunter gets closer to the hidden turkey and louder when the hunter moves away from the turkey. As a warm up, I've made this turkey tone ladders. I will sing a solfége pattern and the class (or individual, if you'd like to use it an assessment) echos back while pointed to the appropriate solfa. Depending on the stage of practice that your student are in you can also sing patterns on neutral syllables, such as "loo" and have then echo back in solfége. For an extension activity, I have created a stick-to-staff game. The students work in groups of 2-3 and each group has a set of the following cards that are cut so that there is one turkey on a card. They must match the stick notation to the staff notation and put the song in order. Generally, they will put the turkeys with the stick notation in one row (in the order of the song) and the turkeys with the staff notation in a row below it (with the corresponding staff-notation turkey below the stick-notation turkey). This song and many more are included in my Songs for Thanksgiving set: I just visited my good friend, Tanya LeJeune's blog, and she too posted about this song! It's really a gem. For more great ideas and for a different singing game, check out her post by clicking here. I'll be posting some more Turkey ideas this week! In the meantime, have a GREAT Monday!

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Fun and engaging ESL activities, games and worksheets in printable PDF format with full teacher's notes and answers for English teachers to use in class.

I love this time of year in my classroom because it signals the beginning of a delightful string of holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! The music of Halloween is especially fun̷…

It’s that time of year when our lives are busy and we just want our studios to keep ticking without added pressure. Looking at my calendar I realize I only have 3 weeks of lessons before our …

The popular idea used on the summer holidays. Use the ws as a starter with your students when they return from their holidays. Talk about their replies! - ESL worksheets

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In this blog post, you will find 10 free ideas for teaching about integers in your classroom. You will find lessons, songs and games. You will also find printable resources from our store, as well as some fun Amazon integer games. 1. This video helps explain integers to students: What is an Integer? PBS Math Club 2. Integer Addition and Subtraction Music Video - This is a kid favorite as they may even sing along! 3. Adding and Subtracting Integers Video Lesson Plus Free Printable Worksheets 4. Quotient Product Signs Music Video - Integers Multiplication and Division 5. Comparing Integers Game of War 6. Math Integers Game - This could be done for addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. 7. Bike Racing Math Integers Video Game Directions - Click HERE to play the game online. 8. Scholastic Integer Football Game - Click HERE for free download and directions. 9. Integers Task Cards - Have a scavenger hunt or play a game of SCOOT. 10. Math Domain - Pre-Algebra App - Free Download ----------------------------------- Click HERE to see lots more printable integer resources in our store. ----------------------------------- Integers on a Number Line Task Cards ----------------------------------- Real World Integers Task Cards ----------------------------------- Adding Integers Task Cards Click HERE for Subtracting Integers Task Cards ----------------------------------- Multiplying Integers Task Cards Click HERE for Dividing Integers Task Cards ----------------------------------- Integers Interactive Math Notebook ----------------------------------- You may also like these resources from our Amazon Associate store: Conceptual BINGO - Integers ----------------------------------- Integers Clear Tumble 'N Teach Math Cube ----------------------------------- 24 Game: Integers ----------------------------------- Integers Multiplication and Division BINGO ------------------------- -------------------------------------- Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find valuable resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!

It is funny, the day after Halloween we suddenly transform our wicked witches and leering Jack-o'-Lanterns into stalks ...

Want to help your kids learn about gratitude? Play the gratitude game with them. It's a fun game that the whole family will enjoy!

Are you looking for a fun and engaging activity to study the Gunpowder Plot on Bonfire Night? Organize an escape game in minutes and have your students crack the code to prevent Guy Fawkes from escaping! Your Bonfire Night Escape Game in detail: This Escape Game is a complete game set to have your students learn about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot while solving puzzles in teams. ☞ Content ❑ Teachers' Notes ❑ Mission letter ❑ Fast Facts Article ❑ 5 puzzles to solve ❑ 5 clues to gather ❑ 1 final code to crack ❑ Answer key for every activity ❑ B&W version also included How to use this resource: A detailed teacher's notes sheet together with the answer key for every puzzle is included in the packet. This will work for about 45 minutes for teams of about 4 students. This activity is great for team building too! You will not need to study Guy Fawkes' story prior to this activity as everything is included! Important Notice: These documents are not editable. Some short preparation is expected from you: you'll have to print out the documents and prepare them for each team. Other teachers also liked: • Escape Game Thanskgiving • Escape Game Crown Jewels Before purchasing: Please download the preview to get a detailed overview. ✉ How to contact me: @ Blog @ Facebook Page @ Pinterest @ Instagram Don't forget to follow me and leave feedback! I'm always happy to read your comments and share ideas with you! Plus you can earn credits for future purchases. Terms of Use and Copyright Policy: See my Terms of Use to know how you may or may not use this before purchasing.

One of my favorite songs for Spring/Easter is "Old Mr. Rabbit". I've taught it many time to younger students (kinder/first), but this year I decided to incorporate it into my recorder lessons for my older students (3rd/4th) following a similar format they've already been using. I created this PowerPoint, Old Mr. Rabbit, to aide in teaching the song. I've stuffed it full of vocabulary because I'm really working on this with my 1st graders (I discuss it with kinder and my older students already know it). The PowerPoint includes notes and tips in the notes section. Sometimes, I need to review them myself to make sure I'm addressing everything I want to! The PowerPoint begins with a lyric slide. Students love creating motions for the lyrics, and I've created my own just in case. Then, we add the steady beat and time signature/bar lines/double bar lines. Students like to play "whack the screen" - which is basically them taking one of my pointers and pointing to the thing (for example, "time signature") that I'm asking them to locate. When discussing measures and bar lines, I used the analogy of my instrument shelves. If we didn't have individual shelves, the instruments would be very unorganized. In music, the wooden shelf dividers are the bar lines and the shelves themselves are measures. The time signature tells the measures how many beats to contain. Here's an example of the rhythmic preparation slide. As soon as my students see the steady beat slide, many of them are ready to tell me what rhythms will go where. This slide helps struggling students see what advanced ones can already tell from the way I've grouped the words alone. I like to have students come up and "whack the staff" to show me which pictures they think will "transform" into, say, the quarter note, on the next slide. This is the rhythm slide. I like to have students chant the lyrics while pointing, then chant the lyrics while using body percussion. Then, they keep performing the body percussion while they say the words. I've noticed (as my husband pointed out with some 3rd graders in their recent Cowboy Program), that when I do transfer students to percussion instruments, most of them will continue to sing the song while playing the instrument. With recorder players, we add more steps. We sing the rhythm on "doo" while tapping our recorder mouthpiece (simulating the movement of the tongue when playing). This is great for me to assess who "gets it" and who needs help. Tonguing can be a difficult concept for beginning recorder players, so this steps helps them kin esthetically (moving the finger), aurally (singing "doo"), and visually (watching their finger move). Then, they play the rhythms on "doo". I often select students to play alone because this helps me assess them, helps the student who is playing gain confidence, offers more advanced listeners the opportunity to identify and fix problems/mistakes, and offers less advanced students the opportunity to follow along and silently practice themselves. It is a win-win-win-win (can you tell we're getting into the 7 Habits?). The PowerPoint includes a solfa slide (for the older students). I have the students discuss the pitches (who is highest, who is lowest), sing on solfa with hand-signs, sing the song on the lyrics while using hand-signs, then sing the song with movements they've created. This is an example of the absolute pitch slide (for older students). We discuss what absolute pitches are (at the top of the screen) then review the pitches we will use (at the left of the screen - including these really helps struggling students gain enough confidence to play along). We sing the song on the pitches while moving our fingers. We sing the song on "doo" while moving our fingers. I demonstrate the song. Students play the song (many times). I choose "Recorder Senseis" (see this post: Recorder Group Jobs) to play the piece alone and "Recorder Doctors" to diagnose the mistakes of the senseis and the class. Then, we sing the song again, this time using the music staff. Then, we play the song using the music staff (the advanced students love this step - they love reading "real music" - but you can easily refer to the previous slides for struggling students). We also play "whack the screen" again - pointing out specific solfa and absolute pitches, the time signature, bar lines, measures, the double barline, etc. By now, almost 1/3 to 1/2 of the class has go to "whack the screen". I swear, the longer I teach, the more questions I ask! This PowerPoint will probably take us at least two class-times to get through! Of course, I am big into printables. I like to use these on subsequent lessons to assess my students' progress. Here's an example of a printable: Younger students can match the lyrics printable to the rhythm printable. I'll have the students turn over their answers and perform from memory (they love it), I'll give them an instrument to play the rhythms on, and I'll even have them turn all the cards face-down and play a matching game. Here's a movement activity I've used in the past. It is really simple, but the younger students love it and erupt into laughter anytime a naughty rabbit is caught. This song also pairs very well with Bunny Bop. Although I geared "Bunny Bop" toward younger students, I played the game with my choir (3rd-5th graders) at the end of one of our rehearsals. They LOVED it.

Show, Don't Tell: A Writing Minilesson! This blog post focuses on teaching students to write showing sentences instead of telling sentences. It includes an anchor chart and a FREE Bingo game!

Rebuses are a picture style puzzle. Words are represented by a series of pictures with letters being added or subtracted. I like to write them so that they exactly spell out the words being depicted. This helps encourage good spelling habits and makes it clear what words are being referred to. Many of the rebuses I make are holiday themed!

Fun and engaging ESL activities, games and worksheets in printable PDF format with full teacher's notes and answers for English teachers to use in class.

I have posted before about the end of the school year and how I sing camp songs with my kiddos. They love it and can't wait for the end of April to start singing these crazy, silly, hysterical songs! It has become a much anticipated tradition! Here are a few I recently learned and my students love! 1. Alligator This is serious fun here, folks! Dramatize the first call and response part and then really let loose with the craziness on the "alligator" chorus part. You can see it in action on the youtube video below the music. 2. Big Camp Mambo I love (almost) anything with syncopation and this one has it in spades! 3. Boom Chicka Boom This is the first one I always teach them and I can't tell you how much they LOVE it. The sillier you are, the more they will love it! We start with the traditional while performing a patsch, clap pattern, then we do their favorite "styles": Girly style (high voice, pretend to fix hair, put makeup on, fan your face, etc.) Muscle Man (make bodybuilding gestures and use "Arnold" voice.. y'know what I mean!) Underwater (speak the chant and move pointer finger up and and down on lips very fast) Baby Style (a goo goo ga goo goo ga... high baby voice) Barnyard Style (I said a moo chicka moo... I said a milk chicka moo, chicka milk, chicka moo) Surfer Dude (I said a dude chicka dude.. I said a whoa, chicka, narly, chicka wave, chicka dude) Opera Style (use your imagination) Grandpa Style (use your imagination, yes, again) Parent Style (I said a room, go to your room... I said a room, go to your room, don't come out until next June) Star Wars Style (OH, they LOVE this one and I always end with it! I said a zzzzt chicka zzzzt... I said a Luke I am your Father, join the dark side chicka doom.. end with "Jedi" instead of "uh huh" and "Dark Side" instead of "oh yeah" and then I end with "The Force Be With You". WINNER!!!

Elf Express is a Standards-based Cooperation Game that is great for Elementary level PE programs. It focuses on Communication, Teamwork, and Planning.

I have quite a few kids on my caseload that understand what they *should* do in problem solving. In fact, they often can solve a problem in theory, but they struggle in reality with being flexible in their problem solving. They tend to see things in black and white- their way or everything is ruined. This rigid thinking can be difficult when forming and maintaining relationships with peers and family members. The holidays are a time when rigid thinking becomes very difficult. Schedules are less predictable, the number of social interactions tends to increase, and novel situations may pop up. In preparation for the upcoming holidays, I developed a tool to help teach flexible thinking. As you can see above, I start with information about rigid vs. flexible thinking. I then give some examples of what flexible thinking might look like: Then there are 16 situation cards that deal with things like getting a gift you don't like, not getting what you wanted, handling changes to the schedule,and other situations that might be disappointing/result in rigid thinking. After each scenario, you can ask the students how they can change the thought to be more flexible. If you are interested, this is for sale at my TpT store. The super cute clipart was created by Jeanette Baker of Jason's Online Classroom. Do you have any tips for teaching Flexible Thinking? I know the Superflex Curriculum has some pretty great stuff, unfortunately, our department's budget this year went to updating our testing materials, so it is a dream for another year for me.

Charades is such a fun and easy game to play with your family. Plus, it requires very little materials and setup. Play it by the campfire, in the living room, or at a party. Here is a list of 50+ charades ideas and words that people of all ages

Use these folding puzzles to help teach about repentance.

The Wee Little Scare | Free Sheet Music Orff Orchestration - Visit MakingMusicFun.net for more free and premium sheet music, music lesson plans, and great composer resources.

The parable of the wise and foolish builders has many practical applications kids can easily understand, and lots of fun activities to do with it.

Rhythm in the Grid is a two page visual to show how to count eighth and sixteenth notes.

A ws to be used at the end of the school year. It give your students an opportunity to review the school year they have just finished. Ws is fully editable. - ESL worksheets

Looking for a French vocabulary game to get your students practicing seasonal words? They'll work hard on their holiday words with the Roll and Read game!