Five Favorite First Day Activities for Music Class

If you're like me, you are thinking a LOT about the first day of school, because it is coming up soon! The first day of class is important for discussing rules and procedures, but it doesn't have to be ALL about rules. Today, I'm blogging with five of my favorite first day activities for music class.

Name games

I have 700+ students, and I do know all of their names...but after not seeing them for a couple months, it's good to have a refresher! I wrote about a couple of my name game favorites in this blog post (which also has helpful tips for remembering so many names!) One of my favorite name games is "Jump in, Jump out"; here's a video of the game below:

David Row at Make Moments Matter also just recorded a podcast all about name games!

Talk to kids

My first several years of teaching, I was so focused on reviewing rules and procedures, going down class lists, etc., that I didn't take the time to ask kids what they had done this summer. Yes, it does take away instructional time, but it's SO good for building a rapport! You might not have time to ask every single kid what they did this summer, so you could say things like, "Raise your hand if you went to the beach this summer," or "Raise your hand if you went out of the state this summer," or "Raise your hand if you played video games this summer," and then, if time, have a few individual conversations from there (like "Sam, which video game did you play the most?" when you see Sam raising his hand.) I use an app called Smart Seat to do seating charts, and like to take pictures of half the class in the first lesson and half the class in the second lesson so they populate the seating chart. When I'm taking the pictures, I'll ask each kid what they did this summer.

Rhythm Ideas for the Music Room

Looking for fun ideas to practice rhythm in the music room? Are you tired of the same ol', same ol'? Below are four ideas from four of our bloggers!

From Linda:

I don’t know about you but I love creating form using word chains! I especially love using manipulatives that the students can rearrange to create their own composition. So go ahead and grab that stack of beanie babies you use for tone matching and steady beat activities and Let’s Make Music!

Set out 4 beanie babies in a row and have the students echo you. Each beanie baby will receive 2 beats. Rearrange the 4 and have the students echo you again. Continue the process substituting different beanies and changing the order.

Eventually, start speaking the A section “Let’s Make Music” while you are arranging four beanie babies.

More ideas for teaching notes on the treble clef staff

In our last blog post, five of our bloggers collaborated with some engaging ideas for teaching notes on the treble clef staff. In this blog post, we have more ideas from more of our bloggers!

From Melody: I love using chants to help my students learn the treble notes. As they’re learning and memorizing the chant, they’re learning and memorizing the lines and spaces, without even realizing it! Being able to name the lines and spaces quickly and easily is the goal, and once students are able to do this, their confidence rises and they are more excited than ever to sight-read new songs and piano pieces!

First, I teach each part of the chant by rote (first the lines, then the spaces), and as I say the letters of the lines and spaces, I play them on the piano to create an aural connection with the letters they are chanting. After working on the line notes, we follow up with a fun note-naming race worksheet, and then we do the same after learning the space notes. The students also love playing the line and space notes on the piano.

The first image shows the chant with the appropriate rhythms (for teacher use), and the second image shows the handout with visual elements that I give to the students. I try to incorporate as many different senses as possible to give students the best chance of remembering the the treble clef notes.

After students have memorized the chant and completed the note naming pages, we continue solidifying the line and space notes in subsequent lessons with a variety of fun (and sometimes silly!) activities incorporating their senses in multiple ways.

Click here to download the visuals above.