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Aileen Miracle
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January 30, 2019
Tips for Teaching First Grade Music
Learning centers · Lesson ideas · No comments
First graders are at such a fun age. They are curious, but can follow directions a bit better than their Kindergarten counterparts. They are excited, they are joyful, and they can really start diving into musical literacy! In today's blog post, I'm writing with tips for teaching first grade. Routine In this blog post , I wrote about my tips for teaching Kindergarten, which included routine. With first grade, routine is still important. Just like I do with Kindergarten, I start with a singing game, such as "Apple Tree" or "We are dancing," and then we do the song "…
November 03, 2018
Differentiation in the Music Classroom
Educational initiatives · Learning centers · Lesson ideas · No comments
The term "differentiation" has been used more and more often in education lately. What does it mean? How does it apply to the music room? According to Carol Ann Tomlinson--an expert on differentiation-- differentiated instruction is defined as factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan (from this blog post from Concordia University- Portland.) So what does this look like in the music classroom? I've heard many music teachers say that differentiation happens naturally in the music room. I agree...to a degree. There IS…
October 03, 2018
Giving students choice during centers
Learning centers · Student choice · No comments
I've been using centers for several years now, and have really enjoyed the student-centered learning environment and the chance to work with students one-on-one. In today's post, I'm writing about something new I've been trying: giving students choice during centers! So why give students choice during centers? In my experience, students really love the ability to choose what they do, when. In fact, just this week, after I told the students they get to choose, I had a student look at me incredulously and exclaim, "We get to choose?!?! That's COOL!" So how does it wo…
May 14, 2018
Ukulele Centers in the Music Room
Learning centers · Ukulele · No comments
I've been super excited to dive into ukulele this year, as I wrote about in this post . In today's post, I'm writing about something new I've tried recently: centers for ukulele! If you're wondering about centers in general, and how they should be set up, check out this post , as well as this helpful post by David Row at Make Moments Matter. I typically set up four centers in my room, around the perimeter, and we rotate every five or so minutes, so that students can go to all of the centers. I like to have my centers all be focused on one concept, or one instrument, so all fou…
March 09, 2017
Melodic Intervention 101
Freebies · Learning centers · melodic work · 1 comment
This past week, with my second graders, I have been doing centers to practice sol, la, mi, and do. Typically when I do centers (which you can read more about here ), I choose the groups and tell students when to rotate. Last week, though, I've let the students choose which group to go to and when to switch, and I have LOVED the results. It feels so student-centered, and the students take so much ownership in their learning and their choices! Today, I'm blogging about the set-up, the six centers, and how I provided intervention for those struggling melodically. Keep reading until the end…
March 17, 2015
Rhythm Intervention 101
Assessment · Learning centers · Rhythmic work · 7 comments
A few weeks ago, as I was looking at the results of a dictation for ta and ti-ti with my first graders, I saw that while most students "got it" and did very well, I still had a few in each class who seemed to struggle, who perhaps could dictate simple patterns but nothing beyond that. This always seems to happen--the struggling few--and in the past, I've shrugged and moved on. But this time, as I sat there, thinking about those kids, I thought of a grade-level teacher, and how they handle struggling students. I knew they didn't just shrug and move on....they kept trying! Of c…
September 12, 2014
Five Teaching Tips for Music Centers
Learning centers · Manipulatives · 9 comments
Even though I've been doing centers for a few years, I am still learning how most effectively to run a centers lesson in my music room. I've written a few blog posts about centers, which you can read here , but thought I'd offer five tips for doing centers in your music classroom. #1: Think about noise This week, I've been using materials from my fourth grade centers set, shown below: Two of the centers--the solfa manipulatives center and the instruments center--depend on students being able to hear. Here are a couple pictures of these centers: I knew they both involved being able …
June 29, 2014
Learning Centers in the Music Classroom
Learning centers · 2 comments
A couple years ago, I wrote this blog post about learning centers in the music room. Since then, I've been asked a few times to write another blog post about learning centers, so here goes! It wasn't until a few years ago that I began to really try to implement centers in my room. Although I was initially nervous, I have had so much fun (as have my students!) My lessons had been admittedly pretty teacher-centered until then, so centers allowed me to provide a more student-centered learning environment. Other benefits of using learning centers include: Promoting student independence and …
November 18, 2013
Autumn Manipulatives
Assessment · Kodaly · Learning centers · Manipulatives · Rhythmic work · 1 comment
Today, I'm excited to be joining Lindsay Jervis' linky party, to blog about autumn manipulatives for rhythm writing! I just love the dollar shelves at Target, not just for fun goodies for my daughters, but for teaching! Recently, I found bags of pumpkins, gourds, acorns, and leaves and decided I had to use them in my classroom! I bought seven bags and stored them in fun buckets I also found at Target, like this: Then I used them in learning centers with my first graders. They just learned ta and ti-ti, so at one of the centers, the students found the two buckets. Then, they emptied the b…
November 13, 2013
Centers for rhythmic practice
Kodaly · Learning centers · Rhythmic work · No comments
This week, I started learning centers with my fourth graders to practice syncopa (or eighth/ quarter/ eighth combination.) It's been a lot of fun for the kids (and I was able to individually assess every student!) so today, I'm sharing the four centers: #1: Rhythm Carousel This is a wonderful activity I learned from my friend Sue Leithold-Bowcock. I recently blogged about her sessions at the MKMEA conference; she is always full of amazing ideas (and I have to say, she is VERY entertaining!) The idea for Rhythm Carousel is this: the class is split up into small groups, and each student ha…