Skip to content
Janine's Music Room

Janine's Music Room

Thoughts from a PYP music teacher

Menu

  • About Me
  • My Teaching
  • Resources

Grade 2

Top Tips for Teaching Rounds

I think it’s fair to say that teaching kids to sing a round is pretty standard fare in elementary school music. Rounds are a fantastic way for students to develop musical independence, to perform and listen at the same time.

Janine 10. July 202214. July 2022 Performance, Teacher Tips, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

“High” doesn’t mean loud: Clearing up the confusion

Pitch and rhythm are a great pair in early childhood music. Students often use the words “high” and “low” to talk about “loud” and “quiet”, which we want to sort out as early as possible. Teaching in an international school,

Janine 5. June 20215. June 2021 Assessment No Comments Read more

5 Great Circle Games from Around the World

As I wrote last week, I love to play singing games with my classes. Not only are they fun and catchy, but they offer a lot of teachable content. It’s up to you what you want to pull out, but

Janine 9. February 20182. April 2018 Group activity, Song, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

5 Great Circle Games for Your Music Class

Singing, games, and holding hands! I love playing circle games with my kids. And my kids love playing them. They love the catchy melodies, the movement, and the challenge: For some games, that’s the challenge of doing the right thing

Janine 4. February 201827. March 2018 Group activity, Song, Whole class activity 2 Comments Read more

Inquiry into Pitch

I’ve just started a sound exploration unit in Grade 2, focusing on pitch (and later, duration and dynamics). Last week was an introduction week, where the students tried singing from graphic notation. What began as the same up-and-down siren sound

Janine 21. January 20161. December 2016 Group activity, Inquiry No Comments Read more

The Listening Walk, Part III: Following a Score

Now that the students had inquired into how they could make their observed environmental sounds into musical sounds (inspired by Paul Showers’ The Listening Walk; see my Part I and Part II posts), we took it a step further. We visualized the

Janine 30. April 20159. August 2015 Group activity, Inquiry, Performance 2 Comments Read more

The Listening Walk, Part II: Making Sounds into Music

Following our inquiry into environmental sounds (inspired by Paul Showers’ The Listening Walk), we explored how that might translate into music. Sitting together as a class, a few students shared some of the sounds they had drawn/written in their journals,

Janine 24. April 201521. July 2015 Group activity, Inquiry 4 Comments Read more

The Listening Walk, Part I: Exploring Sounds Around Us

My Kindergarten classes have been exploring sounds, and an unexpected discussion led us in an interesting direction: How do the sounds in our environment inspire us as musicians? Cue The Listening Walk by Paul Showers, illustrated by the fantastic Aliki.

Janine 16. April 201526. July 2020 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Composing with Legos

Legos are great for so many reasons. But this year I discovered one more. The most basic LEGO Duplo bricks come in lengths of 2 and 4, which is perfect for all the work we do with 4/4. This wasn’t new

Janine 27. February 201529. October 2015 Group activity No Comments Read more

Settling In

I have been in schools before where the classroom teacher quietly leads their class, single file, to Music. But more often than not, my classes now come running in, still engrossed in the conversation they had started on their way

Janine 30. January 20151. October 2015 Inquiry, Uncategorized, Whole class activity No Comments Read more
  • « Previous

Archives

Categories

  • Assessment
  • Group activity
  • Inquiry
  • Performance
  • Song
  • Teacher Tips
  • Technology
  • Thoughts
  • Uncategorized
  • Unit
  • Whole class activity

Janine's Music Room on Teachers Pay Teachers

High quality teaching assets to wow your students and save you time

Take me there

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Copyright © 2023 Janine's Music Room. All rights reserved. Theme Spacious by ThemeGrill. Powered by: WordPress.