Like most teachers I am such a fan of dollar stores. I can shop there to organize my classroom, create new workstations and add a little flair to my bulletin boards. I'd like to share with you just a few of my favorite finds! Flyswatters My kids are always a little in awe when they see my collection of flyswatters. (This pictures shows most of my collection.) I sometimes use them as pointers when projecting things on my white board, but most often these are used for Swat the Staff or Swat the Rhythm games. With Swat the Staff, I use masking tape to create a large staff on my board. Two students (from two different teams) stand at the board. I call a pitch name and the first person to correctly swat where that pitch should be gets a point for their team! Fun! You can check out some of my Swat the Rhythm games in my store. Plastic Fruit, Veggies and Food I try to do all of my singing assessments with my primary students in a game like setting. "Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone" and other singing games help them relax and I can assess their ability to match pitch, sing in head voice or whatever we are assessing that day. The plastic fruits, veggies and food are great for this kind of thing. The teacher sings "Who has the lemon?" (sol mi la sol mi) The student with the lemon sings back "I have the lemon!" (sol mi la sol mi) Little Cars At one time I'm pretty sure I had a thousand of these little cars in every nook and cranny of my house! It wasn't quite that many, but it certainly seemed like they were constantly multiplying. Now, they are a music workstation! I added stickers to them and used the Music Town Parking Center file to create an interactive activity that my kiddos really enjoy. I've used this fabulously with 2nd and 3rd graders. At some dollar stores you can get 3 little cars for $1. Score! Clothespins I love using clothespins for assessment. Yep. Assessment. I painted some wooden clothespins, drew rhythms in various meters and had students pin them to a piece of paper that I had drawn a 2, 3 and 4 on. If the pattern had four beats, they pinned it to the side of the paper with the 4 and so on. Another GREAT activity for assessment is Clip It. I have several of these sets that you might be interested in: Animals, Camping, Careers, Christmas, Presidents, Thanksgiving and Instruments. Students match the syllables of each picture with one of the rhythms by clipping them. Balls I like to use balls to bounce to the beat and for workstations like Note Toss (click to learn more) and Snowball Scoop (click for more details). Alphabet Puzzles These inexpensive alphabet puzzles are great manipulatives for Kindergarten and First Grade. We sing the alphabet song while touching each letter. Then I'll pick a letter and we will all remove that piece. Next we sing through the alphabet song again but when we get to the missing letter we say "shh". Later this knowledge translates to a quarter rest. In first grade, the students can handle this activity on their own in small groups and I set it up as a workstation. Craft Sticks Craft sticks are handy for many reasons. Two of my favorite uses are creating groups and rhythmic dictation. To learn more about how to create classroom groups with craft sticks read THIS post. For rhythmic dictation, I show students how to create quarter notes and barred eighth notes with the sticks. I clap patterns and the students "notate" them with the craft sticks. When they have mastered that we figure out how to create a quarter rest with the craft sticks. I've found that students are really creative with this! Pipe Cleaners My pal, Kristin Lukow, introduced me to this idea and I LOVE it! The kids do too! We listen to some soothing music while fashioning pipe cleaners into different notes. For some notes or symbols students really have to use their problem solving skills to create them with only a pipe cleaner. This activity gives students a chance to identify notes and symbols in a new way. Flashlights I have just started to experiment with using flashlights as manipulatives for listening activities and movement. I've used them in performance before (see THIS rendition of "Fireflies") and I've been in workshops with the aaahhhmaaazing Artie Almeida who used them during listening activities. Artie calls if flashlight painting and it is an amazing way to keep 100% of your students engaged. Here's a video that might explain a little more. Play Dough There is just something about play dough that makes me smile. The kids love to have the opportunity to use it in music class. I use THESE play dough mats as a workstation. The mats name each symbol or note and contain and brief definition. Styrofoam Coolers Weird, right? These little coolers are PERFECT for creating the Snowball Scoop workstation I've described in a previous post. They are also great for decorating a winter/snow themed concert. At a buck each you can by dozens and create a wide variety of "snow" structures. Dip and Veggie Trays Once I started creating workstations with these dip and veggie trays it was pretty hard to stop! Check out: Dip and Chip Workstations Dip Tray Workstations: Instrument Families and Note Values (freebie here!) Dip Tray Workstations: Bottle Cap Pitches Pool Noodles If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I am a big fan of using pool noodles in creative ways. Noodle ponies, steady beat swords and unique bulletin board displays are just some of the ways that I have used them. You might like to check out these pool noodle posts for more information: How to Make Pool Noodle Ponies Pool Noodle Ponies: What to Do with Your New Herd Steady Beat Swords Unusual and Incredibly Fabulous Bulletin Board Borders Like these ideas? Pin them for later!
10 great examples of music classroom decor: Includes ideas for organization, instrument storage, and more!
Get all the ideas you need for music classroom decor, with none of the stress of an overloaded todo list. I will guide you ...
SORRY ABOUT THE NOISE BUT WE ARE LEARNING HERE! Printable Classroom Poster for great MUSIC, BAND, PERFORMING ARTS, DRAMA or any other LOUD Classroom! A cute way to add personality and bright, fun motivational decor to your creative classroom! Show your students and remind others that it's ok to make NOISE for the sake of learning with this cheerful personalized teacher poster. Great artwork for any creative music classroom! Makes a great music teacher gift and is excellent to show teacher appreciation!!! Printable classroom poster has a faux chalkboard look and features bright colors - prints beautifully. ________________________________________________ Note: THIS IS A DIGITAL PRODUCT. NO PHYSICAL ITEM WILL BE SENT TO YOU. • Watermark will not appear on your files INSTANT DOWNLOAD!! Receive your files immediately after purchase! you will receive the following 300 dpi high resolution files: (1) 8x10" jpeg file (1) 11x14" jpeg file (1) 16x20" jpeg file (1) 20x24" jpeg file ________________________________________________ HOW DOES THE ORDER PROCESS WORK FOR DIGITAL ITEMS? It's such A SIMPLE PROCESS: 1. Add the item to your cart. 2. Purchase the item. 3. As soon as payment is confirmed, you will be sent a link to download your new PDF File. 4. Download, save, print and enjoy! When printing I recommend using high quality heavyweight paper or cardstock for better results. Otherwise send to a copy shop or photo lab to get great results for cheap! Works great for larger poster sizes. Need Help With Downloading, Or Printing? Click Here ________________________________________________ Need to get your new file(s) printed? TidyLady Printables has partnered with Prints Of Love which offers fast, high quality, affordable and eco-friendly printing. They also offer free 2-3 day U.S. shipping and free envelopes! Simply follow this link to check them out:https://printsoflove.com/ref/tidylady-printables/ Prints Of Love will handle the rest! For every order you place, Prints of Love plants a tree in your name. It is their way of creating a net positive environmental impact with each order! They are proud to be an official Reforestation Partner with their friends at One Tree Planted. ________________________________________________ *PLEASE NOTE: Files are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. You may not forward, share, sell or distribute the files. Mass production, file sharing and commercial use of these files are strictly prohibited.
Printable Music Classroom Poster - what to listen for in music! Great decor for MUSIC, DRAMA, PERFORMING ARTS and Band Classroom Decor! A cute way to add personality and bright, fun motivational decor to your creative classroom! Show your students how much you can look for when listening to music with this bright and eye catching music teacher poster. Great artwork for any creative music classroom! Makes a great music teacher gift and is excellent to show teacher appreciation!!! Printable classroom poster has a faux chalkboard look and features bright colors - prints beautifully. THIS IS A DIGITAL PRODUCT. NO PHYSICAL ITEM WILL BE SENT TO YOU. • Watermark will not appear on your files You will receive (4) high resolution 300 dpi files for easy printing: (1) 8x10" jpeg file (1) 11x14" jpeg file (1) 16x20" jpeg file (1) 18x24" jpeg file ________________________________________________ HOW DOES THE ORDER PROCESS WORK FOR DIGITAL ITEMS? It's such A SIMPLE PROCESS: 1. Add the item to your cart. 2. Purchase the item. 3. As soon as payment is confirmed, you will be sent a link to download your new File. 4. Download, save, print and enjoy! Need Help With Downloading, Or Printing? Click Here ________________________________________________ Need to get your new file(s) printed? TidyLady Printables has partnered with Prints Of Love which offers fast, high quality, affordable and eco-friendly printing. They also offer free 2-3 day U.S. shipping and free envelopes! Simply follow this link to check them out:https://printsoflove.com/ref/tidylady-printables/ Prints Of Love will handle the rest! For every order you place, Prints of Love plants a tree in your name. It is their way of creating a net positive environmental impact with each order! They are proud to be an official Reforestation Partner with their friends at One Tree Planted. ________________________________________________ All site content, including files, images, video, and written content is the property of TidyLady Printables, and are protected under DMCA. Files are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. You may not copy, forward, share, re-sell or distribute the files. Mass production, file sharing and commercial use of these files are strictly prohibited. Copyright TidyLady Printables - All rights reserved
Close your eyes and think about your ideal classroom. What does it look like? What feeling do you get when you walk in? My classroom walls are literally covered in decor...and I mean covered! Well, technically it’s pretty empty right now since I’m changing my theme. Check out what it *used* to look like.
It has taken me a while to put together a classroom tour but I am thrilled to have a week of school under my belt and my classroom set up and humming along! The most exciting part of my classroom setup this year is being able to get back to many of the things I haven't been able to do during the pandemic, but I have also added a few new tweaks to my room from my pre-pandemic setup too, so I'm excited to share those as well. First to give you a lay of the land, here's a quick video around the entire space: Now let's talk about this year's updates! First of all the biggest change is going back to pre-pandemic seating arrangements. Oh how I have missed my circle! This year I used these carpet spots, which have a darker green color than the ones I used last year (my old ones were hard to distinguish between yellow and green), and so far they're holding up well. I've also got my chairs back in rows by color team instead of having each chair spread out: Last year because I had to set up the chairs spaced out 3 feet each, I wasn't able to use my normal job of line leader (I had a job for hand sanitizer instead). This year my line leaders are back! One of those, "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" tiny upgrades this year was on that same magnetic board where I have the color team jobs- the magnets for each class going up the piano keys are now horizontal and much easier to read: A procedural change I made this year was to designate my own hand signals for students to use in music class when they need to use the bathroom or a tissue- I made posters showing those hand signals next to the board. I also made new letters for my "MUSIC" letter system, which you can see in the same photo (those were long overdue for an upgrade!): The final update is one that I'm probably more excited about than I should be... I got new clipboards! I added these to my Amazon wishlist this summer and was thrilled to get them. The clips are much smaller, and they are plastic and of course in my 6 rainbow colors. So much to love about these compared to my old ones! I also decided this year to give students the choice between regular pencils, which I wrapped in a small piece of duct tape, or mechanical pencils. It has been a great start to the year to far and I do have a couple more updates to the classroom I'm hoping to get to throughout the year... we'll see! But for now I'm very happy with our space. Rather than rehashing all of the details on where I got things or why I have things set up the way I do, I'll direct you to my classroom tour post from 2018 where I have a lot more details on most of what you see here. And of course please leave a comment with any questions!
Turn those blank walls into something worth looking at!
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Learn how to create your own canvas art for your home or classroom with supplies you already have! Works with any theme and doesn't take long to complete.
The Yellow Brick Road Blog is a website dedicated to providing music teachers with fun education resources for serious music literacy.
Hello everyone! So summer has officially ended and we are back in the swing of things! I always love the excitement of a new school year, but am definitely in denial that it’s happening. One thing that always helps me ease back into the year is decorating my classroom. I think it’s kind of like...Read More
In my last post I shared about my plans to stay home this school year with my daughter as she starts half day preschool and we prepare to welcome baby #2 in December. Although I don't have a classroom of my own this year, that has not kept me out of the classroom. I have been able to help several of my local music teacher friends get their rooms ready for the first day of school. I wish I could just take a little road trip all summer long decorating music rooms, because I enjoy it so much! Today I am teaming up with 5 other fabulous music bloggers to share ideas for "Back to School in the Music Room". From decor, to organization, to what activities to try that first day/week/month, we've got you covered! My post is going to tackle Music Room Decor. After you read my post, you can click the picture at the bottom to hop to the next blog post. Keep going until you are all the way back to mine to make sure you have read them all! So let's talk music room decor. This summer I read a great post by David Row on "What every music teacher music have on their walls". In this post he said something that really stuck with me: We need to be intentional with what we put on our walls, and not just print and post everything under the sun or hang every poster we own. I've also seen a lot of posts in Music Teacher Facebook groups recently about people who feel it is easy to over-do it when it comes to music room decor by filling every bit of wall space they have and how it is overstimulating kids. SO... Here are my decor "must haves" for my music room. (Keep in mind - different strokes for different folks - something that is a "must have" for me may be different than what is a "must have" for you, but I will share with you what I deem worthy of my ink and walls) 1) Music Room Rules You've probably thought long and hard about what would be appropriate rules for your music room. If you expect your students to follow those rules, you need to have them posted in your room, and you need to spend time those first few lessons going over them and then every subsequent lesson enforcing them. I always post mine right in the front of the room. I put little magnets on the back so they could hang on my board and be "front and center" for kids to see, right beside whatever I would be projecting on my board that day. I have lots of different themes, but this set is my personal favorite and it comes from my watercolor classroom decor. Find it here. Other themes available include superhero, rock star, polka dot, nautical, frogs, space, multicultural kids with instruments, birds and owls. 2) Bulletin boards that reinforce concepts/music vocabulary that is relevant to your lessons I almost always have one board in my classroom that is dedicated to lines and spaces of treble clef. This comes in handy when we get to lines/spaces, note names, and playing on pitched instruments. I invaded my friend's classroom this week (thanks, Lynn!) and decorated a board for her while we chatted and she looked at her schedule and got things ready for open house. I had this idea for a hot air balloon bulletin board for a while, but was just waiting on the right clip art. I wanted some dreamy looking watercolor hot air balloons, so I had a set custom created for me. Aren't they lovely?! I also made a set that uses solid colors for each balloons for the teachers that love to match their boomwhackers. They look like this: You can find my "Soaring Through the Lines and Spaces" bulletin board set here. Another board that I did this August (thanks, Mia, for letting me take over this board) reinforces movement vocabulary. Find it here. I love that it brings a lot of the same movement words from PE (plus some new ones that maybe are more specific to music and folk dancing) into the music room. Sometimes we forget about movement vocabulary, but I think it is important to clarify movement vocabulary in the same way that we define music terminology, especially if we are wanting students to respond to music in a certain way though movement or perform some movement to music. 3) Solfege Hand Sign Posters After I went through Kodaly levels, I was a little uncertain about whether or not I wanted solfege hand sign posters displayed on the wall in my room, because I hadn't presented them all yet, and I didn't want it to take away the surprise. I decided two years ago to go ahead and have them posted year round, and was amazed how frequently my students referred to them, taking a sideways glance while we were solfege-ing (yep... I just made that a verb) folk songs in class. Even when we had been in the practice stage of a melodic concept for a while, I would still see students utilizing this. Would they know the name of the new mystery solfege? Yes, generally, BUT it doesn't take away from the Prepare/Present/Practice because even if they know the name, they still need to know how it sounds. Find these here. 4) Word Wall I have had a lot of questions about how I set up my word wall, and I will definitely be devoting a whole blog post to it at some point in the near future, but for now here are some ideas. 1) Post words alphabetically 2) Post words by concept (instrument words, dynamics words, notation words, etc.) 3) Post words by grade level I always post my word wall cards by grade level in the order that they are presented (more on that in a future post). These are from my watercolor music room set. Find the word wall individually here. In the picture below, the music teacher chose to focus on words specifically centered around singing. This is a great idea for an elementary or middle school choir. The concepts become less abstract if they can be seen by the students and referred to them. They can really try to focus on one of these concepts when they rehearse a piece instead of "mindlessly" doing it again. Find this choral singing word wall here. 5) Composers Some teachers do a composer of the month. Do me a solid favor and DON'T arbitrarily post composers on your wall and never talk about them. One way to do this is to have a "Composer of the Month" board. If you do this, you MUST talk about that composer and use their music in your lesson plans - move it it, create a listening map, add a rhythm ostinato, read known rhythmic or melodic patterns from the music, etc., otherwise it is a waste of a board/wall space. If you do decide that a COTM set is worthy of your wall space and teaching time, you need to check out these free sets from Tracy King and Sara Bibee. Both of these ladies produce wonderful sets! I hope you have enjoyed this post on my "must have" music room decor. Comment below if there is anything else that is a "must have" on your boards/walls. I'd love to hear about it! Don't forget to continue on the blog hop. Hop to the next stop, Jena Hudson from Sew Much Music's post Organization.
Get ideas for how to set up a beautiful minimalist elementary music classroom that is fun and functional for you and your students.
Use our free printable music activity as a boredom buster with kids stuck at home or as a fun part of music education in a classroom.
Do your children enjoy listening to music? Well, great! Here's an easy way to combine music and art into an easy and colorful activity! My boys loooooove holding dance parties at home. While listening to one of their favorite songs (on repeat--- oh boy, do we love Moana, Trolls, and 80s music), I thought of trying out this fun activity. Tada! Today we're making sheet music art! Make Sheet Music Art with Kids Want to make some Sheet Music Art with your kids too? Ok! All you have to do is print out the first page of a favorite song. Then, pull out your crayons and markers. Then, play your favorite music. As you listen to it, draw! Depending on long the song is, you might have to play it a couple of times to really get into the creative groover. (We played our songs 3x each.) That's it! I did this activity jointly with my eldest. While we listened to the music we talked about - how the music made us feel - what words seemed to pop out at us - what we imagined while listening to the music As we talked about those things, we drew out our ideas and feelings. The resulting sheet music was decorated with all sorts of symbols, shapes, images, and colors. This was such a neat way to connect with my eldest AND talk about music in an easy and accessible way. I hope you have fun trying this idea out with your kids too! Happy making, friends!
In this art and music activity for children we’ll look at famous art inspired by music and create our own art project in combination with different pieces of music. Art and music activity for children In this lesson you will: :: be introduced to synesthesia and the idea of exploring the combination […]
Hello everyone! So summer has officially ended and we are back in the swing of things! I always love the excitement of a new school year, but am definitely in denial that it’s happening. One thing that always helps me ease back into the year is decorating my classroom. I think it’s kind of like...Read More
Dollar store loot! I bet you just hate the dollar store, don’t you? Nope, me neither. There is a Dollar Tree right across the street from my school. In fact, it is on my way home. Every day as I drive by it, I have to make a conscious decision NOT to go to the dollar store. Needless to say, I go to the dollar store A LOT. It is a treasure trove for things that I can use in my classroom! Pool Noodles Why are pool noodles awesome? Simple: Steady Beat Light Sabers. They are very similar to the steady beat swords featured here. For mine, I decided to go all out and use silver duct tape and electrical tape to make them look like they came from a galaxy far, far away. I use my Light Sabers to teach steady beat to 1st graders. 3rd-5th graders use them as giant batons. Holding something so long in their hands helps them to use their wrists and not conduct like a crazy person. Foam The Dollar tree has rolls of foam! Rolls of it! They also have packets of foam. Similar packets or rolls of foam at Wal-Mart cost $5, and who knows what craft stores would charge. Why foam? Why, dear reader, because die-cut machines can cut foam. The foam is more durable than paper, and doesn’t require lamination! I went the paper-laminate-cut route for large quantities of small manipulatives once, and NEVER AGAIN. I learned my lesson! Using foam is so much easier. Students use these shapes to identify the form they hear, or create their own form. Clinging Shelf Liner I love this stuff more than I can tell you. A few years ago, my room made me wince with an ugly scarred table, ugly scratched brown file cabinets, and ugly large bright yellow storage boxes. Now those babies are covered, washi taped, and looking good! I used the same kind throughout the room to make it look unified. Wash-tape Speaking of washi tape, I found some at the dollar store. This is incredibly exciting to me, since most other places are trying to sell them for $3 a pop. The texture is a bit different, but it still comes off with no residue. Count me in! I’m using washi tape to organize my orffatorium. Each instrument has tape, and the matching mallets have the same kind of tape. Using different colors and patterns also allows me to put kids in groups more interesting than woods and metals. Stay tuned for another post on awesome things from the dollar store and how I use them! BONUS: I love these matched cards from the dollar store so much, I wrote an entire post about them.
Band Classroom Poster, Music Classroom Decor, Band Director Gifts, High School Marching Band Wall Art, Choir Classroom Teacher Sign Tbh, bro, it's low key sus when u don't practice at home. Maybe this way they'll actually understand you...?! This 8x10 inch printable has black lettering and a white background. THIS IS A DIGITAL PRINT. NO PHYSICAL ITEM WILL BE SHIPPED TO YOU. What you'll receive is a high resolution (300 dpi) jpeg that you can download for personal use. Please read more below! *********HOW TO GET THIS PRINT ON YOUR CLASSROOM'S SWEET WALLS 1. Add this listing to your cart 2. Click over to the checkout page and submit payment 3. Once payment is processed through Etsy (usually only a minute or two!), click over to the Purchases tab on the Etsy site 4. Find this print at the top of your purchased list and hit "Download Files" 5. Save the jpeg to your computer and print it out at home. Or put the file on a flash drive and take it to your trusted local print shop 6. Hang this beauty up in your space and enjoy it forever! *This print is 8x10 inches. Depending on the frame you choose, you may need to do some trimming. *This print is intended for personal use only. No reselling or transferring to friends or family. Please see my shop policies for more info. * This is an instant digital download. No physical item will be mailed to you. * If you would like a different size, please message me on Etsy before purchasing! ************ MinMac Wall Art Policies ************ By purchasing this listing, you are accepting these terms: this print is for personal use only. No reselling or transferring please. All designs are copyright MinMac. Once again, no physical item is mailed to you. This is an instant download. No refunds or returns.
Picture books and chapter books for the music classroom are essentials. Explore this list of books appropriate for upper elementary that cover instruments, composers, careers, history and more.
I love when we have an Olympic year in music class. This is the second one we've celebrated since I began teaching, and we went all out! I started off by selecting 8 countries and then dividing each of my classes into 4 teams (I have 4 risers, so each riser was a team). Students in grades 4-6 participated, so there ended up being one grade level each on every team. Each day, students competed in a different Olympic event. The events we competed in were the ski jump, speed skating, curling, bobsled, biathlon, and ice hockey. Each event focused on a different musical concept such as rhythm, singing, note reading, rhythmic values, etc. Here are the posters I created for each one. We listened to the national anthem of the winning country after each event and kept track of each country's medals on the board in the back of the room. The students loved checking the board to see which country was in the lead. Here is the final medal count from the end of the month. Here are some pictures of the students competing in each event. We used paper plates for ice skates, actual curling brooms for curling, floor hockey sticks and tennis balls for hockey, and laminated tag board for cross-country skis. The difficulty of each event was modified based on the grade level. It was a great month! Speed Skating Speed Skating Curling Ice Hockey Instrument Family target for the biathlon Cross Country skiing to the target in the biatlon Biathlon Biathlon: matching the instrument to the correct target
Music Classroom Management Tool We have all seen the “NOISE” post on Pinterest (when the students are making noise – they lose a letter). I’ve taken that and combined …
This educational poster was designed and drawn by yours truly! This eye-catching, Montessori-style alphabet poster features musical instruments from all over the world. The inclusion of some interesting, lesser-known instruments makes this poster truly unique and a great addition to any kids area. Perfect for any room in the house, classrooms, daycares, librarys and more! Help kids learn their ABC's while introducing them to the WORLD of music! *This is a digital file download, no physical poster will be shipped. You will need to have this printed yourself*
Make your own homemade musical instrument with this easy wayter xylophone. This is the easiest instrument you can make with kids. Make it rainbow, too!
Looking for engaging, musical games to play with your students? Here are a few of my favorite games and activities for elementary music classes, children's choirs, and elementary group classes.
Music notes and musical symbols come together in a playful, minimalist design. This print will be the perfect decor for your music studio, classroom, or home walls! Cream background with black, red, blue, pink and yellow design!
This free printable “I Spy” music-themed picture activity features guitars, harps, keyboards, drums, saxophones, and more. Have your child count each item and record the count below the picture…
More about the Murals as seen in Public Service Centers interiors and their creators on Wescover. Colorful music mural painted by Nora Kate at Bell Graham Elementary School in St. Charles, IL.… Explore unique Art & Wall Decor and Murals by rising artists around St. Charles. Find original art such as wall tapestries, wood art, ceramic sculptures, macrame and fabric wall hangings on Wescover.
Use our free printable music activity as a boredom buster with kids stuck at home or as a fun part of music education in a classroom.
I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to share my latest project with you- I've been working on it for a couple of months now, trying to figure out the whole system before I present it to my students, and I'm finally ready to use them in my classes this week! Presenting: rhythm monster magnets! I love doing composition with all of my students, even as young as Kindergarten, and when I saw Jennifer's idea for rhythm monsters last summer on her blog, The Yellow Brick Road, I was intrigued. Don't those little critters just look so darn cute?!? And I love the idea of showing the number of notes in each beat iconic-ly (Is that a word? Whatevs, you know what I mean). You can check out her post on her original epiphany (using googly eyes and puff balls) here: My problem: I didn't like the idea of trying to glue stuff to puff balls. Trust me, I've done stuff like that before, and it's not pretty. You get little strings all over the glue bottle (or gun, or stick, or whatever you're using to administer adhesive), and it's a struggle to get the bottle away from the strings of glue each time without creating a sticky cobweb all over your face and clothing. I also wanted something more durable- if I'm gonna take the time to make so stinkin' many little monster thingies, they better last for years (and be used by hundreds of students)! So these thoughts have been percolating for about a year, and this summer I finally landed on my solution: magnets! If you've been around a while, you know that magnet boards have become one of my standard fall-backs. They are durable enough for little hands, the materials are pretty cheap, and there are a wide variety of options readily available for materials as well. I will admit, this is no one hour project. If you're ready for a commitment it could probably be a weekend project, but for me I needed to pace myself so I didn't get mad and throw the whole thing out the window- it definitely requires some patience to make everything. But I am THRILLED with the results! To make the basic set with quarter notes, paired eighth notes, and magnet boards, you'll need some magnets (I got these), googly eyes (I had some laying around from my kids' craft supplies but these are the same variety/sizes), craft glue (or better: super glue), and cookie sheets (I found mine for 88c at Walmart). You'll also probably want electrical tape, but you could achieve the same effect with a black sharpie/ paint pen too (more on that later). You can see the trial versions I made, to see how well the glue would hold, in the above picture. So far they are holding up just fine- definitely get glue like the kind you see in the picture. I borrowed some from my art teacher colleague, but you can find it at any craft store. **Update: after 2 years of use I have switched from craft glue to super glue. The craft glue held up pretty well for about a year but then about half of the eyes started falling off in the second year. The super glued ones seem to be pretty much indestructible! For even more durability you can rough up the surface of the magnet before glueing.** I wanted to be able to use my monsters for melodic composition as well, so I made one quarter and one paired eighth in each color and made 7 sets (one for each color group that I have set up for small groups in my room, plus one extra). Since there are 5 colors, I can assign each color to a note in the pentatonic scale for my older students to create melodic compositions. For kindergarten I won't attach any meaning to the colors, and for first and second grade I will give them only enough colors for the notes they are using (sol and mi or mi-sol-la, respectively) if I decide to do anything melodic with them. You could do plenty of fun composition activities if you just stop there, but I really wanted to have quarter rests and half notes as well. I spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to represent those with monsters- I wanted the half note to show one sound that takes up the "space" of two beats, and I wanted the rest to show the "space" of a beat but with no sound. For the half notes, I finally figured out my solution when I saw some mini popsicle sticks at Walmart. I enlisted the help of my 3-year-old's and colored the sticks to match the colors of the magnets (one of each color for each set): I attached the popsicle stick to the bottom of the magnet (yes, the magnet is still strong enough to hold through the stick) and added a single (larger) eye to the top. My idea is that the sticks are like the monsters' tail? I may try to make them look more "realistic" at some point but for now they work ;) For the quarter rests, I bought some clear marbles that have a flat base (made for aquariums and vases and such) and stuck a magnet dot on the bottom. I love this idea because the students can see that the rest takes up a beat but it has not sound- I thought about just using magnets with no eyes but having something transparent seems clearer to me (no pun intended). Time to set up the magnet boards (aka cookie sheets)! This is where things got a little sticky for me (seriously, I'm full of these puns today). You could easily write staff lines, beat boxes, or whatever you want directly onto the cookie sheets and call it a day, but I (in my infinite wisdom) decided that I wanted to use electrical tape so that I didn't have to worry about the lines fading or scratching off, and I could easily change the lines/boxes if I wanted. At first it seemed easy enough: I found these rolls of electrical tape for some ridiculously cheap price like 77c at Walmart and started cutting and taping: The magnets fit perfectly on top of the width of the tape and I was ecstatic! And then I remembered the constant struggle I encounter with students who draw notes "on the line" either above the line or barely touching the line. I needed a way to have them practice and see the line going through the middle of the note head. (Hi, have we met? I'm Miss Obsessive-Perfectionist. Nice to meet you.) So back to the drawing magnet board I went, and I started cutting the strips in half length-wise. Let me tell you, this is where the tantrum almost kicked in. I finally bit the bullet and got myself a paper trimmer for $10 at JoAnn's and there was peace throughout the land (seriously, why did it take me so long to get one anyway?). The other advantage of the thinner lines is that I now had space to put some beat boxes (I had space for 8) directly under the staff lines. I measured the boxes with my half notes to make sure they would take up 2 beats and then split the boxes in half. Now I can have students create rhythmic compositions in the beat boxes: And, if I want, I can have them transfer that to a melodic composition by assigning a solfege note to each color (and have them show me, for example, if do is on the bottom line, where the other notes should go): Are you as excited as I am yet??? Because this is SO COOL!!! I also put a simplified setup on the back of each cookie sheet, with just a line (for unpitched composition) and 4 beat boxes, for my younger students to use. I made 6 cookie sheets (one for each color group in my seating chart- each group has 2-4 students depending on class size). All together, I spent just under $30 for this project (I already had magnet dots and googly eyes on hand- add a couple of dollars if you need to purchase those), and I have a set of composition manipulatives that I hope to use for years to come! I am excited because I think my monsters will help students better understand the rhythmic and melodic concepts they are practicing, get them used to creating their own rhythmic and melodic lines, and engage them in a fun way! I can't wait to use them in my classes this week. I will be having my 2nd graders compose a short rhythmic pattern in their small groups to practice half notes, and my 3rd graders will be creating their first melodic composition to practice the pentatonic scale! After some practice with the monsters I will have them transfer their compositions to a worksheet by writing them out in standard notation. I can't wait to see if I get as many light bulb moments as I expect :) What are your favorite strategies for getting lower elementary students composing? Do you think you might want to create some rhythm monster magnets for your own classroom? Share your thoughts and ideas below!
Suite à l’appel du ministre d’organiser la rentrée en musique, nous avons reçu une note de service. « Il s’agit de proposer aux élèves, qui étaient présents l’année précédente, d’accueillir leurs nouveaux camarades en musique, manière chaleureuse de...
In this art and music activity for children we’ll look at famous art inspired by music and create our own art project in combination with different pieces of music. Art and music activity for children In this lesson you will: :: be introduced to synesthesia and the idea of exploring the combination […]
Printable Music Classroom Poster - what to listen for in music! Great decor for MUSIC, DRAMA, PERFORMING ARTS and Band Classroom Decor! A cute way to add personality and bright, fun motivational decor to your creative classroom! Show your students how much you can look for when listening to music with this bright and eyecatching music teacher poster. Great artwork for any creative music classroom! Makes a great music teacher gift and is excellent to show teacher appreciation!!! Printable classroom poster has a faux chalkboard look and features bright colors - prints beautifully VIEW THE MATCHING PERSONALIZED MUSIC TEACHER DOOR SIGN HERE: https://www.etsy.com/listing/456047758/music-teacher-classroom-door-sign?ref=shop_home_active_4 VIEW THE MATCHING 'SORRY ABOUT THE NOISE BUT WE ARE LEARNING' PRINTABLE POSTER HERE: https://www.etsy.com/listing/537764218/music-teacher-classroom-printable-poster?ref=shop_home_active_1 VIEW THE MUSIC CLASSROOM RULES PRINTABLE POSTER HERE: https://www.etsy.com/listing/621828061/music-classroom-poster-music-classroom?ref=shop_home_active_1 VIEW THE PRACTICE MUSIC POSTER HERE: https://www.etsy.com/listing/617792304/music-teacher-classroom-printable-poster?ref=shop_home_active_3 VIEW THE GROWTH MINDSET MUSIC POSTER HERE: https://www.etsy.com/listing/725203221/printable-classroom-music-poster?ref=shop_home_active_1 ........................................................ Note: THIS IS A DIGITAL PRODUCT. NO PHYSICAL ITEM WILL BE SENT TO YOU. • Watermark will not appear on your files INSTANT DOWNLOAD!! Receive your files immediately after purchasse! you will receive the following 300 dpi high resolution jpeg files formatted to print in the following sizes: (1) 8x10" jpeg file (1) 11x14" jpeg file (1) 16x20" jpeg file (1) 18x24" jpeg file ............................................. How To Order .............................................. It's such A SIMPLE PROCESS: 1. Add the item to your cart. 2. Purchase the item. 3. As soon as payment is confirmed, Etsy will provide you with the link to download your new artwork. 4. Download, save, print and enjoy! Etsy DOWNLOAD HELP can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/help/article/3949 When printing I reccommend using high quality heavyweight paper or cardstock for better results. Otherwise send to a copy shop or photo lab to get great results for cheap! Works great for larger poster sizes. ________________________________________________ All content, including files, images, and written content is the property of TidyLady Printables, and are protected under DMCA. Files are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. You may not copy, forward, share, re-sell or distribute the files. Mass production, file sharing and commercial use of these files are strictly prohibited. Copyright TidyLady Printables - All rights reserved
