Back to school in January feels like a reset. And it is! Everyone has been off schedule, staying up too late, eating off schedule, and chances are, being a bit lazy (in a good way!) How do you get back into the swing of things without feeling like you’ve been hit with a big jolt? Here are some ideas of what to teach after winter break in elementary music class.
New Years Themed Activities
Teach Auld Lange Syne
This is a great song for dotted quarter note, and low Sol. If you want to incorporate it in other classes, here are some new play alongs from Amy Burns:
1. Steady Beat Play-Along for Preschool and Kindergarten
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlDedXhCinQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlDedXhCinQ)
2. Rhythm Play-Along for Elementary Students
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaGgaUyD5nU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaGgaUyD5nU)
3. Boomwhacker Play-Along for Older Elementary
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjCR1SVEyMM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjCR1SVEyMM)
4. New! Notation Boomwhacker Video for Advanced Readers
This can be found on YouTube ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV5cYhpveWU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV5cYhpveWU) or Soundslice ([https://www.soundslice.com/slices/MDRRc/](https://www.soundslice.com/slices/MDRRc/))
Composing
This New Year’s Composing set will be perfect addition to a January music lesson with multiple ways to compose.
What’s included:
- Cut and paste page – two options
- Write your composition with a word bank (1 beat words)
- New Year’s words ostinato creation pages with words as one beat and two beat options in 1/8 page.
- Rubric
- Student self evaluation
Goal Setting
We set goals, so why not set some with your students? Spend some time setting goals for the rest of the school year with the students. Letting them set a few goals will help them take some ownership in the classroom. Some ways you can set goals:
– Walk students through coming concepts such as rhythmic and solfege elements, things you’ll be introducing like instrument families or dynamic terms or if they’ll be working on a new instrument or learning to read notes on the staff.
– Creative goals they might have for themselves? Add melody to a rhythmic composition? Try playing a friend’s composition? What things would they like to try.
– What they want to know. Is there something they really want to learn about such as a music from a specific culture, or learn about a specific composer?
Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year is the end of January this year. If you want to include some Lunar New Year lessons, this blog post has some ideas, books, videos, and activities you can include. Check it out here.
Procedures, Rules, Norms
Maybe you’re starting a new unit like recorder or ukuleles. Perhaps you have new students in your classrooms. No matter what, chances are everyone spent 2 weeks on no schedule, overbooked activities, parties, and fun, and didn’t eat, sleep, or move like normal. This is a great time to review procedures, remind students about the way they need to approach certain things, or introduce a new procedure.
Check out this free list of procedures to teach to help you get some ideas if something needs to be addressed.
Check out this blog post for more ideas.
Folk Dance
Get your students moving! After lazing around the house for two-ish weeks (me), I feel like I need to move a bit, and I’d wager a bet that some students feel the same way. This is a good way to help them get back in the swing of things (pun intended!), and not have to sit as still as they would for other lessons. Here’s some helpful blog posts for folk dancing:
- Let’s Folk Dance Part 1
- Let’s Folk Dance Part 2
- Let’s Folk Dance Part 3 Outside the Square
- Tinikling: A Philippine Folk Dance
I hope this has given you some great ideas to help the transition back be a little bit easier!
