Blog Posts

Music Olympics

Denise Gagne

Celebrate the start of the Sochi Winter Olympics by having a Music Olympics in your classroom! Teach students a folk dance or singing game from one of the countries competing in the Olympics.

Germany - Kinderpolka Primary Dances and Singing Games
Mexico - La Raspa Primary Dances and Singing Games
France - Frere Jacques Singing Games Children Love Vol. 2
Canada - Un Deux Trois Singing Games Children Love Vol. 2
New Zealand - E Papa or Ma Ku Ay Singing Games Vol 3 or 4
Japan-Kagome Singing Games Vol 3

Floor Staff Relay Races

Use painter’s tape to put a giant staff on the floor. Painter’s tape won’t hurt the carpet and will last for a week or two until you’ve taught the staff games to all your students. If you have funding available, you can purchase a music rug to go on the floor that has a staff built into it. Additional staff games are given in the publication “Staff and Symbol Games”, available here. Divide the class into 2-5 teams. On small paper plates write a letter name of a note - A B C D E F G. Each team is given a pile of notes. Teams race to place their notes on the correct line or space of the floor staff. The first team finished with ALL notes correctly placed wins.

Paper Plate Skates

Create a routine for paper plate skates. Emperor Waltz in the Listening Kit 3 would be perfect for this! It’s 2:30 long, so a good length for this activity. You can look up a list of music used in 2012-13 by some of the world’s best figure skaters at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2012%E2%80%9313_figure_skating_season_music . One selection is Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven - you can find this in the Listening Resource Kit Level 3. Another selection used was In the Hall of a Mountain King. This is found in the Listening Fun book/CD.

Musical Words Challenge

Give every student a blank piece of manuscript paper and have them write as many music words as they could think of, then notate them on the staff.

Musical Words Challenge Sheet

Russian Composer Facts

Use the biography of Tchaikovsky in the Listening Kit Level 3 or Dan Fee's collection, MORE Listening Fun! Create a set of questions - whoever gets the most right, gets the gold medal. There are great listening activities to do after you award the medal.

Questions:

Who was the most famous Russian composer ever? (Tchaikovsky)
Was his family rich or poor? (rich)
Did he study music first or did he study to become a clerk? (clerk)
What conservatory hired Tchaikovsky to teach harmony? (Moscow)
Did Tchaikovsky have a happy life? (no)

Listening Kit 4 - do ribbons to Trepak

Listening Kit 3 - Play along to the Overture from the Nutcracker

More Listening Fun - a GREAT paper plate activity to Swan lake.

Special - Piano Accompaniments!

Do you like to have your students perform with a piano accompaniment instead of CD tracks? Piano accompaniments are available for all grade levels of Musicplay.

Share your Olympics ideas and your written tools on the Musicplay Facebook teachers group. Anyone in the group can post files. https://www.facebook.com/groups/MusicplayTeachers/