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Ready for Recorders? For many teachers, January is when the students in Grade 3, 4, or 5 start learning to play the recorder. While the recorder may seem like a simple instrument, there are many skills needed to be successful. Students must be able to:
Floor Staff games are a great way to teach your students the numbers of the lines and spaces, and the pitch names of notes on the staff. This is music theory without the worksheets!
Bats are an intriguing creature at any time of year. You can use the Bats song as a Halloween lesson - or just as a fun lesson!
What are your expectations for the students coming into your music class? In this newsletter, I’ll share some different sets of classroom rules, and some of the ways that I’ve used to reinforce positive behavior. PDF files of the Music room rules can be found at https://store.musicplay.ca/
Christina Huang, who teaches at Finch P.S. in Toronto sent me the Sing-o Activity to share with teachers in my newsletter. This is a great activity for children in your class to learn about their classmates, and at the same time, learn or review some interesting musical facts. It's also a great activity to do with your choir or band to help build ensemble.
High up in the apple tree climbing I go,
With the sky above me, the earth below.
Each branch is the step of a wonderful stair
Which leads to the town I see shining up there.
One of the very best Mother’s Day tributes that you could do with your students, would be to use the book “Love you Forever” by Robert Munsch.
In Musicplay 5, song #84 is The Ship Titanic. With all the coverage of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, this is a great week to teach the song.
A fun lesson for Thursday/Friday of this week, would be to teach your classes, Find the Easter Basket. This has always been a favorite lesson for me to teach before Easter. It's a great opportunity to review dynamics, including crescendo and decrescendo or diminuendo.
Reading or Rote? If the students are reading rhythms and solfege (or letter names) they should be able to learn the song by reading it. Have them read the rhythms first, using the rhythm names that you use. I use ta and ti-ti, but use whatever system you prefer. If your students have learned solfege, show them the small staff on the upper right hand side of the song to learn which notes are la (l), so (s) and mi (m). Have them sing the song using the solfa notes. Then, sing the song with words. You could teach the song by rote, but your students are learning a valuable skill when you have them learn a new song by reading it. Game Directions: Choose one child to hide the Easter basket and another child to look for it. The child who is going to hunt for the basket leaves the room while the "hider" hides it. When the finder returns, the class sings the song, singing softly when he/she is far away from the basket, and singing louder as he gets closer to the basket. The basket must be hidden in plain sight. The game continues until everyone in the class has had a turn to hide the basket or to find it.If you have a really large class, and kids are getting wiggly waiting for their turn, play the game over two classes. Keep track on your class list of all the students that have had a turn to hide or find the basket. In my classes, the kids get to hide OR find --- not both.
Videos of the song can be found on MusicplayOnline: Find the Easter Basket
If you use the lesson this week with your students, feel free to comment or post questions, pictures of your students or video of your students. Check back to see how the lesson went for other teachers.
For an older class, show them how a simple game song like Tisket a Tasket can be turned into a jazz classic. Search on YouTube for Ella Fitzgerald's version of the song.
Discuss how the Ella Fitzgerald version differs from the game song given here.
Registration for Musicplay Live in Washington, DC; Austin, TX; and Virtual is open!
Check out our latest webinar on activities for April, including Easter and Spring activities AND Bunnies: The Musical!
Listen to our newest podcast on ideas for St. Patrick's Day and Earth Day!
Question: We are about to start recorder with 4th graders. I don't know if we'll do Recorder Karate belt testing. Of course, they will want to, but it was a challenge last year. We have big classes - 33 students - and haven't had consistent, sequential music ed for their school lives. So, how do you handle classroom behavior when someone is belt testing?