Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Dear Music Box Friends,
I hope all of you have had huge success with your holiday lessons and shows and you are headed for a relaxing break!
January is a great time for Snowmen activities so today I am sharing an adorable PowerPoint for Five Little Snowmen, designed by our talented Music Box manager, Eric Young. This is from the book/CD In All Kinds of Weather, Kids Make Music. The Orff Orchestration (PreK-Grade 2) is also free in Music Box Downloads.
You know those thoughts you have while teaching, the ones you cannot say out loud to your class? Here are some I had during a “Story with Music” time at our holiday camp. I’m sure you will especially relate to the little girls who chose to be dancers the whole time. Haha. Teaching can be so entertaining.
We are offering our live summer training at a greatly reduced rate to full-time undergrad students, including ones who will start their first year as a music teacher in September. If you know of someone, encourage them to contact info@musicrhapsody.com. Most first year teachers need this boost before starting the challenge of the first year!
Thank you, as always, for your efforts to be the best for your students. I appreciate your support so much. If you have the opportunity to tell others about Music Box, I’d be grateful.
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Dear Music Box Friends,
From all of us at Music Rhapsody and Music Box, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah and a joyous holiday season!
Music Box, Music Box Downloads and the shop at Music Rhapsody will continue with 24/7 access for all of your orders, questions, and resources.
We will have lots of new content, ideas, and reminders of the tried and true favorites for your 2017 success in our next newsletter on January 6.
Enjoy a few of our 2-year-old soloists from their holiday show. Watch carefully how some enjoy it more than others!
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Happy 2017 Music Box Friends!
We have exciting plans for this year with lots of improvements to Music Box as well as the Music Rhapsody Membership area.
Movie time! Enjoy a peek at “Let it Snow” and then a funny story. Assigning students to create the parts of each character, rhythmic notation for the rhyme, and other Orff extensions are all possible. I left this one entirely up to the children at our winter camp.
Free this week to members is a New Year Song and Orff arrangement with a snowball passing game for solo singing. Enjoy learning a bit about Big Ben too. My Prek-3rd grade students love this.
Let’s start the year off with a Facebook contest. We know many of you are starting recorder with your students during the second half of the year. Enter to win our popular Recorder Rookies Lesson Pack 1 now with SMARTBoard Visuals. Click on the picture and follow the directions. We will announce the winner next week.
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Dear Music Box Friends,
You know materials are “keepers” when two things happen:
- When the children say “Again! Again!”
- When you look forward to the time of year when you get to present the lesson again!
This week, both happened for the old favorite, Five Little Snowmen, from In All Kinds of Weather, Kids Make Music book/CD. My PreK students LOVED playing the part of the sun (yellow scarves of course!), melting snowmen, or playing the Orff accompaniment. The new SMARTBoard visual just made the introduction of this activity a brand-new experience for me too.
We have a BRAND NEW category in Music Box Downloads: Digital Visuals! You will also find a BRAND NEW item: Digital Counting Set! Here are my 3 and 4-year-olds with their parents trying to play on the beat and concentrate on counting. We are using the old fashion felt board set for this lesson. This is from the Music Rhapsody Membership program.
Stay tuned after the video for a Friday the 13th story!
FREE this week to members from “Stories with Music“: Winter favorites: Froggy Gets Dressed, Snowy Day, Little Penguins Tale, and The Stranger in the Woods (no worries, it’s a snowman).
Aug 13, 2024 | Activities
Healthy Teacher with a Healthy Voice: When you have an awesome lesson plan and the props, instruments and puppets that make kids love your lesson and you love your job, Life is good! Except……this time of year, there are those days when you don’t really want to take back that scarf that has been sneezed on (make that scarves!) or pack up the puppet that got that surprise hug from the little cutie with the runny nose. The coughing child that quickly sat down next to you and then followed you for most of the class is also suspect of causing you an illness by the end of the day. How can we avoid getting sick?
How do we stay healthy so we can continue to do the job we love? First of all, just know that if you are new to teaching, its going to happen. New teachers are sick more often than experienced teachers. Older teachers have had it all already and we are strong fighters now!
Here’s some tips to cut down on the ill effects:
SLEEP! Get a good nights sleep, you just get sick easier if you are not running on your optimum high energy level.
WATER! Drink a lot of water!
EAT WELL! Eat great, fresh food (not processed fast food). Avoid sugar as much as possible.
WASH YOUR HANDS A LOT!
WIPE DOWN INSTRUMENTS, MATERIALS using a Clorox wipe.
Speak in a higher, lighter voice, try not to clear your throat. Cough drops are often high in sugar and syrup and not good for you. Try water instead.
Encourage parents to keep their children home if they are sick. Sometimes the ones who are sick at school were given some type of medication at home and then sent to school so the parent can work. This is making more kids (and the staff) sick.
For an article on “Saving Your Voice” and “Voice amplification”, and other tips and articles on this subject, use the Search feature in Music Box. www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com
