TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Digital recorders in the music classroom

There are so many possibilities for using digital recorders in the music classroom. Students can get instant feedback on their performances, small groups can work collaboratively and share their contributions with the teacher, and learners can bring lessons home to hear the same information more than once. All of these ideas are shared in detail […]

FUN FRIDAY: Tickle the ivories (via keyboard)

Virtual piano is a neat tool for music teachers for sure but also a fun choice activity. How about letting kids set the content you are studying (water cycle, adding fractions) to music?!

FUN FRIDAY: Line up tunes

I really do try to give attention to as many blogs as possible throughout the year, but some sites keep me coming back again and again for their great ideas. This is not the first time I have visited First Grader…at Last! and it won’t be the last because Sarah Cooley’s ideas are just too […]

Differentiating with station teaching

Today, I am going to feature one of the very best differentiation tools available to K-12 teachers: learning stations. Our featured post, therefore, is this short article by Michelle McFarland-McDaniels on setting up this model in the classroom.

A game of tag in music education

We don’t feature enough content for music teachers on this blog, so I am thrilled to share a really neat lesson for students in K-12 music education today. As Emily on Emily’s Music Blog shares, this game of musical tag can be adapted in many different ways and can be used with many different age […]

Notebooking the election?

If you enjoy paging through scrapbooks and think that artifacts, photos, and journal entries are helpful tools for learning about a person or experience, you will appreciate today’s idea: notebooking in social studies. Notebooking can be an effective way to differentiate instruction, as it allows different students to create, collect, and choose different writings, illustrations, […]

Second grade subtraction dance

We are kicking off the week with a cute post about adding impromptu movement to your lessons.

FUN FRIDAY: Do the rhythm shuffle

Music teachers are going to love this cool beanbag toss game that can be differentiated for different students, classes, or grade levels. To play, students toss a beanbag on the board and provide a response based on where the bag lands. To adjust the level of difficulty, you can have different requirements for different players. […]

FUN FRIDAY: Doing the hokey pokey with blends

To practice blending sounds, Marna at Crayon Bits, sings the Hokey Pokey with her students. She shares an example of the words she substitutes into the song, helping her students practice blending the letters: You put a (s- say letter name) in, you put a (m – say letter name) in, you put a (s […]

TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Glogging your musical past, present and future

Today’s project comes from Ms. Wirth at Wendell Elementary. This teacher assigned students to make their own personal music history Glogs, as a way to incorporate music experience and technology. Students can add anything to their music Glog, including pictures of their favorite musicians, inspirational music quotes, playlists, and videos/anecdotes of their own music experiences. […]