A free resource for Movement & Music Educators
Dinosaur Stomp Intended Grade Level(s): 4-5 grade levels with paired readers* from 2-3 grade levels Materials: Saturday Night at The Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields; ISBN: 978-0-7636-3887-0 Choose rhyme stanzas from the book suitable for paired reading*. You can choose longer or shorter stanzas depending on grade level. Create sentence strips with the selected rhyme stanzas so pairs,… Read more »
Drip, Drop, Pitter, Patter, and Explore! Spring is in the air, or so we hope! The weather is often a topic of conversation, and the sounds of spring offer a wonderful opportunity to sing, say, dance and play in the music classroom. Music educators usually agree that some important goals for the youngest learners through… Read more »
Be Our Guest! Exploring Vaughan Williams through Kitchen Utensils A food-themed exploration of Vaughan Williams’ “March Past of the Kitchen Utensils” through movement and play! YOU’RE INVITED! As educators who use movement to initiate music learning, we often explore a variety of themes to make connections with our students and to make these experiences lively… Read more »
A Tale of Two Villages Materials: Tale of Two Villages, Music for Creative Dance: Contrast and Continuum, Volume 1, Eric Chapelle Objectives: Locomotor vs. Non-Locomotor Movement Expression of Beat Binary Form (AB) Improvisation Process: Students scatter in space, encourage various ways of moving a singular body part; move arm only, or leg, or head, etc., teacher plays drum… Read more »
Engaging Children with Literature The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood ISBN-10: 0439753821 Grade Level: 1st [Adaptable to Kindergarten] Objectives: Sing Sol-Mi-La patterns from icons. Perform beat accompaniment (chord bordun) for a pentatonic song using appropriate mallet technique. Use instruments to represent characters or special words in a story. Dramatize a story with movement; use creative… Read more »
Structuring Creative Movement in Orff Inspired Lessons When I took level one I joyously folk danced through the movement segments and really understood that I could use folk dance with my students and how it would fit into the types of lessons I was designing. Then we began the creative movement portion. I loved the… Read more »
Playing With Improvisation 2, 4, 6, 8 – Recorder Version B Section 2, 4, 6, 8 – RECORDER Teaching Process: Sing song and ask students to label form. (abca) Sing the first 4-beat motive, the a motive. Students echo the a motive. Students sing the a motives and you sing the b & c motives…. Read more »
Good, Better, Best A Rhythm and Movement Lesson for Grades 4-6 Download a printable version of Michael Chandler’s lesson here. Objectives: Working with beat and divided beat through movement, body percussion, and instruments. Choreographing simple movement to elemental forms. Rhythmic and melodic improvisation and composition with elemental forms. Arranging and orchestrating a performance piece. Materials: Unpitched… Read more »
In this lesson from Victoria Redfearn Cave, students will explore movement inspired by the action cards in UNO®. They will also create accompaniment with unpitched percussion instruments. Movement Exploration and Accompaniment is a fun and interactive exercise for your third and fourth grade students.
In this movement and music lesson from Manju Durairaj, Building Empathy Through Diverse Children’s Literature, educators utilize children’s books to guide their students through exercises designed to increase empathy, challenge stereotypes, and encourage friendships. “Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins. And it’s up to you… Read more »