I know we may not be ready to think about it, but none of us can hide from all those Back to School sales. Are you thinking about how to get the year started yet? (Okay, I’ll confess that I’m
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
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,
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.
A Halloween Tone Poem
My last post catered to those who are trying to teach to a classroom full of tiny pirates and princesses. If you want to give a nod to Halloween, but you are fortunate enough to have classes that aren’t bouncing
The First Day of School
It’s that time of year again, when parents are frantically—yet with great relief—preparing their children to go back to school. And teachers are preparing just as frantically to have their classrooms ready: an inviting space that is offers structure, but