Our puppet friends are ready to lead festive lessons! Pitch matching holiday treats, playing jingle bells, leading the sleigh ride, going over the river and through the woods, and the special guest to hear if the concert songs are ready!
Here’s Cocoa the Horse with Lynn for reminders of their favorites.
And don’t forget Donnie the Donkey can also lead and eat treats!
Loudly sings the donkey on Thanksgiving Day, if you do not feed him, this is what he’ll say “Hee-Haw, hee-haw, hee-haw hee haw hee haw!
Books and puppets mentioned are in the shop, use this coupon code HOLIDAYTEACHERS for 10% off. Music Rhapsody Members, this gives you an additional 10% off your year round discounts.
Save The Dates For This Unique Professional Development Opportunity!
Redondo Beach, CA – June 26-28
Immerse yourself in singing, moving, playing and creating early childhood and elementary lessons from an active Orff approach.
Enjoy our amazing location! Just fly into LAX and it’s a 20-25 minute cab ride down the coast to our beautiful beach hotel. You will have all you need and want right there!
Happy Spring! Music Box is full of ideas for Earth Day, Easter, and Spring!
A teacher asked if my lessons plans work in elementary schools, since the videos I share are from my small studio classes. YES! Our elementary schools don’t allow video recording, so in our Music Rhapsody Studio Classroom it’s much more convenient to set up cameras. (Just remember, if you see wiggling and squirming, the children have just come from a full day of school! Ha.)
This week, my Rhythm Readers classes and I had a great time playing “Pease Porridge Hot”. Take a look at some of the props we used as notation! The porridge cups are used for the beat, spoons for the rhythm, and rhythm sticks are used for barlines.
The student’s work below shows the rhythm for “Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.”
Here’s a fun game we played with the rhyme in a first grade class. Half the class placed the children in the order of the rhythm of the rhyme. A pot holding one spoon is one sound on a beat (“pease”), two spoons is two sounds on the beat or eighth notes (por-ridge), and sitting down is a rest. So much fun!
Reminder!! The price for SUMMER LIVE TRAINING increases after April 15. (Returning Teachers are half tuition). Hope you can join me for 4 full jam-packed days!
Many teachers ask, “what do we do when we don’t have snow in the winter months and the curriculum is all about snow and cold weather?” Some even go: “my students can’t relate to snow songs! They’ve never seen it!” We think this is a great opportunity to share pictures and props and let the learning about other climates happen!
Music Rhapsody is in Southern California by the beach. We don’t get snow but that doesn’t stop us from pretending we do! Classroom props are our best friend during the winter months. Here are some snowy ideas on how to create a winter wonderland in your classroom! Download our mini workshopfrom October 2022 for more on this topic.
Let It Snow!
Cotton balls and a parachute are great to make it snow in the classroom. Cotton balls are easy to pick up and use again and again. Use recorded music such as “ Let it Snow. ” (Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn)
Paper Plate Ice Skates
“Ice skating” on the thin, cheap paper (not plastic!) plates is always fun (works well on carpet). Skating from A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi is awesome for paper plate skating! Consider forward and backwards, spinning, figure eight, etc!
Paper Snowflakes
Use props like paper snowflakes for rhythmic notation for snow songs such as Snow (Yuki) and White Feathers from In All Kinds of Weather Kids Make Music and Each Little Snowflake from Holiday Songs and Winter Adventures. Music Rhapsody Members, Snow (Yuki) can be found in your Big Kids and Young Musicians curriculum in your member area.
Snow Cloud and White Feathers
Wrap a strip of white fur around a hand (frame) drum and fill with white feathers. When the feathers fall, the children play their instruments (I like metals such as finger cymbals, triangles, metallophones and glockenspiels for sparkly, glistening music!). See In All Kinds of Weather Kids Make Music for the song and activity White Feathers. Music Rhapsody Members, this activity can be found in your Big Kids and Young Musicians curriculum in your member area.
Puppets Galore!
Wintery puppets like the snowy owl are great additions to help to present and lead snow activities. Snowy the Owl is a must have prop to present and direct snow activities. Also great for pitch matching!
Eensy Weensy Spider is a huge annual hit for solo singing and solo playing by the entire class using our amazing little glockenspiels! E.W. Spider Visuals are FREE this week to all Music Box Members. MR Members, this can be found in Module 1 of Big Kids and Young Musicians. (Also in In All Kinds of Weather, Kids Make Music Book/CD)
And… the Very Busy Spider Lesson Plan is FREE this week (until 10/11) in Music Box!
Grade 2-4
Here’s a glimpse at two (watch both videos in the playlist!) summer trainings after we had created a spider web out of a yarn ball as a part of The Very Busy Spider.
Every time we sang the phrase “The spider kept on spinning,” the yarn ball was rolled to someone across the circle. (Remember!!! Hold the yarn before you roll the ball again!) This video shows the very end, when the spider catches the bugs.
Listen for the solos in and Orff instruments (in the second playlist video), and important parts of the story!
There are some great discussions going on in Music Box right now. Classroom management, puppets, gathering drum and more. Get in on the conversation!
And while you’re in the Box, check out FIVE FREE downloads for something special in March, especially St. Patrick’s Day. From preschool to elementary, singing, moving, ukulele, recorder and Orff, I’m sure you’ll want one or download all of them!
Here’s a Puppets With a Purpose video to demonstrate the Power of Puppets in the Music Room.
Members, use your coupon codes in Music Box to receive 10-25% off at the Music Rhapsody Shop.
Just a reminder, whether you are new to training or a returning teacher, you have until March 15 to get the lowest tuition on this summer’s live training.
As always, thanks for your readership, membership, and friendship!
