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Student Folk Dance: Part 2

by Note Knacks Music

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 […]

Student Folk Dance: Lesson 1

by Note Knacks Music

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. […]

Steady Beat Explorations ~ Part 1

by Note Knacks Music

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.) […]

“The Snowy Day” Exploration Lesson

by Note Knacks Music

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 […]

A Snow Poem with a TALA

by Note Knacks Music

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. […]

Chutes and Ladders Vocal Warm Up

by Note Knacks Music

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 […]

The Idle Time Fix 

by Note Knacks Music

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 […]

“The Mitten” Composition

by Note Knacks Music

…..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! […]

The “Short on Time” Solution For Your Winter Concert

by Note Knacks Music

As I am planning our Winter concert, I am realizing how little time I really have ~ how little time we all have. We need to cover standards, while providing a range of repertoire, while working on the present holiday music (Halloween etc.…), while making it fun…. No problem!! LOL! Solution: Build on what you […]