Teaching Music In Joy

Teachers have been asking me for years to share how I teach Kathryn Short's fabulous Rainbow Jump Bands! I have finally compiled my best tips, tricks and techniques into one easy to use resource! It includes a playlist of songs with tempos included, video links to my students jumping and written instructions on how to begin! You will need to purchase Rainbow Jump Bands before using this resource! Beware of imitation jump bands that don't stretch. The bands need to be strong and stretchy!

Music and Basketball have this in common: RHYTHM! I have been teaching note values, beat and rhythm using basketballs for years. Now, due to repeated requests from my music teacher friends, I have put four of those routines to paper so others can be guided through the process! This zipped file contains four basketball routines created for specific songs which are listed on each routine. MP3s are NOT included as that would be a violation of copyright. Songs include: All Shook Up by Elvis Pre

This is a K - 6 musical scope and sequence for the general music education classroom. It is one we worked on for over a year for our school district. (Updated 10-8-18) I am the only elementary music teacher in my district. This is a good starting point for any teacher who does not have a scope and sequence to follow. Please feel free to customize it to your school and your needs. This document is in Word format. It is customizable for anyone who downloads it!

These are UPDATED plans I leave for my substitute! I never know if I am going to have a "music person" in my room so these plans are do-able for ANY substitute teacher. I have a "Sub Tub" which contains the supplies mentioned on the paper. Those include pipe cleaners, books, CDs, sidewalk chalk and worksheets. The other supplies are easily seen in open storage around the room. I have included some new ideas in this updated version along with a substitute log for teachers to fill in what t

There is a new app called, "Would You Rather?" It gives you two (often strange) scenarios and asks which one "would you rather?" My family had a lot of fun playing this game long before there was an app for it! I thought it would be fun to create a musical activity page with interesting musical choices! The point of this activity is to get kids interacting with each other and thinking about musical concepts, ideas and vocabulary in a fun way! It would be so much fun to make up your own ve

Here are 40 basic music vocabulary words set to music and movement. I have created all of these over many years and use them every single day in my classroom! I have the words listed and how to sing, dance and move your way into understanding these words. My students love to perform these and firmly planted the meanings into their understanding because of the actions tied in with the words. I have several other resources on this site that go with this list. There are two packages of "Music

This is a simple Star-Spangled Banner fill-in-the-blank worksheet that has a word bank with definitions at the bottom of the page. I like to use this with 3rd graders each year for practice with vocabulary and writing! It's an easily accesible sheet for 3nd-4th or older if your students are not familiar with America's national anthem!

This is a part fill-in-the-blank, part matching and part answer-the-question worksheet or quiz on America's national anthem. The first part is the first verse with missing words. The missing words are written in the second section for matching with their meanings. The third section is a question section that is based on the top part of the worksheet. You can easily use this a worksheet to review as a class or as a quiz for your students to conclude a unit on "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Kids like candy and I like that they are associating speech with rhythm. This worksheet has students write the given candy names under the corresponding rhythms in the table. It also gives them opportunity to write their own favorite and line it up with a rhythm in a box! I also have a Pie Rhythm page and a Pizza Rhythm Page which is on my free list as I was inspired by a chart I saw on Pinterest.

This is a three page composition paper that will lead young students through a step-by-step process of composing an eight measure recorder piece! I created it for my 3rd graders who are beginning recorder players. It could be used for other instruments as well! The first page leads students through the process of creating four beat rhythm patterns for eight measures in AABA form. Rhythms are written in a table with eight boxes. The measures are numbered and the form is displayed with the B

Here are 5 more Rhythm Reading PowerPoints included in a Zip file. No music is included! You must purchase that yourself. (Copyright!) I use the original recordings by the artists purchased from iTunes. What IS included is 4 beat rhythm patterns with clapping, movement and body percussion suggestions! These are actual presentations I use in my classroom. We love them! Some include numbers for counting. Please feel free to add or change the numbers to fit the way you count rhythms in your cla

There are 6 Rhythm Reading PowerPoints included in this Zip file. No music is included! You must purchase that yourself. What IS included is 4 beat rhythm patterns with clapping, movement and body percussion suggestions! These are actual presentations I use in my classroom. We love them. The songs each PowerPoint was designed for are the following: 1 - Do You Love Me by The Contours 2 - Down On The Corner by Creedence Clearwater Revival 3 - Hippy, Hippy Shake by The Swinging Blue Jeans 4

Here is a grading rubrics for your music classroom. We used this when we were still using paper grades. It assesses several areas of behavior and music mastery in the elementary music classroom.

I've been working on this Powerpoint for a long time! I am always trying to tie the history to the music. This contains a timeline of many of America's Patriotic songs along with a bit of history on each one and the most familiar lyrics sung. Songs contained are: Yankee Doodle The Star-Spangled Banner America Dixie The Battle Hymn of the Republic America, the Beautiful The Stars and Stripes Forever Anchors Aweigh Grand Old Flag The Caisson Song and The Army Goes Rolling Along The Marine's H

This music lesson plan template contains the National Standards for music in the right hand column, the focus of the lesson in the middle column and extras that are customizable in the left hand column. The entire page is customizable for your school setting.

This set of musical word wall words have the meaning printed on the cards in a smaller font. Some are very creative like crescendo and decrescendo which get larger and smaller in letter size. There are 41 words in this basic set. You can surely add to it. I have two other sets that have more words.

I teach my students to memorize the presidents of the United States in chronological order. I have heard many different tunes used with this endeavor but I felt Yankee Doodle was the most appropriate since it was our first Patriotic song. I have listed each president with their number, dates of service and their party affiliation. The president's last name is highlighted in red for the ease of identification. There is an MP3 included which I purchased from iTunes in karaoke form. This Powe

Here are 16 unique musical happy notes or caught being good cards. I created them with various fonts and clip art from the discovery education site. The borders are thick, making it easy to cut with a paper cutter. "Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com"

This is my version of a tricky test I found on-line. I made it for my 5th and 6th graders. You can really only give it once as the first question is the trick! Maybe you've seen test like this. I know my students will have fun with it. I hope yours do too!

Here are 7 songs all about teeth, sung to familiar tunes! The songs are about a lost tooth, a loose tooth, a tooth ache, pulling a tooth out, braces, cavities and new tooth! I have written out the title, the words and the tunes. No musical score is written out, nor will it be needed. They are super easy to sing!