Music

I have subbed several times in Music classrooms this year. I am not a music teacher. I can read music, and took violin lessons many, many years ago, but I can't sing well, can't really play any instruments and wasn't sure I could do it.

Luckily all the music classrooms I have been in have been great. I have found a great game/activity that is great to do in music classes to fill in time, or if you are left without plans. One of the first classes I went into had this in the lesson plans.

It is a musical hot and cold game. This class had a little statue of Mozart and called it Mozart Hide and Seek, but you could use anything you have handy. In order to make it more musical you could use an instrument, or something else from the classroom to hide.

First you choose a student, now called the seeker, to wait in the hall, or in a corner --- NO PEEKING! Next pick another student to hide the object, -ex. Mozart. Everyone else in the class has to pay attention to where it is being hidden. The first student comes in and begins wandering around the classroom. Depending on the age of the students you can either have a student pick the songs to sing, or you can have a list of songs for the students to pick from. The students sing and when the seeker gets closer to Mozart they sing louder, and when the seeker gets farther away from Mozart the students sing softer.

I have played this with several classes, of all ages. The students enjoy it, and it gets them singing and practicing songs they know, and learning songs they may not know.

Another fun activity is with rhythm instruments and with it you have the students copy each other. One drums out a pattern, the rest repeat it. You can have the class do it all together, or go around in a circle and have each individual repeat the pattern. We have also done drum mail. Where the first student drums out the syllables in a question-- for example - " what is your fav-or-ite col-or?" Then you go around the circle and each student drums out the syllables in their answer. This is a great game for 1st and 2nd graders who are learning about breaking up words. "La-ven-der"


Take a chance -- teach the world to sing, or maybe just work in a music class for a day.