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 ......

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......

Hi everyone! I'm excited to continue my new linky party today, called "Three things." I'm going to blog about three things that worked really well for my students this past week...things that were magical, that they beg to do again, etc. Thanks to  Whimsy Workshop Teaching ,  Kimberly Geswein fonts , and  Jax and Jake  for the cute clip art and fonts! #1: Kindergarten instrument activity Two weeks ago, I read the book "Three Billy Goats Gruff" to my Kindergarteners, and had students use their squeaky/high speaking voice to say "trip trap, trip trap" for the little billy goat gruff, their speaking voice for the middle billy goat gruff, and their grumbly/ low speaking voice for the great big billy goat gruff and for the troll. This was a great way to explore their voices while reading a well known story! Here is the book I used, but there are many different versions out there! Then, this past week, I reviewed the story with the students, then had som......

Hi everyone! I'm excited to continue my new linky party today, called "Three things." I'm going to blog about three things that worked really well for my students this past week...things that were magical, that they beg to do again, etc. Thanks to  Whimsy Workshop Teaching ,  Kimberly Geswein fonts , and  Jax and Jake  for the cute clip art and fonts! #1: Kindergarten instrument activity Two weeks ago, I read the book "Three Billy Goats Gruff" to my Kindergarteners, and had students use their squeaky/high speaking voice to say "trip trap, trip trap" for the little billy goat gruff, their speaking voice for the middle billy goat gruff, and their grumbly/ low speaking voice for the great big billy goat gruff and for the troll. This was a great way to explore their voices while reading a well known story! Here is the book I used, but there are many different versions out there! Then, this past week, I reviewed the story with the students, then had som......

This past month, as my fifth graders were learning tim-ka, or dotted eighth/sixteenth, I started going through my resources to see how I might best practice this rhythm with them. It's been many years since I've taught this concept--as I've not had students long enough to get to the rhythm--so I was excited to see what I could find in my resources! I found this resource which I admit I've heard great things about but just haven't used very much! Click on the picture to see the book at West Music. If you are an Orff-trained teacher, you likely have a well-worn version on your bookshelf. Although I've had some Orff experiences, I do not have training....but I know that good teaching is good teaching, and Orff can complement Kodaly-inspired teaching very well! So I thought I'd write how I used this book to practice tim-ka, explore body percussion, and begin to learn a piece on instruments.  Two disclaimers: first, because this is a copyrighted resource, I canno......

This past month, as my fifth graders were learning tim-ka, or dotted eighth/sixteenth, I started going through my resources to see how I might best practice this rhythm with them. It's been many years since I've taught this concept--as I've not had students long enough to get to the rhythm--so I was excited to see what I could find in my resources! I found this resource which I admit I've heard great things about but just haven't used very much! Click on the picture to see the book at West Music. If you are an Orff-trained teacher, you likely have a well-worn version on your bookshelf. Although I've had some Orff experiences, I do not have training....but I know that good teaching is good teaching, and Orff can complement Kodaly-inspired teaching very well! So I thought I'd write how I used this book to practice tim-ka, explore body percussion, and begin to learn a piece on instruments.  Two disclaimers: first, because this is a copyrighted resource, I canno......

As a musician in jazz band all throughout high school and jazz band, I struggled with improvisation. As a teacher, I always jump at the chance to hone improvisational skills with my students. When I received a Martha Holden Jennings grant in 2004, entitled "Musical Creativity, Improvisation, and Composition," I searched for literature and methods to achieve improvement in those areas. I've found that working on improvisation is actually quite accessible and non-threatening, by providing students with the right tools, where no "wrong answer" exists. The following list contains some of the activities I used with my students.  Rhythm Card improvisation:  After reading through rhythm cards with the new rhythm, I have students go to the barred instruments set up in C, F, or G pentatonic (taking down the bars not needed). First, they say the pattern from the card, then they play it, using whatever pentatonic notes they choose. It actually sounds quite beautiful, and i......