Lesson Warmups to Practice Rhythm

I've been using student-led warmups at the beginning of my elementary general music lessons for years now and I am a big fan! I've gotten a lot of questions about the warmups I do and how I do them, so today I'm sharing my favorite warmups to practice rhythms.

You can read more about why I do student-led warmups and how I manage the logistics of warmups in general in this post, but essentially I have a small group of 2-4 students who are assigned to lead the warmup / opening activity / do now at the beginning of class. These warmups are super easy to implement and a great way to review rhythms in a different, fresh way without taking a lot of class time.

1. Note name identification

This is an easy one to use that I pull out every now and then to review the names of different note values (quarter note, whole note, etc). I find most of our time in actual lessons is spent on being able to use the rhythms- read, write, perform, and identify them- so I don't reinforce the names of the notes that often. This is a quick and easy way to review them in a low-pressure way.

To set this up, I have a slide with all of the different rhythms they know in scattered formation on the board. The warmup leader points to a note, and students identify the name of the note.

2. Rhythm identification variations

Besides naming the notes, I also use the same idea in a few other ways: 

a. students say how many beats the selected note gets

b. students demonstrate how to clap and count the selected note, assuming it starts on beat 1

3. Rhythm selection

This one is also very simple: I have a slide with several lines of rhythms on it. The leader chooses a line, and the class claps and counts whichever line they picked. Often I'll turn on a track and have the class clap and say the rhythm with the beat of the track, just to make it more interesting (and contextualize the reading practice a little more).

4. Rhythm composition

I used to try to do this in slides, with images of notes students would drag and drop to create a 4-beat rhythm for the class to copy. You can certainly do it that way, especially if you have a good quality interactive board that makes it easy and intuitive for students to drag notes around, but I found the technology aspect got in the way of the thinking aspect since I don't have a good interactive board. Instead I have a bunch of cards with different rhythms on them (here is the post with pictures and explanation of how I made them) and I have the warmup leaders choose cards to create a 4-beat rhythm and put it up on the board with magnets for the class to read.

5. Rhythm play along's

There are so many great rhythm play along videos out there, it's impossible to use them all! For this warmup I will make a slide with 4 different rhythm play along videos on it and have the warmup leaders choose one (in this case, rather than having each student in the warmup leader group have a turn, I have them choose one together- we don't have time to do 3 or 4 different play alongs!). They can get a sense of the theme of the play along from the thumbnails so it's a fun way to give them some ownership and choice.

6. Rhythm randomizer

This idea was sent to me by a reader (thank you Kate!) and it's perfect for any grade level: set up the parameters on Rhythm Randomizer so it will focus on the rhythms they're practicing, and have the warmup leaders click "new rhythm" to generate a pattern using those elements for the class to count/ clap/ play.

There are so many fun ways to put students in charge and practice rhythms! These only take about 3 minutes at the beginning of class and they really help keep a skill that really needs to be "drilled" regularly feel less like a chore. You can find my post on warmup activities for steady beat in here, and my post on activities for pitch letter names here. I'll share more warmups for other skills and concepts in a future post- if you have any questions or more ideas please leave them in the comments!

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Elementary Music Classroom Tour 2023-24

Well, it took me longer than I'd like to share this post, but here's a tour of my elementary music classroom as it currently stands, starting off the 2023-24 school year! I didn't change much about the actual setup of the room, but did make a few significant changes to the visuals and posters I have on the walls that I'm excited about!

First here's a quick video tour of the entire room to get you oriented to how the whole thing is set up:

I changed a few things from last year's classroom (click here to see last year's post) that I should explain:

So I had (what felt to me like) an epiphany this summer. For over a decade now I have had my orchestral instrument posters on the wall behind where my student chairs are. I put them there when I first started teaching in this room because the band and orchestra rehearsed on that side of the room. A few years ago, I made big posters showing the main concepts students learn in each grade level to replace the word wall I used to have on the magnetic chalkboard next to that wall. 

This summer I realized the grade level expectations posters are ones that students refer to often but I rarely, if ever, need to show them in the middle of a lesson, but the instrument posters are ones that I do refer to during lessons when we are talking about instruments and instrument families. I also add to the instrument wall every year posters that the students make when they are researching a particular instrument and make their own posters, and then I take them down for each new year. It makes a lot more sense for the instrument posters to be on magnets so I can take them off the wall to show students and change out the student work each year, and for the grade level expectations posters, which students refer to on their own more often than the instrument posters, to be right behind their chairs. 

So I swapped their spots, and I feel like a genius.

I guess these are the kinds of things that feel monumental when you've been in the same room for over a decade?!? But I do think it's worth noting- it's good to rethink how you've always done something. I never questioned why I had these two walls the way I did until I finally did, and now it makes so much more sense.

The other main change has been the addition of my new learning target displays:

 

We are being required to post written learning targets with specific, 3-sentence language for every lesson this year, which I have certain feelings and opinions about that I won't get into right now, but that meant I needed to get rid of the small frames I had used to write my objectives on for the last 10 years because there's no way I could fit 3 sentences on those! I now have a row of bigger, letter size frames for 1st through 6th grade under my whiteboard at the front of the room, and I laminated 3 letter size sheets with the same 3 sentence starters for Kindergarten next to the floor circle (where they mostly sit). More explanation on that coming in another post...

The last main change in my room is this corner, where I have a small place for students to sit and take a break, and my boomwhackers hung on the closet doors with velcro:

I got 3 sets of the accidentals so I added those to the sides next to the rest of the boomwhackers, and I got a new minion poster (from the school book fair last spring, actually- thanks to a parent who spotted the poster and knew I would love it) and added that to my rest area. The poster is perfect because it says "Today I am..." and then had lots of different moods. 

I'm so excited to get started on the new school year. I hope you get some fresh inspiration for your own room! If you have any questions about anything you see in the video or photos, please let me know in the comments, I'm happy to answer.

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Lesson Warm-ups to Practice Pitch Letter Names

I've been using student-led warmups at the beginning of my elementary general music lessons for years now and I am a big fan! I've gotten a lot of questions about the warmups I do and how I do them, so today I'm sharing my favorite warmups to practice note letter names for treble and bass clef!

Most of my warmups are focused on practicing/ reviewing a basic skill or concept I want my students to practice regularly. Identifying the letter names of notes on the staff is definitely one of those things that is best learned through regular practice, so this is one I use a lot with my upper elementary classes.

You can read more about why I do student-led warmups and how I manage the logistics of warmups in general in this post, but essentially I have a small group of 2-4 students who are assigned to lead the warmup / opening activity / do now at the beginning of class. These warmups are super easy to implement and, for the upper elementary grades I use them with, one of the easiest ones to get buy-in because they don't require the leaders to "perform" anything in front of their peers.

1. Space and line note naming

This is the first one I use at the beginning of the year or when students have just been introduced to a particular staff (I introduce treble clef fully in 3rd grade, and bass clef in 6th). I have whole notes on each of the ascending spaces on one staff, and each of the ascending lines on another. Student leaders take turns coming up to the board and pointing to one space note, which the rest of the class then raises their hand to name, and one line note. **Important side bonus: I specify if I want the leader to point to a space or line note, and I switch up the order from person to person. There are always a few who seem to confuse the concept of line note vs space note so this is good practice for them, and a good assessment for me.

2. Scattered note naming

This one is almost the same as the first but I use this to increase the difficulty once students are comfortable with the notes in a particular clef. I put up a slide that has individual whole notes on their own (short) staff with the clef in front of each, scattered in random formation around the screen. Otherwise the process is the same: the leader points to a space/ line note (as specified by me) and the others raise their hands to name it.

3. Note naming: other variants

Once classes are really comfortable with naming notes with just whole notes, which really isolates the pitch element from rhythm and other elements, I throw in other variations:

1) use the same scattered formation of notes from #2 but this time have notes with different note values, like quarter notes, half notes, etc to mix it up

2) show an actual excerpt from an actual song, and have the student leaders point to random notes in the excerpt for the class to identify (bonus: I will usually do this with a song they already know, and ask them at the end if anyone can identify the song)

4. Note writing

The student leader is given a set of cards, each card having one alphabet letter for the 7 note names. Individual or small groups of students are given a dry erase marker and staff board. The leader pulls out a card to show the class, and they race to write the corresponding note on their boards and hold it up to show them. I actually use this one as a teacher-led lesson activity as well when they are first practicing notes in a new clef, but after that I use it as a warmup activity to review.

There are so many fun ways to put students in charge and practice naming notes! These only take about 3 minutes at the beginning of class and they really help keep a skill that really needs to be "drilled" regularly feel less like a chore. You can find my post on warmup activities for steady beat in here, and I'll share more warmups for other skills and concepts in a future post- if you have any questions or more ideas please leave them in the comments! 

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Lesson Warmups to Practice Steady Beat

I've been using student-led warmups at the beginning of my elementary general music lessons for years now and I am a big fan! I've gotten a lot of questions about the warmups I do and how I do them, so today I'm sharing my favorite warmups to practice steady beat!

Most of my warmups are focused on practicing/ reviewing a basic skill or concept I want my students to practice regularly. Steady beat is definitely one of those things I focus on heavily in Kindergarten and then just assume my older students don't need to practice it after that, but I've learned some students need more time to really solidify their sense of beat, and students need practice feeling and demonstrating the beat with different meters, tempi, and styles of music.

You can read more about why I do student-led warmups and how I manage the logistics of warmups in general in this post, but essentially I have a small group of 2-4 students who are assigned to lead the warmup / opening activity / do now at the beginning of class. These steady beat warmups are ones that I always have ready and probably use the most often out of all the warmups we do throughout the year because they are easy and active.

1. Movement Mirroring

Before class, I get an audio track ready. As soon as the class starts walking in, I start the track and pull a chair over in front of the students to start doing different moves on the steady beat. Everyone copies me for a while, then I call up one of the student leaders, and they take over leading the class in steady beat moves. The leaders keep going until I call up the next person or stop the track.

2. Music Selection

Before class, I have a slide ready with several different audio tracks embedded in the slide with just the same speaker icon for each one. I try to choose tracks that are different tempi/ styles/ etc. One of the student leaders picks a track at random from the slide, and all students choose their own moves to show the steady beat to whatever track was selected. After playing it for a bit, I stop the track, and the next student leader comes up and chooses a different track.

3. Movement Selection

I have a slide up on the board that shows picture icons for several different body percussion sounds (clap, snap, stomp, etc). I turn on some music, and student leaders take turns pointing to different icons, and the rest of the class does the corresponding move with the beat of the music.

4. Body Percussion Groups

Similar to #3, in this one I split up the class into 3 groups (since I have 3 rows of chairs), and assign each group/ row to one body percussion sound that is on the board. Then I turn on the music and student leaders point to one of the 3 that were assigned- only the group that was assigned that sound does the steady beat when the leader is pointing to their icon.

There are so many fun ways to put students in charge and practice steady beat! These only really take about 3 minutes at the beginning of class and they really help set the tone and keep things moving. I'll share more warmups for other skills and concepts in a future post- if you have any questions or more ideas please leave them in the comments!

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