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Aileen Miracle

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October 22, 2017

Halloween Picture Books for the Music Room

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Since Halloween is just around the corner, I'm blogging today with four of my favorite picture books for the music room during Halloween! Two of the four books I'm blogging about aren't specifically Halloween books, but because of their theme, can work really well during this time of the year! Here goes! Go Away, Big Green Monster A few years ago, I saw this book being read at my daughter's daycare and fell in love with it! I decided it would be a great book to add instruments to...so here's what I do: First, I just read the book to students and we discuss it. Before the secon…

October 15, 2017

Beat passing games

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I've been posting lately about great games and hand jives for upper elementary , and in today's post, I'm writing about beat passing games, which are also a favorite of upper elementary students! So what are beat passing games? They are games in which the beat is passed from one person to the next. Typically, at the end, the last person to be hit is "out."  They are GREAT for reinforcing steady beat. It is so much harder to pass the beat than it is to keep it on your lap, so whether your students have a solid foundation of beat since Kindergarten and need a challenge, or i…

October 08, 2017

Liza Jane: A great song for upper elementary

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Today, I'm sharing another one of my favorite songs for fourth and fifth grade...an old standard called "Liza Jane." I learned this song while in Kodály Level II at Capital University, with Bruce Swank. Here's the notation; it can also be found in 150 American Folk Songs . Additional verses: I’ve got a house in Baltimore, Lil’ Liza Jane. Street car runs right by my door, Lil’ Liza Jane. (Chorus) I’ve got a house in Baltimore, Lil’ Liza Jane. Brussels carpet on the floor, Lil’ Liza Jane. (Chorus) I’ve got a house in Baltimore, Lil’ Liza Jane. Silver doorplate on the door, Lil’ Liza Jan…

October 01, 2017

Sandy's Mill: A fun song for upper elementary

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Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite songs for fourth and fifth grade...a fun song called "Sandy's Mill." I learned this song while in Kodaly Level III at Capital University, with Joan Litman.  Here's the notation: The song is great for several concepts. Typically, I would only pull out the hardest rhythmic concept from a song to teach it, which in this case would be ti-tam, or eighth/ dotted quarter. But because the first two measures only have tika-ti, or 2 sixteenths/ 1 eighth, I've used it for tika-ti. You could use it for tim-ka, or dotted eighth/ sixteenth, but …

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