Musicplay is a PreK-6 elementary music curriculum that uses many traditional and composed children’s songs, singing games, folk songs, rounds, choral music, and listening examples. The development of Musicplay started in 1995, was first published in 2000, and has had many updates since then. When Denise first chose songs for the program, there was no Google to research the history of these songs.
This is part one in a two (maybe more!) part series of blogs AND webinars.
I teach music so that children will learn to be tuneful, beautiful, and artful. I want children to be confident singers and players, perceptive listeners, and creative movers and music makers.
So my #1 goal is not to teach literacy. But there are many studies that show that learning music is strongly linked to improved literacy skills.
At www.musicplayonline.com there are Lesson Modules, with lessons for every week of the school year. I’ve got 6 weeks left to build to catch up to when I started building these – at the beginning of the first lockdown.
In this post, I’ll share music lesson plans for PK-6 for January week 2. I create these lessons at www.Musicplayonline.com and they are set up in a step-by-step format with videos, interactive activities, solfa and rhythm practice, optional worksheets for a 45 min. music class. If you have 2 classes/week, there are many extensions possible. Many teachers use the Musicplayonline website “freestyle” -is choosing their own songs, and the activities that go with them. Or they use the Ukulele, Guitar, Recorder or Boomwhacker sections to teach instruments. But if you’d like easy planning for a week, or have a sub coming in, these Lesson Modules are great!
This is my Wednesday Webinar video (no chat) for Nov. 18th, 2020. In today’s video, Denise shares many holiday ideas for concerts without singing: 6 holiday bucket drum pieces that include demos; 6 new Christmas Boomwhacker pieces with practice and performance tempos; Jingle Bells Cup Game, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas Hand Clap Game under black lights. We’ve also got 8 rhythm band arrangements for gr. 1-7!