A simple way to practice steady beat, movement, and musical expression When I was a teacher, I was always looking for new ways to practice the steady beat with my students. And while kids LOVE the Freeze game, even our favorite activities can start to feel a little predictable after a while! So why not […]

For Lesson 2, I was excited to build on what we created in lesson 1 and to add on what we could in the time frame we had (15 minutes). The beauty of this lesson is that you can add as many movements (calls) as the kids would like or as many as you have […]

For many kids our classes are a much-needed break from the regular classroom. With us, they can move around and be creative. They can tap into that part of the brain that let’s them communicate their thoughts and feelings in a different way. This is my very favorite thing about teaching music to young children. […]

Last week I went to the GA music educators conference in Athens. I was lucky enough to hear Dr. Boonshaft speak about our profession and how our job was to make kids curious (I encourage you to check out his work. Here is Part 1 and Part 2 of an interview he did on YouTube.) […]

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is the perfect book to incorporate into a Kindergarten music lesson! Lots of kids know it, it has its own steady beat, and it is a lot of fun!! I have updated it a bit by inserting a TALA (you know how I love my TALAs!!!) and have given an example […]

Happy New Year!! I hope you are having a wonderful start to 2022 (It has to be better, right??). In light of the season, I thought it would be fun to start the Kindergarteners off with a snow theme. I introduced our theme by moving with scarves to the song “Snow” from the movie White […]

Here is a lesson from my “Pushing the Limits” Collection ~ Lesson One 2.0 Although, rests aren’t discussed until Phase 3 of the Note Knacks Curriculum, children will write rests instead of notes when they trace their blocks in Phase 2. This is a perfect opportunity to point out the difference between rests and notes. […]

Happy December!!! Winter concerts are upon us, and the craziness is in full swing! In a time when slide whistles can be an issue, here is my favorite warm up game from 2019. You can have a couple of kids take turns for a quick warm up or let everyone have a turn, if you […]

Thank goodness for a teacher’s bag of tricks!!! Both yesterday and today I had classes that were missing enough kids to cripple our ability to truly practice for our upcoming concert…. but I still had a class to teach. What’s a girl to do? IMPROVISATION WITH AN “A SECTION” AND GAMES!!! The 6th grade is […]

…..another concert possibility…..   Last year, my first graders added sound to “The Napping House” by Audrey Wood. Each child or group of children were assigned a character and played their chosen instrument when that character’s name was mentioned. It was a lot of fun and was a fantastic last-minute addition to a spring concert! […]