2/4 Tuesday - Worksheets, Activities, and Freebies

Time for another 2/4 Tuesday post. A linky party with Steph's Stay Tuned blog. Check it out by clicking the 2/4 Tuesday picture below.


I know it is actually Wednesday, but it has been a LONG week already. I've been home sick for the past two days. I can't complain, since the last time I was sick was almost 10 months ago, but I've never had to call in sick two days in a row. Here's to hoping I feel well enough tomorrow to go back to school.

I have two different things to share with you today:

1) Instruments of the Orchestra Worksheets
I created three crossword puzzles for teaching about the brass, strings, and woodwind families. I like to have fun when teaching about the instruments. These puzzles make taking notes more interesting for my 3rd graders and for me. Each one has different questions about the instruments in the family.

My percussion worksheet is a little bit different, as there is not as much I want students to really know about percussion instruments. What I really want students to understand about percussion instruments is the fact that they can be pitched and non-pitched. So, the worksheet I created for the percussion family is for students to play different percussion instruments and decide which ones are pitched and which ones are non-pitched. You can learn more about my percussion activity in a blog post from last year HERE.

I have used these worksheets for four years now and have continued tweaking them each year. As a special thanks for all of my readers and followers, I have added these worksheets and a SMARTboard review file to my Teachers Pay Teachers store for FREE! Just click the picture below to grab it. Please leave me feedback and if you aren't already following me, feel free to. I'm only 25 followers away from having another HUGE celebration.


2) Textbook Scavenger Hunt
One of my goals for this year is to help my students learn the music vocabulary. I've tried many different activities, but vocabulary is just a hard thing to teach. Last week, I found an activity that reinforced some of the vocabulary my 2nd graders have learned this year.

Here is how the activity works:

1. I started by writing a vocabulary word on the board (example: bar line).
2. Students searched for that symbol in their book as quickly as they could.
3. When students find it they keep their hand in the book with the book closed. I walk around and check the students that found it.
4. After I check everyone (they only get one try), I put the symbol up on the board for everyone to see.
5. Each word is worth a different amount of points based on its difficulty. (I just asked the students to keep track of their points, but you could also keep track if you wanted.)
6. I kept going with different words and at the end of the game gave stickers to kids that got a certain amount of points.

I was surprised to see how excited my students got about this game and was glad I could help them practice their vocabulary.