Teacher Tuesday: music lesson for "Bear Snores On"

I have been using this wonderful book by Karma Wilson with my kindergarten and first grade students for almost a decade now and it is still one of my favorites! This is a great lesson for introducing and exploring the concepts of timbre / tone color, sound sources, instruments (and their names), sound effects, and communicating meaning and emotion...

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Mommy Monday: displaying children's artwork

I've seen tons of cute ideas for displaying children's artwork at home. My favorite ideas are ones that are easily changed out and hold lots of pictures at once. I actually went to the store to recreate an elaborate display system involving various empty spray-painted picture frames and clothespins, but saw these near the checkout line and quickly...

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Teacher Tuesday: powerpoint basics to customize printables

If you have been downloading teacher files from TeachersPayTeachers or other websites, you may have noticed that more and more of them, even if they are worksheets or printables, are PowerPoint files. When I first started buying files on TpT I thought it was weird- why not just make it a PDF or Word file- it's not something I'm going to be showing...

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Mommy Monday: toddler-proofing kitchen drawers without locking them

Child-proofing is an annoying but necessary element of every house with small children. We all want to make sure our kids can't access things that are dangerous, but by making it harder for them to access, we inevitably make it harder for ourselves as well! Nowhere is this more apparent than in the kitchen. Cabinets, drawers, refrigerators and more...

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Teacher Tuesday: small goals for June

For today's Teacher Tuesday I'm linking up with my good friend Jennifer from The Yellow Brick Road. She had a great idea to share some small goals for the month of June, and it fits in well with what I was planning to share with you anyway- perfect time for a linkup! Click on the picture to see the goals that other music teachers have shared and get...

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Mommy Monday: daily routines for preschoolers

My girls turned 3 in January. My school year ends a week from today and, after summer vacation, the girls will be starting preschool at the end of August. So we have a lot of changes to our routine coming up over the next few months! Last summer I realized very quickly that it was important, for the sake of everyone's sanity, for us to find a balance...

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Teacher Tuesday: top 5 silly songs to sing with kids

As the end of the school year approaches, one of my favorite activities to incorporate in my lessons is silly songs. Silly songs keep students engaged, motivated, and happy. It just feels good to sing joyfully with friends! Here are my top 5 favorite silly songs that my students consistently love. Click on the title of each one to see and/or hear the...

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Mommy Monday: summer schedules with preschoolers

With summer slowly approaching (yes, I have over 2 weeks left of teaching.... the end is near though!), I've started thinking about my plans for summer break. It's easy with a long vacation like this to just sit around and do, well, nothing sometimes. And while there is definitely a time and place for that, I also have a lot of things that I want to...

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Teacher Tuesday: my cleaning to-do's for the end of the school year

So, my last day of classes is coming up in about 3 weeks, so I've started thinking about the things I need to do to get ready for the end of the school year. If you missed it, I shared my favorite lesson plans for the end of the year a couple of weeks ago. Today I want to share my top cleaning tasks that I need to complete before the end of the year. 1....

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Mommy Monday: a mirror for the shorties

I made a small update to our bathroom this week and it has made my 3-year-old girls so happy! It took me about 30 seconds and cost $1. Presenting: the girls' own bathroom mirror! Last week I shared my girls' current set of chores, which includes personal grooming like washing hands, brushing teeth, and combing hair. I usually do those things right...

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