Be a kindness rock star! The poster on the left by Karen Salmansohn provides my motto for behavior management for music specialists or teaching artists or any adult who visits classrooms. (Substitute teachers, there is a special place in Heaven for you.) One of the biggest challenges for any teacher … Continue reading
I just made a new video of one of my favorite literacy songs, “Dr. Knickerbocker.” Find it now on my youtube channel, LizBuchananMusic, by clicking here. “Dr. Knickerbocker” is somewhat ubiquitous in kids’ music circles, having been featured on at least two children’s TV shows and in numerous books. It’s … Continue reading
Memo to musicians under 40, of all musical styles and persuasions: Could you share your music with kids? Please? I’m reaching out especially to those of you who don’t look or sound like me, a white female of a certain age, who strums my acoustic guitar and sings folk-y type … Continue reading
Here’s a series of fall arts activities that include movement, music, art and poetry. These activities are perfect for arts integration into curriculum, offering children a chance to reflect on fall colors and the change of seasons, as well as botany and earth science related to seasonal change. These lessons … Continue reading
I recently watched a video about arts integration at the Two Rivers Charter School in Washington, D.C. Second graders created giant Jackson Pollock-style paintings while learning about the physics of flight; fourth graders learned about their local rivers by enacting the history of a river through poetry, movement and drama. … Continue reading
I love making music with kids aged 3-6, especially pairing music with early literacy learning, which is a natural fit. I once taught at a preschool where the director told me: “Just have fun singing with the kids,” implying that they’d pick up the literacy learning elsewhere in their day. … Continue reading
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. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
