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A new school year is the perfect time to build connections, learn about your students, and set the stage for a great year together! We’ve added some fresh resources to our Back-to-School Unit to help you do just that.
From a new song to help younger students learn each other’s names, to meaningful literacy connections and fun icebreakers and get-to-know-you activities, these fresh ideas make it easy to build community and connection from the very first days of school.
Teaching Suggestions: Use this song to give students an opportunity to play an instrument while learning classmates’ names. Students can stand in rows or form a circle. Invite one student at a time to participate in the following sequence:
• Sing: Play it once! (the student plays the instrument one time)
• Sing: Play it twice! (the student plays the instrument two times)
• Say: What’s your name? (the student responds by saying their name, then sits down)
• Sing: Welcome to music today!
Continue around the circle until all students have had an opportunity to play the instrument and say their name. This song can be revisited over several music classes to introduce new instruments and help reinforce students’ names.
This silly lesson will get your kids giggling while building classroom community and making music! Inspired by We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins, students explore the story through a catchy chant, body percussion, instruments, and a fun name game. They’ll practice learning classmates’ names, identify good and bad classroom choices, and work together to create their own classroom chant about positive behaviours. It’s a playful way to combine music, literacy, and classroom community at the start of the year!
Teaching Suggestions:
Find these activities and MORE in the Back-to-School Unit!
Getting Started and Core Skills
August 18th, 2026 - 4:30PM-5:30PM MST
In this webinar, we’ll walk you through the essentials of using Musicplay Online — the all-in-one curriculum designed to support elementary music teachers. You’ll get a guided tour of the platform, learn how to navigate key sections, set up your Student Code, search for content efficiently, and organize your lessons using the My Lists feature. Whether you’re brand new to Musicplay or just need a refresher, this session will give you the confidence to get started with ease.
Register for Musicplay Mentorship Session One
August 25th, 2026 - 4:30PM-5:30PM MST
In this webinar, Stacy will guide you through the powerful planning tools and resources available in Musicplay Online. You’ll explore the Lesson Planning section, dive into the Scope and Sequence and Year Plans, and learn how to customize lessons to fit your teaching style and your students’ needs. We’ll also walk through key features like Lesson Modules, Song Lists, and the Units section to help you streamline your planning and make the most of everything Musicplay has to offer.
Register for Musicplay Mentorship Session Two
Musical Literacy and Skill Development
September 1st, 2026 - 4:30PM-5:30PM MST
In this webinar, Stacy will explore the wide range of resources and tools in MusicplayOnline designed to build music literacy in fun and engaging ways. We’ll take a deep dive into the Song List activities, explore interactive tools in the Toolbox, and highlight the Rhythm and Solfa Practice sections. You’ll also discover how to use the Listening Kits to connect classical music to the elements of music and support skill development in your students.
Register for Musicplay Mentorship Session Three
Instruments and Performance Pieces
September 8th, 2026 - 4:30PM-5:30PM MST
In this webinar, we’ll explore the instrument resources available on Musicplay Online, including recorder, ukulele, Boomwhackers, drumming, guitar, and Orff. Stacy will guide you through how to navigate and customize these materials to fit your classroom needs. We’ll also show you how to find performance pieces for school events, ensembles, and choirs, and how to access and download accompaniment tracks to support your performances.
Register for Musicplay Mentorship Session Four
Together Sing 2026 - Registration Now Open!
Registrations for Together Sing 2026 are now open, and we are so excited! Since registrations opened at 9:00 am on 21st June (Make Music Day), we already have registrations representing over 25,000 singers — and we want to add yours!
This year's beautiful song, We Are Here, composed by Louise Kelly, is a powerful celebration of the joy and wellbeing that comes from singing together, and a reminder of why music education in our schools matters so much. When you register (make sure it's for your maximum number of singers!), you receive audio tracks, YouTube video links, band and string arrangements (both in the same key as the song this year!), a lyric sheet, social media images, and so much more — all completely free.
Over 50 partners are contributing to this project out of sheer passion for the cause. Don't miss out — register now and add your voice to this growing force for good!
And if you're on social media, we'd love you to like, follow and share our pages too:
We wanted to take the opportunity to share some updates from the team: