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!
Steady Beat
Tracking from left to right
Holiday concerts are just around the corner. What do you have planned for your Holiday concert? Do you put on a full musical or do you choose songs that you, the students and the parents love and perform them, maybe based around a theme. Some of the themes I’ve used have included:
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.