🤩 📸 Creating a headshot wall to showcase your elementary musical stars is a fantastic way to highlight your students and add a personal touch to your performance space! With Canva’s Magic Grab Tool, you can easily design a professional-looking display without the need for complex equipment or a green screen. From taking simple photos of your cast to customizing your playbill backdrop, this step-by-step guide will show you how to create a stunning headshot wall that celebrates your talented performers. Ready to bring this idea to life? Click to read more and learn how to make it happen!
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It's that magical moment each year when May the Fourth swings by, and music educators in elementary schools turn it into "May the Fourth Be With You" extravaganza! Even though it falls on a Saturday, you can still celebrate it early on Friday or late on Monday. Picture music vibes from John Williams's Star Wars tunes and jazzy beats like "Take Five" by Paul Desmond, courtesy of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. With a galaxy of over 90 awesome activities to pick from, I've whipped up a Wakelet featuring these fantastic categories:
Movement (Move-Its) Activities
Parachute and Scarf Activities
Rhythm Play-Alongs
Boomwhacker Play-Alongs
Orff, Ukulele, and Recorder Play-Alongs
Music Creation Activities
Line Rider and Fun Videos
Lesson Resources (Some free and some paid)
5/4 Extra Activities (involving Take Five)!
Tip: Please view the video in your classroom before you use it with your students to make sure it is appropriate for your teaching scenario and your age group.
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Not long ago, learning to code required a deep commitment — you had to fully immerse yourself in the world of programming, and even then, mastering it could take years. Today, AI has made coding far more accessible. You no longer need extensive coding knowledge to create sophisticated projects. For example, you can now simply instruct AI to build a website that hosts a game where students match dynamic symbols with their corresponding terms. Tools like Canva make it even easier to bring these ideas to life!
Here is the next play-along video in the End-Of-The-Year Series: American Authors’s Best Day of My Life play-along for ukuleles, boomwhackers, and classroom instruments. It is versatile enough so that you can use this with your younger students to play the rhythm patterns at the top of the screen with classroom instruments or play the boomwhackers with the moving color-coded rectangles. Finally, you can use this with your older students performing the ukulele C, F, and minor chords.
This exciting play-along features both ukuleles and boomwhackers, and it's designed to be accessible for all skill levels, making it ideal for elementary music classrooms. Whether your students are seasoned ukulele players or beginners just starting out with boomwhackers, this play-along has something for everyone! The manipulatives can be found for free at https://buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech/extras
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Here is a unique way to incorporate technology into your Earth Day Music Class. If time and/or materials are not permitting you to create instruments from recycled materials, let’s create a song about Earth Day that we can then add classroom instruments and rhythm patterns to perform.
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This play-along is challenging! The tempo is quick, there are a lot of chromatic notes, the rhythm has a lot of playing on the offbeats, and the play-along encourages one to look ahead when performing it. I would highly suggest slowing down the tempo on YouTube by clicking on the settings, choosing the “Playback speed” and slowing it down to 0.75 or 0.50.” Or use the “Transpose ▲▼ pitch ▹ speed ▹ loop for videos” Chrome extension that will allow you to change the pitch and key of most YouTube videos. In addition, I would use the screenshots/file found here in the blog post so that your students can practice this before trying it with the video.
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Turn your concert poster quickly and easily into a social media post!
Resizing in Canva has significantly improved, making it a more versatile and user-friendly tool for creators. With the enhanced resizing capabilities, users can effortlessly adjust their designs to fit different formats and dimensions without losing quality or layout integrity. This improvement is particularly beneficial for those who need to create consistent content across multiple platforms, such as social media, print, and web.
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With Earth Day next week, it is always important to keep the 3Rs in mind. In particular, we refer to the principles of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Jack Johnson's song of the same name is composed of two basic chords - C and G. The C chord is a great starting point for beginners on the ukulele. This song can be a valuable tool for students to learn G.
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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BretPimentel.com is a goldmine for music educators, offering a variety of interactive resources. My favorites include the Random Note Picker for quick assessments, customizable Fingering Charts, and the versatile Note Generator for flashcards and composition activities. Check it out today to enhance your music classroom with these creative tools!
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🎶 Looking for Play-Along Videos for End-of-Year Songs in Your Music Class? 🎶
Whether you're prepping for graduation, a moving-up ceremony, or just want a fun way to end the year, I’ve got you covered! I’m creating easy-to-use play-along videos that your students will love—featuring ukulele and boomwhacker parts for "Time of Your Life" by Green Day. 🎸🎼
Bring some musical magic to your final lessons of the year!
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Check out a fresh ukulele play-along featuring Green Day's hit "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." The title has been slightly modified by omitting "Good Riddance." This rendition is from the 1998 Letterman Show when the album "Nimrod" was introduced. The performance is by Green Day's frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong. As it's a live version, it skips the initial part found on the CD, excluding a word unsuitable for an elementary music setting.
Teaching this song
This song is based on four chords: G Major, E Minor, D Major, and C Major. The teaching approach involves introducing one chord per class session. Read more below.
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Here comes April Fools. Lots of rickrolling, funny posts, and flutes purposely playing with cleaners in them! Bring it on!!
#elementary #elementarymusicteacher #elementarymusicteacherlife #elementarymusiceducation #elementarymusicteachers #elementarymusic #elementarymusicteachersofinstagram #elementarymusicteachersrock #elementarymusicteachersoftiktok #elementarymusicteachersoftik #elementaryteachersofinstagram #music #elementarymusiclife #elementarymusiceducationchangeslives #elementaryteachersrock
Get ready for some fun this April Fool’s Day! 🪄 Your students will think they’re diving into a rhythm play-along featuring Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” — but wait! Just when the beat is flowing and the rhythms are rocking, POOF! 🎶
They’ve been Rickrolled! 🎤🙃
That’s right! Suddenly, Rick Astley’s classic “Never Gonna Give You Up” takes over, turning this into the ultimate musical prank! But don’t worry — it’s all in good fun and totally classroom-safe.
🧡 Why You’ll Love It:
🎵 Simple rhythms using quarter, half, and eighth notes + quarter rests
📣 An intuitive crescendo to keep them musical.
🏫 Perfect for all grade levels.
😂 Guaranteed giggles, groans, and maybe even some spontaneous classroom karaoke!
Your students will hopefully be talking about this one long after the last note fades. Ready to pull off the most fun, musical prank? Click here to watch and join the fun!
👉 Watch the April Fool's Rhythm Play-Along
Happy pranking, maestro! 🎵🎭
With MusicFirst Elementary, you can turn your centers into dynamic, digital musical experiences. Whether you're decoding rhythms, matching instruments, improvising melodies with boomwhackers, or creating ostinato loops, MusicFirst Elementary offers tools that encourage creativity, retrieval practice, and individualized learning. Plus, these centers help assess student progress in one class period! Want to try it? Get a free 30-day trial here: MusicFirst Elementary.
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Bringing back one of my favorites featuring opera, I present a Rhythm and Boomwhacker Play-Along Video featuring the one and only Frederica von Stade, a Far Hills Country Day School alum! Frederica, a seasoned opera star with a voice that wows, is here to jazz up your day. Dive in to discover the play-along video, fun classroom manipulatives, and insider tips on teaching the song. Ready to jam out? Spread the love by tossing a virtual coffee my way at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech/ 🎵☕
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Bring La Vaca Lola to life in your classroom with this engaging movement activity that will have your students singing, moving, and laughing! 🎶🐄 Download the free lesson, grab the recording, and see just how easy it is to energize your music lessons. Plus, unlock 30 days of MusicFirst Elementary for free to explore even more interactive songs and resources—perfect for making music magic happen this week! Click below to get started! 🚀🎵
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Ready to take your Boomwhacker play-alongs to the next level? 🎶 This week, I’ve created the Level 2 version of the popular Sia Steady Beat Play-Along to "Unstoppable", with more challenging rhythms like dotted eighth notes and sixteenth notes, plus an expanded range of Boomwhacker notes! 🥁✨ If you liked the first version, your older elementary students will have a blast with this one—complete with free manipulatives, video play-along options on YouTube, and interactive tools on Soundslice. Click here to get the free resources, teaching tips, and everything you need to bring this dynamic activity to your classroom today! 🎉
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🎉 Bring Math & Music Together this Pi Day! 🎶
Looking for a fun, creative way to celebrate National Pi Day (March 14) with your students? Why not combine the love of music and math in your classroom? Pi Day isn’t just for memorizing numbers or serving pie—it’s a perfect opportunity to explore sound, melody, and rhythm with your students.
I’ve got an engaging Pi Day activity that uses Typatone.com, an online tool that transforms typing into music. It’s a super fun way for students to explore how letters and numbers can create melodies, and it’s the perfect way to introduce them to the magic of combining math with music.
Click here to learn more about how to bring this Pi Day music activity into your classroom!
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🎵 Looking for a fun and meaningful way to celebrate Women’s History Month in your music classroom? Imagine your students performing the music of iconic female artists while mastering steady beats and rhythms! This week, we’re diving into an exciting Sia Boomwhacker Play-Along to her hit song Unstoppable — a perfect blend of music and motivation. Whether you have a full set of boomwhackers or just a few classroom instruments, this activity will have your students engaged, empowered, and eager to learn. Keep reading for teaching tips, creative alternatives, and even more female artist play-alongs! 🎤
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