Activities for The Nutcracker in Elementary Music
I never have enough time to spend on teaching The Nutcracker. It’s the perfect way to introduce students to ballet and some standard orchestral pieces, but it falls right in the middle of the biggest concert season for most of us. These are some of the things I’ve done over the years–certainly not all in the same year!
Nutcracker in 10 Minutes Video
As I said before, introducing students to ballet is one of the best parts of teaching the Nutcracker. I like to show this video when we first start talking about The Nutcracker. I point out the costumes, elaborate sets, skill of the dancers, and the fact that there is no speech in ballet but it still tells a story. The captions happen too fast for students to read, so I read those out loud for them.
Nutcracker Children’s Books
I have a few different versions of the story that I like to use. Some years we have time to get into the backstory of how the Nutcracker became cursed, and other years we don’t. This is my favorite book for a simple plot outline of the story. If you are trying to follow the ballet version, this book was written with the help of the New York City Ballet.
Movement to Music
One of my favorite ways to get students listening to the music from the Nutcracker is allowing them to move to it. These are my favorite follow-along videos on Youtube:
The fun part about the March of the Toy Soldiers and Trepak videos is there are two parts students can choose to follow. My students love picking between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker and then switching sides and doing the movements again.
Listening Glyphs
I used these quite a bit during the covid years when I was on a cart and we couldn’t sing or share instruments (or do basically anything). I’ve occasionally used them since then to fill in an extra lesson with a class, and the kids still really like them!
Instrument Play Alongs
Since most of my Nutcracker lessons are with the younger grades, we use these easy instrument play alongs that don’t require students to play a specific rhythm. Students play when their instrument is on screen. You can lead them in keeping a steady beat, playing a pre-determined ostinato, or just let them explore the instrument.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Triangle, Jingle Bells)
March of the Toy Soldiers (Tambourine, Wood Block)
Trepak (Tambourine, Triangle, Jingle Bells)
Chinese Dance/Tea (Egg Shaker, Triangle)
Waltz of the Flowers (Rainstick, Guiro, Sandblocks)
For the older kids, we do play alongs with rhythms, such as:
Create a Dance
One year I let my 3rd graders choose their own groups and come up with a movement routine to one of the pieces from The Nutcracker. They were allowed to use scarves, beanbags, ribbons, or no props. They had so much fun with it! Some of the routines were surprisingly good. Before I let them start, we watched several movement videos on Youtube and talked about following the form of the music, using symmetry in motions, facing the camera, and using small amounts of space so the younger kids could follow without running into each other. I then showed the videos to my K-1 classes.
Teaching Rhythm in the Secondary Elementary Grades
Our county gives a rhythm test to every 4th grader at the beginning of the year and then again at the end of the year. The test covers dictation, note identification, time signatures, rhythmic composition, and writing in counts. I try to teach most of these skills through games with a few worksheets thrown in here and there.
Note Identification
By 4th grade, I really try to get students away from using the Kodaly terminology to name notes. (I would love to do that in 3rd grade, but we only see students once a week and 3rd grade is a performance-heavy year for us).
My favorite game for this is Twister. I took a Twister mat and drew different rhythmic values on it with matching rhythms on the spinner. The game is played like regular Twister, but students must say “left hand quarter note” instead of the color.
Another game we play is a classic team game at the white board. Each team sends up one player at a time and I call out notes to draw. For example, I’ll say “draw 2 quarter notes and 1 half note” and then they race to see who can do it first. Once every student has had a turn, I tell them to pick one person to complete a challenge round. I write the challenge on a notecard for each team. It always includes at least one of each rhythmic value we’re trying to learn, so it ends up being pretty long. Depending on how close in score the teams are, I either let them wager their points Jeopardy-style, or make the challenge worth enough points for the underdog team to win. They LOVE this game and can get pretty wound up, so we have to set some ground rules before playing.
Small groups also love to play Don’t Break the Ice. I drew the notes onto the ice pieces and made some note cards with the names of the notes one them. When it is their turn, students draw a card and have to tap out an ice piece with the correct note. If there are no remaining pieces with that note, they draw again until they get one.
Time Signatures
Before I even talk about time signatures, we work on musical math. We use a few of these worksheets to get started with musical math problems.
After that, small groups play Don’t Spill the Beans. Instead of each player putting 1 bean down per turn, they draw a note card with a musical math problem on it (such as quarter note + whole note). They have to solve the problem then put that many beans down. They love this game!
Once they understand how to add up the number of beats, I explain how time signatures work. We focus on 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4. To get some practice making rhythms within a specific time signature, we do a small group Time Signature card game. Students draw 10 cards–some are time signatures and some are note values. They have to make “trains” with the correct number of beats to earn points. Working with the manipulatives seems to really help them understand the concept of time signatures!
Dictation
The kids actually really like dictation (and I always tell them it’s a skill I didn’t start working on until college, which makes them feel extra advanced!) We start with them choosing what I played from a set of 3 options. We talk about previewing each of the 3 rhythms and figuring out where there are differences and similarities to listen for. After the first playing, they try to eliminate one of the rhythms. We continue working through the process as a class until everyone (or almost everyone) is in agreement with what I played.
Another day, we’ll get out whiteboards and they’ll generate the rhythms I’m playing. I swear kids love using dry erase markers–doesn’t really matter what skill we’re practicing! I start with easy rhythms and then ask leading questions to help them get the correct answers once the rhythms become more difficult.
Writing in Rhythm Counts
Moving away from using Kodaly syllables and into using numbers to count rhythms is a huge goal I have for my 4th and 5th graders. It’s a slow and long process. Once they understand time signatures, we start with quarter notes and quarter rests in 4/4 time. I use these exit slips to gradually teach counting. The exit slips move from counting notes that take up a whole beat to notes that split the beat (eighth notes), then add half and whole notes, and then move on to sixteenth notes (1 beat worth). This order follows the same progression we used when learning the Kodaly names for the notes. The slips then move into half rests, whole rests, and dotted half notes.
We start our class with 5 minutes of learning about how to count a new note value, then filling out the slip. The next class, the students who need extra practice with that concept complete the “extra practice” slip that goes with each level. The other students get a few minutes to talk while I meet with the kids who need more individualized help. We all move on to the next concept together a few classes later.
Other Rhythmic Considerations
All of this work is done in conjunction with opportunities to play instruments and put rhythmic knowledge to use. In 4th grade, this is done mostly with recorders, and in 5th grade, we play guitars, ukuleles, and keyboards. I’ve found that students are much more likely to “buy in” to the more boring aspects of learning about rhythm if they can put it to use.
If you want more information about structuring a recorder lesson, check out this post!
Instrument Family Centers for Elementary Music
After introducing all of the instrument families, we rotate through several centers to help students explore the instrument families more in-depth. This is their favorite part of the whole unit!
Instrument Family Board Game (2-4 players)
This game is really fun and simple. Each student plays as one of the 4 instrument families. They use a spinner or dice to move their game piece (I used mini erasers as game pieces). If they land on an instrument in “their” family, they get a point. If not, no points. There are a few other spaces along the way that make the game more interesting too!
Guess the Mystery Instrument (2-4 players)
I used to use old Guess Who? boards to play this game, but I found that my 3rd graders don’t ask the right kinds of questions when we do it that way. Guess the Mystery Instrument is a bit more scaffolded because it gives sample questions and has Instrument Fact Cards to help students know what to ask. If we ever have time to do the instrument family centers in 4th grade 5th grade, I do let them use the Guess Who boards since they are more familiar with how the game is played!
Instrument Family Task Cards
These cards ask students to sort the instruments by family, size, high/low, use of bow/sticks/mallets, and more. The answers are upside down on the question card. I tell each group to take turns being the one asking the questions and being the one answering. This is definitely one of the more challenging centers, so I tend to hover nearby so I can ask guiding questions to help. I think it’s beneficial for students to use manipulatives to think about the instruments rather than just writing down their answers. I will be honest with you—this is not their favorite station because it is not a game. However, I think it’s ok to not always play games! It’s about balance :)
Instrument Family Busted
My students love Busted in any form. We always start the year with Rhythm Busted because it’s easy to leave as part of a sub plan. (You can get a set of free Busted rhythm cards in my free resource library!)
Instrument Busted is a set of instrument cards with a few cards that say “Busted!” mixed in. Place the cards facedown or in a cup and take turns drawing them out. Students need to say what family the instrument belongs to in order to keep the card. If they get a Busted card, they have to put all their cards back! It’s a really fun game that can work with almost any concept.
Color by Instrument Family Sheets
Any time I do centers, I like to have one that doesn’t require much of my attention. This allows me to focus on all the other groups. These color by instrument family sheets have pictures of instruments in each area and ask students to follow a color code to complete the picture. I usually use one that asks them to color by family (all woodwinds green, brass yellow, etc.) There are also sheets for each family (flute =black, bassoon = orange, etc.) These are also great to use with subs too!
Percussion Sorting
This one is a big hit! I put out a variety of classroom percussion instruments and students have to label them and then sort them 2 ways: first, sort by how they’re played (strike, scrape, shake) and then by what material they’re made of (wood, metal, skin). And of course, they get to play them while they work! You can get the labels for free from my TPT store!
Bundle
All 6 of these centers are available for $10 on my TPT if you are interested!
Other Ideas
I have also had a station where students can try instruments that I have, like a snare drum, bass drum, or the piano. They get a little mini-lesson with me and then have time to play the instrument.
Another favorite is a floor piano. I labeled the keys with letters and then made a few sheets of “Name that Tune” for students to take turns playing on the floor piano.
I would recommend a mix of “quiet” centers and centers where they get to play instruments! Having too many that are playing-based is chaotic.
I hope you try instrument family centers this year–it is one of my favorite ways to get students interested in instruments!
Ways to Teach Danse Macabre to Elementary Students
Danse Macabre is one of my favorite pieces to teach my elementary students. I introduce it in 3rd grade, and after that, they ask for it every year. Danse Macabre is playful, eerie, and captures the spirit of Halloween. That being said, the subject matter can be a little mature for the elementary level, so I try to keep things light.
First, I give some background information about Camille Saint-Saens. Since we study Carnival of the Animals in kindergarten, I start by asking them “remember when you were in kindergarten and you had to guess what animal the music was trying to portray? The same composer wrote this piece.”
Active Listening Guide
The next class, we begin the Danse Macabre Active Listening Guide . It’s called an active listening guide because it gives students something specific to listen for or imagine throughout the 7 minute piece. I’ve found that simply playing the piece in its entirety is too much information for students, so they just tune it out.
I tell them what to listen for in each section on the paper–”you’ll hear the clock chime right away, so be ready to count how many times it chimes. You also need to think about what instrument is playing to answer the next question.” We then listen to a few sections while they fill out the sheet.
Once we have filled out the entire worksheet, we listen to the whole piece again without stopping, with me saying “next section” so students know where to look on their paper.
Of course, this all happens over several class periods. It’s a long piece, and I want students to be excited about it, not bored with it.
A note: there are two versions of the active listening guide. One uses the name “Death,” and one uses “Concertmaster.” With 3rd grade, I call Death the Concertmaster to keep the subject a little lighter.
Listening Map Videos
There are tons of listening map videos available to help students visualize the story of Danse Macabre. I switch up which ones I show every year to keep it interesting.
Danse Macabre Education Concert | Listening Map - YouTube Here is a short one by The Cleveland Orchestra (this would be good for younger grades who aren’t hearing the whole piece)
Danse Macabre- Visual Listening Guide This is the listening map I use the most frequently because it covers the whole piece and changes images enough to keep students’ attention.
Danse Macabre animation This isn’t really a listening map, but kind of brings the spirit of the piece to life. Word of warning– around the 4 minute mark, a man and a woman dance together. I’ve had classes exclaim “eeewwwww!” at that part, so I really only show this to my 5th grade classes that can handle it, and I tell them ahead of time that they will see two people (gasp!) dancing.
Acting
Now comes the fun part. We complete a Readers’ Theater based on Danse Macabre. I usually do this with my 3rd graders because they are the only grade not in performance-mode at this time of year, but 4th and 5th have enjoyed it the times I’ve been able to fit it in.
The Readers’ Theater has 30 parts, so depending on class size, some students have to double up. There are a few parts for kids who don’t like to read–the “clock,” which is just a handbell dinging, and the Rooster, whose only line is “cock-a-doodle-doo” at the end.
Just like the active listening guide, there is a “Death” version and a “Concertmaster” version.
Movement
New! Movement for Grades K-2: I now have a scarf movement video for grades K-2 so they can get in on the Danse Macabre fun as well. You can view that video here!
During the week of Halloween, grades 3-5 complete a movement routine to the entire 7 minute piece. This video outlines how to use the listening map and how to teach the routine to students. I modify it a bit for my students based on space constraints.
The class period before we do the movement, I do a bit of a “dress rehearsal” with students. We have already chosen who is in the ghost group and who is in the skeleton group, and we walk through some of the trickier movements (like circling with scarves, weaving through with scarves connected, follow the leader). I project the listening map and they verbally tell me what each symbol means. This is all done without music, and we just kind of mime our way through each motion.
On the day of the movement activity, I have a few black lights set up as well as halloween lights. Students enter the room in darkness and are SO excited. It can be hard to contain the excitement, so I warn them that if there is screaming or out of control behavior, we will stop. It usually goes very smoothly since we practice the class before. After trying it once in 3rd grade, they ask for it every year!
Bundle
If you want to use the Active Listening Guide and Readers’ Theater, they are available separately for $3 each, or in a bundle ($9) with two other resources: a Danse Macabre I Have, Who Has? game and a Music Detectives activity based on Danse Macabre.
For some reason, my students love I Have, Who Has. It’s so simple, yet they love it every time we play. Each student gets a card (or two) and they take turns reading what card they have. That’s all it is! Yet every time we do one, they want to scramble the cards up and do it again.
The Music Detectives activity is good for 5th grade. It really tests students’ knowledge of musical terms and symbols. Students are trying to figure out who stole the rooster on Halloween night. There are 22 skeletons who each have a “musical signature,” and students have to eliminate each one based on the clues given. It is a challenge, but really fun!
Final Thoughts
Danse Macabre can get students interested in instrumental music if it is presented in a fun way. The acting and movement are ways to make Danse Macabre unforgettable, but in order to get there, we have to study the piece first. It’s always my mission to get all the kids to buy in to this unit at some point along the way. I hope you are able to have the same success with your students!
Teaching Instrument Families to Elementary Students
Every year, I do a pretty extensive instrument family unit with my 3rd and 4th graders. As someone with an instrumental background, I love to open up students’ minds to the possibility of someday playing an instrument!
Grades K-2 Pre-Teaching
Kids of all ages are fascinated by instruments, so it is never too early to teach them a little about selected instruments. I occasionally bring some of my personal instruments in to play (violin, flute, trumpet, and clarinet), but if that isn’t an option for you, the Cleveland Orchestra’s Music Explorer videos are a good way to introduce one instrument at a time to your kindergarten classes. They’re about 5 minutes each, which is perfect if you fly through the 73 other activities you planned for the class that day and need to fill a bit of time. I’ve used these videos with 1st grade before, but they find them too babyish.
In 1st grade, we really focus on the percussion family, since those are the instruments we’re playing. If I can get them to remember the word “percussion” and understand the 3 S’s (strike, shake, scrape), it helps with learning the other 3 families in the future.
By 2nd grade, we start talking about the 4 instrument families. I try to get the students to be able to name one instrument from each family (usually violin, flute, trumpet, and drum). We play a simplified version of Instrument 4 Corners, which I’ll explain below!
Intro to Instrument Families
In 3rd grade, we spend a class period learning about the various instruments that make up each family. We label and talk about each instrument using this Instrument Family Workbook, ($3) and by the end of several classes, the kids have a reference book that they use when we complete our Instrument Family Centers. We watch the instrument demos from this video for winds and percussion and this video for strings. Note: there are ads on both of these videos, so have the mute button ready!
Instrument 4 Corners
In 3rd grade, we expand on the Instrument 4 corners game that we learned in 2nd grade. Each corner represents a family (strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion). Students choose a corner, and then I pull an instrument card out of a basket. Whatever family the instrument card belongs to is out (i.e., if I chose “flute,” the woodwind corner would be out).
To make it more fun and keep students engaged, everyone can re-enter the game if I pull out an instrument from the keyboard family (piano, organ, harpsichord, etc.) This does make the games go on a little longer than they normally would, but the kids who are out are still paying attention to each round rather than tuning out. Many of my classes will chant “Keyboard! Keyboard! Keyboard!” which is fun for me!
You can get my Instrument 4 Corners Plus One here ($2.50), or make your own!
Auditory Activities
Once students can recognize the instruments visually, we work on identifying them by sound. I personally do not think we will ever get to 100% accuracy from every kid at the elementary age. A lot of adults cannot identify the difference between the sound of a trombone and a French horn, so it’s unfair to expect young kids to be able to do that.
With that said, we still complete some activities to help them at least think about what they’re hearing. Our society is so visual that I think there’s value in taking the effort to discern between sounds.
More 4 corners! We play Mr. Henry’s instrument 4 corners to start with identifying by sound. It’s pretty easy for upper elementary, but it gives them some confidence.
We also do a quick review of Peter and the Wolf (which we learn in 1st grade) and try to identify the instruments that are heard as the music plays.
Finally, the big challenge: the instrument family listening test! We take this quiz in 4th and 5th grade in groups. I’ve done it with 3rd grade, but I had to give them a multiple choice sheet for each question. I give 4th and 5th grade a word bank (plus leave the picture up on the screen). It amazes me how good some kids are at this, but not all of them will be. Still, they have fun with it!
Instrument Family Centers
We spend two classes working through 6 instrument family centers. You can read more about each center here—it’s too much to put in this blog post! There are 6 centers available in my TPT store for $10 here if you are interested. The centers are Percussion Instrument Labeling, Instrument Family Board Game, Guess the Mystery Instrument, Busted, Task Card Sort, and Color by Instrument Family Sheets. More details about each center here!
Scoot
I use this with my 5th graders once we’ve reviewed instruments and talked about their options for next school year. I’ve done it with 3rd and 4th before as well using the differentiated answer sheet.
I set up the cards around the room on the backs of the chairs. We take 30-45 seconds per card and cycle through all the questions. It’s a little more fun than just answering the questions on a paper since the kids are up and moving. I ring a bell when it’s time to “scoot” to the next question. We always do a practice scoot before trying the instrument scoot. I just make up a few easy questions (What is your name? What is your teacher’s name? What school do you go to?) so we can get the hang of how to rotate around the room.
You can get Instrument Family Scoot here for $2.50!
Online Resources
I don’t use online resources every year, but if we have time to fit some in (usually during PLC time), these are the ones we use:
Inside the Orchestra: Students can pick an instrument family and practice identifying by sound, or complete games like musical memory, or compose with a digital keyboard.
Kennedy Center.org: Instruments are grouped by musical era, and students can play a “baseball game” by answering questions about the instruments. Click the home plate on the bottom left of the screen and hit “play ball” for the game.
Carnegie Hall Young Person’s Guide: I’ve done this with kids as young as 2nd grade. Students will go on an instrument safari and play games along the way.
Make it Fun!
There are so many ways to teach kids about instruments. I try to balance teaching the content with fun activities like games and quizzes. You never know when you might inspire a kid to to try learning an instrument and discover a lifelong passion!
How to Structure a Recorder Lesson
Believe it or not, teaching the recorder is one of my favorite parts about teaching general music (at least in the beginning of the unit–I do reach my limit eventually!) Over the years, I’ve structured my recorder lessons differently. Here is what works best for me:
Before the Recorders Arrive
During the covid years, I made fake recorders out of dowel rods with the holes drawn on. Students learned how to hold it and what the fingerings were at school, then played the recorder at home. While I would never want to go back to that method (it wasn’t effective, but it was the best we could do!) I now start every recorder unit with the fake dowel recorders.
Before the real recorders arrive, we use the fake ones to practice hand position, fingerings for BAG, and this is when I first mention tonguing. We spend about 5 minutes on this for 2 lessons. When students receive their real recorder, they already have some background knowledge on how to hold them and make the first three notes. This has been great because I’ve found that nobody really wants to listen to me the first time they hold a recorder; they just want to blow into them!
The First Lesson
The first lesson is going to be loud and chaotic. I set some ground rules (no blowing as hard as you can, no blowing in someone else’s ear) but otherwise, I let students go for a little bit while I finish passing out all the recorders. Pretty quickly, everyone agrees with me when I say our ears need a break.
We then review hand position and start playing a B. Students echo a variety of rhythms all on the note B. I purposely play some faster rhythms that won’t work without tonguing so that students see why tonguing is important. We repeat this for the notes A and G.
After that, we do more echo patterns with 2 note and 3 note combinations. By the end of the lesson, we’re playing hot cross buns by rote.
At the end of the class period, we divide into our two recorder groups.
Recorder Groups
I used to do whole-group lessons every single class. However, there was a year where the class size was much larger than what I was used to, and I couldn’t catch individual mistakes as they happened, because there were too many kids to focus on. So, I decided to try splitting the class in half and teaching the same lesson twice. One half would work with me on recorders, and the other half would do independent work, which was usually note reading exercises (more about that later!) Halfway through the class, we switched.
I did not assign the groups based on ability. I asked for volunteers to be in Group A (which they later renamed) and volunteers to be in Group B. Pretty much every kid raised their hand to be in Group A, so I chose a group that I thought could complete independent work without me. If there were two students who I knew didn’t get along or who would distract each other, I would only pick one of them to be in Group A. I’m sure it seemed like I was just randomly picking kids, but it was strategic.
Independent Work
Splitting the class in half was only successful because of the independent work that was assigned when students were not working with me. This created a bit of up-front work for me, but once I had a bank of activities to choose from, it wasn’t too bad coming up with that week’s independent lesson.
We usually alternated classes with a worksheet-based activity and a digital activity. Here are some options for both:
Worksheet-Based Activities
Color by Treble Clef notes
One of my students’ favorite ways to practice note naming was through coloring. I gave them two different types of color-by-note style sheets.
Mystery Grid Pictures (Space Themed) ($2.50) There are 6 mystery pictures in this set. One picture uses only line notes, one only space notes, one is BAG, two are either A-F or A-G, and one uses middle C, low D, and the G and A on top of the staff.
Seasonal and Holiday Color-by Note Sets (1 set for $3, 15 sets for $29.95) Pretty much any holiday or season you could want is included–this link will take you to the bundle, but if you only want one, you can click on the set you like best. These are not mystery images, but they are still fun to color. Each set has three color-by-treble clef pictures that include line notes, space notes, and all 7 notes. There are also 3 color-by-rhythm pictures that range from just quarter notes/rest and eighth notes, to sixteenth note/eighth note combinations. Beyond that, there are color-by-dynamics and musical symbol sheets as well, which is great for beginning recorder students!
Recorder Fingering Diagrams
In my Free Resource Library, you will find a few worksheets that ask students to color a recorder with the correct fingerings for various notes! Sign up for my email list to receive the password to the Free Resource Library!
Digital Activities
Quizizz
My students loved it when they saw a Quizizz pulled up on the screen. This was slightly less independent than what we did on other days, but they were able to run the game without me. I assigned one student to start the quiz when everyone was logged on so I could focus on the recorder group.
You will need an account (free!) but the students won’t. They can go to joinmyquiz.com and enter the game code for the quiz you want. I was able to search “recorder” or “recorder fingering quiz” and find tons of good quizzes made by other teachers. I tried to pick quizzes that were at least 20 questions long.
Google Slides Activity
Admittedly less fun than quizizz, but still valuable, my students completed this Digital Independent Recorder Activity ($2) for the notes BAG. It asks students to match notes with fingerings, fingerings with notes, letters with notes, and letters with fingerings. I put it in our Google Classroom and made sure to click “make a copy for each student.”
Dr. Musik
One of the best ways to make note reading fun is a dungeon game! This site has tons of great games, but the Staff Dungeon was the biggest hit. Students do not need an account to play. In order to advance through the dungeon, students have to name each note.
Recorder Curriculum
This is the easy part. I think one of the reasons I like teaching recorder is that the planning is very minimal compared to planning other elementary music lessons! We use the Be a Recorder Star book from Macie Publishing to introduce new notes and concepts, but that’s really just a means to an end for the Recorder Karate book. The students LOVE advancing through recorder karate. Since I split the class in two, it’s much easier to listen to each student play individually than when I only did whole group lessons. When they earn a belt, they receive a rubber band to put around their recorder.
Final Thoughts
I will never go back to whole class teaching for recorder. We accomplished so much more in smaller groups, and it gave students a bit of time to do their own thing instead of listen to me the entire class period. Of course, there are class periods where I want to quickly show the whole class how to do something, so we start with that for a few minutes and then get into our groups.
Like everything else, you can change the curriculum you use, how the class is structured, the brand of recorders you buy, etc. next year if something isn’t working. There are so many ways to make teaching the recorder a good experience for your students (and you!), so give something a try and adjust as you go along!
Setting Up A Multi-Grade Level Classroom
Music teachers have a unique challenge when it comes to setting up our classrooms—the room has to work for 6+ grade levels! A kindergarten music class looks very different from a 5th grade music class. We usually have zero transition time between classes, so there isn’t time to change our setup for each grade. Here are some things to consider when setting up your music room:
Seating
I’ve tried SO many seating options over the years—risers, carpet squares, sit spots, chairs, and even tables during covid. The size of your room makes a big difference in what options are available to you. Some teachers love risers because they don’t take up as much space, but I really dislike them as our main seating option. The kids treated them like a jungle gym and I wasn’t able to put as much physical distance between each kid as I wanted to. At this point, we only use the risers in the music room right before a performance.
Carpet squares seem like a good idea because each kid gets a defined space. They’re also really easy to move around. I stopped using them after my first few years because the students picked at them and argued over who got which color.
My current setup is Wenger chairs in three rows towards the back of the classroom, then three rows of sit spots in the front of the classroom. When we need more space to do folk dances or other movement activities, we push the chairs into a big pile in the back. At the beginning of the year, I teach students how to put the chairs back in rows. How do they know where to put them? Floor tape.
Before the school year starts, I put small squares of floor tape in the spots where I want chairs to go. Then I tape one leg of the chair (always the back right leg, but it doesn’t matter as long as they’re all the same). The leg with the tape is the leg that goes on the floor tape. Grades 2-5 can put the chairs back in about 1 minute with this method.
The sit spots are mostly used to help students space themselves out during independent movement, but we also sit on them to watch videos occasionally.
Supply Storage
How do you store 500 folders, enough crayons/pencils, and clipboards to write on?! We have one basket of pencils that are a class set. I make sure to buy pencils with music notes and symbols on them so that they are less likely to leave the room. When kids find them around the building, they bring them back to me because they know they’re mine! Crayons and markers go in plastic pencil boxes and the kids have to share when we need them. All of the pencil boxes go in a bigger bin which we can easily move around the room. Clipboards are the same—class set kept in a crate that we move around the room.
Since each student has their own folder, I had to come up with a way to store those. I used to have a crate for each grade level, but the classes got mixed up all the time. Last year, I gave each class a plastic magazine holder, which worked perfectly. We stored the folders longways in the holder, and it was labeled with their classroom teacher’s name, so they could easily access their folders without my help.
Instruments
This is the biggest challenge for me. How do I make instruments easily accessible without being too tempting to play when they shouldn’t be? I try to separate instrument storage areas from the rest of the classroom. I have built-in shelves in the back corner, which is where a lot of my xylophones and smaller instruments are. Some people hang a curtain over their shelves to create visual separation. Since I have to store the risers in my room and we don’t use them, I put a couple risers in front of the shelves. I can pull them away and access the instruments when I need them, then put the risers back when we’re finished.
The exception to this is our guitars. Those are in the front of the classroom on Hercules 5-guitar racks. Every year I have to teach the younger students that the guitars are off-limits to them. To do this, I first set out just the stand racks. I mention to the kindergarteners that pretty soon, we will have guitars on the stands, but they cannot touch them. I also tape off the area with floor tape. Eventually, I will set out one guitar to see how they react. We again go over the rules that the guitars are for 5th grade only. By the time all the guitars are on the stand racks, most students are used to the area being off-limits. There have been years where I’ve had to cover the racks with a big piece of fabric if there are students who just can’t resist touching!
Trial and Error
In the end, each classroom is so different that you really just have to go for it and try what you think will work. Have a system in mind and stick to it, then adjust next year based on how it goes. Every year I change something about my classroom setup. You will find what works for you and your students faster than you think!