I Love The Mountains | Round With Orff Arrangement, Motions, and Creating

If you’re looking for a multi-lesson flexible unit that includes a fun round with an Orff arrangement, this is it!

This low-prep resource can be used for

  • classroom learning
  • a spring concert
  • an Earth Day selection
  • subject integration (geography, science, language arts)
  • rewritten BY YOUR STUDENTS for any special event! (see below)

Listen to it on TPT!

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Spotlight Musician José Feliciano

I remember my older brother playing (on guitar and recordings) José Feliciano songs. I instantly fell in love with Feliciano’s sound and cool vibe and have followed him for years.

Laura
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Over The River & Through the Wood With Boomwhackers & Ukuleles

This resource of the Thanksgiving classic, Over the River and Through the Wood, includes parts for Boomwhackers, bells, and ukulele. Each part has audio and video files to support student learning AND in two different tempos-lento and adagio. Students learn about beats per minute (bpm) as they play their parts.

Play and learn in class or use it as a wonderful performance piece for winter concerts!

Music objectives include:

  • 6/8 meter and common rhythms
  • tempo markings
  • treble clef notation for melody
  • ukulele chords C, D7, F, and G7
  • classic American song repertoire
  • ensemble playing

Sound/Video File Example

Ukulele Seasonal Playalongs from Easy to Extreme


I’m always ok with exchanging a seven chord for a triad. If a song has G7 and you know G, substitute.

Tuner provided by GuitarAPP.

C, F, G7

C, F, G7, Am

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International Day of Peace


Find Peace Day song and program ideas for the music classroom, your school, and your community that include programming, decor, and lesson plans. You’ll find everything from lesson resources for single-class lessons to how to program a community-wide event.

On this page-

History of the Day

In 1981, the UN (United Nations) General Assembly established the International Day of Peace. Annually, it is observed around the world on September 21. Each year a new theme is chosen.

Themes through the years include climate action, human rights, education for all, human dignity, peace and democracy, and many more.

Peace Program Options

Participating in International Day of Peace can be as simple as a lesson in your classroom the week of the event. It could be a school-wide program with songs, dancing, speeches, poetry, etc. It could be community-wide with a peace walk in the neighborhood.

In the Classroom

The lesson could be a presentation from you about the history of Peace Day and the theme for the year. You could sing a song about peace or watch videos of musicians who have used their artistry as a platform to promote peace or raise awareness.

Sing “I’ve Got Peace Like a River” as a class and then get into groups and create a new verse. The song relates peace, joy, and love to a river, ocean, and fountain. How is peace related to joy and love? Continue with the water theme or make the theme nature. What in nature makes you feel peaceful, joyful, and loving? Share with the class. Older students could learn the chords and play on the ukulele or recorder.

School-wide

My school programs involved each grade level performing one song, poem, speech piece and older classrooms would be in charge of the speeches and narration. One year every grade level performed a peace poem because the emphasis was on living together harmoniously.

Another year, every grade level performed a song from another part of the world because the emphasis was on global awareness and diversity. My older students introduced each grade level and had speeches, narrations, and poems to read. Some of the poems were student-created and some were ones that I found. We had a moment of silence and we spoke a pledge.

Community-wide

Peace Walk Logistics

Making the day of peace community-wide involved a peace walk. Our PE teacher had worked with the police department for other events so contacted them so that they would provide safe crossings when we crossed busy streets. I was always able to find a nearby park that was our destination and we would have our programs at those locations. We would invite families and the community and they would walk with us.

Homeroom Participation & Attire

I asked grade levels to consider homeroom contributions to the day with special peace themes. Some participated and some didn’t but some of their ideas were: Grade K-1 made tie-dye shirts to wear that day, make and carry origami peace cranes, make peace signs to carry on the walk, make peace necklaces to wear, create chalk drawings on the sidewalk route, and many more. Our school has a dress code and students were allowed to wear peace-themed shirts that day.

Peace Walk Alternatives

If you don’t have a park nearby, just creating a peace walk around the school area will work. Because of COVID, having a program outside would be ideal. But if that won’t work, perhaps a peace walk and then back to the classrooms to watch a presentation put together with each class having been recorded doing something special. Family and the community could be invited to this Zoom or Teams meeting.

Lessons and Resources

Objectives

  • The original UN objective was for nations to observe 24 hours of non-violence and ceasefire, both within and among all nations.
  • A school objective would be to raise awareness about peace and the need for peace in your classroom, school, community, state, country, and world.
  • Related to the 2021 theme of RECOVERING: “Celebrate peace by standing up against acts of hate online and offline, and by spreading compassion, kindness, and hope in the face of the pandemic, and as we recover.” (2021 Theme: Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world, 2021.) Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace.

Activities

  • Peace Walk around your school
  • Peace Program with speakers, music, and other activities. (dance, art, poetry reading, etc.)
  • Peace visual art activities
  • Peace poetry Initiative
  • Engage in acts of kindness

Concurrent Learning in the Classroom

  • Musicians who use songs to send a peace message or inform about injustice
  • Civil Rights leaders’ peace walks, peaceful protests
  • Hate speech related to Covid

Songs for Peace

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Peace Like a River Lesson Plans

C, F, G7, and Am Songs

Inspiration-Feng E

Blooket Game

Blooket game on identifying the chords C, F, G7, C7, and Am from diagrams and images of fingers. My kids LOVE this game. Here’s an entire blog post about the game!

(No login needed for students, just click “join a game” and it will take you to the game pin screen. Teachers need to create a free account.)

NEW! Blog page with ukulele storage ideas for HANGING, CART, and SHELVING. Also, common hardware and resource needs to get the job done!

Tuner provided by GuitarAPP.

Riptide

Stand By Me

Brown-Eyed Girl

Have You Ever Seen the Rain

Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride

Next Ukulele Page for You: Ultimate Ukulele Chords That Take You Beyond the Basics


WITH—–How to Play G video
Songs: Low Rider (G), Dreams, (F, G) Ho Hey (C, F, Am, G) Long Drives by BoyWithUke (C, F, G, Am) Columbia, Mi Encanto (C, F, G), Earth Day (C, F, Am, G), Walking On Sunshine (C, F, G), Let It Be (C, F, G, Am), Bring U Down (G, F, Am, Dm), Another Brick In the Wall (C, Dm, F, G) Counting Stars (C, F, G, Am, Dm), Someone You Loved (C, G, Am, F, Dm), If I Didn’t Love You (F, G, Am, C), You Belong With Me (G, D, Am, C) MORE COMING SOON-THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.