Lesson: Ice Cream Please

The spring semester is a perfect time to let students have a little more independence and the opportunity to create. This Ice Cream Canon from Angela Leonhardt is a fun lesson to use in the spring.

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Harry’s Horrible Hair – Scavenger Hunt

Inspired by her book “Harry’s Horrible Hair,”Theresa Cocci’s scavenger hunt lesson will help students match visual clues from the book, with corresponding rhythm cards. Students will compose body and instrumental percussion from their found clues, reinforcing rhythm reading.

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Lesson: Super Heroes

super heroes

Super Heroes     Day 1 Teach “Canon” and sing as a two or three-part canon. (Music for Children I, #41 pg. 132 with adjusted rhythm to fit text) Day 2 As a class, have students brainstorm superheroes and create an eight-beat rhythm using superhero names. For example, Together, create body percussion to go with…

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Nature’s Second Instrument: Rhythm

Rhythm

It’s time to have fun with rhythm! Explore possibilities of rhythm and form in Cyndee Giebler’s second installment on Elemental Composition!* Using just quarter notes, two eighth notes, and quarter rests, discover Cyndee’s ideas for using a simple 8-measure composition as inspiration for providing a ready-made musical context for just about anything you and your students…

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What’s Cool for Back at School?

What’s Cool for Back at School?  Lynn Osborne shared this lesson in our “Back to School Lesson” contest from last year, and was the first runner up from our entries. In this lesson she shares her process for getting to know what her students like about school and a variety of ways to explore sing, say,…

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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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Lesson: Harvesting Creativity

Harvesting Creativity

Harvesting Creativity: Using Folk Repertoire as the Seed for Making New Music As Orff inspired music teachers, we all believe that one of the ways students demonstrate musical literacy is by creating new music.  In order to have students in upper grades feel confident in their creative skills, though, it’s important to have younger students…

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