Find great Irish and St. Patrick’s Day elementary music lesson plans, songs, dances, play alongs, and more.
The music, instruments, dance, and culture of Ireland create great learning opportunities in the music classroom.
St. Patrick’s Day is a prime time for these resources but also any time you want to talk about folk instruments, dances, and music.
The Playlist
Continue reading “St. Patrick’s Day Special Activities With History, Songs, And Dances”Get your kids moving & grooving with the Sing & Move Day Video PLAYLIST! Perfect for one-off lessons, brain breaks, or just to shake it up!
When I needed to shake it up for myself or my K-5 students, I had “Sing and Move Day.”
I alternated sit-down SINGING videos with get up and MOVE videos. It was a great break from the routine and I found that the kids and I both loved (and needed) it.
Pick and choose the videos that are most appropriate for your students.
Disclaimer: You should preview any video before showing it to your students.
Some videos are more K-2 and some more 3-5!
Scroll past the ones that don’t work and head for something you know your kids will love!
Kids should pedal a pretend personal bicycle at 2:19 where players as a group create the bike.
Find fun and engaging Valentine’s Day songs, games, dances, and activities to make a week of LOVE in the music room. Some “love” songs can be used any time of the year!
Continue reading “Valentine Themed Music Resources”
Let’s talk about Bruno! 
Here’s a new MOVEMENT video for Bruno with the ending movement matching the contrapuntal lines of the ending. This is for parents, classroom teachers, music teachers, and anyone who
This original song inspired by the Spanish word, encanto, is accompanied by an Orff arrangement, Latin rhythm and melodic elements, and is a great extension to the movie craze that has swept the nation.
It’s a perfect concert selection or classroom exploration of Latin-flavored ostinati!
This packet from Disney is amazing and has information about the characters, Columbia, nature, and music along with printable activities.
Amanda Gorman’s children’s books are the perfect inspiration for elementary music concerts and classroom activities. Here are a variety of Amanda Gorman music resources and ideas based on her books, Change Sings and Something, Someday.
The Playlist
With her poetry of words, Amanda Gorman’s “Change Sings” uses a story full of music vocabulary to invite children to be the change in the world with acts of kindness. Here are songs that fit into that theme.
Amanda Gorman’s book, “Change Sings”, inspired this new 3-part round song, The Change Is You, that uses an African proverb to begin the journey of a call to action to be the change in the world.
Written for younger singers, Change the World With Kindness reinforces the act of kindness themes in Amanda Gorman’s book, “Change Sings.”
With lots of repetition and sequencing, this easy-to-learn song is a perfect concert selection. The resource includes suggested movements and opportunities to create your own movement.
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If you’re looking for a classroom song about Earth Day, the environment, and making a difference or a sparkling elementary music concert selection that’s simple to learn and features students playing instruments, this is it!
Seeds of Change is a song about making a difference, an environmental call to action about caring for our outdoor spaces, set to a Latin-feel Orff arrangement with lots of maracas representing the “seeds.”
You will find Black History Month songs to sing, songs for listening, musician and song database that’s appropriate for kids, authentic research articles and information, and decor for your bulletin boards and classroom door.
On This Page
Continue reading “Black History Month Songs & Curriculum”
At the bottom of the slide, click on the 3 dots to find the ENTER FULL-SCREEN link. I’ve never tried embedding a Google slide, so please let me know if you have any problems with it. Comment below or send an email to oodlesofmusic21@gmail.com
Use music to learn about the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From in-class learning to special performance programming, find kid-friendly songs that were sung during the Civil Rights Movement to songs that honor MLK’s life and work.
I had a set curriculum so that I always had something fresh for each grade level.
| Prior Knowledge | Books & Videos | Song | |
| K | Martin’s Big Words | Dr. MLK Had a Dream | |
| 1 | “What do you know about MLK?” discussion. | Martin’s Big Words | Sing About Martin (video below) |
| 2 | “What do you know about MLK?” discussion. | Martin’s Big Words, Quaver He Had a Dream | Kid Like Me (textbook) |
| 3 | “What do you know about MLK?” discussion. | I Have a Dream, MLK Play Along | Keep Your Eyes On the Prize |
| 4 | “What do you know about MLK?” discussion. | Kid President Video, Maccabeats & Natually 7 | Orff arr. (below) |
| 5 | “What do you know about MLK?” discussion. | Granddaughter Video, MLK Freestyle | Orff arr. (below) |
Here’s a fresh and engaging song arrangement about Martin Luther King, Jr in a presentation featuring Orff, Kodaly, and optional recorder sections for your teaching for MLK Day, Black History Month, or any time of the year.
Lyrics about MLK’s dream have been set to the tune of the two-chord (F, C7) “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands”, perfect for beginning ukulele players, with a newly composed “B” section that can be used as a harmony partner song for the big finale.
Dr. King, he had a dream, he had a dream for all you see.
P-E-A-C-E, P-E-A-C-E, P-E-A-C-E
His name was Martin Luther King!
On the board, I put the letters PEACE, erasing one letter after each verse! Put an “X” where the letter would be and instruct students to clap on every X. Works great!
1. We already know the song BINGO so this switch is not hard.
2. Once we sing it as a group, as a group we replace the clap with something else.
3. We take suggestions which usually are; snap, pat, stomp, hit our chairs, cluck our tongues, etc. We vote on which one we want to do and do the NEW sound/motion as a class.
4. The next class, partners or small groups choose a new sound/motion and then we sing as a class.
There are so many fun possibilities. You can ask the groups to choose a motion, a sound, an instrument, a leveled motion (high, middle, low).
I found this back in the Bartolomeo vault 😄 and it is a jewel! Explore one of MLK’s greatest speeches through music!
Explore the above patterns with body percussion, unpitched percussion, or barred instruments!
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Martin’s Big Words is a great book for K-3 and is about Dr. King’s life from his birth to his death. I originally found it at my school in big book form (your K or first teachers might have it) and then got a copy in regular book size as well.
I Have a Dream is based on the famous speech with beautiful illustrations. This would be a great book for grades 3-6.
As an Amazon Affiliate, some links are paid links.
A FABULOUS video is by NUMBEROCK. It tells his story through music. (Link only, not shareable)
How do you take Essential Agreements that work great for regular homeroom classrooms, work for special area classes such as music? Find out the simple mind-shift to creating relevant, music-related agreements for multiple grades.
I always hated it when an administrator told us at the beginning of the year to have our class create essential agreements.
It made sense for the classroom teachers because they had, uh, ONE class. But really, what are music teachers going to do with multiple grade levels and sections within a grade level? Post 30 Essential Agreement posters around the room?
I’d make an attempt to do it with each class and homogenize it into one poster but then I kept thinking it was false and homogenized and served no purpose. EVERYBODY comes up with essentially the same things-be kind, be respectful, be safe, be responsible, be patient, be caring, etc.
Continue reading “How to make BE KIND, BE SAFE, BE RESPECTFUL Musical”
This game and version of the familiar musical chairs game is so much fun and easy to set up. I only play it with classes that can follow rules.
Start with a circle of chairs with the seats facing OUT.
The example class has 30 kids, so 29 chairs in a circle, right? Get a stack of textbooks or 29 books of any kind and after the first person is out, you put one book on any chair. I originally used textbooks because they are sturdy, were readily available in my classroom, and if a chair gets bumped, won’t fall off.
There is now one person out and they are in charge of putting the books on the chairs after each elimination. They get in the middle of the circle with the books. You start the music again. I tell the person in the middle to put ONE book on any chair AFTER the music begins again. As soon as they’ve put a book on a chair, you can stop the music whenever because the number of available chairs will fit how many are still in the game, minus one. Unlike the original, there is NO moving of chairs and a student is in charge of the books which allows you to keep your eyes on the game more consistently.
I put a playlist together and just let it roll and only use my mute button to turn the music “off and on” so that my eyes are constantly on the gameplay. Of course, you can stop and start the song, too.
It is SO fun. It is safe as long as you are firm on the rules and if it doesn’t work or you fear someone will get hurt, end the game and move on to something else.