Top 10 Posts from 2024

I am so grateful for the opportunity to connect with other music teachers around the globe through my little corner of the internet, and it is such a good feeling when readers connect with something I've written. Each time a new calendar year rolls around, it's so fun to look back and see which of the posts I wrote the past year have been read the...

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Effective Lesson Plans for Difficult Days

Whether it's a specific class that is always challenging, or it's a time of year that is particularly difficult, finding lesson plans that will work for those challenging days can be a struggle. The specifics will vary depending on the exact situation and group of students, but here's what I look for when I'm planning for a lesson that I know is going...

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Favorite Songs for Teaching Syncopa

I love teaching the syncopated rhythm pattern eighth - quarter - eighth. It's such a fun rhythm to perform and the songs I use to introduce and practice the rhythms are some of the most fun my upper elementary students have all year! There are a lot of great songs to teach the "syncopa" rhythm pattern but today I'm sharing my top two favorite songs...

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Native American Heritage Month in the Music Room

In the United States, November is recognized as Native American Heritage Month. We still have a very long way to go in recognizing and responding to the treatment of Indigenous people in this country, and making sure we all find ways to give our students opportunities to learn about and celebrate the many Indigenous peoples and their cultures is one...

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Algonquin Water Song

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, and I am bringing you along with me on my learning journey as I seek to find meaningful and appropriate ways to recognize it in my elementary music classroom. As someone who did not grow up in North America and does not have any Native American heritage in my family, I have been...

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Music In Our Schools Month® 2025: "United Through Music" Song Bracket

This year the theme for Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) is "United through Music". I have been doing a "musical March madness"-style song bracket, where students listen to different songs each day and vote on their favorites, for several years now, and for the last several years I've tried to tie the songs into the annual theme...

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Call and Response Songs

One of the first things I teach in Kindergarten is call and response singing. After working on singing voice and echo singing, it's so fun when students are able to sing their own part independently with call and response songs! There are lots of great ones out there, but today I'm sharing my current top favorite call and response songs, as well as...

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Current Musicians for Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States. As someone who did not grow up in North America and does not have any Native American heritage in my family, I have been on a constant learning journey for the last two decades since moving to the United States to learn more about North American Indigenous music, and appropriate...

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Echo Songs

One of the first concepts I teach in Kindergarten is echo singing. There are lots of great ones out there but over the years I have definitely found my favorites that kids love year after year and are easy to use in my lessons! Here are my top 4 favorite echo songs to use in Kindergarten, and also how I teach echo singing.To introduce the concept of...

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Favorite Fall Songs

I've always loved using songs about fall in my music lessons, so I've been thrilled to discover some new ones my students and I have absolutely loved this year to add to my collection! Today I'm sharing my top three favorites that I've found this year.I've been using these songs so far with my self-contained class, which has a wide span of ages and...

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Favorite Songs for Elementary Choir

If you're looking for some song ideas to use with your elementary chorus, today I'm sharing some of my favorites! I've shared some of my favorite pop songs I've arranged for my elementary choirs in previous posts (look for that link below) so this post will focus on choral pieces.I have taught elementary choir for many years in all different formats,...

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Indigenous American Resources for Music Teachers

As someone who did not grow up in North America and does not have any Native American heritage in my family, I have been on a constant learning journey for the last two decades since moving to the United States to learn more about Indigenous music, and appropriate ways for me, as an outsider, to share it with my students. I still have so very much...

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Hispanic Heritage Month Elementary Playlist

This year for Latine / Hispanic Heritage Month I've been playing music by Latine / Hispanic musicians in the morning as students are entering school, and I ended up discovering a lot of new kid-friendly songs and artists in the process of my research to find songs to add to my playlist that are clean enough to play around the preschoolers but cool...

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