Like many music teachers, we love using picture books with our classes! We have a list of literacy resources to accompany each one of our units in Music Makers - Book One, coming soon! Check out these great books to use with our units, or use them on their own to create music with your students.  

Enjoy these literacy treasures with your students!

We are currently finishing up graphics for MUSIC MAKERS — BOOK ONE!

This resource is a collection of activities, songs, and games for the elementary music classroom and explores three themes: Bugs, Light, and Transportation. Learning thematically enables children to connect a variety of concepts and focus on multiple music goals. Rather than focusing on isolated outcomes, teaching thematically and using the foundations of the Orff approach allow for many creative opportunities, critical thinking, and reflection. 

Each of the three units can be taught in their entirety, or teachers can pick and choose activities and customize as they see fit. The units each include songs with lyrics and Orff arrangements, games that help build musical skills, listening and literacy activities, and composition opportunities. These lessons are centered around having fun and making music in a meaningful way, all while engaging the whole child. 

Below is a sneak peak at some of the graphics that we will be using in the book to help guide teachers when using the resource!

In the fall, we created posters for Four Corners, a super fun melody identification game that kids LOVE! We now have posters available for the French version! Thank you to My Cute Graphics for providing the cute Alouette and Frère Jaques clipart. The well-known French songs that we include in this version are Frère Jaques, l'Alphabet, Au claire de la lune, and Alouette. Click HERE for instructions to Four Corners / Quatre Coins. 

Christmas festivities are coming to an end and we are excited to get back to work on our current project; Music Makers - Book One. We are so thrilled to be publishing our very first resource for elementary music teachers, due out this spring!

We will keep you updated as to when and where it will be available in the New Year!

We are so excited to be in Atlantic City! After waiting six hours, Steph's flight almost got cancelled due to a Northern Manitoba snow storm, but we made it! We are really looking forward to making music with our American colleagues. We are also looking forward to attending great sessions with clinicians such as Jim Soloman, Christa Coogan and fellow Canadians Rose Suter and Angela Warren!

Halloween is so much fun! Some activities that we will be doing with our students include playing the barred instruments with glow sticks, movement creations to spooky music with finger lights, a hand-jive dance to the Monster Mash and these cute vocal slide composition booklets!

The plan for Kindergarten students is to create and notate their own vocal slides. The booklet includes examples for students to sing and to gain compositional ideas. Click below for a FREE printable booklet to use with your students! It includes French and English booklets!

The Manitoba Music Educators' Association presented another amazing TEMPO conference this past Friday. We were fortunate enough to be a part of the clinician line-up and had a fabulous time! Thank-you to Judy and her organizing committee who did another excellent job putting on this great day of professional learning. Below is Steph demonstrating our Moving and Grooving Bugs activity with participants. We had a blast!

Click below for the free resources from our Tons of Bugs session!

Sean presented at the Manitoba Orff Chapter's Make and Take workshop last week and shared his Treble Note Cards! Here they are for you!

Print these cards on bright card stock, cut them out, laminate them and store them in plastic craft baggies. Here are some activities that Sean does with his classes using the treble note cards.

Music Memory Game
Use two sets of cards. Place them face down in a grid. Working in pairs, students take turns overturning two cards to see if they get a matching pair. Whether they match or not, they have to name the notes. If they get a matching pair, they take the cards and have another turn. Reinforces memory work too!

Instrument Player
Using a designated instrument (recorder, xylophone, Boomwhacker, etc), students randomly choose 3 cards and play them. You may have to limit the notes depending on the instrument.

Scale Writer
Organize the cards in sequence to make scales such as major or pentatonic. Also a great way to demonstrate modes. Print out cards with accidentals to have a fully chromatic set, allowing for more versatility. A good tool for assessment.

Melody Maker
Students can use cards to either create a short melody to then play, or to notate a melody which they have already created. Rhythmic values wouldn’t be represented, unless you print note cards with rhythmic values or use a separate rhythm card set to place alongside the note cards. Have multiple sets available and perhaps limit the choice of notes.

​Enjoy!

Put your sticks upside down in a small container. When you see a busy body getting the jitters, have a student choose a jitter stick for the class to do! 

Steph is at a new school this year and loves her large music room space! She is excited to get to know her students this year. Check out the before and after photos!

How do you have your music room set up? What have you found works well for you and your students?