Fun Activity That's Popular With Music Classes!

 Welcome back, 

I'd like to share an activity that is very popular with all my students. I love children’s books and I use them in my class all the time. Using books are a great way to teach musical concepts and your children will love that you are using them.  A Book becomes even more magical for the class when you are able to include a simple song to go along with the story. My students love story time and can’t wait to sing along .

Cows in the Kitchen is one of my classes all time favorite musical stories. All kinds of vocal repertoire ( such as Bingo, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Cows In the Cornfield, etc.) can be incorporated into your lesson with a variety of musical concepts (such as reading the rhythm of a song you used for the book). This book  includes a musical song right at the end of the book. The entire class can easily see the pictures because it is an oversized big book. When a book doesn't have a song, I just make up a simple song for the class to sing along as I turn the pages and then teach the rhythm, melody, etc. to go along with my lesson.

You can buy any of these books yourself, have your PTA buy books, ask your principal to buy some of the books or see if you can find them in your school library.  Below are some books that work good with kindergarten and 1st grade.

You can also check out the collection of books that work well with a variety of grade levels  on one of my Pinterest Boards called (Children’s Books) for more ideas. Give it a try to see if your class likes musical stories as much as my students do. What is your favorite book that you use with your students?

Click on the picture to see more books to use for your classroom.

Want more fun activities and ideas for your class? Be sure to 

Sign-up by email on my side bar to claim a monthly freebie, teacher tips & tricks. I would love to hear what tricks you use or other thoughts you might have in the comments below. Enjoy!

Check out some of my favorite games and activities!
Contact me via email:  sherrystucki@aim.com

          

 

3 Secret Tricks for Crowd Control During Music Concerts

Hello,

Do you have elementary students that keep talking out of turn when you're trying to practice for their music concerts. Well, I find that some of the younger grades (K-3rd) have a difficult time staying quiet during their show in many elementary schools. Here are 3 simple tricks for crowd control during your next practice or next music concert.

1. Strike A Pose
Have them pretend that they are getting their picture taken and have them (go to pose 1, pose 2 or pose 3). Poses help small children to move to the next song without talking out of turn between each song.  Simply tell your students to go to a certain pose after each song.


Pose #1 (hands together in front of body-2nd graders)

Pose #2 (A Russian Dance Pose)

2. Adding Choreography 
Adding choreography will help keep their bodies busy and gives them something to focus on during the music. Choreography also adds a nice touch during the song for your audience.

3. Use Que Cards for Good Behavior
I have five cards that spell out each letter for the word (P-A-R-T-Y). I explain to the class that after the concert they will have a party if they have good behavior during the show (which is a fun music game day for my children). Just place the 1st letter (P) on your board or music stand. If someone interrupts, remove the letter (P). The children quickly learn that they need to stop talking out of turn or they will lose their party day. They have to earn all 5 cards to spell (P-A-R-T-Y) to earn an extra fun game day. Yes I use the same cards during their music concerts. The audience never knows that  you are showing the students cards. This helps remind students to not talk out of turn throughout the entire show. If you look in the 1st picture above, you might notice that I am using two music stands. One stand is for my music and the other stand is facing the children. I place one card at a time on the music stand that is facing the children throughout the concert to remind them about good behavior. The cards do all the speaking for me so I don't have to talk to them about behavior in front of the audience. Give it a try. It works like a charm for my younger and older children.
 

Want more fun activities and ideas for your class? Be sure to Sign-up by email on my side bar to claim a monthly freebie, teacher tips & tricks. I would love to hear what tricks you use or other thoughts you might have in the comments below. Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Lesson

St. Patrick's Day Dancing

 



Modified Irish Jig for beginners

Hello friends, it's time to break out some dance moves for St. Patrick's Day, but the Irish Jig can be very tricky for elementary students to perform. Here is a modified version that is easy enough for even small children to do. Have the class stand in a circle and use any Irish Jig or Reel music for this dance. If you have a lot of students, you can form 2 circles with one group on the outside and the other group forming an inner circle.

Section A of the music:

Count 1: Tap right to on the floor (in front of the body).
Count 2: Right foot touches left knee.
Count 3: Bring right foot back to regular standing position with feet slightly apart.
Count 4: Slide left foot over to your right foot.
Count: 5, 6, 7, 8 (turn, turn, turn, turn to do 1 full circle. 

(Repeat dance steps 1-8 until the A section is over).

Section B of the music:
Counts:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Class will do a slide-step to the left with their feet (looks like a side- gallop) called sashay.
Count 7: rest for one beat

Counts:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Class will do a slide-step to the right with their feet (looks like a side- gallop) called sashay.

Count 7: rest for one beat

(Repeat dance steps until the B section is over).

Continue doing the dance by alternating between the “A” section and the “B” section of the music until the song is over.

I like to have the class see a youtube performance before we do the modified version to get them excited about learning the Irish Jig. Leave a comment below to let me know what kind of things your class likes to do for St. Patrick's Day. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Want more fun activities and ideas for your class? Be sure to Sign-up by email on my side bar to claim a monthly freebie, teacher tips & tricks. I would love to hear what tricks you use or other thoughts you might have in the comments below. Enjoy!
Click on the pictures below.
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Fun Music Lesson for Older Students

I wanted to share a fun music lesson that I did with my older students. Every year I teach patriotic music to my music classes. I was very excited to find a great YouTube video with a class using tennis balls to practice working on rhythms together. So I decided to use this fun music activity along with my patriotic lesson this year. My class was totally engaged and it was a big hit with my 5th and 6th graders. They loved
 
learning about the composer John Phillip Sousa while working on rhythms with tennis balls.

This activity helped my class to understand that they needed to perform rhythms exactly together when they are counting their music. I loved this activity because the class can visually see if they are together with the beat of the music and I can quickly assess their understanding of how to count rhythms together. This fun activity


Click on the picture. Here is the power point
I used for our Patriotic Sing-A-Long Lesson.

was done by playing the music "Stars and Stripes Forever" and performing whole notes with balls going in a full circle around your body. Half notes were done by bouncing the ball on the floor on count 1 and catching the ball on count 2. Quarter notes we done by tossing the ball up in the air with one hand on each beat. Eighth notes were passed from hand-to-hand in front of your body. Start the music and then the teacher will call out a rhythm such as (whole notes ready go) and the class would begin demonstrating whole notes around their body. Throughout the music the teacher will switch to an new rhythm (half notes, quarter notes or eighth notes. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Please take a moment to leave a comment below about what works well with your older students.
 Want more fun activities and ideas for your class? Be sure to Sign-up by email on my side bar to claim a monthly freebie, teacher tips & tricks. I would love to hear what tricks you use or other thoughts you might have in the comments below. Enjoy!

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