A Missed Opportunity Back in college, we actually had a music therapy department and there was a music therapy elective that music education majors could choose to take as part of their course load. I, in my “infinite wisdom,” passed it up in favor of “more important” classes that were
If you’ve never played the game Heads Up, I highly recommend it. It is great for if you are waiting in a long line or even if you just want a party game. The basic idea is that you hold a card (or your mobile phone) up to your head.
The orchestra instruments – everybody teaches them. One of the benchmarks for fourth grade in Florida is to be able to classify orchestra instruments into the correct instrument family, so this activity would be perfect for them. One thing I’ve noticed – especially with my older grades – is that
So Johnny Appleseed’s birthday is on Sept 16th. First grade at my school was doing an apple theme that week and I jumped on board with a song about apples that I made up. Okay, it’s actually a chant, not a song. I know this post is coming AFTER his
I always find that the beginning of the year is just JAM PACKED with stuff I need to teach. Maybe it because I am having to teach procedures on top of content, but I think it is also because we are learning composers AND vocabulary AND instruments of the orchestra.
There is a big wide world of music education out there. Orff, Kodaly, Gordon, ETM, Dalcroze, National Standards, Sunshine State Standards (Florida’s music standards), Marzano, CHAMPS, (suddenly I feel like I’m singing a verse from Billy Joel’s “You Can’t Stop the Fire”). Anyhow, you can see there is SO MUCH to
Last year, I tried something new at my school. I set up a night for parents to come and view music written by their children. I called it a Composer Fair. I had no idea how popular (or not popular) it would be. Turns out it was very successful, and
Here is one of my popular songs I taught on recorder this year. It is Fight Song by Rachel Platten. We recently performed the song as the finale to our Spring Concert. Teaching the Song The beginning of the refrain is pretty easy and shouldn’t require too much work. But
It is getting so close to the end of the year. Most of our big projects and units of learning are pretty much wrapping up at this point. But now what to do? Throw in a movie? Maybe. But here is another activity that I enjoy doing with my students
Have you ever considered doing project based learning in music class? Maybe something like a composer research project? One of the benchmarks that I was struggling to teach well in my classroom was composers. So this year I decided to make the process a little more interactive. I decided I
I am an elementary music teacher, blogger and mom on a mission to make teaching and lesson planning easier for you. When I’m not working, you can find me at home enjoying life with my husband, daughter and two cats.
