Earth Song

Using Earth Song by Frank Ticheli, students are given elemental composition tools to craft unique movement accompaniments to a poignant and timely vocal piece with themes of peace and hope – just in time for Earth Day 2024!

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Autumn Leaves

Karen Petty shares a melody and movement lesson for grades 1-2 that allows your students to demonstrate rhythmic and melodic patterns as they embody the colorful swirling leaves of fall.

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Lesson: Ang Sinina Ko’ng Bag’o (My New Dress)

my new dress

Ang Sinina Ko’ng Bag’o (My New Dress)   Ang Sinina Ko’ng Bag’o (My New Dress) is a Cebuano rhyme in the Visayan language that my mother grew up hearing during her childhood in Cebu, Philippines. Speaking Visayan Visayan is one of many languages/dialects spoken in the Philippines. Generally speaking, Filipino languages use the same phonetic…

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Dinosaur Stomp

Dinosaur Stomp Intended Grade Level(s): 4-5 grade levels with paired readers* from 2-3 grade levels  Materials:  Saturday Night at The Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields; ISBN: 978-0-7636-3887-0  Choose rhyme stanzas from the book suitable for paired reading*. You can choose longer or shorter stanzas depending on grade level. Create sentence strips with the selected rhyme stanzas so pairs,…

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Drip, Drop, Pitter, Patter, and Explore!

Drip, Drop, Pitter, Patter, and Explore! Spring is in the air, or so we hope! The weather is often a topic of conversation, and the sounds of spring offer a wonderful opportunity to sing, say, dance and play in the music classroom. Music educators usually agree that some important goals for the youngest learners through…

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Lesson: Be Our Guest!

movement

Be Our Guest! Exploring Vaughan Williams through Kitchen Utensils A food-themed exploration of Vaughan Williams’ “March Past of the Kitchen Utensils” through movement and play!  YOU’RE INVITED!  As educators who use movement to initiate music learning, we often explore a variety of themes to make connections with our students and to make these experiences lively…

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A Tale of Two Villages

tale of two villages

A Tale of Two Villages  Materials:    Tale of Two Villages, Music for Creative Dance: Contrast and Continuum, Volume 1, Eric Chapelle Objectives:  Locomotor vs. Non-Locomotor Movement Expression of Beat Binary Form (AB) Improvisation  Process:  Students scatter in space, encourage various ways of moving a singular body part; move arm only, or leg, or head, etc., teacher plays drum…

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