What's New in Musicplay with Denise Gagne

Blog Posts, Curriculum, Assessment

Musicplay K-5 Synopsis – What Does Musicplay Teach?

I had an email question from a teacher this week. She needed to give a synopsis of what she teaches in each grade to her principal. She asked if I had a synopsis of what’s taught in Musicplay, and I had never written it in this format. So here’s the synopsis. Of course how much you’re able to teach depends on the time allotted for music, the experiences your students come with, and a myriad of other factors. With Musicplay you treat the teacher’s guide like a menu – choose the song, choose the activities. If you do all the “core” activities, you will complete what’s in the synopsis with your students.

Denise Gagne
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Blog Posts

Differentiated Recorder Instruction

Recorders are one of the best ways to teach students melodic reading. The instrument is inexpensive, simple to produce a sound, and students are very motivated to learn.  (at least at the beginning of the unit) . However, playing recorder requires good fine muscle co-ordination which can be very difficult for some students. This newsletter addresses some of the ways that you can modify recorder instruction for your special needs students.

Denise Gagne
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Blog Posts

Singing Games & so much More!

Singing Games are a rich source of repertoire for our elementary classrooms. In most singing games, a simple melody is repeated many times. It's that repetition of the simple song that helps children to internalize the beat, rhythm, and melodies. Many repetitions will help your students match pitch. Many repetitions help your ESL students to learn the language.

Denise Gagne
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Blog Posts

Fun in a Minor Key

I loved Halloween when I was a kid - maybe even more than my birthday or Christmas. But the world has changed and with our diverse school communities, not all classes and not all schools celebrate Halloween. What I've tried to do in Musicplay is to provide songs that have the "flavor" and "sound" of Halloween without including lyrics about ghosts or witches. Alternate words are provided for other songs. Fun songs in a minor key are inclusive for those kids who celebrate Halloween and those who don't. The Bony Skeletons is a new song in Musicplay PreK (pt 1). It's online at http://musicplayonline.com/ and is available in the Book/CD as well. When I did this with my preK class, it was May, and they loved the song. One of the students suggested being zombies, so we added a zombie verse.

Denise Gagne
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