High and Low Worksheet Activity

This year I created a small project for us to work on to continue work on high vs. low. I really enjoyed this project because the students got excited about it. (It includes coloring, cutting, and gluing. All things Kindergarteners love.) Plus, it was an easy way for me to assess how students were doing with this concept. The first time I used this project with my first set of Kinders, I chose to do it too soon and students struggled with it. So, I tried it as one of my final activities with my second set of Kinders and they were rather successful with it.

Here is how it works:

1. First, students get the page with all the pictures of different items.

2. I played short music clips of each of these sounds for students to hear. I really stressed that they should NOT just pick based on what they thought, but on what they actually heard. (Link to these music clips is included in the file)
3. As we went along, students colored the squares orange if they sounded HIGH and purple if they sounded LOW. Note: It's extremely important to continue to remind students they are listening for high and low. I also had students draw an orange - UP arrow and a purple - DOWN arrow to remind them what color they should color the square.
4. After coloring all the pieces I had students turn them in. This gave me a chance to assess how they did and figure out which students I needed to work with on certain sounds.
5. The second day, I had students cut out their squares and glue them into the correct places on their "Is it High? Or is it Low?" worksheet. (With some classes, that did really well on this worksheet, I had them cut and glue on their own. Other classes, that struggled, went through the answers one by one and glued them in the correct places. This allowed them to easily see which ones they got right or wrong.)

In the end, some students ended up with sheets that looked 'perfect' and others were 'imperfect' but it was a great learning experience. I also found that after doing this activity my students were much more aware of high and low sounds. They didn't refer to everything as loud and soft all the time.

Now for the GREAT news! This project is a FREE download in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can download it HERE! Please feel free to download and use. I'd also really appreciate any and all feedback you can give me!

Tiptoe, Walk, and Jump

My kinders are starting to learn about long and short sounds. This is the last thing I need to teach for analysis this year. We have already learned about high vs. low, fast vs. slow, and loud vs. soft.

To learn about long and short I like to use the patterns tiptoe, walk, and jump. Tip-toe represents the two shortest sounds as it gets two sounds in the beat. Walk represents the one beat sound, and jump represents the longest sound (two beats). Jump, jumps from one beat to another. In order to practice this I normally have students jumping, tiptoeing and walking by their chairs for several days. Then I give them symbols to represent the three actions: two small dots for tip-toe, one short line for walk, and an upside down U for jump. I have students create their own patterns on the board with these symbols and we perform the actions together as a class.

This year I created a mini-composition for all the kids to work on, so EVERYONE gets a chance to create their own long and short patterns. There are only a few rules to their compositions. They have to create two lines of four beat patterns. (This means that the two dots of tip-toe must go together in a beat. You cannot separate them!) Jump has to take up two beats and you can only put a jump to beats 1 and 2, 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. (Otherwise you jump off the edge!) It is much easier to explain all of this visually to my kinders and they had no problem understanding what they needed to do.

Today, all my kinders created their own compositions and performed them for their classmates. Here are some pictures of finished compositions!

If you would like to use this composition in your own classroom, this is a forever freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and you can find it HERE. Please leave a rating and feedback if you use it, but please remember that it is free and nothing fancy by any means. Just something cute and simple! (Click the follow me link, if you haven't already, to be updated on all my future products and told about my special followers only deals.)

That's all for now!

Wishlist Wednesday - Big TpT Sale!

Thursday 2/27 and Friday 2/28 Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a big sale to celebrate having 3 Million teachers selling on their site. In order to celebrate, they are throwing a 10% Off sale on EVERYTHING on their site. Along with this, many teachers are putting their entire stores on SALE for 20% off. The total saving is 28% on EVERYTHING! Super exciting! In order to get the additional 10% off you need to type TPT3 in the promotion code area at checkout.

Banner made by Ashley Hughes & Kimberly Geswein

Tonight I'm sharing my Wishlist as a link up with Amy Abbott at Music a la Abbott. Find out about other music teachers having sales by clicking the picture below and reading all the posts that linked up! :)


For the linky party we were asked to share one thing from our store, one thing from another music teacher's store, and one non-music teacher's store item.

First from my store, I would recommend grabbing my Rhythm Basics Bundle. This is a HUGE bundle with all sorts of activities, songs, and lessons for teaching rhythm versus beat and ta & ti-ti rhythm patterns.


I couldn't pick just one music teacher item, so here are a couple things I would suggest checking out.


The first is the March Music Note Reading Fun. I actually bought this a couple days ago, but it is truly fantastic and I would suggest going out and buying it. The leprechauns are so cute and I know my students are going to love practicing note reading with these fun worksheets.

Speaking of worksheets, Tweet Music also has a great product I just bought a few days ago. She put together a whole pack of worksheets for various grade levels and covering all sorts of music topics. Again, some adorable worksheets that you should check out!

One thing I haven't bought and is on my wishlist is the Build a Snowman [so, mi] Game by Aileen Miracle. She offered a harder version during the Facebook Frenzy in December, but I just did not get around to looking at everything until this month. I finally looked at this game and realized it is WONDERFUL. I'm really looking forward to using it, but I want the so, mi and the la versions for my younger students who are just learning these concepts.


Non-music wishlist items... also hard to choose. I always have so much clip art I want, but here are a few that I have my eye on. (Click the pictures to find the item for yourself!)


Well that is it for now! I hope you enjoy the sale! I'd love to know what is on your wishlist and what you are looking forward to purchasing.

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.

2/4 Tuesday - Concert Costumes & Color by Solfege

I have begun to love Tuesdays, just because of the 2/4 Tuesday linky party hosted by Steph!

As promised, last week, I am going to talk about how I let parents know about costuming for my concerts. After picking students for speaking parts and thinking about what I am capable of supplying for concerts and what I am not, I can let parents know what their child should wear for the upcoming concert. The sooner I can let parents know, the more prepared they can be. I hate burdening parents with costuming, but sometimes it is just not possible for me to supply all elements of the costumes.

In order to make it simpler for me and for parents, I send home slips with students about when the concert is, what part they are playing, and what they should wear for the concert. Here is my template that you can alter for your own use:


(Click the picture above to be brought to the dropbox file)
For more concert tips check out my other 2/4 Tuesday Posts - Preparing Students for Try-outs, Try-Outs, & Picking Speaking Parts

My latest work has been on creating Color by Solfege worksheets. I needed a fun way to get my students to continue practicing their solfege even during the Holiday Concert season. My little ones (2nd Grade-5th Grade) have really been enjoying this and are very excited to color the sheets next week.


If you like the Color by Solfege worksheet you should make sure to like my Facebook page HERE. I will be participating in a Facebook Frenzy through Teachers Pay Teachers the beginning of December and I will be giving away at least one Color by Solfege Christmas/winter worksheet.