Erin's Music Room

Hello! My name is Erin, and welcome to my first blog post! I’ve wanted to start a blog for a loooooong time, but just never did. You know…life always got in the way. Always laundry to do, lessons to write, children to feed lol! Jk, my kids eat well. 🙂 Anyway, a little about me…I’ve been an elementary music teacher for 20+ years (I won’t go into the number that the + indicates!) and absolutely love my job. I knew I wanted to do this since I was in the sixth grade, and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I live with my two kids (ages 10 and 7) and our labradoodle in Northern Virginia, close to Washington D.C. On the side, I also teach a few private piano lessons, enjoy reading, exercising, binging Netflix, going to Target, and exploring our very own Virginia wine country! I’m excited to be writing my very first blog post, and I am thankful that you are reading it. 🙂 I have a bachelors and masters degree in music education, and have completed my Kodaly and Orff-Schulwerk trainings. I studied at the Kodaly Institute of Music in Kecskemet, Hungary, and music literacy is a huge focus and passion of mine. Anyway, enough about me! Let’s get on to our first topic: Winter Music Lessons!

1. Snowball Fight: Okay, hear me out. Yes, this can get a bit crazy, and there have DEFINITELY been certain classes in the past that I have not done this activity with (you know…THOSE classes) but oh my gosh, what a super fun activity this is! I do this with first grade and second grade, but it really works with any grade. You can do this with whatever concept you want to practice. I typically use it with rhythm, because it’s easier than solfa, but you could use it with absolute letter names of the treble clef staff, instrument families, solfa pitches, whatever you’d like. I give the students a half sheet of paper, have them write a four beat rhythm pattern on it using whatever rhythm we are currently focusing on. Then, I have them crumple it into a ball. I often get wide eyes at this part. The teacher said to crumple it up?? Yes, I did! I instruct them to throw the paper ball UP into the air (not at each other) while the music is playing. Keep throwing! Have fun! When the music stops, find a snowball, open it up, and read it to a neighbor. Then, crumple it up and get ready to start throwing! Only throw while the music is playing. Wow. What a fun game! Let’s review, they’ve written their OWN rhythm pattern, and now they’re reading it and listening to others read. And let’s face it, they’re moving, getting their ya-yas out, and having some fun while they’re at it. I absolutely adore this game, and so do the students. They often ask to play it in spring, and I’m like it’s not even cold out! It’s perfect because it’s fun, easy, no prep necessary, and the students love it. Try it out and let me know how it goes!
2. Winter Movement: This works well with lower elementary, like Kindergarten or first graders. We discuss all the ways we can move and make a list on the board. I encourage them to think about winter movements, and I try to coax words like glide, melt, slide, drift, float, fly, skate out of them. You could even skip this step and have a set of four or five movement words ready to go. I play “The Snow Is Dancing” by Debussy and have them move in one of the ways we discussed. You could have visuals up, or just call it out. And while we’re on the topic of movement, I start EVERY movement activity by reviewing the three rules of movement games. 1) No running: unless the game tells says to do so. 2) No touching: people or things (think instruments around the room, bumping into people, etc.) 3) No following: make your own pathway in the room. Every. Single. Time. If you review these rules before every movement activity, you will save yourself a lot of headaches! This is a great winter movement activity for the littles, and they get to listen to a gorgeous Debussy piano piece while they move!
3. Winter Reading Games: I PROMISE not to promote my Teachers Pay Teachers store in every blog post, but since this is specifically a winter music lesson post, I can’t not talk about my new games for the interactive white board. Rhythm Sledding is an interactive game designed to play with a whole class on the white board. It’s in Powerpoint, and students will choose sledders, listen to the rhythm being played, and then choose the correct rhythm out of three choices. Silly screens pop up if they make a mistake, and students always ask what does the wrong screen say? It’s great fun and awesome practice dictating rhythms. Each rhythm is sold separately, and is in stick and traditional notation. They’re also available in mini-bundles and if you want to go for it and get all of the rhythms, you can get the big bundle! Solfa Snowman is another listening/decoding and reading game practicing different solfa pitches and tone sets. This build-your-own style game will have students choosing a snowman body type, facial expression, buttons, etc. while decoding solfa patterns on the staff. Several tone sets are available, and more are coming soon!

Whew! That was a lot! If you’re still reading, THANK YOU! I hope you got some ideas to use in your music room this winter. Check back soon for more ideas for your elementary music classroom!