Thank you so much for sharing your concept planner. This is extremely helpful!!!!!

Thank you so much! Very helpful!!!

I love these ideas. Especially the worksheets! Thank you!

I'm starting my first year teaching music, it's just a Mother's day out for 6months-prek BUT I'm super nervous and looking for as much info as I can get

Great even for seasoned teachers. You're a natural! Thank for your perspective and reminders!

You're awesome! Great tips!

Hi I'm looking for nice games or quizzes as fillers or warm up for my lessons. Any tips please? Thank you

Some guesses/suggestions as to the other musical you show clips of to elementary classes that have worked well for me over the years: Newsies, The Music Man, The Wiz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (the barn-raising scene!) , Meet Me in St Louis, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang---to name a few.

Hi! This is great❤ Did you choose concert or soprano ukulele? Starting a class next year as enrichment for 3 weeks.

Thank you so much for creating this video! I can't wait to try this out. :-)

Did you ever try Tinikling with pool noodles? How did that go? Thanks for these great ideas!

Thank you for this! I would LOVE templates!

thanks for sharing!

What exactly do you need to become a music teacher?

I love your voice 🤩🤩🤩💖💖💖

Fantastic video. Thanks!!

WOW Dude I am so glad I found your page! I have been feeling such a challenge with getting one of my groups engaged and these ideas are fresh and great!

🎻🎵👍👍👍

We've been playing Meter Tag for 2 years now. It's a great quick movement break! I always play everyone is it; that it is a silent game- anyone who argues is out; 'out' students have to sit where they were tagged out (creating obstacles for remaining players. Note- they start to silently team up- which is creative- I have only had to shut that down in one class as it isn't done in the kindness.) NEW TWIST: This week I thought, what if I stop playing my drum & clicks leaving them to move on their own to the strong beat? A student said- we can call it GHOST BEAT! You bet that's going to be the name!!- we had to play around with adding GHOST BEATs! -which also silenced the couple talkers lol! We are going to play around with this idea of Ghost Beat & the kids are stoked to help creative a new spin on this game after Spring Break!! One idea: Players have to step in place and not travel through space- the only person who can move is the person who was pre-chosen as the Ghost before the game started! Then when I play my drum, all play resumes with those still in the game!

Can you send me the song please 🥺❤🙏🙏🙏🙏

I also think what the district expects these kids to learn at such a young age is way too advanced for them. A lot of these concepts and music history they want the 4th and 5th graders to know I didn't learn until I was in college and took a Music History class. Why does a 5th grader need to know about chord progressions and the different melodic layers of the impressionist song Bolero? I mean seriously? I learned that in college! Who writes these curriculums and do they honestly think today's younger generation is going to be engaged with this? This is a huge part of the problem I face at my school.

I have the exact same problem. We use Quaver at our school and though it works okay with the younger kids, the older kids are BORED OUT THEIR MINDS. They HATE QUAVER and tell me it bores them to death. I honestly don't know what to do with these older kids. I also think social media has a lot to do with this too. Kids don't want to hear classical music they want modern pop music with a cool beat. If it doesn't sound like a tik tok short then they are not interested in it. I wish there was a better curriculum for the older kids that was more modern and engaging for them, where they could still learn some basic music concepts and have fun at the same time. I am having such a hard time with this.

I am doing concepts but not units

Shamrock is from Fran Smartt Addicott. Love it!

Thank you for your creative choreography and practical teaching suggestions!

i was wondering if you could provided me with the link. the link provided was not working for me to pull up.

Sogs camp do your ears hang low 👂

This is great! I'm a Children's Librarian and total beginner uke player. Your videos are just my speed. I watched the "Truth Hurts" video and plan to move onto each of the others in the "Simple Songs" playlist but I don't see a video for "Happier" on that list. Do you have a video tutorial for that song that I am missing?

What time do you clock in/clock out on average?

Thanks for another great lesson. But I do have a bone to pick. If you're not an expert on Hip Hop, it's because you're simply not an expert. It has nothing to do with your skin color. Saying you can't be an expert on Hip Hop because you're white is like saying an African American teacher can't be an expert on classical music (or Bluegrass, or country, etc.) because they're African American. We know what we know - our skin color neither denies nor naturally imbues us with that knowledge. All that aside, I do enjoy your videos and have learned quite a bit from them. Thanks! 🙂

Love this! Where can we find the Spotify playlist?

I'm gearing up to start a short Hip Hop unit in February (with an emphasis on Black history) and the resources you've put together are awesome! I see the little pop ups in your youtube video and they look really great- do you have google slides available to purchase/edit?

You are very beautiful madam.

Very helpful and encouraging video. Thanks for all the practical, down to earth tips.

When I was in elementary school, I had a music teacher. I treated him badly, which I still feel extremely guilty about. I always write apology letters to him, but he never writes back. He probably hates me now and is probably still angry at me. He has every right to. I just want him to know how truly sorry I am for treating him badly and that I was just a stupid little girl who didn't know any better. If he hates me now, he has every right to. If he's still angry at me, he has every right to be. I am 27 years old now, but every time I think about how badly I treated him when I was in elementary school, my heart breaks. He was such a kindhearted and handsome man. I have seen recent pictures of him on his Facebook. He is still extremely handsome. One of his photos was of him holding his newborn grandchild.

How do you spell the name of the primary folk dance you were talking about it?

I am not a new teacher, but this is my first year teaching K-4 music. I decided to forego doing this type of "formal" concert for several reasons including some of the ones you mentioned here. Instead, I invited the parents from each class to join us for our 45 min. music class to see a variety of the things we do in music each week. I called them "In"formances vs. Performances. I just held the Grade 2 informances, and parents got to watch our fun vocal warm-ups, our Solfege singing and hand signals, and related fun activities. They got to hear their children sing two songs, which most didn't have committed to memory, but that was okay, because I decided to use the vocals/background music from the EEMC site I subscribe to. Things weren't perfect, but it was really good and really fun. They also got to see them playing the unpitched percussion instruments along with a song they learned on the Glockenspiels. They saw their kids have a great time in music, and it wasn't stressful for me at all. I didn't have to deal with set-up, decorations, props, or committing the majority of my classes for months prior to teaching kids songs so they could memorize them for 3-5 min. on stage. I simply moved our music room chairs to the side walls in the room, sent home an invitation "flier," and that was it. I had several parents tell me they loved this so much more than coming to a concert and watching their child sing on stage for 3-5 minutes. Win-Win!!

Fab. Thank you. I would love to sign up and receive the free ukulele book. Thank you :)

The agenda is great. How do you keep track of which Kindergarten class did NOT get through lesson 22 and therefore has to make up part of that lesson, while the next Kindergarten class is actually on 23 and might have time for something else based on behavior, fire drills, field trips, etc.? This is part of the reason I don't put up an agenda as every class is on a different trajectory.

Thank you so much!!

I think this video was very helpful and encouraging. I am so glad some one is finally addressing this issue. I thought it was just me that was having a hard time finding content that was engaging. As a possible follow up, or solution to some of the reasons why these older students are so challenging, it would be good to have a discussion on specific resources or theme ideas that are tried and true that have worked.

I'm at a loss. I signed up, got the password, went to your page, freebies and this HIP HOP is not listed. How/Where...HELP! Thanks!

Thanks for the tips! Starting my first choir next month! :)

you are my general music teacher hero! I can't thank you enough. I use so many of your ideas and love your channel. You are an amazing teacher from what I see here. Thank you!

Hi how did you make this planner with the binding this way? thank you I already love it 🥰

My 4-6th graders here in China are going to looove the Pokemon game thank you so so much. I had no idea what I was going to do thank you so much

Make more pls

All that you say, is very helpful to hear, and makes me feel like I’m not alone. However, I feel that we need to come up with solutions for those who are in the midst of the challenging experiences. What are we going to do about it as an entire school community - not just music teachers, but music method creators, administrators, other classroom teachers, and the entire school community as a whole?

great video. Thank you for pronouncing "Ukulele " correctly. So many music teachers pronounce it youkulele, not cool.

I’m about to establish a new instrumental program at a 6-8 school. I appreciate looking at how things work in you’re classroom. Thanks for sharing.