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Home BlogPage 5

Musical Learning with The Three Bears

Liz Buchanan January 14, 2017 January 14, 2017Music Education, Story Songs, Uncategorized 0

The story of the Three Bears is a fun way to help children learn about high, medium and low pitches. This idea is not original to me (I’ve referenced some lesson plans below), but I found a way to involve students playing different instruments and repeating lines of the story….

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Seek & Find the Joy in Music!

Liz Buchanan December 26, 2016 December 26, 2016Music Education, Reflections 5

Seek the joy! It’s one of the guiding principles of the elementary school I helped to found in the summer of 2015. It’s the core principle of my music classroom. Recently, at a pre-holiday gathering, our school staff all wrote shout-outs to each other. I saw “joy” repeatedly in the…

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Exploring Musical Opposites: High & Low

Liz Buchanan October 30, 2016 October 30, 2016Finger Plays, Music Education 1

I’ve been teaching my students in kindergarten and first grade about musical opposites. Right now, we’re especially focused on how pitches can move up and down, high and low. I learned the following finger play from a friend; the author is unknown. I adapted the words to teach more clearly…

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Why We Need Music in School – A Response

Liz Buchanan October 8, 2016 October 8, 2016Music Education, Reflections 1

Music education is good because it helps raise students’ test scores. I recently read an article by teacher and blogger Peter Greene that adamantly contends we should not use this argument to justify music education. Hmmm. Why not? If test scores go up when music is part of the school…

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Writing a Song About Flying!

Liz Buchanan September 13, 2016 September 4, 2016Songwriting, Story Songs 0

Ever dream of flying? Not flying on an airplane, though I love that, too. I mean letting your body catch the wind as you rise up into the air, soaring and gliding and seeing the sights far below. The classic Peter Pan fired children’s imaginations about flying. Just a little…

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I Learned About Orff This Summer!

Liz Buchanan September 4, 2016 September 4, 2016Music Education, Reflections, Uncategorized 0

During the summer of 2016, I had lots of adventures. While traveling through the American south, I stopped at the University of Memphis for two weeks to take a course about an approach to music education called Orff. Orff isn’t an acronym, it’s the name of the founder, Carl Orff,…

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New CD Features Friendly Dragon

Liz Buchanan June 23, 2016 June 23, 2016Reflections, Songwriting 2

My new CD is here! It’s called “Amazing!” It has a happy, musical dragon on the cover, drawn by my talented artist daughter, Molly Knobloch. The dragon is featured in the song “No Fire, Dragon!” which I wrote 10 years ago while working in a preschool classroom of children aged…

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A Musical Comedy for All Ages Celebrates … Music!

Liz Buchanan June 1, 2016 June 1, 2016Music Education, Reflections 1

“Music Island” is back! My full-length musical comedy for all ages will be staged by the Youth Choir of the First Parish of Bedford, MA on June 10 and 11, 2016, directed by Janet Welby. I invite everyone to sample the delight of Music Island. The show opens on an…

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Cultivating Young Musicians – Part 2

Liz Buchanan May 10, 2016 May 10, 2016Story Songs 0

“If we inspire you to do anything new at all in your [music] classrooms today, we hope it is this: Tell stories to your students! Read to them, use picture books or just tell them stories from your heart. Children NEED to hear them!” Peter & Mary Alice Amidon of…

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Cultivating Young Musicians – Part 1

Liz Buchanan May 1, 2016 May 10, 2016Music Education 2

I led a workshop entitled “Cultivating Young Musicians” on April 30, 2016 at the New England Conference of The Children’s Music Network. I highlighted songs that I regularly use in my music-teaching practice to help children learn about basic musical concepts such as scales, pitch, beat, tempo and dynamics. Here…

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