The Yellow Brick Road Blog is a website dedicated to providing music teachers with fun education resources for serious music literacy.
Origins of the cup song It’s a craze that has swept over schools everywhere and contrary to popular belief, the […]
Use this free listening map of Astor Piazzolla's Libertango to teach timbre to your elementary music students.
This is one of my favorite lessons. I’ve taught it in class before, and I have used it in several of my college courses as well. I have included all the elements needed to teach this lesson. …
I share about five things that are easy to do with almost every folk song that help to extend your teaching, expand student knowledge, and make life fun!
Welcome to the Sing Books with Emily Singable Bookshelf P-S. Click underlined titles in blue for links to posts about the titles that include music, song origin, activity ideas, performer notes, an…
werkblad taal groep 4 woordzoeker thema muziek
From training your ears to improving your sight-reading skills, these apps will help you learn to play the violin faster. Explore them now!
I’m all about making learning interesting and fun. I love applying knowledge to something and changing the “rules”. It was my first year teaching and I was all hyped up about comi…
Many educators can fall into the trap of waiting for the “perfect” time to start planning for the year ahead. There’s never a bad time to think carefully and creatively about your goals for your students, and how best to implement them. I would suggest that wherever you are in your year, it is the
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Fourth grade class wrote some terrific "sound songs". I got this idea from another music teacher. Thank you! It was a hit.
Werkblad tellen groep 1-2 plaatjes tellen thema muziek van Wiesewijs
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.
In this blog post I'm going to talk about what I think are the five best activities you can use in your learning centers rotations!
Five fun and action-filled circle games to practice rhythm, pitch, and more with your elementary music students.
Do you want to include more movement in your classroom? Are you looking for a powerful movement prop to get kids out of their heads…
Starting to play the cello as an adult? Here are 10 cello compositions that will allow you to feel like a “real” cellist – even if you make mistakes now and then.
Cumulative songs are great for children because they feature built-in repetition, help with recall and provide a mental challenge (keeping track of all those lyrics!), and help children develop their singing voices. Here are 17 cumulative songs to use with your children's choir or elementary music c
Free music symbols themed I spy game for kids - a fun music theory game for kids
Composition is one of those areas that actually lends itself to distance learning in many ways. Students can explore individually and take as much time as they want to work on their compositions, they can express themselves more freely if they're hesitant to share with classmates, and if they have technology access, they have so many more tools at their fingertips than they would have in most general music classrooms. Whether you're sending home packets, putting lessons online, or teaching live virtual classes, here are some of my favorite lesson ideas for teaching music composition. 1. Online Teaching With online teaching there are so many options for composition! If you're able, I recommend creating a video demonstrating how to use whatever online tool you're asking students to use by showing your screen (with something like zoom or screencastify). Give students a clear but simple direction for their composition and set them loose! My top recommendation by far is chrome music lab song maker. It is so easy to use even for the youngest students, the notes are color-coded to match boomwhacker colors, and students can save and send their compositions to their teacher very easily! There are a million ways to use this tool for assignments, but my favorite use is to give students a specific set of solfege notes to use to create a melody (which varies depending on the grade). I show them which colors they can and cannot use in their melody and then send them on their way. It's the perfect way to experiment with composing using the specific solfege notes that they've been working on this year! My other favorite online composition tool is mario paint music composer. I love that it has lots of different timbres to choose from represented by different icons, and it has you put the notes on the actual staff (including treble and bass clef)! This one is perfect for upper elementary and middle school to practice using specific letter names in both clefs, compose in specific time signatures (there are several choices in the program), or write music for a video game (more on that below). It's also easy to save songs with this program, and there are several choices including saving to a url or as a file download. One of my favorite units for upper elementary / middle school is actually perfect for distance learning: music of the movies! Students can watch YouTube videos to learn about movie music composers, explore how music affects a film, and learn about Foley artists (who create live sound effects), then they can choose music to go with a specific scene of a silent film, or create music to go with the scene themselves (using one of the online tools above) and practice adding their own sound effects using objects around their house. I have all the materials and plans for this unit here. Another of my favorites from brick and mortar teaching that translates well to distance learning: video game music composition. Students create the concept for a video game and then add music to go with each scene. In the lessons I do (resources linked above) I also have them explore video game composing and learn about some famous composers for video games. It's a great way to get students thinking about communicating a clear image through their music, and it definitely sparks their imaginations. 2. Packets / No Tech If you're sending home packets or hard copy assignments that don't require any technology, composition is still a great way to go. Send home one or two very simple composition worksheets (you can see some examples of what I use here) that include clear directions and a rhythm/ pitch bank so they can practice notating independently. You can also encourage creativity with a choice board like this one (feel free to copy the image below for your own use!): 3. Virtual Teaching If you're teaching live classes virtually, you can of course use any of the ideas above by explaining and showing the assignment and then sending them off on their own to work on their compositions, but there are other fun things you can do as well, like having share sessions where students share the compositions they've created before your class session, or improv sessions where students take turns improvising. It's impossible to perform things simultaneously but taking turns will work even over video calls! I hope this gives you some ideas to use, regardless of your situation, to get students composing. If you've come up with more great composition lesson ideas for distance learning, please share them in the comments below. Don't forget, I'm compiling all of my posts for school closures into one page for easy access- head to that page for more ideas:
In this blog post I'm going to talk about what I think are the five best activities you can use in your learning centers rotations!
Welcome! I am a Kodály inspired and Kodály aspiring music teacher. I aspire to create a environment of "Music for Everyone!", where children love to sing, play, move, create, read, write, and understand music! Here I will share my thoughts and experiences in the elementary music classroom. I hope to inspire others with ideas towards teaching children the joy and love of a life filled with music!
Credit- Raymondsanti Students in grades K-4 began the Lion King unit this Monday during Arts Enrichment time. Arts Enrichment is an ...
The 1st day of music class can be really exciting, or terrifying-- for the teacher I mean! Find tips, tricks, and activities for the 1st day of music.
Pick a musical pumpkin from the patch and composer your own original rhythm! Your elementary music students will love composing rhythms with this fall-themed rhythm writing activity! This music game with make a great addition to your rhythm centers during the upcoming season! It comes ready to use out of the package. Included in this listing: (4) 8.5"x 4.25" cards printed on high quality 100# cardstock in a glossy finish (24) quarter note pumpkins (24) joined pumpkins (24) quarter rest pumpkins (1) latch-top box* with activity label Pumpkins are made from acrylic and measure slightly less than 1”. *Colors may vary depending on inventory.
