As you might have guessed, I am in full concert mode getting ready for our end of the year “presentation”, as my colleague and I call it. The second graders have chosen their rhythms, traced and colored them in and have written the symbols on a new sentence strip. We have already spoken about rests, […]
As you would expect, I absolutely love composing with children! The final result is always fantastic, but it is the process that is so fascinating to me. The composition to the right was done by first graders. They chose partners and created a 4/4 measure. We then took their 1 measure composition and decided on […]
When I scroll through the Music Teachers groups on Facebook, there are always posts about how badly students are behaving in their classes. I have certainly seen it, as well ~ we are definitely in the “Entitlement Age”! We have lost a basic respect for each other, as highlighted in how our leaders speak to […]
There are those days when you just want to deviate from your lesson plan or something unexpected happens and you are required to change it! Here is a lesson to keep in your back pocket for a rainy day and to pull out when you need it! Materials: 1 Rhythm Stick 2 Sets of Note Knacks […]
Today I was teaching a violin lesson and we were working on a George Bornoff exercise where one plays the open string 4 times, then the same string with the first finger 4 times, then 4 times with the second and so on until the 4th finger is added. Then one lifts fingers one at […]
This past week I was in TX for their annual music educators conference (If you haven’t been, you should seriously consider going ~ it is AMAZING!!) and I got into a long discussion about music literacy with a colleague. The question became ~ should music literacy be taught in K-2 when we have so little […]
Parents do not always recognize what we do or realize the impact it has on their child’s learning, so I crafted this article for our parents to let them in on what all of us know ~ we build better brains! I share this with you not only as a bit of inspiration…after all, I […]
Last week I spoke about teaching the kids how to learn new rhythms through the steady beat ~ click HERE to read. This week I want to talk a little about beats and length. We don’t really teach this. On a whole, we don’t single out notes and have kids explore counting the beat to […]
I am so excited about a lesson I did with my students last week! In a piece of music that we are working on, there is a particularly difficult rhythm. It is a sixteenth syncopated rhythm, of course, and I was thinking about how to teach it like a professional musician would break it down […]
I love putting my students into small groups! It benefits them in so many ways and it allows me to step back and observe ~ something that we do not get to do very often! It also allows me to connect with students individually as I ask questions about their work or offer assistance when […]