This product is the best thing to come down the pike in years! I purchased 3 sets and saw such a significant difference in student comprehension that I wrote a grant proposal for 12 more sets, cushions and magnets. It has reached my kinesthetic learners and grabbed my visual learners. The best investment in my elementary program in years and we are already seeing the benefits in our band program!”
Anna Jo Knight
Abernathy, TX
I love using Note Knacks in my classroom. They are a great visual and reference for the students. They help me do less lecture and allow the students to explore rhythms on their own. They are also a wonderful center tool for an intro to composition!”
Rachel Namain
Klein ISD, TX
Note Knacks give a great visual experience that I can’t give on my chalkboard!”
Alexandra Diaz
Ysleta ISD, TX
I love it! I love it! Getting 5th graders who don’t want to do anything – but they will use these! Note Knacks have brought some new joy to my class and my teaching!”
Josh Bradford
Ft. Worth ISD, TX
We had Kristin present for our teachers a couple of years ago and we have placed Note Knacks in many of our schools. I and our teachers believe the whole concept to be brilliant and we have used them very effectively in teaching notation, rhythmic composition, and the concept of note duration.”
Ken Hudlow
Performing Arts Specialist
Savannah – Chatham County Public Schools, GA
Note Knacks” what an awesome teaching tool! My teachers in Ysleta ISD love to use them! Thank you again!”
Marty Olivas
Instructional Specialist
Ysleta ISD, TX
I just had to tell you that I was able to use your Note Knacks with my students immediately upon my return from the conference and they were a huge hit. I am currently in a guided composition unit with 2nd-5th grade levels and have used the Note Knacks to help students write their rhythms. It was a great success and I am very grateful.”
Gary W. Lenz
Buford City Schools, GA
My students love Note Knacks so much! I can’t keep their hands off of the tiles! They get excited every time I bring them out!”
Stacia Graves
Ft. Worth ISD, TX
Even my students who have special needs are able to compose simple melodies using Note Knacks. They compose using steps, skips and repeats!”
Carrie Delarosa
Del Rio, TX
Note Knacks have been so amazing for my Kindergarten classes! They see the rhythms visually and then they feel the rhythms as we clap, snap and tap them. Plus, they get to manipulate the actual blocks or magnets to create their own rhythms. I cannot get enough of these! Kristin has created something that kids will love to learn with!”
Cathy Ethridge, MMed, RMT-BC
Music Therapist/ Music Teacher
DeKalb County Schools, GA
I have used Note Knacks Cushions with my Pre-K and Kindergarten classes to show the difference between long and short sounds. They just love creating different combinations! This is one of my favorite lessons!”
Chris Drews
Dallas ISD, TX
My Eighth Graders went bananas over Note Knacks! Being able to physically touch music is GENIUS!!!”
Jamie Sheer
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, NC
Kristin Pugliese’s presentation for the Clayton County Elementary Music Teachers during an in-service session was very rewarding for the teachers! Kristin’s approach engaged the music teachers in their learning experience as they focused on the steps to teaching composition. Through the use of Note Knacks, the learners were able to see and experience the length of time for the given note values as they created musical phrases. What a wonderful way to integrate the Arts by teaching math with this experience as well! I would certainly recommend this learning opportunity for other teachers!”
Darlene Guida
Former Lead Elementary Music Teacher
Clayton County Public Schools, GA
State Chair for Music in Our Schools
Georgia Music Educators
National Association of Educators
My kids love Note Knacks! My kinder kids can do sixteenth notes!”
Josh Brockwell
San Antonio, TX
I have used the Note Knack system in my elementary classroom for 5 years and all I can say is ‘WOW!’ As educators we understand that some children learn better aurally and others excel with visual cues. But we can also all agree that a hands-on, tactile experience is the most successful way for a child to learn in the classroom and I am proud to say Note Knacks have given me the outlet to do that!
When using Note Knacks, you will be surprised to see how many more of your students will grasp the concept of rhythm, and even more astonished at the brisk pace your students will learn these concepts. Since I began using the Note Knack system I have seen Kindergarten students compose, read, and play rhythms that I had only seen before in my 2nd grade classes. More impressively, every student in my school now reads rhythms at or above grade level above expectancy.
I can’t thank Kristin Pugliese enough for developing this incredible product. I highly recommend you implement the Note Knack System in your classroom and watch your students flourish!”
Kelly McGovern
Music Teacher
Tomball, TX
Note Knacks are just the tool I’ve been looking for to help my students understand how long each note value is, compared to others. As they slide their finger along the tiles, they get a tactile sense of the difference between a whole note and single sixteenth note. When they look at the tiles, they can see that four sixteenth notes take the same space as one quarter note. They notice the different sizes again when they trace around the tiles transferring their rhythm to paper. The kids enjoy working in small groups, putting rhythms together into longer patterns, adding letters for pitches. And they when they’re finished, they get to play their finished compositions on Boomwhackers, too.
I believe in Note Knacks so much that I’m featuring them in my National Board recertification. Manipulatives give children an extra way to learn. These are visual (size and color), oral (say the color name), tactile (feeling the seams between the tiles), and kinesthetic (sliding a finger along the length of the tile).
Note Knacks are fun and educational. Thanks for making them available to music teachers everywhere.”
Kay Lovingood NBCT EMC/Music
Elementary Music Specialist
Columbia County, Georgia
Note Knacks was just the teaching tool that I needed for my music classroom. I was looking for something like this for a long time. The kids really enjoy using the rhythm blocks in small and cooperative groups, and I’ve immediately used them in my lessons that I already had. Kids need manipulatives that they can hold on to and process. It works extremely well.”
Kim Geter
Dekalb County Schools, GA
I just wanted to let you know that I am LOVING the Note Knacks! I can see already that it is helping the students understand why some things are held for a longer duration of time than others, which is such a strange concept for them. I am using them with Kindergarten and 1st grade right now. The Kinders are not as good at the drawing aspect as a whole but they are doing well “performing” the patterns that I draw or set up with blocks, and the first graders are really taking to it beautifully, and enjoying lining the blocks up to draw their own compositions. Thank you so much for providing those for my classroom!”
Laura Walsh
Music Teacher
Windsor Forest Elementary School, GA
All this week when I poured out my Note Knacks on the floor to set the students up for solving the first measure of an Orff piece we are working on…students excitedly exclaimed ‘Oh, I LOVE these!'”
Thank you!
Mrs. Hunter Y. Britton
Intermediate Music
The Villages Charter Schools, FL
Basically, we begin using Note Knacks immediately in Kindergarten in our Composition Center. I teach with them in whole group instruction for the first month or two. We begin with Lesson 1 (modified a bit to fit my centers) and then they use them on up through 2nd Grade as a visual in their more difficult compositions.
I believe Note Knacks are probably the single most important purchase I’ve made in over 11 years of teaching elementary music. They are so simple, yet revolutionary. The children ‘get’ it almost instantly. In Kindergarten, when they are also supposed to learn color words for their regular classroom teacher, I am reinforcing that in music (cross curricular) and in 2nd Grade when they are learning fractions with their regular teacher, we are able to do the same in music with a very visual tool also translating to music. We love them!
Thanks so much for making them available. I cannot say enough good things about them. My curriculum revolves around them.”
Katie Anderson
Burnt Hickory Elementary School, GA
I gave my 5th graders a rhythm quiz today. There are several MI who are mainstreamed into the class, who left with their shadow to take the quiz verbally (mostly). When the shadow brought the quizzes to me, she told me that they did the quiz in pencil, but insisted on writing their rhythms in colored marker. So I had red notes, terracotta notes, yellow notes, and blue notes to grade. Bottom line, it helped me know their thoughts, because the colors were right, even if the note was drawn incorrectly. THEY UNDERSTAND THE COLOR CODES!!!”
Kay Lovingood NBCT EMC/Music
Elementary Music Specialist
Columbia County, Georgia
I took my Note Knacks to show the 4th and 5th grade teachers the kit and lesson plan book during their math planning meetings yesterday. They thought they were fantastic! They showed me their math manipulatives, which were plastic pieces very similar to the Note Knacks in concept, color, shape, and size. The teachers were very pleased that we were working in this way to increase students’ skill in counting notes and rests in music while increasing their ability to understand and work with fractions. Teamwork is wonderful!
I then took them to show the principal and assistant principal, who were equally pleased with our new product… Thanks again for sharing them with us.”
Terrie Wells
Music Teacher
Western Elementary School, GA
I had to let you know I think the Note Knacks are fabulous. Though the lesson plans are more suited for elementary music I have used them with all ages. I teach at a Performance Learning Center and Equal Opportunity Center middle school and high school levels. I pulled them out the first day back in class after the GMEA conference. My middle school boys are picking up on rhythms faster and can transfer this over to the African drums we playing. My piano students are better understanding how to hold out the half note and the whole note. This hands on visual is great.”
Angela Tates
Music Teacher, GA