What To Do With Those Beanbags

If you are starting a new job in a new classroom and suddenly find yourself with a bin full of beanbags you don't know what to do with, or you have had them 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 managing their use with students, plus plenty of ways to use them in lessons from Kindergarten through 6th grade!

1. Management tips

One of the most common issues that can turn a fun movement prop into a headache is the immediate tossing and playing around that happens when you're passing them out. Now you can't give directions for the activity because they're only paying attention to the beanbag in their hands, after you just told them to leave it on the floor! Here are a few ways I avoid that problem depending on the age of the students, situation, and honestly my mood at the time:

1) I give all of my instructions, including having students practice any movements we need to work on before we start the actual activity, before handing out the beanbags. This strategy is one I use pretty much every time- once the beanbags are in front of them their brains just aren't going to be as focused as they are when they're motivated to want to get one! I explain what we are doing and have them practice any specific moves in the air with an imaginary beanbags, then quickly hand them out and jump right into it before anything gets out of hand.

2) Tell students to treat the beanbags like instruments: if you play (touch) before I say, you'll make the instrument (beanbag) go away! I use this especially with my younger grades by having them put their hands in their laps while sitting on the floor and setting the beanbags down on the floor in front of them so they don't touch them at all until we're ready to begin.

3) Give them some time to explore. For middle grades sometimes I find the best strategy is to give them what they want: time to explore what the beanbag feels like and have some fun with it before I ask them to only use it in the specific way I want. Any time I do this I tell them they can "test them out" until I turn off the lights, then give them a minute before I turn off the lights and have them set the beanbags down. 

2. Lesson Ideas

Early Childhood/ Adaptive music: I discovered a new favorite use for my beanbags this year: using them as quieter, safer, sturdier alternatives to egg shakers! I had some students who were new to our building and were very impulsive with any objects they were given at the beginning of the year, so even a pretty sturdy plastic egg shaker was likely to get broken, but they really did respond well to the egg shaker songs I had so I wanted to be able to continue them without breaking any more instruments. My beanbags were a perfect substitute that gave them a chance to practice following directions and responding to the music by shaking with the steady beat etc, as well as add in other fun ways to use them like tossing them or tapping them on our knees, without worrying about anything breaking.

1st/ 2nd grade: With lower elementary grades, bean bags are a great way to mix up steady beat movement activities. Even though steady beat is mainly a focus in my Kindergarten curriculum, it's one of those things students still need a lot of regular practice with, especially in 1st and 2nd grade! But they don't want to just repeat the songs they did in Kindergarten. I use them most often by turning on a track with a clear beat and asking students to take turns suggesting a way to use the beanbags on the beat- usually tapping a specific body part like knees, tummy, head, or shoulder, but sometimes other moves like passing it back and forth between their hands etc.

3rd/4th grade: With my middle grades I use beanbags to practice showing duple and triple meter. By this age they can usually control it pretty well while tossing the beanbags so they can still catch them and keep them in their own space, so I will have students do a "left hand- right hand- toss" movement sequence with a triple meter song, or pass them back and forth between their two hands for a duple meter song to feel the difference between the two meters. The tossing adds a level of challenge that is just right for this age!

5th grade: I have 2 beanbag passing games that are always a huge hit with my 5th graders: Bhombela and Take Five. Bhombela is a song from southern Africa including Mozambique so I use it in my unit with 5th grade on Mozambique, and the jazz song Take Five is a great way to introduce uncommon time signatures. Check the linked videos for demonstrations of how to use the beanbags with each of these songs.

6th grade: I use one other beanbag passing game in 6th grade that is also a big hit and is perfect for introducing dotted quarter/ single eighth rhythms: Al Citron. This is another activity that is the perfect level of challenge for this age group to keep students engaged and motivated to repeat it over and over again, which is just what I want when I need students to get used to a new rhythm! 

If you've found it difficult to teach passing games, here is my post explaining the strategies I started using a few years ago that made all the difference in the world for getting students to be successful with passing games!

I hope this gives you some fresh ideas to help you use your beanbags (or maybe inspire you to get some for your classroom)! They are an excellent kid-friendly, cost-effective tool for teaching steady beat, form, meter, and rhythm. And if you have more beanbag activities you love to use in music lessons, please let me know in the comments!

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Basic Parachute Moves to Use with Any Song

Using a parachute in elementary music lessons is one of those things that, once you get the hang of it, it's hard to stop yourself from using it all the time! It was intimidating for me at first but honestly now that my students and I have figured out how to do a few basic moves, I just use the same moves in different combinations with different listening pieces to reinforce form, meter, and other musical elements in an engaging way!

Obviously there are plenty of other ways to use the parachute, but here are the most common moves I use for movement activities in the music classroom (some typical parachute moves are best left for the PE teacher with a full gym), and the musical elements and concepts I use them to teach.

1. Walk in a circle: students all face the same direction around the circle, hold the parachute with one hand, and walk on the steady beat. I usually will match the phrasing or time signature by having students switch directions for each phrase/ measure.

2. Up and down: students all face the middle, hold the parachute with both hands, and slowly move the parachute up and down. This is a great one to either reinforce longer phrasing or a slower tempo- they should move it slowly enough to create a "balloon" with the parachute.

3. Shake: students all face the middle, hold the parachute with both hands, and use quick and small movements to shake the parachute. I usually use this when the song is about something with water, or something shaking/ moving, or there is a section with a lot of fast notes. This move is even more fun if you toss in a couple ping-pong balls or very light stuffed animals to watch them bounce around the parachute as it moves!

4. Sway: students all face the middle, hold the parachute with both hands, and sway back and forth (clockwise/ counterclockwise). This is harder than it looks because to get the parachute moving correctly everyone has to move to the same direction, which looks opposite from the person you're facing! This is a great move for reinforcing a triple meter feel, or to move with a middle tempo beat.

Once you know how to do a few basic moves with the parachute, it's easy to put together a movement piece to match any listening piece you want to use in your lessons! Just pick one move for each of the sections to match the form of the song and you've got a great way to reinforce form, beat, meter, tempo, and even lyrical themes or rhythms depending on the song.

If you're worried about having enough room to move around with a parachute, or not sure if your students are behaviorally ready for that level of activity, try starting with these stationary parachute activities! I started with those first the first year I started using a parachute and it helped me, and my students, feel much more comfortable with using the parachute in the classroom before I had an entire class holding it and moving around!

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Cup Games for Upper Elementary Music

Who knew a simple plastic cup could be the source of so much learning and engagement for those tough-to-please upper elementary students?!? Over the years I've found a handful of cup games that have become unexpected favorites for my 4th-6th graders. If you're looking for something new to keep your upper elementary students musically engaged, these are surefire hits!

1. Escatumbararibe

The cup game that started it all for me was this Brazilian cup song I started teaching my 6th graders years ago as part of the bigger unit I teach them each year on the music of Brazil. It is just hard enough to hold their interest but attainable enough to avoid too much frustration. I start off teaching it without the passing element, and then eventually build up to passing the cups around the circle, but you could keep it an individual activity (which makes it slightly easier and does not require as much floor space) by just having students tap the cup in front of them instead of passing it. I will say, though, that one of the reasons I think this activity is so successful is that the passing part is slowed down enough that if one student is off for some reason there is enough time for everyone to recover without the whole circle falling apart, so if your students struggle with passing games generally, this one may be one they can handle (and I have more tips on teaching passing games successfully below). Read my post on my Brazilian unit for the song and demonstration of the game, including a slowed down tutorial.

2. Sleigh Ride

I created this super simplified cup routine to go with "Sleigh Ride" way back in 2014 and that video tutorial has been one of the most popular videos on my channel ever since! But I have a confession: while I labeled it as easy enough for Kindergarten- which it is, and I have used it with Kindergarten successfully multiple times- I actually use it most often with 5th grade. That's because it's easy enough for students to pick up in 1-2 run-throughs without me having to break down each movement, so it's perfect for introducing Rondo form, which is part of my 5th grade general music curriculum! Because I want it to be something students can pick up right away to experience the repeating and contrasting sections I don't do it as a passing game, but it could easily be adapted to a passing game by having students "tap-tap-pass" in the A section instead of tapping 3 times and switching hands as demonstrated in the video above, if you wanted to add a level of challenge or make the activity more cooperative.

3. Addams Family

This one has made the rounds on the internet since Marti Chandler came up with it decades ago but it's worth sharing. I don't use it as consistently as I do the first two, which have a permanent spot in my curriculum, but I do pull it out with my 4th-6th graders when I need something fun and different, and it's a great way to get students to experience triplets, identify A and B sections, or even review repeat signs. This video has an excellent visual that also shows the same mnemonic devices I use to teach the different patterns. I have always done this as a passing game because it is highly repetitive and simple enough for students to learn, but this could easily be adapted to take out the passing element by having students flip the cup over, or drag it in small circles in front of them on the floor, etc on the beat in the B section.

As I've mentioned for each of these cup games, they can all be done as individual cup song routines or as passing games. If you, like me, have found passing games seemed to suddenly become a lot more difficult to teach in the last 10 years, I am happy to report that I have, in the last few years, discovered a teaching strategy that has made it possible for me to do passing games successfully again! You can read all the details about how I teach them now in this post.

I know upper elementary students can be difficult to keep engaged in musically meaningful learning sometimes, so I hope this gives you some new ideas to try with your students! If you want to see how these fit into a sequenced curriculum that keeps students engaged year-round, be sure to check out my general music curriculum. What are other songs you have used with cups for upper elementary? I'd love to hear your successful lesson ideas in the comments as well!

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Stationary Elementary Music Parachute Activities

I've been inspired by my self-contained elementary music classes to incorporate more seated/ stationary movement activities this year and one of my new favorite ways to do that has been with a parachute! I bought a parachute for my classroom a couple of years ago and was always too intimidated to actually pull it out, but these seated activities have turned me into a believer. Here are my favorite parachute songs that students can do sitting down, including activities appropriate for a wide range of ages from preschool up through middle school.

Besides being easier to manage, stationary parachute activities are also perfect for students with mobility difficulties, small classroom spaces, and to use when students have less physical energy like after recess or PE class, so these are really versatile for a lot of situations.

PK-2nd grade: Shake, Shake, Shake

This song by Nancy Kopman is specifically written for use with a parachute, so it's a great first activity to try with the parachute! The words make it pretty obvious what to do with the parachute, and there are some little surprising pauses in the music that students have to listen for to stay with the song which makes it more exciting! My younger students love this one and it was a great introduction to using the parachute and some basic moves that everyone can pick up quickly.

PK-3rd grade: The Rain Falls Down

I used this song by Stephanie Leavell when I was first starting to use my parachute in class and it worked great! This song is a great way to help everyone get used to using the parachute correctly and it's also just a lovely activity for calming everyone down while reinforcing beat, long notes, and phrasing. I use the same simple, repetitive movement pattern through the entire song: bring the parachute down for 4 beats, up for 4 beats, then sway back and forth (with arms up) every 2 beats for 8 beats, then repeat. I have everyone do the half note sway in the introduction so that we start with the parachute up to begin with the first downward move when the first verse begins.

1st-6th grade: Azizam (Persian version) 

This was one of the most popular songs from my Music In Our Schools Month multilingual song bracket this year (I made a last-minute swap with another song when I found it online) so I decided to use it as a movement activity to introduce form as well! For the chorus we shake the parachute near the floor to create "waves", and for the verses we sway back and forth on the beat while holding the parachute near our laps. It sounds simple but it was a great way to reinforce the A and B contrasting sections and practice some new moves with the parachute- swaying in a circle and getting everyone going back and forth in the same direction is tricky at first, but cool once they get the hang of it! And of course I love that this version of Ed Sheeran's song features more of the Farsi language and Iranian musicians!

I was so much less intimidated by the idea of using a parachute once I realized how much we could do seated in a circle instead of standing/ walking around! If you're just getting started using a parachute in elementary music class, I highly recommend starting with everyone seated first and then you can always add in locomotor movement later. 

Movement props are such a fun way to mix things up while reinforcing musical concepts! You can see my favorite activities for the stretchy band in this post, and some of my favorite scarf songs for each of the 4 seasons in this post for more movement prop ideas! Do you have other favorite seated parachute activities for elementary music lessons? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

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Scarf Songs for Every Season

I love using a simple movement prop to spark students' imagination when they are responding to music, and there is no simpler movement prop than scarves! I also love incorporating seasonal material when it fits well with the concepts we're working on, especially with my youngest students, so I've found some wonderful scarf songs for all four seasons that have been a hit with my early childhood and Kindergarten classes over the years. 

The nice thing about each of these is that the scarf movements for each one are pretty self-explanatory if you listen to the lyrics. One of the hardest things about teaching younger grades is how much material you need in each lesson to match their short attention spans! So I admit when I find new songs I often play the recording in class and just follow along with my scarf with the students until I learn it, then I'll switch to singing it myself (and eventually having the students sing with me of course). 

1. Fall: Blowing in the Wind

Technically this song is about the wind so I suppose you could use it in winter or spring as well, but for some reason I always find it fits so nicely with my other fall leaf songs. This is definitely my top favorite scarf song of all time!

2. Winter: Winter Scarf Song

My students love this one because of all the snow references! I am always amazed at how much students will ask to sing this song over and over again.

3. Spring: A Little Seed

The thing I love best about this song is that you can do it together as a class, but you can also use it to sing to each child individually and have them reveal their scarf "flower" at the end of the song to put it back in the container as a way to make the cleanup process go a little more smoothly.

4. Summer: Popcorn Kernels

I think I associate popcorn with summer because that's the only time I have time to watch movies? In any case I like to throw this one in at the end after we've done a longer movement activity with the scarves before we put them away.

I hope this gives you some fresh material to use with your younger students any time of year! What are your other favorite seasonal scarf songs to use with your students? I'd love to hear your favorites in the comments.

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Dance Playlist 2026

I love finding upbeat, school-appropriate, modern songs to use in my music classes for dance parties, slideshows, field day, and general merriment, and these last few years it has felt especially important to share with all the stress and negativity we're all dealing with. Here are my new picks for this year- be sure to check out my posts from previous years to find more awesome music my students and I love linked at the end of this post! I just keep a running list and add to it every year. The old ones don't seem to get old but it's fun to add some fresh material each spring :)

This year, along with some iconic movie songs and a few other random songs I've found along the way, I'm also add some songs from the 2026 MIOSM song bracket because my students loved them during the month of March and have been excited to hear them again! Don't miss the playlist at the end of the post that includes these songs plus all of my picks from previous years put together. Now that we're on year 11 there is a lot of great material all in one place!

To make it easier to find all my dance party playlist songs in one place, I've put together a YouTube playlist with all of the songs from all of my previous year's lists including this one! Here's the link to the playlist.

If you've missed my playlists from previous years you can see those posts below! Happy dancing :)

Dance Playlist 2025

Dance Playlist 2024

Dance Playlist 2023

Dance Playlist 2022

Dance Playlist 2021

Dance Playlist 2020

Dance Playlist 2019

Dance Playlist 2018

Dance Playlist 2017

Dance Playlist 2016

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End of the School Year Elementary Music Lessons

In some ways the end of the school year is the toughest time to lesson plan. Special events make class schedules inconsistent and unpredictable, time is running out to make sure students have learned everything they were supposed to in that grade level, student attention is difficult to maintain, and with our own concerts and programs to prepare our brains are fried as music teachers as well! Whether you need something to make it through the last 30 minutes without anyone getting hurt, lesson activities that effectively solidify and review important concepts at the end of the school year, or longer units to keep students engaged with all the chaos that the end of the school year brings, you'll find my most effective lesson plans for the end of the school year compiled here for every situation.

Review games for every grade for practically any skill or concept:

Units to help contextualize and review concepts with any grade while keeping students engaged:

My top individual lesson ideas for any grade level for the end of the school year:

Upper elementary rhythm/ expressive vocabulary review:

Multiple lower elementary/ early childhood activities to practice form/ rhythm:

Upbeat, school-appropriate (without censoring) music to use in class or school events:

Lessons to use with any grade that require little to no prep and little effort to run:

One-off lessons to use when your schedule is whacky:

Practical tips for having a "music party" or free choice day without it dissolving into chaos:

Simple ways to add a summer theme to your lessons for any grade level:

I hope this helps take some of the pressure off of lesson planning to finish the school year strong! Save these ideas somewhere so the next time you find yourself with no idea what to teach you can easily pull these out. I promise they are classroom-tested and student-approved, and have always impressed administrators with how much students are still engaged and learning down to the last minute! If you want all the plans and materials for a full year of engaging, effective lessons, here is my full curriculum set.

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Nonverbal Students in Elementary Music

The last few years I've had several nonverbal students and it has been amazing to learn how to better teach them as their music teacher and to see them make so much progress in both their musical and verbal skills through my class! Today I wanted to share a few tips I've picked up along the way through my experience working with non-verbal students in the elementary music classroom.

1. Nonverbal participation opportunities 

One of the great things about music class is that there are, in fact, so many nonverbal ways for students to fully participate in activities and communicate their learning. 

-If students are singing, include motions- preferably simplified sign language. If that's too complicated for some reason, at a minimum you can have them show the steady beat by patting on their laps with the music.

-If you are asking students to identify something, provide a way for students to answer nonverbally. Usually I use a simple gesture or hand signal for different response options, but sometimes I have cards with visuals that students can use. The great thing is that when you use a nonverbal response option, you can have all students give an answer at the same time instead of asking students to raise their hands and call on one student! So for example if I want them to tell me what instrument they heard, I give them cards with pictures of instruments and ask them to hold up the one they hear. If I'm asking them to identify the meter/ how many beats are in a measure, I have them show the number on their fingers. If I want them to identify if it's in major or minor (or any other multiple choice response), I tell them to hold up 1 finger for major, 2 for minor (etc). 

-If you are working on a performance, incorporate an instrument or movement prop that they can use to add another element to the performance (and have the other students also play the instrument or use the movement prop as well).

The great thing is these strategies are beneficial for ALL students: multilanguage learners can figure out the English vocabulary through the nonverbal signals, adding more elements to a performance increases the level of challenge and musicality for every student, and everyone benefits from incorporating kinesthetic learning and being asked to answer every question instead of waiting for a classmate to raise their hand.

2. Repetition

I have seen so many of my nonverbal students begin to be able to sing along with songs because I repeat the same song over and over again! My most successful song is the one I use at the end of every lesson before we line up. I have been using the same song every day for 2 years now and students sing, play egg shakers, and move with the song. My nonverbal students of course can move and play their egg shakers, but after hearing the same song so many times, several of the students have started singing the words along with us, which has been so exciting! But even with songs I do for a few weeks I find often they will pick up a word here and there and approximate the sounds if the song is highly repetitive. Repetition is so important for developing verbal skills!

3. Simple choice opportunities

One of the reasons I use the song I do at the end of class with egg shakers is because I go around the room before we sing the song with my box of egg shakers and ask students what color shaker they want. This is a great opportunity to get them to use their communication devices because colors are generally already loaded into their devices, but because they are motivated and because it is, again, repetitive, I find many of my students learn how to approximate the sounds for their favorite color and can start verbalizing the color they want without the devices as well! I've even asked the speech-language pathologist what sounds they are working on and identified a color word that we think they can approximate and prompt the student to say it by modeling the word while pointing to that color shaker as well. 

4. Pointing to chin

I learned this from watching some expert teachers and speech language pathologists: pointing to your chin while you say a sound/ word and then pointing to their chin can be a good cue for getting them to try saying the sound. If I know they can say a word, when they try to point to something or use their device I will get their attention, point to my chin while I say the word, and then point to their chin. I use this cue a lot if I am doing an echo song as well, by pointing to my ear when we are listening and pointing to my chin when we are echoing. 

**selective mutism

I also have had a few students over the years with selective mutism, so I want to mention a quick note about that as an aside. In the case of selective mutism, I am primarily using the first strategy on this list of providing nonverbal response opportunities, including even having a dry erase board where they can write things if needed (especially in the older grades), not the other strategies that encourage verbalizing. With selective mutism, trying to get them to verbalize in the classroom setting can often backfire. Let them start talking if and when they're ready, but in the meantime provide ways for them to fully participate and learn so they feel comfortable in your classroom!

**communication devices

One more note about assistive communication devices, or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems: I used to put a lot more thought and time into incorporating the use of AAC devices in my lessons for students who had them, and if a student is just learning to use one and one of their primary learning goals is to become more comfortable using it, I still do. But I've found that my students love that they can fully participate in something without needing a device, and it's way less distracting- and more musical, because we (literally) don't miss a beat waiting for the device- when I can find strategies like these to get them involved without them. Then I also don't have to worry about if they remember to bring them to class, or if the device is charged and working!

There is so much more to say about this topic and I am BY NO MEANS an expert in this area- these are just some strategies that have worked for me. I hope this is helpful for other music teachers who may encounter the opportunity to teach nonverbal students for the first time, and I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have in the comments as well!

For general tips for teaching self-contained special education music classes, click here. For strategies for inclusion in the elementary music classroom for students with special needs, click here.

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Review & Revisit List for Music Teachers

Every year, there are concepts and skills that I know students haven't quite grasped before I have to move on. In the past I've always just made a mental note to try to work on it more later, or come back to it again "if I have time". But let's be honest, mental notes are rarely effective, and most of the time the school year comes to a close without me ever revisiting that topic. This year I've started a "review and revisit" list for each grade and it has made it so much easier to make sure I'm being intentional with what skills and concepts each grade needs more practice with as we approach the end of the school year!

I'm always assessing student understanding- most of the time informally- as I teach, and I often move on to a new topic or concept before all of the students have mastered what they're learning. Sometimes it's intentional, because I know I will be coming back to it again later in my curriculum and they just need more time and practice. But sometimes it's because something happens to disrupt the calendar and I need to make sure I get to other things, or I know I'm just beating a dead horse and continuing to try to work on it right then won't help. I found myself dealing with a lot of that this year because we had a lot more snow days than we have had the last several years that really threw off my class schedule and put several classes too far behind the rest of the grade level, or we lost momentum on what we were working on before we got stuck at home. 

I realized I was juggling several topics for different grades in my mind that I wanted to try to find time to come back to at the end of the year. I already have review time built into my curriculum the last month of school anyway, and we obviously have a lot of makeup days added on for the snow days we missed, so I know I have time at the end of the year to revisit things that students didn't quite get yet. But I also know how busy the end of the school year can get, and there is no way I will have the time or mental energy to go back and remember what I wanted to review with each grade!

Enter my list. It's just a simple sheet from a paper pad I picked up years ago that I added to my teacher planner. I keep it in the upcoming week's planner pages so it's handy without being in the way of my day-to-day planning. If things come up again between now and May, I can add it to the list, and when the time comes it's there ready for me! I labeled each section with the grade levels I teach and just started jotting down things as they came up:

It's nothing earth-shattering but it really has helped me feel more confident heading into the last part of the school year, knowing that I have a record of where I need to focus my teaching in the last month of school to best set my students up for success coming into the next grade level, and I don't know why I didn't do this sooner in my teaching career!

Whether you keep a sticky note somewhere or even track the list digitally on your phone or computer somewhere, I highly recommend keeping a review and revisit list somewhere, and leave time in your yearly plans to come back to those at the end of the school year! For me, having everything on paper and all in one place in my planner has been the only way for me to stay on top of everything. You can see the planner printables I use here if you are looking for a paper planner that's tailored to music teachers!

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3 Spring Songs for Self-Contained and Early Childhood Music

Spring is officially upon us and that means flowers, rain showers, and insects coming out to play! I have a few songs I've learned and adapted for my self-contained special education and early childhood students that have been very effective and engaging: here are 3 fantastic songs for spring and the lesson activities I use with them.

1. The Flower Song

I found this song by Nancy Stewart (see notation from original source here) a few years ago via this video by Krista Chencharick when I was looking for something to use in my sub plans to have my 1st graders practice sol mi and quarter and paired eighth note rhythms (which I highly recommend this for too, by the way). For my special education classes, I added my own motions to the song and first taught students to sing the song while doing the hand motions like this:

Once students learned the song, I turned on Krista's video and I had them echo the flower names on so mi and clapping, rather than reading it along with the recording, and it worked perfectly! The students all loved it and I had several nonverbal students verbalizing and even singing on pitch with the flower names, and the ones who didn't verbalize were able to do the entire song with motions and clap the rhythms. The first time we just did 2 of the flowers, and every time since we have added a couple more until they could do them all. 

2. A Little Seed Scarf Song

I've seen this song by Mabel Watts and Mary Lou Siegel shared by so many early childhood music educators, but I first saw the scarf routine I use from this video by Miss Katie. After doing a longer, more active scarf movement activity, this is a great song to slow down the pace and lead into the Flower Song above! I also use it as a way to get some individual time with each student and make it easier for students to put away scarves by going around to each student and singing it with/ for them while they do the motions, and when they open their hand at the end to make the flower I have them put their scarf in the box and go to their seat to get ready for the next activity. 

3. Busy Like a Bee

No early childhood music compilation of mine would be complete without a Stephanie Leavell song! I always thought this song was so cute but this year have not been able to do much gross motor activities, especially where students are moving around the room in scattered formation, because of the groups that I have. For other groups this would be a great song to use to practice moving in different ways and stopping on cue though! I use the recording from this video of Busy Like a Bee by Stephanie Leavell from Music for Kiddos and, instead of having them move around the room, I came up with motions to have them do from their seats, like this: 

Once they learn the moves and can do it with just their finger, I add egg shakers! I have them leave their shakers on the floor in front of them or in their laps for the verses, and then pick it up and fly the shaker around like a bee for the chorus.

These songs have been a huge hit with my classes this year and I hope you enjoy using them with your students as well! For more songs and lesson ideas to use throughout the year with self-contained and early childhood music classes, click here. I'd love to hear your favorite spring songs for early childhood music in the comments as well!

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Handling the Hand-Off

I don't know how we got here but for some reason there is A LOT of tension between the homeroom teacher camp and the subject specialist teacher camp around what is and is not appropriate to say or not say when a class is transitioning from, say, music class back to their homeroom. Managing transitions well can truly make or break your day, especially in elementary school, and we all know that there is a lot of work to be done towards getting different kinds of teachers to work together productively and respectfully. Here are my tips for making that hand-off back to the homeroom teacher go more smoothly, especially when things have gone awry during the lesson.

1. Do NOT ask the homeroom teachers to discipline in your place

I honestly have never met a music, art, PE, library, or any other teacher who thinks that they should not have to address misbehavior that happens in their class themselves, and that the homeroom teacher should be the sole disciplinarian, but there seem to be a lot of homeroom teachers who think that's what their colleagues are saying so, in case any of those people are out there giving us all a bad name, let's start here: if something happens in our class, it's our job to figure out how to handle it. Often we don't have enough time or reach to fully address everything within the constraints of our limited class time, and it may be most appropriate and effective to involve other adults- including, possibly, the homeroom teacher- in whatever the follow up is, but we definitely should not be expecting to tell the homeroom teacher what happened and have them figure out how to handle it. Not only is that unfair to the homeroom teacher but it sends the message to the students that you have no power or authority, and in most cases the consequence will be far less effective because the homeroom teacher wasn't there and won't fully know what happened.

2. DO communicate major issues, along with your plan

If it's just small issues, or issues that are chronic that the homeroom teacher is already aware of, I don't mention them unless there will be some follow up that will be happening later- that's just tattling. But if a student is visibly still upset, whether it's because something just happened or because it was a bigger problem, I let them homeroom teacher know what happened and how I handled/ will be handling it. That way if any students try to tattle on their friends about what happened the homeroom teacher knows they don't have to address it again- they can simply remind them of what is already being done and not have to rehash the whole issue. It also helps homeroom teachers know why a student may still be upset without having to ask them to re-explain the whole thing, and be aware of what's happening if a student gets called to the office later, or a parent asks them at pickup what happened. If I'm reporting on something, it usually sounds something like:

"Student A and B got into an argument in the hallway but we already talked through it, everyone apologized, it has been handled so nobody should need to keep talking about it but they might need some space from each other still."

"Student A was being so disrespectful today. I am going to be messaging their family and come up with a plan before their next music class because we are not doing this again."

3. DO ask for input if you're unsure

Some homeroom teachers, unfortunately, are less receptive to this than others, but if you're not sure how much a student is having the same difficulty in other classes and if so, how it is currently being addressed, or you don't know what type of consequence would be most effective for a particular student, I think you should be able to ask the homeroom teacher in a way that still communicates you are taking responsibility for the situation but just want their advice. Most of the time I will say something like:

"Student A was having a hard time today... I already spoke with them but I wanna talk to you later before I do anything else."

Not only does it communicate to the homeroom teacher that I am addressing the situation while giving them a heads up so when you come to them later to ask what they've been doing in class etc they know why, but it also sends the message to the student that you are working together as a team. The one question I will sometimes just ask right then in the transition instead of following up later is to ask the homeroom teacher how they most often communicate with home if I'm not sure who to contact/ the best way to make sure I get in touch. Everything else I save for a private conversation later.

4. To the homeroom teachers: stop assuming

I doubt any homeroom teachers will be reading this but just in case: please stop assuming we are expecting you to do our work when we talk to you about something that happened in our classes. I am willing to bet most of the time, your colleague is just trying to give you a heads up. Because we see students for such short slivers of time, and because we are so used to being excluded from behavior and academic support plan conversations, we know that having more information about how a student's day is going is helpful for informing how to respond to that student the rest of the day. If it were us, we would want to know. With everything that we are dealing with as teachers, we do not need more division between colleagues. We are all working hard, we all care about our students and what happens in our classroom, and we are on the same team!

Of course a major part of making the transitions go more smoothly is to have solid procedures in place that ensure students are calm and focused before sending them off. Here is my post explaining my routine for the end of class to get them lined up quietly and ready for the next thing, and here is my post on my strategies for the various aspects of management for elementary music.

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Nowruz (Persian New Year) Chaharshanbeh Suri Song

Did you know the Persian New Year, Nowruz, begins on March 21st? The celebrations began last week in Iran, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and many other countries and are continuing this week. I recently learned a song about one of the Nowruz traditions in Iran called Chaharshanbeh Soori, or fire jumping, that has been perfect for exploring and identifying uncommon time signatures with my upper elementary students. I highly recommend this song and the lesson activities I used!

If you are unfamiliar with how Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is celebrated in Iran (many other countries celebrate in similar ways as well), the beginning of this video is an excellent description that you could share with elementary aged students to learn about the holiday:

One of the traditions that's not mentioned in this video, though, is Chaharshanbe Suri, which is the "Red Wednesday" fire festival celebrated the last Tuesday night before the new year. This read-aloud is a great way to introduce the tradition to kids in a relatable way if you have the time, and the video below gives a nice quick explanation of both the fire jumping and the spoon hitting traditions (which is very similar to trick or treating so elementary aged students always enjoy learning about it) of Chaharshanbe Suri: 

The song I want to share today comes from this video, which demonstrates the song and explains a game and music lesson activities to go with it:

I wrote out the notation of the melody with a transliteration (pronunciation) of the lyrics below. As always I recommend listening to the native speaker in the video above to learn the proper pronunciation of the lyrics rather than reading them from the English letters below alone!

The lyrics are:

اسفند دونه دونه،چهارشنبه سوری مونده         

آتش داریمیه خرمن،میپریم روش باهم            

سرخیِ تو از من، زردیِ من از تو.               

Which roughly translates to:

Esfand (the last month of the Persian calendar) is over, it's Chaharshanbeh Soori (Red Wednesday)

Let's jump over the fire together

My yellowness is yours, your redness is mine

The last line, which is sung twice at the end of the song, is the phrase that people say as they jump over the fire, meaning they are giving their pale, yellow, sickly skin of winter to the fire, and taking the red, healthy, rosy skin from the fire as spring begins. 

This song is a perfect addition to my lessons on time signatures with 4th and 5th graders because of the interesting 5/8 time! First I had the students doing the clap/ pat pattern with the recording (I clipped just the part where she sings the song in my slides), then I introduced the holiday and fire jumping tradition and taught them the last repeated line and had them try to sing along while still doing the clap- pat pattern through the whole song. In the video the woman suggests having students play percussion instruments with the song and take turns jumping over a pretend fire, so I did something similar: I had half of the students either play a pattern on the djembe, playing the low bass tone in the center of the drum on the downbeat pat and the higher tone on the edge of the drum on the claps, or play steady eighth notes on a shaker. The other half of the class lined up in front of the plushy campfire I happen to have from doing campfire songs at the end of the school year (really you could use a red scarf, or anything small as the "fire"). While we sang the song, the students in line tried to jump on the claps and land on the pats. First I had them jump together in time with the beat while staying in place, then once they got it I had them take turns actually jumping over the fire plushy one at a time. We had to slow the song down but once they got it, it went really well and they loved trying to keep the jumping going through the whole song! Then I had them trade parts and do it again.

All the clapping, jumping, singing, and instrument playing in 5/8 really helped them internalize the pulse before I asked them to try to identify the time signature. Having the shaker playing eighth notes is definitely important for helping students figure out what the time signature is! It's the perfect way to get them to experience how the 5 eighth notes are often split into groups of 2 and 3.

You could certainly use this song for other concepts like same and different phrases, or do re mi fa solfege notes, and you could definitely add more pitched ostinati to create an ensemble piece with it as well, or even have students play the melody on xylophones or other barred instruments, but I think the clear pulse and simple melody, along with the fun movement game that even upper elementary students can get excited about, make this a perfect song to use to explore time signature/ meter, and it was an easy way to introduce students to a tradition from Iran that most had never heard of!

If you want to incorporate more simple songs from Iran in Farsi / Persian, this rain song is also perfect for spring (or really any time of year) and I used it primarily with my younger students. You can also find more songs from around the world and search by language or country/ region on this page, and see all my other lesson ideas for teaching meter (including tons more lessons to practice 5/4 time) in this post: 

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Arab American Musicians to Share with Students

April is Arab American Heritage Month and this year it feels more important than ever to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Arab American musicians! There are so many amazing people to highlight, but here are a few of my favorites to share with elementary students.

Paula Abdul

As I was thinking about this list I realized I don't highlight dancers and choreographers enough in my classroom- Paula Abdul is an Emmy and Grammy award winning singer and dancer, and many students still recognize her from her time as a judge on American Idol. She has Syrian Jewish heritage. This video shows her singing and dancing with a song that elementary students can enjoy and even has a shot of the original American Idol judges at the end:

Amir Elsaffar

Amir Elsaffar is an Iraqi-American composer, singer, and trumpet and santur player. He combines jazz, Western classical, and Iraqi Maqam styles in his music. The beginning of this video shows his song "Hemayoun" where he starts off playing the santur and then switches to trumpet:

DJ Khaled

Of all the people on this list, students are most likely to recognize DJ Khaled, a Palestinian-American DJ and producer. My favorite song to share with my students is this one from the "Wrinkle in Time" movie with Demi Lovato- it's a great song with a great message, and of course includes his signature phrase, "another one" at the beginning:

Kareem Roustom

Kareem Roustom is a Syrian-American-Canadian oud player, director, and Emmy-nominated composer. He has written film scores, arranged for pop singers like Tina Turner and Shakira, and worked with many well-known classical musicians including Daniel Barenboim and the Kronos Quartet. I had a hard time picking just one video to share that represents his work, so here are two! The first is one of his more widely-performed pieces called Dabke, performed by a youth orchestra:

And here he is performing on oud:

I hope this gives you some new people and music to share with your students during Arab American Heritage Month and of course, all year long! They aren't US American but if you are looking for more musicians with Arab heritage to share with your students, here is my list of Contemporary Palestinian Musicians with lots of fantastic examples my students love! 

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