Kindergarten students love using instruments! Here are 5 tried and true rhythm activities to get your little ones engaged in music class.

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.

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.

Try using rhythm games in your music classroom with these sets of rhythmic notation cards

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…

Pool noodle rhythm spinners are a cheap and easy DIY hands-on resource to add to your elementary music classroom!

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!

Do you have a favorite rhythm game or activity to use in your music lessons? Rhythm is something that always needs review, so you can never have too many

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.

My middle schoolers LOVE games. When I started teaching, I thought that middle schoolers might be too advanced for games, but I was wrong! My oldest students beg me for game days all the time. Here…

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!

Write for the NAfME Blog SEARCH & FILTER Search Category Subscribe to NAfME Notes Subscribe to NAfME Notes, our biweekly e-newsletter, to receive highlights from the blog and other NAfME news in your inbox. Subscribe Now Write for the NAfME Blog Interested in sharing your experience with the music education…

Fifteen school themed ad lib worksheets great for homework assignments, extra credit, and language arts skills practice.

Playing instruments in elementary music class is an integral part of the general music curriculum. Get the activities and ideas in this post.

DIY Song Cubes to help children learn music "old favorites" and practice finding and keeping the beat; for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.

This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same and I get a small commission. Yay! (Please see my/our full disclosure for further information.) Looking for simple and fun music lessons? These movement activities for 2-3 grade elementary music class are just the ticket! These lessons are for second and third grade. They will… Continue reading The Best Movement Activities for 2-3 Grade Elementary Music Class

Outside activities for music class can be just as engaging as activities that you plan for inside the music room. Sing, dance, play and assess in the sunshine. Nine practical ideas for beautiful days in music class.

By now you know how much I love to use props in the music room. Lately I’ve been experimenting with the parachute. I’m sure I’ll discover lot’s of new ways to use it in my classroom as I “kid” test the activities. So, I came up with ten musical parachute activities for the music classroom. […]

Write for the NAfME Blog SEARCH & FILTER Search Category Subscribe to NAfME Notes Subscribe to NAfME Notes, our biweekly e-newsletter, to receive highlights from the blog and other NAfME news in your inbox. Subscribe Now Write for the NAfME Blog Interested in sharing your experience with the music education…

It's summer time!! I haven't blogged in a while because I've been working on some really great resources. (And enjoying the fact that I am no longer a first year teacher!) I am almost done,but until then, here is a great first day of school/music class game. This is an icebreaker and I am planning to use it with my upper primary/middle school classes. Here is a link to the pdf of this worksheet. This is on Google Docs. Just open it and under file, click download! Enjoy!

Music theory worksheets are valuable tools for individuals who are learning or studying music. These worksheets provide structured exercises that focus specifically on note values. With a range of activities and exercises tailored to different skill levels, music theory worksheets help students grasp the concept of note values and their significance in creating rhythm and melodic patterns. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced musician, these worksheets are designed to enhance your understanding of note values and improve your musical performance.

Here are some examples of body percussion and why it's important to teach this skill, along with 7 simple activity ideas.

Check out this post for creative and exciting ways to add scarves into your music activities. Also, find some specific scarf music examples.

Here's a list of fun activities you can do with preschool and kindergarten using rhythm sticks!

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.

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 […]

Five fun and action-filled circle games to practice rhythm, pitch, and more with your elementary music students.

Class Openers for Elementary Music. Organized Chaos. Fun ways to establish a routine for the beginning of each elementary general music class as a warm-up and allow student leadership as well.

Movement lessons your fourth and fifth grade music students will want to do. These are simple & easy lessons for elementary music class.

I’m sharing some fun ball music and movement activities. I'm using a Balloon ball. All you need is a balloon and you are ready for some fun!

Learn how to practice rhythms with this budget-friendly and fun rhythm game in your elementary music classroom.

Do you need a fun first day of school activity for your music class?? Print out this survey and you are ready to go! Students can work independently or in groups. You can even make a game out of it. This is a great way to get to know your students at the beginning of the year and build a great rappo...

Discover different & affordable ways to DIY with a standard pool noodle to enrich your elementary music classroom!

It happens at every level, at every school I’ve ever taught in. A student asks, “can we play freeze dance today?” I’m always torn. I want my students to have fun and …

Here are several summer music camp activities you can do with group classes or camps over the summer. They can be use with a group of different ages.

If you're starting centers in elementary music class, then you may need some ideas. These are my favorite rhythm centers for general music!

Musicians of all ages will enjoy our FREE printable Musical Instruments Word Search Puzzle!

The 6th graders have just finished up a unit project on Musical Styles. The goal of this project was to get the students to explore music outside of the country/pop/rock bubble that we tend to be in in our small town. I also wanted them to listen to music more closely to analyze things like the meaning of the lyrics, why & how music is used in different situations, and where they hear music. I gave the students 4 projects to choose from. The project was to be done mostly at home, but after starting the project, I realized that I could do the project in school next year using the classroom tablets each student has a putting music into a Dropbox (something new I'm just learning how to use). After starting the project, I realized there were a lot of things I wanted to change for next year or just make more specific. I have listed those things in red. Overall, I really enjoyed the project and for my first year trying it, I think it went pretty well. The projects options were: Soundtrack of My Life (lesson from TeachersPayTeachers-my document is a slightly modified version of the download): Students created a soundtrack of songs that had lyrics that related to their lives. They had to explore the meaning behind the lyrics and label what style of music each song was. After doing this project, I realized that it didn't really expose students to any new styles of music, so it didn't really fit the theme of my project. However, it was still fun to see their answers! Musical Interests Survey Students created a 10 question survey about musical styles and had to survey 10 people from at least 3 different age groups. When they were finished, they graphed their findings. Most students created very simple graphs on notebook paper (I realized we needed to have a discussion about using a ruler!) and had questions that were open ended so they were hard to graph. Next year, I'll tell them to make their questions multiple choice or keep their answers to one word so they are easier to graph.  One of the most creative graphs I received! Music Journal For one week, students kept a journal of all of the music they heard each day. They were supposed to record music in stores, businesses, on commercials, or in classrooms. I encouraged them to record at least 3 per day (the problem with saying that was every single student turned in ONLY 3 examples for each day). At the end of the week, they had to write a one-page reflection on what they noticed. Some students were very observant, and noticed that the dynamics of the music being played differed by the size of the store. They also noticed that the style of music was generally selected to fit the overall likes of their desired customers (ex: a punk clothing store in the mall played loud, punk music. Not country or jazz!) Although a few good recordings were made, several of the students just recorded the music they heard on Pandora or the radio, not music they heard by chance. Something to make more specific next time! Explore 3 New Styles This was probably the best project for accomplishing my main goal: exposing students to new music. Each student had to pick 3 styles of music they don't normally listen to and then find 3 songs from those styles that they liked. They then researched the song and presented it to the class. This is where I used the Dropbox and had several different examples of music on there for them to listen to if they couldn't find new music on their own. The songs presented were very original and it was fun to hear what they had picked. The only change I would make to this project is teaching the kids how to better articulate "why" they liked a piece of music. Most of them could only come up with answers like, "it had a good beat" or "I liked the way he sang it". I realized I haven't really taught them the vocabulary words to explain what they wanted to say. As I said, overall I felt it was a fun project, it just needs a bit of tweaking before next year. I tried to create a rubric that met all 4 projects. Here is the one I used and I just made some modifications as I was grading. I will post a copy of the rubric so you get a general idea, but just know that it is not a perfect rubric and definitely needs some changes.  

I love using body percussion activities, so I am sharing some teacher tips and ways to use them in your classes.

Here are a bunch of ideas for music class activities for grades K-4 to keep kids engaged in May. Summer's fast approaching, but meaningful music education is still possible! Check out these tips, resources, and musical ideas for your elementary students.

Truth or Dare Music Jenga. Organized Chaos. Fun and engaging game for elementary and middle school to review concepts. Could be used for sub plans, centers, or a full class game.

Reinforce music theory note names with these Colorful Music Worksheets: COLOR by MUSIC NOTES and RESTS. Excellent for your Music Lessons and they make a beautiful display in your music class room This set contains 16 MUSIC Coloring Worksheets ♫ ♫ Coloring sheets are such a favorite with young musicians ♫ ♫ The 16 coloring pages consist of the following music symbols: ** Whole note ** Whole rest ** Half note ** Half rest ** Quarter note ** Quarter rest ** Eighth note ** Eighth rest ** Sixteenth note ** Sixteenth rest ** Sharp ** Flat ** Natural ** Treble (G) clef ** Bass (F) clef ** Alto or Tenor (C) clef An excellent addition to your music sub tub Download the PREVIEW to see what notes and rests are included in the coloring sheets! ********************************************************************** If you’d like this resource with British Terminology CLICK HERE ********************************************************************** To check out MORE COLOR by MUSIC RESOURCES CLICK HERE ********************************************************************** Related Products ⭐ Christmas Music Activities: 26 Christmas Music Coloring Pages ⭐ Christmas Music Coloring Sheet ⭐ Easter Music Coloring Sheets: 26 Music Coloring Pages ⭐ Halloween Music Coloring Sheets: 26 Halloween Music Coloring Pages ⭐ Halloween Music Coloring Sheets: 12 Music Coloring Pages: Music Mystery Art ⭐ New Year Music: 26 New Year Music Coloring Pages ⭐ Summer Music Coloring Sheets: 26 Music Coloring Pages ⭐ Thanksgiving Music: 26 Thanksgiving Music Coloring Pages ⭐ Winter Music: 26 Winter Music Coloring Pages ********************************************************************** Check out more quality, ready-to-use resources: MORE Resources for your Music Class! ********************************************************************** CLICK on the green FOLLOW ME button which is located next to the MTR logo. Be the first to know when new resources become available! Follow me on: PINTEREST FACEBOOK The MTR BLOG Thank you for visiting my store! Kim Maloney MTR #mtrColorByMusic #mtrMusicTheory ********************************************************************** Customer credit: To be eligible for TPT credit to use on future purchases: Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to log in). Beside each purchase, you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it, and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. That’s all you need to do! You will now receive email updates from the MusicTeacherResources store. *************************************************************************** Terms of Use Published 2015 by MusicTeacherResources, ACT, Australia. Copyright © Kim Maloney. All rights reserved by the author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.

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.

Hurray! We are back in school and back to making music! This week my students learned how to do the newspaper dance. We started with a section of the paper, unfolding it and laying it flat. This was our "dance floor". Students then could dance in their space. Before we started, each group decided what they considered to be "dancing". Most groups said that to be dancing you had to move your arms and legs in some fashion. And so the dancing began... Now, as fun as that was...it was just getting started. Next, we stepped off the newspaper and folded it in half and stepped on again. After a while, students had to move in very creative ways to stay on the newspaper. We had a great time defining "dance", practing making the fraction 1/2 and movin' and groovin' to some great tunes. With older students we created math sentences like "We are standing in 1/8th of the space that we started on." Some of my favorite tunes to use with this activity: "I Like to Move It" by Crazy Frog "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver "Get Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith "Happy" by Pharrell Williams "Best Years of Our Lives" by Baha Men "The Twist" by Chubby Checker "Goofy Goober Rock" by Spongebob "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles "Everything is AWESOME" from the Lego Movie "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks and Dunn Are you looking for movement ideas for that first week of school? How about ribbon dancing? You can create really inexpensive ribbons or streamers with plastic table cloths and pencils (or chopsticks or dowel rods or something of similar size. Check out THIS blog post to learn how to make them. Then check out these: This collection includes cards with pictures and cards with word prompts to use with your students. Pass out your scarves, ribbons or streamers and start the music. Then hold up the cards and let students choose how to interpret them. I also love to use other sets of movement cards that don't always have one correct way of being interpreted. I have several sets of Freeze Dance and Creative Movement cards that you might be interested in.

This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same and I get a small commission. Yay! (Please see my/our full disclosure for further information.) Looking for simple and fun music lessons? These movement activities for 2-3 grade elementary music class are just the ticket! These lessons are for second and third grade. They will… Continue reading The Best Movement Activities for 2-3 Grade Elementary Music Class