About
Aileen Miracle
Popular
Etiquetas
- Apps
- Assessment
- Band
- Bulletin boards
- Children's literature
- Choir
- Classroom decor
- Classroom management
- Composition
- Critical thinking
- DIY
- Educational initiatives
- End of year
- Favorite pins
- Folk dancing
- Freebies
- Group work
- Halloween
- Holidays
- Inspirational
- Instruments
- Instruments of the orchestra
- Interactive notebooks
- Kindergarten
- Kodaly
- Learning centers
- Lesson ideas
- Listening lessons
- Manipulatives
- melodic work
- Movement
- Multicultural music
- My room
- Note reading
- Orff
- Organization
- Parenting
- Planning
- Popular posts
- Programs
- Recorder
- Resolutions
- Rhythmic work
- Schedule
- SLO
- Social media
- Songs
- Start of Year
- Student choice
- Sub Plans
- Technology
- Ukulele
- Upper elementary
- Vocal exploration
January 30, 2013
Informances in the Music Room
Programs · 6 comments
This week has been a bit crazy, as I am not only rehearsing for my 3rd and 4th grade programs (which means I have 100+ kids at a time on risers, for close to an hour each day), I have also invited Kindergarten parents into my room for an "informance." So what exactly is an "informance"? It is a way to inform parents of what a typical music class is like. It is similar to a performance in that there is an audience, but instead of rehearsing set pieces like you would for a program, students simply participate in music class. It is a great way to educate your school community…
January 28, 2013
Who will be my valentine?
Holidays · Songs · No comments
It's almost February, which means it's almost Valentine's Day! A month or so ago, I posted "Songs and Activities for Valentine's Day," and just realized that I didn't add one of my favorites. I thought I'd share that with you today. The song is to the tune of "Bow Wow Wow." If you don't know "Bow Wow Wow," it goes like this: This is a great song for quarter rest, as well as for "re." The students are so excited when they do the dance for the first time and flip around to find their new partners! I learned the song "Who will…
January 16, 2013
Double double this that
Popular posts · Songs · 6 comments
My second year of teaching, I worked with a wonderful P.E. teacher named Laura who enjoyed cross-curricular teaching. Through the curtain, I often heard students doing jump rope games and hand jives. One of my favorites I heard her do was "Double double this that." You may have heard it before. It goes like this: The hand jive goes like this, with a partner: For “double,” hit both fists on partners’ fists. For “this,” hit both hands on partners’ hands. For “that,” hit back of both hands on back of partners’ hands. All motions are to the beat. At the time, I was still near Detroit (I lived …
December 18, 2012
Holiday Favorites
Children's literature · Holidays · 2 comments
This week, my students and I are in “singalong” mode, as we get ready for the holiday singalong on Friday afternoon (see this blog post with more information about putting together a singalong.) I thought I’d share some of my favorite activities and books for my winter holiday lessons. · “Feliz Navidad” book by Jose Feliciano and David Diaz: This is a beautiful picture book narrating the song “Feliz Navidad.” It appears to be out of print, but it can still be bought cheaply on Amazon and www.alibris.com (my favorite out-of-print children’s book website!) I I found it years ago at a book fair,…
December 06, 2012
When oh when is the holiday coming?
Holidays · Songs · 4 comments
There are many teachers out there who absolutely love to integrate the seasons and holidays into their lesson plans. I must confess, I’m not exactly one of them. While I love the change of the seasons, and I love the holidays, I don’t usually do that many songs and activities that are dependent upon the time of the year. Part of this has to do with curriculum—depending on whether I had the students the year before (since I teach with another music teacher), I may be teaching ta and ti-ti to my first graders in December one year, and in another year it might be November or January. I don’t wan…
December 06, 2012
Agenda for music lessons
Organization · 1 comment
Throughout my career, I've been on the board of several different music education organizations. Each board meeting is a great chance to see old friends, and help guide the future of the organization. At each board meeting, we receive an agenda of the items we will be discussing. During the meeting, I find myself looking occasionally at the agenda—seeing where we’ve been and what we still have left to discuss. Having this list calms me a bit; like many people, I enjoy knowing the direction of the meeting. I bring this up as a comparison to the students in our classrooms. For years, I have …
December 06, 2012
The musical alphabet and treble clef
Note reading · 1 comment
Recently I had a colleague ask me how I practiced the musical alphabet and the treble clef with my students. I typed up some activities for her and thought I'd go ahead and post it to my blog. First, here are some activities for helping students to get more comfortable with the musical alphabet (a special thank you to Joan Litman for many of these ideas!) Up and down the alphabet: Have the notes of the musical alphabet written on the board vertically. Start with A, end with G, and then write A again. The teacher points to the letters going up and down and the students say those letters (i.e…
December 06, 2012
Ghost Melodies
Composition · Kodaly · Vocal exploration · No comments
I'm always looking for ways to include vocal exploration in my lessons--especially with my younger students. Vocal exploration is a great way to help students find their head voices. One of my favorite vocal exploration activities is ghost melodies. For this, you can draw a ghost on the board, and then draw the sound the ghost makes, by drawing a small hill and a big hill, loops, or whatever you'd like. Then you have the students explore their voices by going from low to high for each hill, getting higher as the hills get higher. (If this is confusing, see the pictures below...hopeful…
December 06, 2012
Guest Blog: How to write a song for a group
1 comment
Today I welcome Julia Amisano, Founder of Grace Music Studio NY ( www.gracemusicstudiony.com ), as our guest blogger. Thank you Julia for your insight into writing songs! About Grace Music Studio NY: Grace Music Studio NY is a place where people come to take Brooklyn voice lessons, Brooklyn piano lessons and Brooklyn acting lessons, but also they come to be inspired. Every year, Brooklyn voice lesson and piano lesson students perform in February and June. It's inspiring when a person gets up and performs a piece they could not sing or play before. It's even more inspiring when they wrote …
December 06, 2012
Exploration, to Improvisation, to Composition
Composition · Orff · No comments
This year, I took the position of elementary music co-chair in my district. After our first meeting, I sent out a survey, asking teachers to list their needs for professional development. A vast majority of the teachers—including me--wanted more information about improvisation. Knowing that improvisation is a bit focus in the Orff philosophy, I then approached three Orff specialists in our district and asked them to present a session with improvisational strategies. The session was so helpful, and helped teachers to foster musical creativity with their process. I will list here the process fo…