Elementary Music, K-2

Easy + Fun Ways To Teach Sol + Mi With Star Light, Star Bright

Star Light, Star Bright is a fun folk song to teach kindergarten, first grade, and second grade elementary music students about sol and mi or quarter and eighth notes. Although the song is quite common, these lessons are not. Make sure you read down to the extensions so that you get all of the ideas… Continue reading Easy + Fun Ways To Teach Sol + Mi With Star Light, Star Bright

Elementary Music, K-2, Lessons

Little Silver Moon : a Chinese Folk Song Lesson for Quarter Rest

Do you ever find a folk song that you didn’t know existed, but once you did, you couldn’t believe you hadn’t ALWAYS had it? That is how Little Silver Moon is for me. I discovered it at the beginning of this year, and I am now obsessed-- and so are my second graders! Little Silver… Continue reading Little Silver Moon : a Chinese Folk Song Lesson for Quarter Rest

3-5, Elementary Music, K-2, Lessons

Elementary Music Lesson: Breezes are Blowing

Breezes are Blowing is a Luiseno Indian Rain song that I used with my second and third graders. The rhythms are very simple, but the melody is a bit complex for those grades-- it includes low la, do, re, sol, and la-- but it was really great to talk about form and improvisation, so that's… Continue reading Elementary Music Lesson: Breezes are Blowing

Elementary Music, Games, K-2, Lessons

Free Music Lesson: Grizzly Bear

Teaching dynamics in your elementary music class? Then you need to teach your music students the song Grizzly Bear. This song is one of the main reasons that I decided to do a bear and mouse unit for my kindergarten and first graders this year. We did Grizzly Bear, Hickory Dickory Dock, Mouse Mousie, We're… Continue reading Free Music Lesson: Grizzly Bear

Elementary Music, K-2, Lessons

Free K-2 Music Lesson: Animal Form

This may sound strange, but form is my favorite thing to teach students in my elementary music room. There are so many ways that you can teach it—through movement, drawing, manipulatives, etc. My favorite of the these is definitely movement. This is a lesson that I did during my student teaching last year. It was… Continue reading Free K-2 Music Lesson: Animal Form