Hi everyone! It is time for my five favorite pins of June! If you are a teacher blogger, feel free to join the party! Directions are at the end of the post. Here are my five favorite pins this month. To see the pin, click each picture. #1: So you have a Twitter account, now what? Twitter can be a bit confusing...I remember when I first signed up for an account, I was a bit puzzled where to start. This blog post has some great suggestions for getting started! (And see this blog post for more tips!) #2: Student Center This pin led to a blog post with lots of great classroom setup ideas, but the picture in the pin is the one which got my attention. I LOVE the idea of having one place in the room where students can hand in work, get work, get pencils, etc. Right now, I have an area that is kind of spread out, so I am going to think about how to implement one central location in my music room! #3: Flexible Seating I am hoping to do some flexible seating in my classroom this year, in which ......

Hi everyone! It is time for my five favorite pins of June! If you are a teacher blogger, feel free to join the party! Directions are at the end of the post. Here are my five favorite pins this month. To see the pin, click each picture. #1: So you have a Twitter account, now what? Twitter can be a bit confusing...I remember when I first signed up for an account, I was a bit puzzled where to start. This blog post has some great suggestions for getting started! (And see this blog post for more tips!) #2: Student Center This pin led to a blog post with lots of great classroom setup ideas, but the picture in the pin is the one which got my attention. I LOVE the idea of having one place in the room where students can hand in work, get work, get pencils, etc. Right now, I have an area that is kind of spread out, so I am going to think about how to implement one central location in my music room! #3: Flexible Seating I am hoping to do some flexible seating in my classroom this year, in which ......

Hi everyone! It is time for my five favorite pins of April! If you are a teacher blogger, feel free to join the party! Directions are at the end of the post. Here are my five favorite pins this month. To see the pin, click each picture. #1: Kids' Books That Teach Important Life Lessons This looks like a great list of picture books. Next year, my school's theme is "Bee Yourself," so I'm thinking I could take some of these books and create programs around them! (For more ideas about programs based off of children's literature, see these blog posts .) #2: Tissue box rhythms I've seen this blog post by Amy Abbott before, but this pin was a great reminder to actually try it out! I think this could be an AWESOME way to reinforce rhythmic concepts for students who are kinesthetic learners (and think it might be cool to try putting two tissue boxes together to make a half note!) I hope I remember to try making these this summer! #3: How to do Boom Snap Clap I'......

Hi everyone! It is time for my five favorite pins of April! If you are a teacher blogger, feel free to join the party! Directions are at the end of the post. Here are my five favorite pins this month. To see the pin, click each picture. #1: Kids' Books That Teach Important Life Lessons This looks like a great list of picture books. Next year, my school's theme is "Bee Yourself," so I'm thinking I could take some of these books and create programs around them! (For more ideas about programs based off of children's literature, see these blog posts .) #2: Tissue box rhythms I've seen this blog post by Amy Abbott before, but this pin was a great reminder to actually try it out! I think this could be an AWESOME way to reinforce rhythmic concepts for students who are kinesthetic learners (and think it might be cool to try putting two tissue boxes together to make a half note!) I hope I remember to try making these this summer! #3: How to do Boom Snap Clap I'......

Hope you have had a wonderful February! Since it is February, I am posting my five favorite pins of this month. Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin. #1: Bucket Drumming 101 This helpful blog post has some great suggestions for starting bucket drumming! I'm about to do a bit of it with my 4th graders, so I appreciated reading this! #2: Orff Orffestrations This pin leads to 15 FREE Orff arrangements! Woo hoo! I'd love to try "Tideo" soon; the arrangement looks accessible and fun! #3: Tips and Tricks from Level II I have not taken my Orff levels yet (although I would love to!) so I loved reading about someone else's experience. This blog post has some great ideas gathered from the author's level II, including how to teach the difference between low and high on Orff instruments! #4: Stomp Unit This pin leads to a blog post about a Stomp Unit...and it includes a free worksheet to help your small g......

Hope you have had a wonderful start to your year! Since it is January, I am posting my five favorite pins of this month. If you are a blogger, feel free to join the linky party by following the directions at the end of this post. Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin. #1: Snowman melodic activity I love this idea of breaking down a song into its parts: lyrics, rhythm, and melody! I've been trying to break down songs like this with my students, but I love this visual! #2: Teaching Music Backwards This is a really interesting article about teaching music history backwards, so that you can teach students about a musician's influences, then study those influences, then study the musicians influencing those people, etc. This could be a great way to bring in more relevant and current music, then work backwards to the masters! #3: 8 things to have at your desk This is a great list to take to the store so that you'r......

Hi everyone! Since it's December, here is my five favorite pins linky party! Here are my five favorite pins this month: #1: Stretchy Band activities I just bought a stretchy band from Bear Paw Creek, and am SO excited to use it, so was thrilled to find this pin with some great activities! So far, I've only used it to help students remain in a circle for a circle dance (which did totally help!) so I'm looking forward to using the band in other ways. #2: Christmas version of "Bow Wow Wow" Such a cute way to weave Christmas music into your lessons, using "Bow Wow Wow" as a melody! You can see another version of this on Amy Abbott's Facebook page . #3: All through the night Cool arrangement of "All through the night"! Love seeing kids in action, performing on Orff instruments and recorders! #4: Sleigh Ride Cup Game I am SO excited to use this cup game this week and next to help practice form while listening to a GREAT piece of music!  #5: Comp......

Hi everyone! Since it's November, so here is my five favorite pins linky party! Here is my list for this month; just click each picture to view that pin. Also check the end of the blog post for a fun Pinterest contest! #1: Dalcroze Eurhythmics Exercises I just created a new Dalcroze-inspired board , and was excited to pin this to the board! These exercises could easily be used in the general music classroom as  way for students to internalize beat, improve inner hearing, and more! #2: Composing with stickers I just pinned this to my new board, Composing in the Music Room . What a fun way to have students write on the staff!  #3: Land of the Silver Birch, Canoe Song, and Counter-Melody I have done Land of the Silver Birch and Canoe Song as partner songs, but have never heard this counter-melody with it. Beautiful! #4: Drum Circle Ideas Elizabeth from Organized Chaos wrote a really comprehensive blog post about doing drum circles in your music classroom. SO helpful! #5: In the H......

Hi everyone! Today I'm blogging with my five favorite pins for the month of October! #1: Making phrase lengths physical This video is SO awesome! It shows a beautiful movement activity to "Fur Elise," in which students are paired up and use a tennis ball to show phrasing. I love how focused the students are, and how beautifully they show the phrases! #2: Domino Music Notes This is a really cute idea for having students think about the number of beats in each pattern. They play dominos with rhythm patterns, matching up dominos with other dominos that have the same number of beats. Love it! Could work in centers or as a whole group. #3: Ukulele tips for beginners My husband bought me a ukulele last Christmas and I've been meaning to teach myself how to play. This awesome blog post has tons of tips for the beginning ukulele player! #4: "Let it go" rendition by the Piano Guys My three-year-old is a bit Frozen-obsessed, so I really appreciated this beautiful rend......