If you are starting a new job in a new classroom and suddenly find yourself with access to a bunch of barred instruments you don't know what to do with, or you have had the instruments for a while and feel like you're not getting as much use out of them as you should, this post is for you! In this post you'll find tips for storing xylophones, procedures for managing their use with students, and tons of lesson ideas to use with every grade from Kindergarten up through 6th grade!
1. Storage and management
This isn't always possible depending on the classroom space, but I think ideally it's best to have all instruments, including xylophones and other barred instruments, easily accessible. If you have to pull them out of a closet to use them you're going to be far less motivated to use them in a lesson. To make them easily accessible, I recommend either:
1) setting aside some classroom space to have the instruments permanently out and ready to play, or
2) having the instruments on open shelving where they can quickly be taken out by you and/or students.
I had one classroom where having them out permanently made sense, but in every other room I've taught in I have had them on open shelves. If you are having your students carry barred instruments, just make sure to show students how to carry them properly so the bars aren't constantly falling off/ pegs being bent by holding them on the sides of the box and carrying them away from their bodies without leaning them on their chest.
Regardless of how you store them, it's important to establish- besides the general procedures for instruments like "don't play until the teacher says"- that everyone needs to walk around the instruments, rather than stepping over them, when they are moving to and from playing them. If you have xylophones on rolling stands then this won't be an issue, but when they are on the floor it's very tempting to want to step over them. I always demonstrate that, no matter how careful they are, if something/someone bumps them while they are stepping over an instrument it could be a big problem!
2. Introducing and Reinforcing Proper Technique
I've written an entire post on introducing proper playing technique already so I will link that below, but it's important to introduce proper playing technique from the very beginning and continue to reinforce those techniques every time they play. Here is my detailed lesson plan for introducing xylophone playing technique. Once I have established the proper playing technique in the beginning, I reinforce every time they play by reminding them of what they learned, saying "pinch, fingers, bicycle" every time they go to the xylophones, and reminding them to play "in the street, not the sidewalks" to remember to play in the center of the bars.
3. Lesson Ideas
I use xylophones and other barred instruments a LOT in my classroom so obviously this is not an exhaustive list, but here are a few of the main ways I use them in my lessons with each grade K-6.
Kindergarten: instrument introduction, mallet technique (here is the lesson plan for introducing xylophones, and here are a few of my favorite lesson plans to practice different mallet techniques: Mr. Quiet and Mr. Loud (adapted from this lesson originally called Mr. Brown and Mr. Black), and Froggy Gets Dressed)
1st grade: up and down, high and low (here is my favorite lesson to practice these concepts with this age with Mortimer)
2nd grade: ostinati, half notes, letter names (I use the song Duerme Mi Tesoro to have students play half note ostinati on metallophones, and introduce playing ostinati on specific letter name notes with We Are Dancing)
3rd grade: reading treble clef, recorder song prep, pentatonic improv (I have students practice reading the songs they will be learning on recorders in treble clef, like Hot Cross Buns, first on xylophones, and use this lesson plan with the song Zudio to have students practice pentatonic improvising)
4th grade: sixteenth notes, independent reading, ensemble skills (here is the lesson plan I use to have students play sixteenth notes with the song Diggidiggidong, and I also have students independently decode their own part from notation in a barred instrument ensemble piece- I use Pachelbel's Canon in D but in the key of C)
5th grade: advanced technique (I use these lesson plans on the music of Mozambique to have students play timbila music)
6th grade: chord tones, swung vs straight (I use these lesson plans to teach students about chords, and have them improvise straight and swung rhythms on xylophones as part of a unit on jazz)
I hope this gives you some ideas to start using your xylophones more in your lessons! If you want the fully detailed lesson plans and materials for everything I do with xylophones, you can find them in my curriculum. They are really an amazingly versatile instrument for teaching such a wide range of skills and concepts and they work well with every age!
