Is it story time? Music time? Why not both! During this fun and engaging seasonal unit, students will enjoy listening to and creating their own winter sounds. With fun activities such as: a Winter Bingo listening game, a read-aloud picture book, and a DIY create your sounds project! An interdisciplinary unit that allows students to […]
arts integration
Presenting at the LEAP: InnovatED Summit today!
Learn how to incorporate music & the arts to create multi-layered immersive lessons that will both challenge and engage your learners. Using research-backed methods we will look at examples in multiple subjects, discuss practical application, and brainstorm ways to apply these in your own classroom.
Sound Waves for Kids: a STEAM Lesson
Combine science & music as you explore the amazing world of sound. Combing NGSS Science and NAfME music standards, here are some engaging activities that will cover sounds, vibrations, and pitch. Using a variety discovery experiences students will gain a better understanding of the relationships between vibration and sound, as well as size and pitch. […]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
As spring approaches (supposedly) I like to incorporate the changing of the seasons into my music lessons. Young learners are fascinated by nature and science, and one of the most fascinating things is, in my opinion, the caterpillar’s metamorphosis. Using the 1969 Eric Carle classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we explore the science behind these […]
A&GC: Week 3 – Colombia
Part blog post, part field notes. This post is part of a series of reflections on a 10-week elective I’m both teaching and conducting active research on. Entitled” The Arts as a Path to Global Citizenship” our goal is to explore our roles as global citizens using the arts to approach complicated and difficult topics, such […]
A&GC: Week 1 – If the World Were a Village
Part blog post, part field notes. This post is part of a series of reflections on a 10-week elective I’m both teaching and conducting active research on. Entitled” The Arts as a Path to Global Citizenship” our goal is to explore our roles as global citizens using the arts to approach complicated and difficult topics, such […]
Puerto Rico: Rhythm & Culture
Puerto Rico has been coming up in the news a lot lately. A US Territory, that has been absolutely devastated by Hurricane Maria, but there is more to the country than what we hear in the news. My school has a large Puerto Rican population and so I wanted to share and celebrate their rich and diverse […]
Radio & Sound: An Interactive Science Unit
You heard it here first, teaching sounds waves can be fun! We spent a full week exploring the properties of waves and vibrations, as well as amplitude and frequency. The unit culminated in two hands-on projects: building a DIY speaker from wire, magnets, and a plastic cup, and Snap Circuits FM Radio kits. However, this hands-on […]
Musician Reports: An Interdisciplinary Hands-on Research Project
A fantastic month long project that combines local musicians and gen-ed social studies standards in a fun and innovative way. Working with classroom teachers, together we were able to reinforce the material learned in their classes while making it relevant by tying in popular musicians the students loved. Through a detailed step by step process we researched, created, […]
MCA Creation Lab: A FREE Field Trip!
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago offers up to 5 free field trips per school per year. I took my middle school music class to one of their creation labs, where students worked directly with one of the museum’s resident artists to hone their creative skills. Here’s my thoughts on the trip and how […]