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.
Bring the band alive at your home with these DIY Musical Instruments for Kids to Make and play! And they actually make music, too!
Here are some examples of body percussion and why it's important to teach this skill, along with 7 simple activity ideas.
Do you know what is perfect for a rainy day? A playdate? Any sick day? Or a just-about-an-anything day? Homemade musical instruments! If you're not sure what to do with those little ones, making a homemade musical instrument band is the answer! There is so much fun to be had and amazing memories to be
Fourth grade class wrote some terrific "sound songs". I got this idea from another music teacher. Thank you! It was a hit.
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…
Fun and educational activities to engage kids with music! 40 DIY musical instruments and music crafts plus activities for kids of all ages!
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.
Super cute DIY Maracas are a fun musical instrument craft for kids of all ages. Use these homemade musical instruemnts as a fun craft or music activity !
I love using body percussion activities, so I am sharing some teacher tips and ways to use them in your classes.
Here's a list of fun activities you can do with preschool and kindergarten using rhythm sticks!
Simple DIY water xylophone takes a couple minutes to make and is a great sound activity, experiment, and music activity for kids too!
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!
These fun Musical Games with ping pongs are great for music classes, they're fun, cheap and easy to set up and always very popular!
Kids love balls and I use them to teach concepts, in team building, during rehearsals and more! Here's my ten ways to use balls in the music class room.
Learn how to practice rhythms with this budget-friendly and fun rhythm game in your elementary music classroom.
Pool noodle rhythm spinners are a cheap and easy DIY hands-on resource to add to your elementary music classroom!
Why you should do music and movement activities with your 3-5 year old. Easy activities for families to do at home or in preschools.
DIY Song Cubes to help children learn music "old favorites" and practice finding and keeping the beat; for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.
Here are some fun and simple music games for kids, that are also educational. Play them at home or in class.
Try these fun music and movement songs and activities for preschoolers at home or in the classroom. Fall, Spring and other activities themed to the season
...enhanced learning through tactile means. Here are a few of the most frequently used music manipulatives in my elementary classroom...
Five fun and action-filled circle games to practice rhythm, pitch, and more with your elementary music students.
Teaching elementary music? Here are some ideas for using elementary body percussion activities to help your students feel the beat.
5 Easy musical instruments to make with your children. Did you know that learning music has been proven to boost learning all around? This includes the STEM fields. Practice counting, rhythm, and patterns all while having fun. Perfect for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers!
Easy guide to making paper cup drums in 5 minutes or less. This is an ideal and fun craft for toddlers and preschoolers.
In this STEM activity, kids make their own musical instrument- a straw pan flute! They can even create their own songs and record them on the free printable recording sheet!
The Montessori method of education teaches reading and writing by isolating each sound/symbol and allowing the child to manipulate them herself through the movable alphabet. So why would we teach …
Free printable Bible lesson for kids on the book of Psalms. Ideal for home or church use. Coloring pages, worksheets, Bible crafts, games, study guide and much more.
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 […]
DIY Rhythm Dice: how I made the dice, how I use them in my classroom, and the FREE resources that I've made to go with them.
Unique Free Music Worksheets Stock. Free interactive exercises to practice online or download as pdf
Movement lessons your fourth and fifth grade music students will want to do. These are simple & easy lessons for elementary music class.
Kindergarten students love using instruments! Here are 5 tried and true rhythm activities to get your little ones engaged in music class.
We've all been there: one class is ahead of the rest of the grade level, it's the last day before a vacation, you're stressed/ tired/ sick and can't think straight to teach a regular lesson, it's a weird schedule day and the kids are spinning in circles, there's a last-minute change and you can't do the lesson you had planned... Whatever the reason, we all have days when we need to step out of our regularly-scheduled sequenced curriculum and do something different for one class period. Sure, you could throw on a movie or pull out some worksheets. But those types of classes can result in lots of behavior difficulties (and no wonder, the students are usually bored!). Here are my favorite ways to use those "one-off" class periods in meaningful musical ways. These ideas are ones that don't require too much thinking on my part, don't require advance planning to set up, can be done with large or small groups, and keep students engaged for an entire class period. 1. instrument merry go round I actually use this activity as a part of my regular "curricular" lessons as well, but it's a good one to pull out when I want everyone to stay focused and engaged but I know they're going to be antsy. I have every student pick out one instrument (usually I limit their options to small percussion on specific shelves in my room) and bring it to sit in a circle on the floor. Then I tell them to play when my hands are open, and stop when I close my hands. If they play/ don't play at the wrong time, they're out for the next round. Once they get the hang of starting and stopping, I have them leave their instrument on the floor, stand up, and move over one spot around the circle. Then they pick up the new instrument and repeat. Keep going around the circle and switching instruments! The great thing about this is I can use it to review a variety of concepts. Instrument names and playing techniques are obvious ones, but I can also teach dynamics by having them play louder/ softer when I hold up dynamic symbols or move my hands bigger or smaller, review instrument classification by calling out certain types to play on different turns, or practice rhythms by having them echo patterns instead of starting/ stopping. Lots of ways to change it up! 2. Musication I purposefully save videos from this awesome YouTube channel to use only for this purpose so that I know students won't get tired of them. They are most well-known for the play-along videos for Boomwhackers and hand chimes with color-coded notes, but there are also play-along videos for percussion (which is great for large groups and younger students), and even chord play-alongs (which I use with ukulele but could also be done with guitar, piano, etc). One other pro tip for these: you can slow down or speed up the videos on YouTube without distorting the sound by clicking on settings (the gear icon at the bottom of the video) and selecting "playback speed". This is a perfect way to keep classes engaged and "up the ante" by repeating the same song but speeding up each time! Of course switching the parts/ notes they're playing is another great way to change it up and keep everyone on their toes. 3. posters I don't do this often but every now and then, especially if I'm under the weather and I don't think the students will be too high-energy, I'll have the class make posters to hang up on the walls. Sometimes I'll have them make posters for an upcoming music event to hang up around the building, including reminders about concert etiquette. Other times I have them make posters about something they're learning: instrument families, a musical element, music vocabulary, etc. Bonus: it's great to have student work to actually display on the walls because most of our student work isn't visual, and administrators (and kids!) love to see that in the classroom! 4. soundscapes There are so many ways to do soundscapes- I've written an entire blog post just about all the ways to do them here- but the most basic one I pull out most often in this scenario is to write down names of places on slips of paper, fold them up and have students draw one from a jar, and then have small groups come up with a soundscape to match that scene using only their voices and found objects they have in the room. So for example if a group has the beach, they may make the sounds of waves by flapping a piece of paper, seagulls with their voice, beachballs getting hit by hitting a chair, etc. If you're reading this right now and thinking ha, I wish I had a sequenced curriculum laid out for me that I could even stray from in the first place! Don't worry, you're definitely not alone- I talk to so many music teachers every week who are planning their lessons week by week or even day by day from scratch! You can get my complete curriculum with all the plans and materials for the entire school year for K-6 general music here, or learn exactly how to make your own in this free e-course here. I hope these lesson ideas are helpful the next time you find yourself in one of those situations- I'll be using a few of them this week after I finish my concerts and try to finish the week until our vacation!
Channel your inner jazz singer with this cardboard tube microphone craft for kids inspired by Billie Holiday for Black History Month.
Try using rhythm games in your music classroom with these sets of rhythmic notation cards
Lego is such a brilliant toy! Teachers often use it to teach maths and so it’s also an excellent way to teach rhythm and notation with these lego beats music manipulatives. How To Use Lego Music Manipulatives Younger children find the chunky ‘Duplo’ easier to manage so it’s best to start off […]
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.
...enhanced learning through tactile means. Here are a few of the most frequently used music manipulatives in my elementary classroom...
