The beginning of the year is full of introducing new things in the music room. This week my first graders are just beginning their introduction to mallet playing and barred instruments. Before we ever touch the barred instruments I always like to have some practice with my little ones on how to hold their mallets… Continue reading Early Mallet Playing
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Final Star
This is post 5 of the Star Unit Series. This unit has been focusing on how your students can create music through rhythm, movement, and melodies all centered around Stars and Outer Space. The final "star in the constellation" is the group project. This culminating project takes everything the students have worked on over the… Continue reading Final Star
Star 4
Stars aren't the only thing up in the sky, there are also PLANETS!! Planets are a great source of rhythmic composition! Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth! In this lesson my students found the rhythms of each of these planets, I made each planet 2 beats long to help create longer phrases for my students.… Continue reading Star 4
Star Unit 3
This is the 3rd part of the Star Unit story, if you would like to catch up check out parts 1 and 2 here: Star Unit Part 1 - Star Unit Part 2 Today focuses on melody identification, writing and playing. Throughout this whole unit I decided to keep my students in F Pentatonic to… Continue reading Star Unit 3
Star Unit…part 2
Part 1 of this unit concentrated on John Kanaka. We moved, sang, changed bass notes, and even did some improvising. Check out the part 1 post here: Star Unit Part 1. For Part 2 we are starting with a familiar tune, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I began by playing this song on my recorder and… Continue reading Star Unit…part 2
Star Unit…Part 1
I have been working on this “unit” in my classroom for many years. Tweaking lessons, adding things, and trying new stuff out. This year I finally felt like I found a set of lessons that clicked with my students and the goals that I set out for them to learn. I have loved doing this… Continue reading Star Unit…Part 1
Starting Out With Student Teachers
Happy New Year! I know many teachers are beginning this new semester with student teachers from local universities. The experience of having a student teacher can be exciting, daunting, and stressful all at the same time. You never know what it is going to be like when handing your classroom over to another person. I… Continue reading Starting Out With Student Teachers
