This post is all about fun ways to teach children the letter names of the notes. When you play an instrument, it’s a very useful skill to know the name of the note on the staff so that you know which of the bars you should play! To be a good sight-reader, you need instant recall. You can’t be counting the lines and spaces on your hand staff if you want to be a fluent sight reader. So how do we get kids to develop fluency in reading music?
Game Directions: Have the class form a circle. Choose one child to be a leprechaun. The leprechaun marches around the inside of the circle. At the end of the second phrase the leprechaun stops in front of a child. They join hands and they “jig” - left heel forward, right heel forward, etc. The children in the circle should do a “sailors hornpipe” at the same time (fold arms and jig in place). Now two children march in the inside circle. They choose two more partners and jig again. Continue with four, then eight, until the entire class has had a turn.
Lucky Leprechaun
Bubble Trouble by Stephen Lawrence, published Alfred is a fun selection with great choreography possibilities. I like that it tells kids that they shouldn’t chew gum in choir – one of my pet peeves. Here’s a fun performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFMqfjtMPrc
Link to OCTAVO.
Ukulele in the Classroom – Part 1
By Denise Gagne
One of the biggest challenges every teacher faces is classroom management. Your most challenging class might be a kindergarten class with many behavior challenges or it might be a Grade 5 class with attitude. In this newsletter, I’m sharing some tips that have helped me with classroom management.
I should have written this newsletter on Sunday, but inspiration hits when it hits, so I'm sending this out in hopes that it will be useful to some of you tomorrow!
Finding music for your elementary choir that will be a wonderful musical experience for the students, good performance piece for concerts, challenging but not too difficult, is always hard and takes a lot of time! In this newsletter, I want to highlight some of the pieces that I've used with Grade 3-5 choirs that has worked well for me. Where possible I've included YouTube links, because seeing a choir perform a piece well can be helpful in choosing material for your choirs.
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Fall Rhythms Assessment